They Can’t Power A Smartphone For More Than A Day

But the battery scam geniuses would power the grid.

U.S. renewable energy developers have delayed or scrapped several big battery projects meant to store electrical power on the grid in recent months, scuttling plans to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar energy.

At least a dozen storage projects meant to support growing renewable energy supplies have been postponed, canceled or renegotiated as labor and transport bottlenecks, soaring minerals prices, and competition from the electric vehicle industry crimp supply. […]

The delays, some of which have not been previously reported, range from several months to a year, according to the Reuters reporting.

“I have not seen a nascent industry challenged on so many fronts,” said Jamal Burki, president of IHI Terrasun Solutions, the U.S. energy storage arm of Japanese heavy equipment maker IHI Corp.

33 Replies to “They Can’t Power A Smartphone For More Than A Day”

  1. Solyndra Syndrome.
    These projects would all undoubtedly proceed to completion more rapidly if they were subject to higher levels of government subsidy. like all components of the Green New Deal, which is the bastard stepchild of (queue the dark and scary music) “Climate Change,” the greatest scam in the history of the human species.

    I so miss the Maldives.

  2. One Economist was proudly showing how the Solar Panels powered up the batteries and then sent the vehicle vehicle to do deliveries…
    Free energy they were claiming to recharge the station.
    I had to point out that they’d need to double the cost that they were showing on the limited distance as a second batteries and Solar Panels System would be needed recharge the vehicle unless they come back on a much, much shorter run to that same recharging station.
    I of course, was ignored.

    1. And IF we get rid of internal combustion vehicles, what replaces the taxes on hydrocarbons?

      Why a tax on electricity, plus a tax on charging during peak demand hours.

      1. And then there will be a battery recycling fee. Payable when you purchase your EV.

        And when you elect to dispose of your EV you’ll have to pay an EV disposal fee. Cause the government will have spent the recycling fee.

        1. called up my ins company
          I currently pay 1500 a year on my gas car… for a musk electric they want 4 grand. For the chevy electric, 2100…

  3. Early electric cars….1900-1912 , had a range of about 100 miles on a single charge
    The new Volvo all electric car proudly boast a range of 165 miles on a single charge.
    As they used to say “you’ve come a long way Baby”

    1. For the first three months only. Then the battery capacity diminishes. The time to recharge stays the same. Short charges reduces the three months to one.
      Proudly declare that “come a long way” after you walked when your EV strands you in the middle of nowhere.

  4. Green energy is nascent the same way growing vanilla in Vermont is nascent.

  5. This is what is puzzling to me in the zero carbon, green energy world:

    1. Fossil fuels are absolutely necessary to mine the raw materials, transport the raw materials, manufacture the raw materials into green energy components ( rare earth metals in solar panels, lithium in batteries, smelting steel for wind towers, various plastics and polymers etc.) and install the green energy.

    2. Politicians want to dismantle the production of the fossil fuels which are the power source that is essential to the mining, transport, manufacturing and installation of green energy products. Solar and wind can’t produce enough power to melt iron ore, for instance.

    3. After fossil fuels are “replaced” by green energy, how will green energy be mined, manufactured and installed?

    Not only is it impossible to replace the need for fossil fuels in green energy but any talk of green electricity production without a acknowledging the need for nuclear for baseload power is unrealistic, to put it diplomatically. For most jurisdictions using natgas for emergency power, grid stabilization and for peak power needs is also essential, especially to balance the grid if there’s any wind and solar in the system. Batteries are reliant on excess wind and solar power to charge but wind and solar are reliant on weather but weather is unpredictable…making the entire battery/solar/wind system unpredictable and unreliable without a natgas backup.

    So green energy is reliant on traditional energy from start to finish. From mining through to reliable, stable electricity production.

    1. That’s going to be what the subjects are for. Slaves for the elitists. The Romans were experts on developing “human muscle power”.

  6. I find the battery storage banks to be the most fantastical and absurd part of the whole renewable energy contraption. Replacement costs will be much higher when they’re finally depleted, which happens to every battery eventually, and the resources needed for them will be much scarcer. And inevitably at some point due to foreseen but ignored predictions they will be tested to the point of failure.

    1. I’m sure they will install a 1 megawatt battery onto the grid, and crow about it.

      they won’t mention that the grid uses 11,268 MWh in Ontario, at the lowest point, so the battery will last less than 1/3 of a second at best when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine

  7. Intellectuals said we could do this. There’s obviously something wrong with physics and the nature of reality.

  8. Electricity is best made as it’s used, the producers carefully follow demand and adjust constantly.
    Storing electricity is like the chickens hanging outside in Kensington Market on a hot August day………

  9. Proponents of solar and wind power are facing an implacable foe: thermodynamics.

    Although some believe that scientists can solve any problem given enough effort, scientists cannot overturn the laws of physics, and there’s no guarantee that solar and wind power will ever be able to provide most of our energy at a reasonable cost.

