Thanks for that Graham I was not aware of those plants probably...

Thanks for that Graham I was not aware of those plants probably because they have only just been commissioned (note the German article is dated 17th September and the US article 3rd Oct) also one critical factor that is missing is the time factor.

When we design a battery system there are two parameters we must know prior to any design of the battery system; the first is the load ie electrical consumption and the second is the time for which the design load must be maintained for example a battery system to maintain a load of say 100amps for 10minutes is a lot smaller than a system to maintain the identical load for 10 hours.

The German article, by quoting cost and the number of homes it can supply (BUT not the critical time factor) I have calculated that it would cost round 100b euros also it states

While Germany’s green energy drive has won plenty of plaudits for caring about the environment and moving away from fossil fuels, it has come at a cost. Over the next 26 years, Berlin will spend 550 billion euro on developing renewable energy, however, the average German consumer is seeing the price of energy bills rocket.

In Australia the press are forever questioning the rising power bills with the consequence that the politians are having a great time accusing each other on how their respective policies are to blame for the rising cost of electricity to the home so can you imagine them coming out and saying they will spend billions of dollars on a system to move away from fossil fuels generation as I said with the existing caustic political envoirment that exist in Australia nothing will happen in the near term (3 to 5 years)

The US article is a little more informative as it states that the plant will store 32mega watt hours which means it will keep approx. 6500 homes going for an hour at 5kva per hour (this is the consumption most grid operators use for a typical residence) however there are approx. 120million households in the US so that equates to an investment of round $US1 trillion a staggering amount; also note that it is a demonstration plant only:

The $50 million demonstration project is funded by SCE and federal stimulus money awarded by the Department of Energy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

IMO I believe your statement that both Germany and the US are moving into battery storage in a big way is a slight exaggeration with only a single production plant in Germany plus a demonstration plant in the US at present; we have to wait to see if either has the political will to proceed to a full country wide system; Germany IMO has at present the political will to make the investments and maybe California (but not the US) has also but I question whether the costs will turn out to be prohibitive to both in the longer term.

All just my thoughts and opinion obviously

HKP