The Future of PV, Batteries and More – At the Bleeding Edge

John, Battery storage has been getting better by leaps and bounds thanks to Tesla and lithium batteries. Their systems are being made and installed by the Mega Watt. Some new systems they have are Giga watt sized. 

    Solar PV is already one of the lowest cost systems to buy and install . The panel life is better than ever as the cost still continues to drop. 

   Pollution and water use are finally being seen in old fossil fuel systems. So coal is dead. The so called cleaner natural gas systems are very expensive and we hit peak natural gas in 2004. Fracking is dying out. 

   So we have everything we need for a 100% clean power GRID. We just have to do it.  

John,

Great article. I liked the section on flow batteries because their pursuit has always puzzled me. The overall system capital cost might be low for some of the chemistries, but the round-trip efficiency is typically in the 70s to 80s, nothing like 99% for lithium. Also, the O&M costs are high--basically you're operating a chemical plant (pumps, tanks, etc.). We looked at hydrogen bromide flow systems for a while, but gave up because, you know, hydrogen bromide.

I think you're right that the ability to peer at atoms and their crystalline structure in such amazing detail will lead to tremendous developments in batteries and semiconductors.