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So ecoflow has come out with some crazy product that lets you offset your energy usage by using Solar. The target audience for this specific tech is apartment and rental units. (Anker is also currently working on one, but I think their product is only available in Germany at the moment)
While this can't/isn't designed to run your whole home, it can offset some of your energy usage, and since it utilizes a standalone backup battery you do have some small off grid redundancy.
What are the thoughts on this? Is distributing solar and batteries to potentially every appartment and environmental mistake? Or is this potentially a massive step towards a function and sustainable future grid?
I think it’s an interesting product but not likely to be cost effective in areas that have reliable power. It’s also not likely going to reduce emissions in areas with low to semi-low CO2 electricity production. I imagine their sales with either be to people who want more energy reliability or to people who are misguided in to thinking it will reduce emissions over there local power supply.
Particularly since the lifecycle emissions of distributed systems like this are inevitably higher than those of a centralized system (and more costly!)
To be honest, when I went solar 8-9 years ago, "environmental benefit" did not enter the equation, it was all about the cost I was paying for electricity.
I just recently purchased an ecoflow river, using it as an ups, and the cost to me was minimal, got it at dealers cost, again "environmental benefit" , didn't factor in.
If you did the math I would strongly suspect this unit could never pay for itself. In that case you're either using it because having the backup power is worth it, or because you believe there's some environmental benefit. On the environmental front, again, I can't imagine it'll ever "pay" for itself. So... Well, ok, or you get it because solar power and batteries are fun.
Yeah. It seems like a cool idea, but I can't quite understand the ecenomics being it.
I can see it being used as a "trial run" for people considering going solar or off grid in the future, it can be a safe first step, as the parts of these kits would integrate with the whole home systems sold by these same companies.
They are a really good option for places without a good grid. Having some electricty makes your life so much better. You can already find solar panels in slums and nomads use them a lot. That makes sense.
Other then that it is a decent way of adding a lot of solar panels to buildings, instead of large solar farms covering up valueable land. Having a decentralized grid has its advantages and being somewhat independend from the national grid also has its merits. However it is more expensive then solar farms and other large installations as economies of scale do not apply.
Batteries in case of no or a bad grid are okay, but for a properly working grid they are just too small. However what makes sense is to use batteries you have at home anyway smartly. Charging your electric vehicle at the right time for example makes a lot of sense. In a way heat pumps and freezers heating up or cooling down more, when electricity is cheap is also a good idea. However purpose build electricity storage at home is wastefull, as just by it size a national grid will have much smother consumption and more different electricty source in more place to require significantly less storage. In theory it is always windy or sunny somewhere in the world, so a global grid, might not need much storage at all.