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Podcast / Audio

Smart Grid Today Podcast: Paul Dailey of Outback Power

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Season Crawford's picture
Vice President of Marketing & Associate Publisher, Modern Markets Intelligence Inc.

Season Crawford is the Vice President of Marketing and Associate Publisher at Modern Markets Intelligence Inc (MMI), publisher of Power Markets Today and Smart Grid Today. She is an...

  • Member since 2007
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  • Oct 5, 2020
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Paul Dailey is director of product and market strategy for Outback Power, a subsidiary of storage giant EnerSys that is focused on pairing battery storage with distributed renewables generation. As one might guess from the name, the firm has roots in the off-the-grid sector of solar that has been growing for decades but his firm is seeing great opportunities in the solar boom and the need for distributed generation to store the product it generates onsite.

 

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Bob Meinetz's picture
Bob Meinetz on Oct 6, 2020

Season, in the U.S. so-called "paired" facilities - solar or wind farms, together with batteries - are springing up around the country. However, there's no evidence any of them charge exclusively from the direct DC output of PV panels or wind turbines.

Charging from an AC connection to the grid would make more economic sense. Then, the batteries would be useful even at night, or on days with little wind. But if so, locating them near solar and wind farms would serve no purpose other than to create the spurious illusion of "green energy".

Before foisting the enormous expense of grid-scale batteries on electricity customers, the first step should be determining they are only storing electricity from renewable sources. Otherwise, they're creating more emissions by wasting at least 20% of stored energy in resistance losses.

Season Crawford's picture
Season Crawford on Oct 7, 2020

Thank you for your feedback, Bob.

Season Crawford's picture
Thank Season for the Post!
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