Using the sun's radiation to power my home is not a new dream but then I also want to be able to provide my excess power to my neighbors at the same rate as the utility company and less. Think Earth Ship. If I scaled to power my block of 36 homes around 2k-3k sqft each the scale would improve efficiency and allow self investment from locals. We are essentially pre purchasing power in the form of electric potential gathering and storing technologies.
This first section is about providing electrical power for my home though I want to provide every possible utility service eventually. We can scale this block power principal quite well I believe, the power of scale compells you! I will use my home as a guideline and then explain the block economics. Our house uses a little more than 1.5kw of power per hr. Average price per kw/hr in USA is 12 cents if I can reduce that to 5 cents we will be competitive. 1.5kW/hr *x 12¢ *x 24hrs/day *x 365days/year *x 10 years = 1,576.80$ @
131,400 kwatts/10 years
So in order to beat the utility price, we have to come in under 1500$ total for 10 years of uninterrupted power. Tall order. But I want 50 years of power, and to handle all utilities, water sewage, fertilizer, crop growth and harvesting, milk and meat growth, as well as the ability to build grow and expand at a reasonable rate. Annnd I was aiming for 5¢ per kwatt. Ok just power for now.
Just my house, I think 30kw/hr battery would be more than enough for our useage, 2kw/hr solar would provide plentiful power for the four person household.
Solar
8 Available Spots or 425 sq/ft prime stationary south facing area.
Need between 1200watts--2000watts solar, Google has 5.75kwatt as it's recommendation for 50% of our consumption, not sure what I'm missing.
320watt panels *x 8 is 2560watts @ 1600$
1-2k USD
Electrical Hardware
(Charger/Power Distributor)
There are a lot of power conversion technologies, different prices for different scales. I think we can power the whole block from the transformers for 500. I can do my house for 250ish and I can have a single power station in emergencies for 50$
50-500 USD
Battery
25-30 kw/hr should power average American home for a day no longer require grid energy.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/72v-100v-120v-lithium-ion-battery_60577156740.html
I have a hard time believing these prices but basically if they sell 5kwhr batteries for 100$ a piece the specs suggest 500 cycles above 80% initial capacity for full discharge cycles. We may make it up to 1000 cycles if we reduce the discharge depth to 30%-50%
1000$ would buy 50kwhr at that price. Seems to good to be true. More likey to be 4-6k USD I would like to consider sodium battery tech and fuel cell power are also possible though I am unaware of consumer grade sellers or their prices. I'll write more on those possibilities but the economics are mostly the same.
Imvesting in batteries is tough because it requires 10-50 years longevity (3650 cycles -to- 18,250 cycles above 80% initial capacity) assumes full charge discharge charge daily of pure secondary battery system. I will look into fuel cells in another post.
Total
2500$-10,000$
5¢-12¢ per Kw/hr
Problem is that is not better than the utility company, solution: scale up decrease price per unit.
Block Scale Power
Essentially multiply my home by 36 houses on the block, easiest way is to get tech to power the existing power lines, otherwise we would need alternate power cableing. Not sure if the owners of the power distribution network would want us hyjacking their wires.
I'm approximating continuous usage at 54kw/hr for the block. If we calculate cost at 12¢ per kwhr it will cost 588,672$ to power the block for 10 years.
Scaling up, 1080kw/hr battery should be able to handle the day to day load of the block. Equally at least 50kwatts of solar should be on roofs to generate the nessesary power for the batteries.
That's 21,600$ for 216 *x 5kwhr batteries @ 100$ a piece. Add chargeing hardware and power conversion hardware for around 5k$ plus 157 *x 320watt panels @ 200$ each for 31,400$
I'll round up to 60k$ for installation costs, yet nearly 10 times less than grid cost. That's still way less than the grid cost, assuming we can keep our batteries running 10 years. Solar panels last longer though they also have power degredation. Even if we bought new batteries ever 3.3 years or 1200 cycles at 21k$ *x 3 times we would be around 1/5th the cost of utilities.
Alright I made a lot of assumptions, interested to hear other ideas. Definitely going to write more on fuel cells and other energy storage and capture systems until I find one suitible to the self reliant future.
P.S. of course I would use blockchain and it's glorious capabilities to organize the funding and ownership of the local grid, preferably the locals themselves.