Base power is doing something similar in Texas. AFAICT, they take a loss on the equipment, charge the batteries when electricity prices are cheap, then sell power out of the batteries when prices are high and keep the difference. The homeowner enjoys only most likely having backup power.
I mean, the electricity still has to be generated. That still costs money. This whole thing only works as long as there is someone willing to buy at the high prices and off peak demand stays low enough to keep prices cheap. Eventually there’s no more road to kick this can down.
> Eventually there’s no more road to kick this can down.
What do you mean? The opportunity for energy arbitrage will go away if energy prices are constant. Right now they aren’t, and I don’t really see how they would become constant based on the physics of producing and consuming energy.
Okay, well, that’s clever for now. The real arbitrage base is pulling is getting in while there’s capital to be raised for it and money to be extracted from the market, before competitors emerge and the incumbents respond and everyone realizes the play all along was to build an enormous battery plant without the expenses of land and compliance and negotiating with producers and carriers. They’re in the buying low phase now.
They’ll sell high when PE buys the company and pulls a Broadcom on all the existing customers, who will abandon the equipment after ten years go back to installing Tri-fuel generators while Centerpoint deals B2B with serious battery plant operators instead of B2C with annoying consumers
Customers running batteries they don’t own to store energy they can’t use for a company that won’t share profits is not the future.
Vermont’s project might be more viable, they’re a little better able to see beyond a spreadsheet up there. California will regulate it into unsustainable price territory. In the meantime finbros in Texas will make a killing having Claude build badass dashboards to show how much they make off bored suburbanites stuck on a grid built and operated as cheaply as possible to take as much money as they can before the useless state government is run out on a rail or finally eats the last bite of its own ass
jmbwell · · focus · HN ↗
I mean, the electricity still has to be generated. That still costs money. This whole thing only works as long as there is someone willing to buy at the high prices and off peak demand stays low enough to keep prices cheap. Eventually there’s no more road to kick this can down.
pastel8739 · · focus · HN ↗
What do you mean? The opportunity for energy arbitrage will go away if energy prices are constant. Right now they aren’t, and I don’t really see how they would become constant based on the physics of producing and consuming energy.
jmbwell · · focus · HN ↗
They’ll sell high when PE buys the company and pulls a Broadcom on all the existing customers, who will abandon the equipment after ten years go back to installing Tri-fuel generators while Centerpoint deals B2B with serious battery plant operators instead of B2C with annoying consumers
Customers running batteries they don’t own to store energy they can’t use for a company that won’t share profits is not the future.
Vermont’s project might be more viable, they’re a little better able to see beyond a spreadsheet up there. California will regulate it into unsustainable price territory. In the meantime finbros in Texas will make a killing having Claude build badass dashboards to show how much they make off bored suburbanites stuck on a grid built and operated as cheaply as possible to take as much money as they can before the useless state government is run out on a rail or finally eats the last bite of its own ass
Since you ask