One thing often discussed when the cost of renewables is the raised is how storage costs aren't factored in. An additional piece of information I want to put out there is the benefit that V2G (vehcile-to-grid) smart chargers will bring to the grid.
V2G smart chargers are two way smart chargers for EVs that not only charge an EV, but can also push energy from the EV into the grid, generating revenue for the EV ownder. A UK trial involving 300 V2G chargers recently ended and demonstrated that users can make an average of £325 annually (for more details see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kaluza_findings-from-300-dome...).
This is great for consumers, but will also helps reduce the amount of dedicated grid storage needed to back up renewables. It doesn't address the issues of long-terms storage, but in terms of handling the daily peaks and troughs in demand it's an excellent tool.
Residential storage has excellent potential to reduce peak demand on the grid. Take a look at page 109 on https://www.nationalgrideso.com/document/173821/download for some prediction on the impact of smart charging on the UK grid up to 2050. The current impact is indeed small, but with the adoption of EVs speeding up and an increasing amount of renewables on the grid, they'll have a material impact on reducing the cost to the consumer.
I work at a power company and there are a myriad of issues with wind energy. The number one being...
NIMBY.
Nobody wants a giant and somewhat loud windmill bleating behind their house. Only farmers typically deal with it. Now imagine on the entire power grid how many of those suckers we'd need CONSTANTLY generating power at the rate in which people are consuming it. Also what if the wind dies during peak period? How about the wind dies in a lot of areas so that we have to buy power from another supplier at a higher cost losing us money?
Storage is key here. But now imagine having thousands of megawatts on reserve. That's a pretty massive battery! That's essentially what would be required in order to make up for the inability to constantly generate power. And afaik, were an incredibly long way off.
V2G smart chargers are two way smart chargers for EVs that not only charge an EV, but can also push energy from the EV into the grid, generating revenue for the EV ownder. A UK trial involving 300 V2G chargers recently ended and demonstrated that users can make an average of £325 annually (for more details see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kaluza_findings-from-300-dome...).
This is great for consumers, but will also helps reduce the amount of dedicated grid storage needed to back up renewables. It doesn't address the issues of long-terms storage, but in terms of handling the daily peaks and troughs in demand it's an excellent tool.