It’s becoming easier and easier to be self-sufficient and go green while still maintaining a semblance of current lifestyle and luxury.

Regarding the Elon Musk Gigafactories: via Bloomberg The facility will also churn out stationary battery packs that can be paired with rooftop solar panels to store power. It’s becoming easier and easier to be self-sufficient and go green while still maintaining a semblance of current lifestyle and luxury. Related posts: Guns and Games: it’s a … Continue reading “It’s becoming easier and easier to be self-sufficient and go green while still maintaining a semblance of current lifestyle and luxury.”

Regarding the Elon Musk Gigafactories: via Bloomberg

The facility will also churn out stationary battery packs that can be paired with rooftop solar panels to store power.

It’s becoming easier and easier to be self-sufficient and go green while still maintaining a semblance of current lifestyle and luxury.

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4 thoughts on “It’s becoming easier and easier to be self-sufficient and go green while still maintaining a semblance of current lifestyle and luxury.”

  1. The megafactory is interesting, but I don’t think solar would work well in the UK.

    Perhaps shares in a local wind turbine with output buffered by one of these battery packs?

    Of course, costs of the packs will be the key factor, along with battery life. The Nissan Leaf Taxi fleet in Osaka suffered a massive degradation in battery capacity on their load cycle. Is there any guarantee that this will not occur for household packs?

    1. Solar is working in the UK, even in dreary Ulster. However, I concede we may be better off securing our energy future by investing in desert-bound solar farms and battery gigafactories. There’s plenty of sand for the panel glass too.

      I’m not too worried about the battery degradation problem for a number of reasons.

      1. The battery degradation issue depends heavily on the technology being used and can be resolved with servicing.
      2. Tying yourself to one battery technology, especially a legacy technology is futile considering how fast things will change in the near future. Fuel cells are improving, even solar array-refreshed closed system fuel cells would be an improvement.
      3. The end goal is not to build a sled for transporting degrading batteries. But to provide practical options for 22nd Century transport.

      1. Solar, of course, will work in Ulster. The question is, will it work well enough? Related to that is the massive decrease in solar energy in the winter.

        If you look at Solar Energy Output, and Germany is a good example for this – you see it hitting 10% of capacity at noon (3.6GW, 15th Dec 2014). Looking back to July the 7th, you get it hitting 50% of capacity at noon (17.8 GW). That data can be gotten from this site: http://www.sma.de/en/company/pv-electricity-produced-in-germany.html

        So Ulster will have a problem: where do we get the power from when PV can’t perform? We could overbuild our arrays, but then that would require either shuttering some when the sun is too bright, or trying to sell it. I think that might be out of ordinary consumers’ reach.

        Solar in the desert is all fine and good, but our nearest deserts have proven to be rather politically unstable. Even the German-backed DesertTec project has foundered.

        On your battery degradation points, I’m not a battery-tech expert, but servicing is not something I’ve come across before. I have seen references to Lead-Acid batteries having to be ditched when their performance drops, Li-ion and other cells being made ineffective by dendrite growth, and high self-discharging in NiCd and NiMH cells.

        If fuel cells can be made economical, they still face the problem of sourcing the hydrogen for their use (currently it is made from hydrocarbons), storing and transporting the hydrogen, and dealing with hazards associated with the element.

        As for fuel cells as energy storage devices, we’d have to see the economics of running fuel cells regeneratively.

        Now something amazing might come along, but I think it is best to base assumptions on the baseline, with reasonable projections on near-term efficiency gains.

        As for your last point, it may be key to consider the local market – and see if some current or near-term projected EVs could prosper in our small province: short-ranged journeys, hill-climbs…maybe some hub leasing model might work. Drive to Enniskillen, park at the hub, do your business, pick up another EV for the journey back.

        1. The difference between 10% of capacity when you’re harvesting free and effectively unlimited sunlight and the efficiency of internal combustion engines (35%?) when you’re burning fossil fuels makes that argument redundant. The sunlight falls whether we harvest it or not.

          At the moment fuel cells are unsustainable offering only recharge times over batteries but again this is is part of the reason I’m not concerned about the fuel source. Batteries, fuel cells – all will improve. Batteries can be serviced (as we do now) and the cost of that will drop to the point that taking your electric car in for annual servicing will be more about batteries than anything else. Electric motors don’t need the same attention as ICE.

          I don’t beliebr the car lease model is practical. Based on human factors. I have a plan for the long distance driver though.

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