Batteries rise again 100+ later, US budget doesn’t cut EPA, more

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A technical, financial and political analysis via a weekday review of important news

After a 100-Year Hiatus, Batteries Are Helping the Grid Again – The first cars were electric. And the ‘Duck Curve‘ being solved by batteries is over a hundred years old. The Duck Curve is a result of lots of solar power going away at sunset combined with the daily usage peak of everyone getting home – the previous way to solve it was via a Peaking Power Plant (gas plants that start up very fast but only run 3% of the time in the USA). Now a days – we’re going to build batteries, just like they did over a hundred years ago.

US budget proposal doesn’t hurt EPA or ARPA-E funding, does cut $800M from renewable energy programs – The headlines and Trump’s talk are running differently than the reality that’s coming out after we account for judges and Congress having their own will. Congress seems to have ignored certain suggestions and crafted their own, more consistent, budget. Strange language here though – Renewable energy programs, “which have already received significant investments in recent years,” were cut $808 million compared to the previous Administration’s budget request. Someone thought it appropriate to cover their actions with an excuse.

Read more: https://electrek.co/2017/05/02/egeb-batteries-rise-after-100-years-away/