Buying and storing electricity when it is cheap, and selling it when it is expensive. What are the benefits, both public and private?

Buying and storing electricity when it is cheap, and selling it when it is expensive. What are the benefits, both public and private?

This model prototypes the working of an Smart Grid with Electric Vehicles

The objective is testing the theoretical advantages of batteries (also batteries in Electric Vehicles) in combination with renewable energies. The model considers two houses, that store energy both in Electric Vehicles (Vehicle to Grid), and in a communal battery.

Except when specified otherwise, the units of all variables are expressed in W/h.

Press "Story" in the lower bar for a guided tour over the model. Better seen at 50% zoom.

by Carlos Varela (cvarela@gmx.at)

Combining electromobility and renewable energies since 2014.

http://www.amsterdamvehicle2grid.nl/

This model represents the core (more connected) assumptions of the proposed energy bill HR 4286

Evaluating the effect of Shale oil and gas on the balance of power globally: seeking to understand the potential impact on the Middle East in particular and on major demand centres such as North America, China and Europe

Buying and storing electricity when it is cheap, and selling it when it is expensive. What are the benefits, both public and private?

Buying and storing electricity when it is cheap, and selling it when it is expensive. What are the benefits, both public and private?

​Climate Sector Boundary Diagram By Guy Lakeman

Two households with PV systems and Electric Vehicles, sharing a battery and connected to the grid. What are the advantages?

Afirmația că nu poate exista activitate economică fără energie și că combustibilii fosili sunt finiți contrastează cu faptul că banii nu sunt finiți și pot fi creați de guverne prin intermediul băncilor lor centrale la costuri marginale zero ori de câte ori este nevoie.

This model prototypes the working of an Smart Grid with Electric Vehicles

The objective is testing the theoretical advantages of batteries (also batteries in Electric Vehicles) in combination with renewable energies. The model considers two houses, that store energy both in Electric Vehicles (Vehicle to Grid), and in a communal battery.

Except when specified otherwise, the units of all variables are expressed in W/h.

Press "Story" in the lower bar for a guided tour over the model. Better seen at 50% zoom.

by Carlos Varela (cvarela@gmx.at)

Combining electromobility and renewable energies since 2014.

http://www.amsterdamvehicle2grid.nl/

This is the original model version (v1.0) with default "standard run" parameter set: see detailed commentary here and here. As of 2 September 2015, ongoing development has now shifted to this version of the model.

The significance of reduced energy return on energy invested (EROI) in the transition from fossil fuel to renewable primary energy sources is often disputed by both renewable energy proponents and mainstream economists.​ This model illustrates the impact of EROI in large-scale energy transition using a system dynamics approach. The variables of primary interest here are: 1) net energy available to "the rest of the economy" as renewable penetration increases [Total final energy services out to the economy]; and 2) the size of the energy sector as a proportion of overall economic activity, treating energy use as a very rough proxy for size [Energy services ratio].
This model aggregates energy supply in the form of fuels and electricity as a single variable, total final energy services, and treats the global economy as a single closed system.
The model includes all major incumbent energy sources, and assumes a transition to wind, PV, hydro and nuclear generated electricity, plus biomass electricity and fuels. Hydro, biomass and nuclear growth rates are built into the model from the outset, and wind and PV emplacement rates respond to the built-in retirement rates for fossil energy sources, by attempting to make up the difference between the historical maximum total energy services out to the global economy, and the current total energy services out. Intermittency of PV and wind are compensated via Li-ion battery storage. Note, however, that seasonal variation of PV is not fully addressed i.e. PV is modeled using annual and global average parameters. For this to have anything close to real world validity, this would require that all PV capacity is located in highly favourable locations in terms of annual average insolation, and that energy is distributed from these regions to points of end use. The necessary distribution infrastructure is not included in the model at this stage.
It is possible to explore the effect of seasonal variation with PV assumed to be distributed more widely by de-rating capacity factor and increasing the autonomy period for storage.

This version of the model takes values for emplaced capacities of conventional sources (i.e. all energy sources except wind and PV) as exogenous inputs, based on data generated from earlier endogenously-generated emplaced capacities (for which emplacement rates as a proportion of existing installed capacity were the primary exogenous input).

