Hell, the damn feds are trying to give the Great State of Tough As Texas billions to fund Medicaid, the GOP says “no thanks”.
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Navin is getting his vaccination shot tomorrow. My wife got it yesterday. I’m so ready to get on with not worrying about this 24/7
For local folks, follow Houston health on Twitter. That’s how I got in line.
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Gives “from my cold, dead hand” a whole new context.
Objects that dense are really poor conductors.
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I did come across an interesting energy storage technique about a decade ago. It was called Compressed Air Energy Storage. Off-peak energy would be used to compress air into underground caverns and, when needed for peak demand, that air would be released and channeled into gas turbine generators.
A GTG loses about 30% of its energy to compress the inducted air so, using pre-compressed air, they could lop the compressor off the front of the machine making it simpler, cheaper, smaller and much more efficient.
It never went anywhere - I believe mostly due to a lack of suitable, airtight underground storage - but it was an interesting solution to non-battery energy storage; the 30% efficiency bump being the energy that was stored.
The only other solution of which I’m aware is simply using mega battery installations like the one Elon Musk did in Australia.
Of course, another solution is for homes and buildings to have their own generating capacity, be it solar, wind or hydro, and store it in local batteries while remaining grid-connected. This will take the pressure off the grid, particularly for new construction; the technology is getting to the point where it’s financially advantageous when building new or replacing a roof on a building with some miles left in it. Plus, you have locally stored power to see you through short-to-medium term outages if you are careful with usage.
The Tesla roof is getting better and cheaper. It’s at the point where it’s cheaper than some standard roofing options. They just bumped the output too, so it’s much more efficient.
You’d think a place like Texas would embrace this tech because of abundant sunshine, a grid that has to cover a vast area, and the ever-expanding exurbs. Imagine a new subdivision construction, where all the homes come with solar and batteries, with a small wind farm or hydro generator and neighborhood battery pack to supplement power as needed.
You almost wouldn’t need to be on the grid at all - except you would in order to sell excess production to ERCOT. Utility bills would be tiny. Don’t get me started on capturing rain water to use for garden sprinklers and toilets - easy plumbing when building new!
Here’s an example of super cheap and easy hydro, that could be used for a neighborhood that’s near any kind of flowing water. It doesn’t need to be fast-flowing, the set-up uses gravity to accelerate the flow.
I was interested in putting panels on our roof and started doing some research. I learned that during a blackout, home solar connected to the grid is designed to automatically shut down. Safety reasons for grid workers which I can understand but seems like we should have technology to isolate the grid from the home generation.
Anyways, there was always a proviso that if you paired your home solar with batteries, you’d have something during a blackout, but best I can figure is that you’d only have what is stored in your batteries at the start of the blackout, but you couldn’t recharge your batteries with your solar system during a blackout. I could be misunderstanding this but the vagueness of what I read made me concerned that this was the catch.
Bottom line: I concluded that the benefit of a grid connected solar system is on economics/carbon footprint etc, but not on the idea that it would serve as a backup supply during blackouts. Caveat to bottom line: my understanding of all this is very limited.
It’s also pretty pricey. With batteries for back-up, a partial system for our house is about $60-70k
I can see the issue and, you’re right, that takes away a significant benefit of home solar. But if they can automatically isolate your panels from your grid, why can’t the automatically isolate your grid from their grid? I’m guessing this is an intentional rat-fucking of home solar.
I’d be inclined to go off grid and have a natural gas generator to top off the batteries as needed. I’m sure there’s a smart management system that could do that, unless they made that illegal too…in our wonderful deregulated marketplace. 
The cost-benefit plays out over time. You have to factor in energy savings, of course, but a Tesla roof is projected to - and warranted to - last twice as long as a shingle roof. It’s also stronger than a shingle roof and lighter/lower maintenance than slate or tile, with which it’s cost comparable.
In other parts of the country, you get a tax credit too. Not here in Texas though, where energy is just lying about waiting to be picked up.
ETA, you get a one-time 26% federal tax credit for installing solar.
Wow, that price range would have dissuaded my research from the get go. Is it the battery portion that made it so expensive? I was under the impression that about a 20 panel system was more in the 20K range.
Limey, I’m not sure it is rat fucking solar as much as a technical issue. There is likely the technology to isolate my “generator” from their grid, but it might be expensive and a real regulatory burden on the utility to ensure that my equipment is working and not endangering their workers.
The batteries add a lot to the upfront price, but they also enhance your savings because you’re not solely back on Centerpoint’s teat the moment the sun goes down. If the system is sized correctly, you should be able to drain it over night without running dry, and recharge it during the day while powering everything else.
Conditions won’t necessarily be such that this works out perfectly every day but, for the days it does, your light bill is $0 - maybe less if you had some spare juice that you pushed out to the grid.
Seems to me that they have the technology, they just choose to isolate your panels rather than isolate your house. I really don’t see why you can do one but not the other; it’s just a question of where you put the cut off.
In Austin, my understanding is that the utility, Austin Energy pays me for each KWh I produce; it’s not a net metering arrangement where I use my power, push any excess I generate to the grid and use their power when I need it. Also, there is no energy pricing system where you pay more depending on the time of the day, but a tiered system where you pay higher rates as your usage exceeds certain levels. In this setup, I see absolutely no benefit to battery storage, other than the limited supply it would provide during a blackout.
