- Wholesale power prices are increasingly turning negative at times of high solar output
- Observers say rooftop solar is “cannibalising” electricity prices and hitting large-scale solar hard
- There are calls for storage and greater daytime demand to help soak up solar production
From what I know the batteries you need to store your own electricity at home are crazy expensive
Yes, but you don’t necessarily need batteries. If you just have a bit of solar, you’ll use up all the power it produces as it does that.
I’m sure this has been discussed, but storing your solar energy as potential energy could avoid paying connection fees. Pump some ground water into a raised tank - or hoist heavy objects (large logs)?
Now that I type it out, it seems either dangerous or inefficient or not cost effective. Or all of the above.
Fun to think about, though
There was a company that stacked concrete bricks to store electricity, with the point being that on demand the crane could pick up bricks and gain the energy from dropping them down. Hit all sorts of news sites, never heard of it reaching practical use.
EDIT as noted by another commentor, apparently it did.