I have always wanted to guarantee every American the basics, problem was, it couldn’t be done, until now.
Meh. I’ll be a bigger fan when room temp superconducting wires come to market. Graphene, for example. Talk about a material for the future.
Small Modular Reactors would help a ton with energy demands.
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Of course we can expect even further gains. Point is that we have enough tech right now to bring energy to near zero cost.
But not enough robots to get it done any time soon.
No need, peroskovite solar film is a breeze to install. All we have to do is scale up its production, it’s ready to scale. Cryogenic batteries are also relatively simple to make.
At no cost to us out of pocket? Sign me up in that case. If not, all I really need is a small array and bank for my well pump, perhaps with a rain catch as a backup/garden resource. I can live without AC and electric heat, but not without a good source of water within walking distance.
No cost? No. Minimal cost though. Peroskovite solar cells are much cheaper than current solar panels.
The well pump it is then. Oh well.
Maybe a year or two and you will be able to get plenty enough juice for your whole house for like a grand or two. Unless for some weird reason we don’t scale up the peroskovite film. Remaining problem is the battery, for home scale use. Those are still expensive, however you could always go with grid storage.
That would be pretty cool. Properties like mine are in high demand with this new housing bubble forming. If nothing else, it could profit me better than my current plan if it becomes affordable enough to interest me.
The bigger problem we will have is these cartel like utility companies we won’t let you off the grid. Right I have a Tesla solar array (not the roof yet) and 3 Tesla power walls. Given I live in an area with 355 days of sun and could be removed from the grid tomorrow.
But SCE won’t let me. I still have to pay them a connection fee and transport fee. And the credits I get back for providing power back to the grid are tiny.
Not sure if that is the case for every place.
I don’t think they can force you to be connected to the grid. And yes they ding you for connection and transmission fees, but it’s your choice whether what they offer in return, the ability to pull from the grid if you need to and to sell back to the grid, is worth it to you. But your power walls also allow you to draw down at the lowest rates and avoid peak rates. I would like to see a national regulatory scheme around grid connection going forward. But even forcing them to pay you market generation rates will only help you temporarily because those generation rates are going to crater over the next few years.
California, right?
I wonder if cryogenic batteries could be scaled down for home use? I don’t like Lion batteries for eco reasons.
Yep…
Well, there you have it. 
Oh yes they can and they do. I have not drawn a single Kw from them in 2 years and still pay about $250 a year in connection fees.
Well of course SCE is a for profit company. I just wonder if it is unique to CA or is that common practice.
Well that sucks but, comparing that to what I pay without solar yet looks pretty good to me. In regard to the thread topic, paying that for poor people is far cheaper then paying current grid prices.
That is 100% that $250 a year is far cheaper than what I used to pay. However the cost of being “off the grid” is higher than what a larger majority can pay right now.
If you can get off the grid for less that $5k I think that would be a huge win. Right now it’s about 15-25k to do that in CA. Which has come down from the 50k it was 5 years ago.
