Energy Independence Through Community Batteries, Wind and Solar

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Thanks Rosie -As a rural New England town we have a municipal owned utility. More than a decade ago the town did approve two 1.5 MW wind turbines, which are still running today. We are planning a 2MW/8MW*hr battery and are working to support the development of a 1MW solar field. We don't sell shares of these assets to our ratepayers but we support the community environmental goals. We hope to eventually have smart meters and roll out a Virtual Power Plant (VPP ) style demand response system . We have a voluntary text message system to encourage peak load reductions, and support WiFi controlled EV chargers. Communities can be very innovative, but sometimes we can make mistakes too.

One thing often overlooked but pleased to see the Yack community address - invest in reducing load before trying to power it with renewables. Typically there is a lot of low hanging fruit so every $ spent improving energy efficiency will save multiples of renewable infrastructure $. And reduce energy and GHG emissions from manufacturing as less infrastructure is required

I agree that community power fills a gap between grid-scale and private power. Thanks for laying out the benefits and challenges so thoughtfully.

Thanks for covering this. I think that community power is necessary as part of the "all of the above" strategy to fight climate change. There is not time to wait for large grid scale projects to solve the fundamental issue of reducing the rate we are putting carbon into the atmosphere. Every idea that creates less carbon than displaces has to be explored and implemented. We need Cheap basic transportation EVs and electric trucks and busses as soon as possible. For trucks and busses, electric hybrids could cut diesel use in half as a intermediate measure. Could you imagine reducing diesel carbon emissions by half globally while full electric heavy haul infrastructure is created? I still don't think hybrid cars are worthwhile but since truck emmissions represent such a large problem I would concede that electric semi trucks with a small diesel range extender could help bridge the gap since a generator can run intermittently at it's most efficient RPM when needed to recharge a medium sized battery.

Fantastic video Rosie. For the off-grid idealists, another way to think of the lifestyle is simply having their own independent "micro-systems."

Community batteries can be the best, most cost effective method of supporting the grid locally as well as soaking up excess solar. I think they should all be grid-connected to assist the grid beyond their borders and to make sure that excess solar can be used effectively. Personal batteries assist only the home-owner and any subsidies given by government only benefits that owner. If you're getting a subsidy for a home battery, I think you should be required to take part in a VPP scheme so that the community as a whole gets some benefit otherwise it's just "subsidies for the rich" who can afford to buy them anyway.

I lived in Ellenbrook in Perth in the 2010s, and most nights in summer the power would cut out right when all the streetlights would come on. They ended up running another main power line to boost local capacity but local storage would have been a better solution if it had been available at the time

We are part owners of Ripple energy project (wind farm) here in the UK. Definitely the way to go 👍

Rosie, I have another take on the social inequalities. Power coops would be more equitable. Distributed power allows for community coops and individuals to compete with price gouging corporate monopolies, which in turn will lower prices. And, distributed power is more resilient to natural disasters and attacks.

Community batteries are located in the community. The government paid expansion of the grid to supply the extra electricity loads is avoided but not in the accounting. The failure to measure this saving is a failure to manage our future. I know expanding a commercial building footprint, and its new increased load on the local grid, depends on local grid expansion works. I have worked on such a project that was delayed from even BA approval until the grid operator's work was completed. This was a suburban building, not a greenfield site. More affordable housing will increase community demand. The expanding population of Sydney means expanding demand. Wealthy suburbs buy more Tesla's and other EVs and more rooftop PV. Government pays for the expensive grid expansion. Grid costs are 66% of electricity bills. The grid is incredibly expensive. Suburban land and the environment makes city construction even more expensive. Edit. I commented too fast, Hahaha. You did a great video. 👍 😊😊

I am more in favor of individual off-grid, but i am a power electronics hobbyist. I can see the appeal of community power and I would be happy to contribute design and maintenance knowledge to help such a community.

Match the size of the community battery to the number of vehicles owned by the community. Population 2,000. Vehicles say about 1,500. With 100kwh batteries, then 150mWh storage daily.

Thanks, Rosie. Great review of the state of community energy projects.

Great content and delivery as always! BUT.. Not sure if your videos are length/time constrained but it would be nice if you could speak at a more relaxed pace. Thanks for the time and effort you put into these.

We have multiple community wind farms where i live. These sell into the national grid, and the community receives cash in return.

Makes me think of tragedy of the commons. No one will want to reduce their usage because everyone owns the storage so they will expect to always have power ready

An outstanding video again from Rosie. Great overview of what works and what is challenging. Where I live there is an overabundance of Nuclear (when it's running right) and Hydro backed up by coal. I've often wondered why the utility doesn't institute a program to put home (or community) batteries distributed throughout the jurisdiction to store the overnight generation instead of selling it for near zero, and then use that power when it's needed and they right now have to bring the coal online. Combine that with some community solar also in the battery and we could eliminate the coal entirely. Sadly, our government are dinosaurs who burn dinosaurs.

I made contact with a company in China and I could purchase solar panels at a 10th of the price they are in the UK. I priced up a 32KW system with batteries and inverter and import duty and the total cost to purchase direct from China and have shipped to the UK is just over £10K, in the UK the same system would cost over £50K.

Thank you for the update on how mass renewable energy projects are massively delayed because National grid connection take years! The real estate we need for net zero is available now! No environmental checks! No public complaints, no grid connection delay and fitted and running in 2 weeks! Home solar and storage is easy fast and relatively cheap. Community storage is ok but what about the storage community, 10k homes with 10kw storage batteries the grid can access when demand is high. Need to stop thinking big, instead think small but plenty...