Hacker News Reader

They say the proposed version could store 20 megawatt-hours, but I wonder what the maximum output is? That is, how long does it take to produce that energy? If the maximum output is ~1-2 MW, it can support 1k or 2k homes, but it's also important to put in context that peak load of an average sized US city peak load is ~1000 MW. A med-sized wind turbine can produce ~2 MW, for comparison.

View on HN

The cost is key here though, at $2m or potentially lower you're paying just $1-2k per home and maybe $100 a year maintenance thereafter. Not a bad price overall for what you get. In Australia at least, electricity costs $1-2k per year per household. Some napkin maths tells me that at 15MWH consumption per year this sort of storage could make solar (at $50 per MWH) pretty viable. As in, potentially below $1k per year even if you build enough storage to cover 80% of the day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com