Batteries & the environment.

[Jeremy]

Massive take up of microgeneration might help, especially as solar cell prices seem to be dropping.

I've just ordered some raw cells to build three more 60 watt panels, and the total cost, including shipping, was only £145. The rest of the material cost (glass, framing etc) was free, as the result of some judicious scrounging (recycling). With a likely life of around 20 to 25 years, this modest investment could produce electricity at around 1.6p per kWh, which seems quite reasonable. Buying a larger number of cells and making even larger panels would bring even this low lifetime cost down.

One advantage of even modest amounts of local microgeneration is the reduction in transmission losses in the grid. Although these losses are modest (around 7% or so), the benefit in terms of reduced power generation capacity from lowering them is significant (getting rid of the north-south energy flow alone would save two or three fair sized power stations).

Jeremy