Investment Trust Insider on battery storage
James Carthew: the economics of storing energy in batteries
Two weeks ago when I wrote about Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF) I referred to a couple of new solar power plants that planned to operate without government subsidies by augmenting their revenue with the aid of battery storage plants.
This has become more topical with the planned launch of the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (GSF). It works for two main reasons. First, the price of the battery units has dropped to a point where a large-scale storage unit is commercially viable and, second, because there are various ways in which battery storage can generate revenues. It can even help improve the price that the plant gets for its electricity.
This is because the price of electricity varies through the day. In the UK, peak demand is usually in the early evening, when people get home from school and work, and the electricity price rises to match. Solar production is already tailing off by then. By storing the energy produced around the early afternoon and selling it later, the producer should be able to achieve higher prices.
In south Australia, Tesla has famously constructed a unit that is… read more here