Batteries full of renewable energy could spell the end for fossil fuels. Disvest NOW.

[L. Coyote]

Batteries full of renewable energy could spell the end for fossil fuels
Commercial and domestic battery storage is on the rise, moving energy off the grid and into our homes
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/renewable-energy-competition-market
By Oliver Bennett --- 18 January 2018

After the UK government's scrapping of renewable-energy subsidies in 2016, it sometimes seems as if green-energy initiatives were in retreat. In fact, the opposite is true: in 2017, the renewables sector was up eight per cent on the previous year, indicating that it's become a truly mainstream concern.

In 2018, investors will increasingly look towards storage, rather than supply. Yet despite this urgent gap opening in the market, storage solutions for renewable energy have been elusive. Excess energy has had to piggyback on the infrastructure created for fossil fuels. Moreover, entrepreneurs in the renewables sector have focused on big-picture supply factors – wind turbines, waves, Sun and estuary power – without resolving the supply-and-demand balance. The essential conundrum that solar plants don't produce energy without sunshine, nor wind farms without wind, has led to intermittent supply.

In 2018, these problems will be ironed out as battery storage becomes widely available.

"We will see a tipping point," says Alasdair Cameron, renewable-energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth. "Even IKEA has launched a renewable solar battery power storage for domestic use." Add this to Tesla's Powerwall domestic battery (launched in 2015) and, as Cameron says, "Storage is moving from the grid to the garage to the landing at home."

As energy storage for home use becomes more commonplace, mass storage will also grow. ..................

[haele]

1. Ikea's home solar/storage battery combinations are only in Europe right now...

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ikea/solar-panels/

From the ad -
SOLSTRÅLE Rooftop PLUS
A customised solar system designed to optimise energy production and maximise your investment.
6 Panel system, Black
IKEA FAMILY member price
£4,200
Regular price: £4,941
Add battery storage to any system from as little as £2,935.

So, if IKEA carried this in the U.S., just purchasing the small house rooftop solution with battery storage will cost at a minimum of around $10K U.S. at the exchange rate. Of course, you're probably only looking at 100 - 400KW provided by the system, so you may need two if you run an HVAC system or have a lot of power hungry electrical appliances.
As it is, the typical house in Europe is small (700 - 900 sqft) and they have a lot of gas appliances.

Haele

[Amishman]

2. The need is carbon nanotube batteries

Or some other form of nexgen battery, preferably using more cleanly obtainable materials than lithium

[zipplewrath]

3. The trick is magnitude

The percentage of power generated from non-hydro "renewables" is still insanely small. Growing every year yes, but so is the world wide energy demand. Batteries can help "smooth" the demand so that less throttling is needed at the power plant. But at the end of the day we need to either find ways to capture more renewable energy in very large quantities, or decrease losses in the system which are apparently quite high.