Batteries aren’t just useful for time shifting or grid stability services. They could help to speed up electrification of heat, cooking, and transport by avoiding delays from network upgrades.
Great read! Clearly, there is increasing activity in this part of the grid.
There is a similar concept with A/C, also in New York. A company called Every Electric provides “plug in” batteries that can help peak shave the A/C power demand.
Great read. hadn't considered the charge/discharge asymmetry as a way to reduce pressure on substation builds before.
Taking a step back, your "who pays" question is one of two adoption barriers for home batteries I’m thinking about:
1. financing: the Warm Homes Plan’s zero/low interest loan is a good nudge for homeowners to get batteries. But for landlords/renters - who’s willing to own the upfront CAPEX, and are the WHP financing options attractive enough to make the economics work?
2. space, adoption and aesthetics. Batteries take up space. Without garages, bulky boxes are a hard sell for renters and smaller homes. There’s also the hassle of installing these batteries and switching to flexible tariffs. Might be a drag for the non-industrial user.
Spoke to the founder of Windfall Energy recently. They are trying to solve these adoption barriers through a plug and play home battery storage solution, emphasising aesthetics and low friction to install. But he acknowledges the financing and tariff switching barriers. They are figuring out a biz model that partners with energy suppliers directly to include Windfall Batteries in tariff packages, so consumers don’t think about it.
But Windfall Battery’s specs is counter to your substation bottleneck: it’s a 1200W/800W input/output setup for a 2.5kWh battery.
Wonder if that asymmetric discharge becomes a bigger pain for these domestic-focused solutions to solve in the future, or if its gonna be taken up by industrial-focused companies like Zenobe.
Great read! Clearly, there is increasing activity in this part of the grid.
There is a similar concept with A/C, also in New York. A company called Every Electric provides “plug in” batteries that can help peak shave the A/C power demand.
Great read. hadn't considered the charge/discharge asymmetry as a way to reduce pressure on substation builds before.
Taking a step back, your "who pays" question is one of two adoption barriers for home batteries I’m thinking about:
1. financing: the Warm Homes Plan’s zero/low interest loan is a good nudge for homeowners to get batteries. But for landlords/renters - who’s willing to own the upfront CAPEX, and are the WHP financing options attractive enough to make the economics work?
2. space, adoption and aesthetics. Batteries take up space. Without garages, bulky boxes are a hard sell for renters and smaller homes. There’s also the hassle of installing these batteries and switching to flexible tariffs. Might be a drag for the non-industrial user.
Spoke to the founder of Windfall Energy recently. They are trying to solve these adoption barriers through a plug and play home battery storage solution, emphasising aesthetics and low friction to install. But he acknowledges the financing and tariff switching barriers. They are figuring out a biz model that partners with energy suppliers directly to include Windfall Batteries in tariff packages, so consumers don’t think about it.
But Windfall Battery’s specs is counter to your substation bottleneck: it’s a 1200W/800W input/output setup for a 2.5kWh battery.
Wonder if that asymmetric discharge becomes a bigger pain for these domestic-focused solutions to solve in the future, or if its gonna be taken up by industrial-focused companies like Zenobe.
Very good article. Batteries are key to increasing electrification and renewables.