by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 18/11/2024 at 9:12 am
Take control of your energy bills

by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 18/11/2024 at 6:13 am
Electrify Wangaratta’s great sign up to get off gas tool
NB Victorians can also use the Electric Home planner
And if you are really keen try the ACT Next Choice Electric Tool
But for a more comprehensive audit, you can’t beat Ecologic
Merri-Bek’s electrify everything messaging guide
Seb Crangle’s Get your home ready for Summer
Jenny Edwards and Lish Fejer’s Green it Yourself
Energy Consumer’s Australia’s buying guides
Renew’s Getting off gas toolkit

What else have you come across that works?

by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 11/11/2024 at 11:02 am
nickMasonSmith:

Virtual storage is a financial overlay onto this physical system that moves value around but doesn’t create it.

I think I understand your point but I keep getting tangled between the bit that does create value and the bit that doesn’t.
Presumably the physical asset, any behavioral change from the household and any coordination between battery operation and the household are elements that could produce value.
Part of the question is whether the household should be offered any value from the battery, after all they provide the surplus solar and they provide the regular peak usage.
There’s so often a gap between the production of value and the capture of value – how do we untangle that?

by @nickMasonSmith Nick Mason-Smith on 07/11/2024 at 9:10 am
Thanks for the reply Heather:
I’ve deliberately abstracted away from community batteries to look at virtual storage in isolation. If we wanted, we could imagine another participant – a community group perhaps – that owns a community battery and earns wholesale market revenue, FCAS revenue, network export rebate revenue and possibly network support revenue. The latter two represent (or ideally represent) the benefits that the battery is creating for the system, and suggesting that these flow to the battery owner is consistent with the idea that the ‘agent of change’ benefits. As you note, community batteries struggle to provide a financial return to the asset owner even when all of these revenue streams are captured, let alone if that value is shared with local households.
If virtual storage is a way to generate additional revenue for the battery, then it’s worth noting that additional revenue is not guaranteed. If the same virtual storage offering is provided to Nick’s house except both the load and solar generation are doubled, then Nick’s bill goes down and the virtual storage provider (retailer/network/community group) does so at a loss.

If the subscription rate is the same for different households, then it stands to reason that virtual storage transfers money to customers with large solar systems and large evening loads, from either the virtual storage provider or other subscribers. A community group could conceivably find themselves with a subscriber base that adds another expense to its already marginal project.
Community batteries can allow us to use our local solar resources and our network capacity more efficiently and force fossils to leave town sooner. Virtual storage is a financial overlay onto this physical system that moves value around but doesn’t create it.

by @HeatherSmith Heather Smith on 05/11/2024 at 1:53 am
flexible panels! – CSIRO want your ideas

abc.net.au – 2 Nov 24

CSIRO’s new printing facility could put a solar panel in your pocket

Solar panels that can be printed out like newspapers and rolled up to fit in your pocket are one step closer thanks to a new development by CSIRO.