
Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts with microgrid utility - vo2maxer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/01/01/amid-shut-off-woes-beacon-energy/
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coding123
When they built it the cost of the battery was the most expensive, followed by
the labor, followed by the panels (unless they got ripped off, which happens).

Even with the higher import taxes, the panels themselves are much cheaper than
they were 4 years ago. With Lithium battery systems pricing dropping as fast
as it is, we can probably expect Li batteries to hit $160 per KWh soon.

All this and a hot market for microgrids could also affect the labor market -
or indeed companies that want to offer this to neighborhoods for sub $1MM with
100K residents may soon take off.

We can imagine a future without large companies that operate high voltage
transmission lines.

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taurath
Economies of scale is still a thing. I’d rather a large solar farm handle it’s
ecological consequences than spreading the (small but noticeable) damage
around everywhere.

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wongarsu
However transmission loses are also a thing, and transmission lines don't
maintain themselves (as everybody in California is acutely aware now). There's
a point where you are remote enough that a grid connection doesn't make sense,
and cheap solar has made that category a lot bigger.

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batt4good
It's so cool to see small to medium scale or "community" scale installations
like this becoming a reality!

Interesting that more grocery stores or other "essential" sources of retail
aren't starting to use solar / energy storage to stay online and be less grid
reliant (especially stores or facilities that require services like
refridgeration or climate control - alas pharmacies)?

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protomyth
I know of a couple of hotels that have added backup power. It's not cheap. We
just got backup power (diesel) for our server room along with power
conditioning because the power is not good. It was easier to go with diesel
rather than wind/solar and battery both from an expertise and availability.
Opportunity is not evenly distributed.

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tingletech
[https://outline.com/VhCJ57](https://outline.com/VhCJ57)

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NetOpWibby
Sweet, thanks!

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BLKNSLVR
Given how vulnerable existing power grids are as a "national security" asset I
would have thought micro grids would have become a fair bit more widespread
more quickly.

The potentially long bow I draw is that it demonstrates how opposed the status
quo is to distributed small scale energy despite the benefits to national
security and energy security (a buzzword Australian politicians have been
happy to use the past few years), which are normally pretty high priorities
(lip service at least) for the powers that be.

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bsder
The problem is that there is no real advantage unless you have enough capacity
that you can disconnect for a reasonable length of time (> 1 hour or so).
There are very few places set up to be semi-independent like that.

Consequently, a micro-grid is a capital expenditure with no corresponding
savings to pay it off so nobody will champion it.

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joe_the_user
I think you have it pretty much backward. Attaining a power-generation level
necessary to be off the regular grid is not that hard. And becoming
independent of PG&E would have serious benefits to a city of about any size at
this point given the serious economic cost of unreliable power.

The problem is the cost, logistics and legalities of an alternative grid.
Every place that is on PG&E power currently would have to gain control of the
PG&E power poles and spend the money needed to modernize them. That is a huge
cost.

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mattrp
Don’t forget to add this - if you’re operating as a utility you will be
regulated as a utility.

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jessaustin
I.e., PUCs and other regulators owned by the incumbent utilities will seek to
end your existence.

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mattrp
That’s the gist but the surprising thing is that the incumbents and the PUC’s
have created a sort of toxic scheme with rate base accounting that is now
showing itself in the form of aging and poorly maintained infrastructure.

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foxyv
I wonder if there will soon be a market for battery backed refrigerators.
Build a fridge with a 2 kwh battery system at $160 per kwh and it adds only
about $400 to the cost. If it uses a DC motor for the compressor then you
don't even need an inverter.

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Sangama34
IT is time incompetent PgnE monopoly is broken and we have more private
players in the fray. At least all bay area cities should have a plan to
protect themselves from pg&e's incompetence.

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sbuk
All that does is put the incompetence into smaller business units, spreads it
out and magnifies the incompetence, and actually makes it harder to regulate.
Happened in the UK.

