The Transition Cambridge Energy Group is a great place to kick around ideas and share experiences. One topic that keeps coming up again and again is batteries – are they worthwhile? One of our members, Ian, has taken the plunge and would like to share his reasoning and experience with you.
Ian likes to be an early adopter of low carbon technology though like the rest of us he does not have infinite money to spend! He installed a heat pump and PV panels in 2011. He also has an electric car, and since mid January, he has a 15 kWh battery and is delighted with the carbon savings. At this time of year there is usually a considerable difference in the carbon intensity of electricity between night time, when demand is low, and day time when demand is high so by charging at night for use in the day he makes a considerable saving.
How do you get carbon savings from using a battery?
This chart from grid watch shows where we have been getting our electricity from over the last month. You can see how demand fluctuates sharply through each 24 cycle between daytime and night time. The overall emissions are mainly to do with how much orange there is – from gas power stations. Wind is blue. During the first few days in January the wind was very strong but since then we have used a lot of gas, especially during the day when demand is high.
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| Chart from https://gridwatch.co.uk/ showing much less use of gas power stations overnight than in the day. Grey is nuclear, orange is CCGT, red is biomass blue is wind, solar is yellow. The others include coal, hydro electric power, and interchanges with other countries. |
