Woa!  Having just published a blog on the benefits of storage as captured in the UK Smart Power report, I came across this blog from Bill Gates.

I dont disagree with the title – it certainly is difficult to store energy; but I do disagree with his maths. He states:-

“This figure is based on the capital cost of a lithium-ion battery amortized over the useful life of the battery. For example, a battery that costs $150 per kilowatt-hour of capacity with a life cycle of 500 charges would, over its lifetime, cost $150 / 500, or $0.30 per kilowatt-hour.”   Bill.

I have two difficulties with this, one of which makes his numbers worse and one makes them better. Read more…

 

On Friday 4^th March 2016, the UK government published an interesting report on ‘Smart Power’ which is relevant to the eCook proposition.  This was a review where the the (UK) National Infrastructure Commission was asked to consider how the UK can better balance supply and demand, aiming towards an electricity market where prices are reflective of costs to the overall system.  Its findings basically support the idea that adding lots of storage into the system can load smooth the grid – something I felt was important and wrote a paper on how it could be done with eCook.

Read more…