This simulation examines the caloric well of a given settlement. Just add in a few pieces of information and run the insight simulation.

The statement that there can be no economic activity without  energy and that fossil fuels are finite contrasts with the fact that money is not finite and can be created by governments via their central banks at zero marginal cost whenever needed.

An important fact about COAL, GAS and OIL (even when produced via fracking) is that their net energy ratios are falling rapidly. In other words the energy needed to extract a given quantity of fossil fuels is constantly increasing. This ratio (Energy Invested on Energy Returned - EIOER) provides yet another warning that we can no longer rely on fossil fuels to power our economies. We cannot wait until the ratio falls to 1/1 before we invest seriously in alternative sources of energy, because by then industrial society as we know it doday will have ceased to exist. 

PS: A link between growth in energy consumption and GDP growth is clearly illustrated on slide 13 of Gail Tverberg's presentaion entitled ''Ooop! The world economy depends on an energy-related bubble''. In fact, the slide shows that growth in energy consumption usually precedes GDP growth.

https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/oops-debt-bubble-10_30_15.pdf

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The current electricity portfolio of Texas is heavily reliant on high-emission sources of fossil fuel (i.e. Coal). Texas has a range of energy options at its disposal and has the opportunity to make choices that grow renewables (e.g. solar and wind) while encouraging the production of less carbon-intensive fossil fuels (e.g. natural gas).

As boundaries to our problem, we will be using 35 years as our time frame. We will also limit our model to the State of Texas as our spatial extent. Over the past decade, Texas is becoming a major natural gas consumer; the electricity portfolio has been gradually changing. However, around 40% of electricity is still generated from burning coal, and only a very minor portion of electricity is from renewables. Texas is betting better in adopting solar and wind energy, however generally speaking the state is still falling behind in renewable energy.

The two main goals are to lower the overall emission of greenhouse gases for the electricity grid and to encourage growth of cleaner, renewable energy resources.

Our objectives include maximizing the economic benefits of exploring unconventional oil and natural gas resources, diversifying the energy portfolio of Texas, encouraging the production and exportation of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, and reallocating the added revenue to the transition to renewables, like wind and solar

Buying and storing electricity when it is cheap, and selling it when it is expensive. What are the benefits, both public and private?

The statement that there can be no economic activity without  energy and that fossil fuels are finite contrasts with the fact that money is not finite and can be created by governments via their central banks at zero marginal cost whenever needed.

An important fact about COAL, GAS and OIL (especially when produced via fracking) is that their net energy ratios are falling rapidly. In other words the energy needed to extract a given quantity of fossil fuels is constantly increasing. The falling ratio 'EROI' (Energy Return on Energy Invested ) provides yet another warning that we can no longer rely on fossil fuels to power our economies. In 1940 it took the energy of only one barrel of oil to extract 100. Today the energy of 1 barrel of oil will yield only 15. We cannot wait until the ratio falls to 1/1 before we invest seriously in alternative sources of energy, because by then industrial society as we know it doday will have ceased to exist. An EROI of 1:1 means that it takes the energy of one barrel of oil to extract one barrel of oil - oil production would simply stop! 

Major update 12 December 2015 (v3.0): This new version of the model overhauls the way that incumbent energy source (fossil sources plus biomass, hydro electricity and nuclear electricity) supply capacity is implemented. This is now based on direct (exogenous) input of historical data, with the future supply curve also set directly (but using a separate input array to the historical data). For coal and natural gas fired electricity, this also requires that the simple, direct-input EROI method be used (i.e. same as for coal and NG heating, and petroleum transport fuels).

Note that this new version of the model no longer provides a historical view of the emplacement rates for energy supply sources other than wind and PV, and therefore no longer allows comparison of required emplacement rates for wind and PV with incumbent energy sources. Output data relating to this is available in model version v2.5 (see link below), for the specific transition duration built into that version of the model.

The previous version of the model (version 2.5) is available here.

The original "standard run" version of the model (v1.0) is available here.