Virtual Power Plants Get Around Solar Power’s Intermittency Problem

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601695/virtual-power-plants-get-around-solar-powers-intermittency-problem/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Virtual Power Plants Get Around Solar Power’s Intermittency Problem[/font]

[font size=4]Using software to unify solar panels and battery storage creates a single, flexible resource that utilities can use to supply the grid.[/font]

by Richard Martin | June 14, 2016

[font size=3]Attempting to harness the power of distributed rooftop solar installations to make its grid more flexible and reliable, New York utility Consolidated Edison is launching a pilot program this summer to link dozens of small solar arrays into a single, software-connected power plant. The utility is working with solar power developer SunPower and energy storage company Sunverge to create a “virtual power plant”—a network of distributed assets that functions as a unified resource on the grid.

The project will include 300 homes with a combined total of 1.8 megawatts of solar capacity and batteries that can store up to four megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to run 300 average U.S. households for about 10 hours.

Those are not huge numbers, but the ConEd program represents one of the most ambitious U.S. efforts yet to turn lots of distributed solar installations into a flexible source of grid power that can replace electricity from the fossil-fuel plants that are typically used to supplement intermittent renewable energy. Residential customers will lease the solar systems from ConEd and pay a small premium for home batteries, which can also provide a backup source of power during outages.

Over the last few years, several utilities have quietly joined forces with makers of storage systems, and the software to combine them, to create such virtual power plants. Earlier this year Texas-based Austin Energy launched a pilot program to integrate solar and storage into a virtual power plant, backed by a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative. Energy storage and software provider Stem is working with Southern California Edison on a multiyear program to supply 85 megawatts of storage at commercial facilities in greater Los Angeles. That power, generated by a combination of conventional power plants and distributed solar arrays, will flow back onto the grid when it’s needed. And Vermont-based Green Mountain Power said in December it will offer 500 Tesla Powerwall batteries to homeowners to supply backup power to their homes and peak electricity to the grid.

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[NNadir]

1. We can expect, as we race toward 450 ppm and then 500 ppm of CO2, to hear lots more...

Last edited Sun Jun 19, 2016, 11:37 AM - Edit history (1)

...trivial bull like this about 300 "homes" or 1000 "homes" - all of which will be "average," powered by toxic solar cells attached to toxic storage devices that will be useless in winter.

At $4.3 million, we'll be able to power 300 homes for 10 hours at a rate of $14,300 per "home." This of course, will have no relevance whatsoever to a single mom working 3 minimum wage jobs to keep the lights on so her kid can do his or her homework, but it should be able to at least produce one of America's most important resources: Smug millionaires driving plug-in hybrid i8 BMW sports cars because they are "environmentally aware."

Ten hours of solar storage power will, of course, mean nothing in the dead of winter near the solstice with half a foot of snow on the ground, but we can always build a dangerous natural gas power plant in some poor neighborhood, pretend it's free, and of course, declare it's "green and clean," and go on our happy way.

And for the long term, no worry. We're doing everything we can, by lying to ourselves, and dumping money uselessly on quixotic fantasies, to be sure that it never snows again, anywhere, ever.

Enjoy your Sunday.