    1. “Economics is simply the thermodynamics of very, very large and complex dissipative structures.”
      -me.

  10. Australia had an enquiry into a system failure of a regional grid.
    It was pure farce.
    I forget if it was NWT or NSW,however,they had installed a “Battery”
    They were transitioning from a patchwork of back up diesel power plants over to natural gas turbine.
    Running about 1/3 of their demand on solar,when a large cloud rolled in.
    Result.
    Solar stopped. Immediately.
    Battery bank with inverter system kicked in as planned.
    Ran load for 8 minutes,with computer accurate frequency (This is important).
    Battery ran out .Inverters shut off.
    Dropped huge demand onto idling diesel gensets.
    (Many of which were flatlined due to maintenance issues.As in Why bother it gets decommissioned in a few months.)
    Which tripped off line.
    Darkness.No fridges, no AC.

    Diesel generator controllers require a drop in the system frequency,to initiate them taking on more load.
    Known as “Droop”..
    Inverter Systems ,at grid scale batterybank size,produce a lovely and precise 60Hz when working properly..until they can’t,then they switch off.
    Part of the old style brown out,where the lights dim and the motors sag,is what gives every other piece of rotating plant the needed time to hit their throttle..
    Power Engineers have performed miracles of reliability for decades now,having done so well that the public and politicians believe the grid to be invulnerable..

    And battery technology has had 200 years to demonstrate remarkably little progress.
    The lack of understanding of “Base Load”,the requirement to have 125% capacity at all times and the caprice of man and weatherpower grids.
    Too basic for todays experts and the politicians dumb relatives who infest all the regulatory boards.
    Buy a back up generator,you will be grateful for your foresight.

    1. Buy a backup generator and have the electrical part installed correctly by an electrician or or someone who knows what they’re doing. A camp trailer with a furnace can also be used as a temporary home in an emergency. Or, be friendly with a neighbor who has a generator or camper.

      We’ve used our generator a few times after storms. Having power to run the natural gas furnace is essential in places where winter temps can get as low as -40 degrees Celsius. The generator also runs the water pump so we can use the water from our water storage tank. Having drinking water and toilets that flush when outages stretch on for a day or two is also pretty important but often forgotten. And, yes, we have in invited neighbors into our home during power outages. We can get powerful storms and wicked weather in any season here in Saskatchewan so it pays to be prepared.

      1. All true. People buy a “few” Kw generator and think that is it. It is, for short power outages, but for anything longer there are other problems.

        I have a 6.5Kw generator that I plumbed in correctly to drive what it could: Lights and wall power in living area and bathroom (people forget that one!), water pump – ours is a 240v one that has a high starting current (it is 600′ deep), freezer, fridge, microwave, internet.

        It can’t drive our heat-pump/AC or water heaters though.

        We have a gas range for cooking – power from the generator powers the auto-ignition too.

        This is all fine for short outages.
        Recently we had a leak in the pipe from the water pump to the house. Of course, it was in an area very difficult to get to. We were without water for 10 days. When the toilets no longer work, no showers, and you have to rely on buying bottled water for everything it gets old very fast.

        Then, just before Christmas our heating system died (circulation fan). Of course, no matter how hard they tried the repair company couldn’t get a new fan. The manufacturer had decided to close down until the New Year. We spent Christmas and New Year with no heat. Three small fan heaters helped a little. Got the temperature up to about 68F by the time it was time to go to bed. The fireplace helped a bit, but modern fireplaces are designed more for looks than hearing efficiency. The old electric blanket came in useful again.

        Life gets really uncomfortable when just one service goes away. When they all do, as with no electricity, it sops being fun after about 2 hours.

        I really want a 30kva diesel generator … but these days, could I even afford to fill the tank?

  11. A battery that could power Ontario for 10 hours would weigh on the order of a million tons.
    Think of a giant cube 100 yards on a side.
    Now think of it on fire.
    In order to minimize transmission losses, I suggest we put it close to the highest load, say right in the middle of Toronto.

  12. I’ve heard so many fanciful dreams of ‘magic capacitors’ being recharged from solar and wind and even harnessing lightning strikes to self charging battery arrays using s + w, producing power by using the water we flush to drive generators to extract power…..none of these are real proposals yet our tax dollars are constantly consumed by them….none of these theoreticians are ever admonished of shunned for their failed proposals, they just continue chowing down at the public trough.

    1. Kid
      Yup I’m still waiting for those fancy capacitors as well, so they can use them for regen braking on EV’s. I’v told a few idiots, that capacitors are voltage devices and not power storage units. Tho there is and effort to “build” are power storage device that is similar to a capacitor. In the plastics industry I used to recommend installing capacitor banks to correct PF factor, and reduce hydro bill

  13. “I have not seen a nascent industry challenged on so many fronts,”

    Remember when that thing was going to be the next best thing and then it wasn’t?

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