As an aside, Austin does provide a 2.5K rebate and pays .097 for each KWh you generate. Depending on the initial installation costs, the payback period seems like it might be in the 15 year or less range.
So, wait…they pay you to produce to the grid and then charge you for what you draw back?
ETA: Just looked it up - are you talking about net metering? I hadn’t heard of this before, but it does negate the need for batteries for anything other than blackout protection.
Yes, but the rate they pay me is higher than the rate they charge me (based on my use within their tiered rate structure). However, my monthly bill has an assortment of fees that will still apply so I’m unlikely to pay nothing, but it is possible with a large enough solar system and/or a low enough energy use.
I do think the solar panel value is exempt from ad valorem tax.
You’re missing the point of having electricity in the first place: to make money for electricity generators.
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I went solar with our home in 2017 so maybe our experience will be educational.
We have 43 panels on the roof, a little under 14kW. The system is grid-tied so we sell unused energy (net metering) to Oncor via Green Mountain Energy at the same fixed rate we use it. During the warm months we produce more than we use and build up a credit; during the winter months we use more than we produce since our house is all-electric. Over 12 months it roughly balances out, depending on how cold and cloudy/rainy the winter and spring are. For the first 2+ years we didn’t pay a single penny for electricity due to mild winters, but the last couple of winters and springs have changed that.
Total cost was about $48k. A state rebate through Oncor took $8k off the top, and then I got another $12k or so in federal tax credits over the next two tax years. I don’t think the state rebates are being offered anymore. At the time 2017 was the last year that the renewable energy tax credit was being offered at 30% and was due to be phased out over the next couple of years. I guess that’s been extended?
Since our system is grid-tied it automatically shuts down when utility power goes out. This is a safety measure to prevent our electricity from being fed back into the grid where utility workers may be at risk. I’ve read that it may be possible to throw a couple of breakers to disconnect from the grid and use the solar in a blackout, but I’m not about to try it.
I looked into batteries, but a sufficiently sized Powerwall system would run me another $20k after tax credits. One Powerwall holds 13.5kWh and you can have up to ten. Tesla says my house would need three (so 40.5kWh) and would provide nine days of backup power, which is a unicorns-and-rainbows best case scenario that probably involves sunny skies in August and shutting off everything except HVAC, fridge, and water heater. Getting you through a prolonged blackout would require lots of excess battery storage and lots of excess solar production. Here’s how my usage and production fared before/during/after the winter storm:
Date Solar kWh Usage kWh High temp, conditions
2/9 37.6 27 64F Mostly cloudy
2/10 8.6 65.9 47F Cloudy/rainy
2/11 3.7 58 37F Rain/sleet
2/12 11.9 99.1 33F Cloudy
2/13 11.9 114.4 32F Rain/sleet
2/14 4.8 125.4 31F Sleet/snow
2/15 off 134.1 27F Clear
2/16 off 115.4 25F Mostly cloudy
2/17 5.6 97.4 32F Cloudy/mix
2/18 14 83.7 32F Cloudy/snow
2/19 39.6 76.7 44F Clear
2/20 62.9 49.6 62F Clear
As you can see, I ran a huge deficit for days. The 40.5kWh Powerwall system Tesla says I’d need wouldn’t have even gotten me to the freezing precip. Even a fully pimped out ten-Powerwall system ($60k after tax credits, for those scoring at home) would’ve been drained three days before everything really froze over. There were a couple of sunny days in there that I missed (I turned the system off because I was worried the cold/ice had damaged the inverter) but I still would’ve used 2x what I would’ve produced and had snow covering the panels anyway. Obviously that weather is atypical, but even less-unusual winter days like 2/10 and 2/19 would be problematic with batteries. Summer would be a different story, but solar+batteries and winter storms aren’t a great combination.
I also don’t believe it’s possible to have both a grid-tied solar system and batteries. So you can pick reducing/eliminating your electric bill and the feel-good notion of reducing your carbon footprint, or you can pick the libertarian doomsday prepper wonderland of living (mostly) off your own electricity and maybe having enough stored power to get you through a couple of nights in the right season or the random utility outage that lasts minutes or hours. Can’t have it both ways, and either way you’re kind of up shit creek in a prolonged outage. If we had natural gas I’d get a standby generator for blackouts; instead I’m probably going to invest in a dual fuel (unleaded/propane) 10kW-15kW portable generator and always have a couple of 25lb propane tanks on hand.
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Yes, the 26% federal tax credit is extended to 2022, after which it phases out pretty fast. However, I would be shocked if the current administration didn’t further extend and perhaps improve the credit.
Thanks for the real-world data. I’ll stop pricking on about batteries now, as the giant, papier-mâché middle finger I had made for Centerpoint now lies in tatters.
That’s very helpful. I think one of the reasons the systems we were looking at were relatively expensive was because we were going into it looking for a system that would provide backup power in power outages. I have the notion that batteries are improving quickly, and that prices are reducing, and in a couple of years I may look at it again. We would never have been off the grid though.