GCC: UCSD study: under current policies, home energy storage would often increase carbon emissions

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GRA

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https://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/12/20181212-ucsd.html

. . . The researchers selected 16 of the largest utilities companies in the country and dug into their tariff structure, carrying out the first systematic analysis of how much utility companies charge residential customers to forecast the economic and environmental impact of these systems, if they were to be widely deployed across the country.

Conventional wisdom may suggest that these storage systems—essentially household batteries such as the Tesla Powerwall—could be instrumental in weaning ourselves off greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources. But deploying them today, without making fundamental policy and regulatory reforms, risks increasing emissions instead.

If residents use these systems to reduce their electricity bills, the batteries would draw energy from the grid when it is cheapest. And because utilities don’t structure how much they charge with the goal of lowering emissions, the cheapest power more often comes from power sources that emit carbon, such as coal. In addition, batteries do not operate at 100% efficiency: as a result, households that use them draw more power from the electric grid than they actually need.

For the systems to actually reduce greenhouse gasses, utilities need to change their tariff structures substantially to account for emissions from different power source, the researchers said. Utilities would need to make energy cheaper for consumers when the grid is generating low-carbon electricity, researchers said. . . .
 
Conventional wisdom may suggest that these storage systems—essentially household batteries such as the Tesla Powerwall—could be instrumental in weaning ourselves off greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources. But deploying them today, without making fundamental policy and regulatory reforms, risks increasing emissions instead.

If residents use these systems to reduce their electricity bills, the batteries would draw energy from the grid when it is cheapest. And because utilities don’t structure how much they charge with the goal of lowering emissions, the cheapest power more often comes from power sources that emit carbon, such as coal.


This assumes the home isn't producing its own power and battery storage is small in relation to the home's demand. With a larger solar/battery system, the grid stops being used for arbitrage and falls into an almost vestigial backup role. Check out Jack Rickard's "selfish solar" videos on evtv.me.
 
Nubo said:
Conventional wisdom may suggest that these storage systems—essentially household batteries such as the Tesla Powerwall—could be instrumental in weaning ourselves off greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources. But deploying them today, without making fundamental policy and regulatory reforms, risks increasing emissions instead.

If residents use these systems to reduce their electricity bills, the batteries would draw energy from the grid when it is cheapest. And because utilities don’t structure how much they charge with the goal of lowering emissions, the cheapest power more often comes from power sources that emit carbon, such as coal.
This assumes the home isn't producing its own power and battery storage is small in relation to the home's demand. With a larger solar/battery system, the grid stops being used for arbitrage and falls into an almost vestigial backup role. Check out Jack Rickard's "selfish solar" videos on evtv.me.
Sure, but until battery prices drop a lot and several days of storage become common, most people are more likely to limit themselves to packs sized for load-shifting. The off-grid systems I used to design normally had 3-7 days of storage (10 was about max.), but that was affordable because my customers were beyond the power lines where land was cheap, and they also practiced energy efficiency and conservation to a degree far beyond what a typical on the grid household does. PV has gotten a lot cheaper since then, but storage really hasn't.
 
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