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Renewables International
With the installation of a 10-megawatt battery, the village of Feldheim near Berlin is now truly independent of electricity from outside.
With the installation of a 10-megawatt battery, the village of Feldheim near Berlin is now truly independent of electricity from outside.
Remember the story of Feldheim, the small town of some 140 that was allegedly off grid? As I pointed out at the time, it was very much connected to the grid, which still provided an outlet for the tremendous amount of excess electricity generated (especially wind power) – and was a source of electricity whenever local generation systems did not provide enough.
Now, an array of 3,360 lithium-ion battery modules – more than 20 per person – has been installed to at least allow the town to buffer excess electricity in order to bridge those shortages without resorting to electricity from the grid at all. The entire system came in with a price tag of 12.8 million euros, 5 million of which were provided as a state subsidy. LG provided the battery systems; Enercon, the control units.
In a way, the story is therefore less spectacular than it might seem. Feldheim is so small and exceptional that one wonders whether the hype – “today, we have written a new chapter in the history of storage,” a local politician claimed – is justified. On the other hand, such small steps forward do have a way of demonstrating a new option. My main concern is that this project once again focused on the optimization of local power consumption and production, not what the larger grid needs. It is therefore just another example of grid defection, which is gradually going to threaten the further existence of the grid – the great enabler of the energy transition up to now.
Source: Renewables International. Reproduced with permission.
This post was published on September 11, 2015 3:09 am
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Boo Hoo, grid defection, no way. That's a tragedy. The very phrase "grid defection" implies that electricity users belong to the grid like soldiers in an army or like slaves on a cotton plantation or citizens of East Germany in the communist days. The grid is a utility, something you use if you have need to or chose not to use if you don't require their services. A village like feldheim is actually well-placed to negotiate a price from the grid for imported electricity if they so wished. In Australia with belligerent utilities, the time may have come to create microgrids with pooled or central storage. Members of the microgrid could negotiate a wholesale price for power, Say 5c/ KWH from the utility. They could use the threat of installing solar and storage as their bargaining tool. Especially as solar and battery storage are rapidly deployable and scalable!
If electricity is an essential feature of living in a society then the creation and supply of electricity is part of the common good. Modern societies with rising inequalities and privatised functions need public policies that promote efficiency, conservation, fairness and equity.
As the inevitable transition to clean decentralised energy speeds up with evermore disruptive technologies we must ensure that we put in place policies that protect everyone. The privatised utilities must be forced to serve the common good or be penalised or nationalised.
The creation of a situation where 'going off grid' is attractive financially for segments of society while leading to disadvantage to others is a path to no society at all, just more winners and losers.