How Do You Solve Solar Power’s Nighttime Problem? #SolarPower
Charging batteries with solar power to keep the power going at night. via slate
How do you get solar power when the sun goes down?
This isn’t a trick question.
One answer: You generate power from solar panels during the day. And instead of funneling that electricity into the grid, you simply charge up lots of batteries, which function as a temporary power plant for several hours much later in the day—and even after nightfall.
That’s the business plan behind the Powerwall, Tesla’s home-based battery storage system. And now a small utility on Hawaii’s lush, sparsely populated, and fabulous island of Kauai, has inked a deal with the solar-panel arm of the Musk-Industrial Complex to build a truly massive powerwall—big enough to supply up to one-fifth of the island’s electricity needs for several hours. Earlier this month, Musk-chaired SolarCity and the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative announced they would build the “first utility-scale solar array and battery storage system designed to supply power to the grid in the evening, when demand is highest.”
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Open Hardware is In, New CircuitPython and Pi 5 16GB, and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
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The problem with lead acid batteries is that if you drain them too much, they start to die and have to be replaced so you need to have a monitoring system to cut off power so you don’t kill the batteries.
The problem with lead acid batteries is that if you drain them too much, they start to die and have to be replaced so you need to have a monitoring system to cut off power so you don’t kill the batteries.