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Zcell is a 10kWh zinc Bromide flow battery. It looks like it will not be available in the US until next year. Initial installed cost estimates are $12,000 US. Battery is capable of a complete discharge dialy for 10 years of 10kWh. Just back of the napkin gives me $.33 cents per kWh over the life of the battery. I wonder how long it would last if not used daily? Anyways I hope the tech cost drrops in half in the next couple of years. If so I would think it would start to make a lot of sense for many folks. Info here: https://www.zcell.com/ and here http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/red...e_zcell/101643
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Yep your math is correct. The question is that $12000 the total installed price or just for the battery system or will it be maybe 33% more to be completely working?
On top of that I would expect that the claim of full discharge every day for 10 years may be overstated. So IMO you will get less power output.
And finally except for maybe places like Australia, California and Hawaii that $0.33 /kWh is almost 3 times what I pay from my electric power.
Maybe if that same battery was about $4000 installed it would then make sense for someone like me to get it. -
That's when you use all 10kWh everyday for next 10 years without any issue, yes, that is $0.33/kWh. So far I can only think of Hawaii (USA) will be the only place it might be making sense since my average bill there is about $250.Comment
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I asked the crew about these a few weeks ago. It was SK's opinion that they could not be charged fast enough, like with 4 or 5 sun hours a day to be a good fit for solar hybrid systems, anyone have any other opinions?Comment
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I am sure they could be charged using a generator or a very big solar array. The problem I see is you will never get 10 years of totally sunny days to use solar to charge it.
I really am looking forward to a cheap and reliable home energy storage system but as of now they cost way too much and would probably be more useful as a "grid stabilizing system" by a POCO.Comment
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Yep I think it might be ok for use with poco's, and if you have enough room to fit enough panels on to charge them, the Solar Wholesaler boys are looking into it as well.Comment
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Someone will come up with a great energy storage system. It is only a matter of time and money.
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from what I can tell, the price is estimated but includes total installation including any controlers you need. I also have been reading about flow batteries for some time. I actually think that 10 years might be conservative. There are other manufacturers that state 20 but lets not get ahead of ourselves. I too am interested in the charge rate. I've sent the company an e-mail to request that info. I'll let you know if I hear back. If I can get this installed some day for 6K I'm all over it. a bit more than a generator but less maintenence and I get the energy for free. Plus at that price and assuming that all POCOs will eventually do away with 1-1 net metering incentives it's another way to hedge on larger systems. We shall see. Clearly at least a year or two away.Comment
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here is what they told me.- Charge current 50A continuous (linear charge curve, no drop in charge rate up to 100% full)
- Discharge current 75A continuous, 100A for 30 minutes, 125A for one minute
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Of course one of the advertised advantages of flow batteries is that the charge rate (power ratings) are decoupled from the energy ratings (duration of power). So in theory the stack that determines how quickly the battery can be charged could be "oversized" for the shortened time window of PV generation, and then the size/fill of the tanks establishing energy capacity is sized appropriately for the need.
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Arpa-E announced 'for real' grid level storage.
US agency reaches 'holy grail' of battery storage sought by Elon Musk and Gates
Announcements are announcements, but what D/Arpa makes one I listen.Comment
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Sounds like a fluffy press release to me. Whatever they're talking about, it's a long way from market.Comment
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And I have beach front property in Arizona to sell cheap.
While Tesla has made some pretty major leaps into a number of different technologies (EV, Space X, batteries) they have not yet made a product that can be purchased and IMO justified by the US masses. Unless you are getting overcharged for electricity like Hawaii and CA.
I just an article about using that Powerwall battery in VT. Green Mountain power will be installing them in homes with PV. You can either purchase it or lease it. Based on the $1.25/day lease price and it producing about 6.4kWh that makes the cost about $0.195/kWh. Which I guess is a bargain to some but not anyone that pays less than $0.15/kWh.Comment
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That press release is about useless. Looks like B.S.Comment
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