Post #1835688

It's interesting, I've come to realise that (at least for applications where weight/volume is not the dominating factor) one major factor in the economics of battery storage for energy (whether in grid situation, in vehicles of any type, etc.) is how frequently that battery is cycled. This is interesting because at some point I thought fewer cycles were better because batteries would last longer. But batteries already now last a very long time. And more frequent cycling means that they pay themselves off much faster. I.e., gridscale batteries which store power for a day (i.e., from solar power) is totally economically feasible today. But batteries that store power from the summer solar surplus to winter solar deficit are entirely economically infeasible. I think there's lots of room for different technologies that can optimise for different economic situations. I.e., a yearly power cycle battery could be economically viable if it can only be cycled 20-50 times but was 100x cheaper per kWh.