Reposit - anyone heard of it?

Here is link to video
Catalyst: Battery powered homes - ABC TV Science

 

It's a new start up

Reposit Power

Canberra start-up Reposit Power's GridCredit technology rolled out with Tesla home batteries

 

The power industry is in a death spiral. As consumer costs go up, it becomes more economical to move to home generation (PV). As more people do it, there are less consumers paying full price, yet the utilities still need to amortise the same investment across smaller numbers.

Eventually, the power company bill will be so high, that it will become an issue NOT to do your own generation.

Storage systems like Tesla will make a lot of this easy.

In 5-10 years, I wouldn't want to be invested in traditional power companies. They're in for a rough ride.

 

The power of climate alarm propaganda never ceases to amaze me, a result of 20 years of partisan reporting by the MSM.

Today, thanks to massive middle class welfare (govt subsidies for home owners combined with handouts to rent-seekers in the renewables industry) the US derives 0.5% of power from solar and 4.1% from wind.

Buy your Tesla battery and feel good about yourself by all means, but don't look to closely at how your panels and batteries are made (in China), or the energy used.

Home generation is all about govt subsidies & greenwash. The poorest consumers pay the most for their power, while the filth from mining and burning coal continues unabated.

 

PV generation & home storage will only ever go close to filling the energy demand for people who live in homes with large roofs that are optimally oriented and not shaded.
Australia is a highly urbanised country and the trend is for people to move to smaller dwellings and apartments which leads to insufficient roof space for a decent size PV system.

Renewables (PV/ storage and wind) still need to be augumented with reliable power to meet spikes in demand or when the conditions for sufficient generation don't occour - and the greater the variability in demand, the greater the cost of providing the standby capacity to service that demand.

Nuclear power makes sense for base load, but politically Australia won't go there, so coal it is for the forseable future.

Also, energy prices in Australia have been basically stable for the last 10 years or so, it is the combination of the cost of the grid ( distribution infrastrucure ) and energy retailers margins that have resulted in price increases.

M

 

You do realise that Reposit is just piece of software that works out the optimum time to send power back to the grid ? - hence it needs a power connection, so your developer will still be paying the 12.5 k per lot for a power connection....

A Tesla powerwall has a 7kw/h capacity, average Australian domestic power consumption is 16kw/h, so you'd need the equivalent of 3 Powerwall systems storage at minimum to go "off grid" to have any kind of reserve for an average house.

In latitudes like Sydney to generarate 16kw/h day you'll need around a 5 kw solar PV array, but to allow for the variable output depending on the season so again you need extra capacity to charge the batteries - at least 7.5kw system - that's around 35 solar panels all facing north.

M

 

Yeah, but Sydney's a sh**hole anyway

 

Sorry Karen, it's you who is missing the point.

Take away the govt subsidy and PV's never repay their purchase price. This is deeply misguided policy by governments for the sake of idealogy and populism, not common sense.

Ironically, in NSW the grid has had to be upgraded to cope with the spikes caused by solar systems - another example of cost being transferred from the middle class to poorer consumers.

I have 16 year old PV's on my roof, at the end of their life. There is nowhere to recycle them so if I take them down, they go into landfill. Ditto my (broken) heat-pump solar hot water. I was once gung ho about renewables, but having spent a lot of time and effort on a range of projects, I now realise the folly of it.

A nuclear grid is the only solution, but we will never overcome the entrenched propaganda of the green lobby.

 

we're quite happy for you to stay away from it

 

I understand and agree with what both Ian and Mike are saying but sometimes the choice is made for you - I have just been quoted close to $100k to bring power onto the farm I just bought in northern NSW - less than 500 metres! That gets me a whole lot of power wall type batteries and panels! And fortunately I have perfect orientation and lots of space.

John

 

I suggest talking to someone who has installed the same system you're contemplating.

My ex business partner is on 150 hectares at Bulahdelah and went through the same logic, solar=cheaper than power poles. After 5 years of not having power when he needed it, he gave up and paid the $100K to get mains.

 

+1

I have a good friend that was going to do the same thing.

But after he talked to a few 'neighbours' *who live 200m away either side of his block* he changed his mind and paid the $60K to have mains power run into his block.

He lives in Gatton QLD. He was quoted $50K for a 10KW solar wind kit a few years ago, the kit arrived in a shipping container and you assemble yourself. I think the kit is a lot cheaper now.

His neighbours told him they had solar panels and battery packs etc. Tried it all many years ago, they were not efficient enough to run the house hold through the day and night so they eventually gave in and put the power on.

My mate is single, but will eventually have kids and a family so he put mains power in. He might have got away with it if he lived by himself he said.

 

What would you know about the power generation side of it ??!!

 

This is where the separation of power generation and distribution was a monumentally stupid idea. The fact that it was done in the UK and parts of US unsuccessfully makes it even more frustrating that state governments in Australia would pursue the same idiotic route.

If power generation and distribution remained vertically integrated it would be in the generators interest to invest in and integrate distributed generation (power production at point of use). This would reduce the load on the grid and allow the existing infrastructure to have a greater capacity (eg if a number of small generators were located in an old part of the city they would reduce the load on the grid feeding that area). This would increase the efficiency of the total system and thus reduce power costs for all. Removing vertical integration eliminates any incentive to improve total system efficiency.

 

I have no doubt. Technology is moving at an extremely fast pace these days.

 

Mike is completely correct. I did the whole "off grid" thing at home and work about a year ago.

The systems use all German top end gear. The specs on the home system are :
10kw solar (40 panels)
24kw/h battery storage

Cost was circa $60k excluding the cost of replacing the switchboard which is site dependant.

In short, the economics won't stack up for the average household.
It works for me because of tax deductibility benefits and the fact that I use the system to charge my Tesla P85D electric car which saves circa $5k a year on fuel on top of the homes power savings.

It is worth noting that the house is "off grid" most of the time at this time of year in Melbourne.
It isn't off grid if you have a 35 degree day and you run the A/C all day and night in our large double story home. It also isn't off grid if you choose to charge the car in the middle of the night or on a rainy day as it exceeds the capability of the system to supply the power required.
During winter I suspect it won't be totally off grid most of the time in Melbourne.

Added benefits are immunity to power blackouts, even if they go for days at a time.

The work system is a different kettle of fish. It is never off grid despite being
25kw solar (100 panels) and 24w/h of battery storage because of the power usage.
Cost for that was $100k excluding the new switchboard.
The system saves about $18k a year on power bills; but the ability to trade throughout power blackouts is a big attraction as we literally can't do a thing without power. We lose power at least 6 times a year for hours at a time.

BTW a Tesla power wall is just old tech made sexy and brings nothing new to the table bar its attractiveness and compact size. The gel pack battery system that I use gives way better bang for your buck; but the downside is the room it takes up.
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Very nice.
Around 18% ROI on the work system sounds pretty good, plus the added benefit of power continuity.

4.5 years ago I installed a 10.26 kw system, 54 panels, SMA 3 phase inverter, average yield is 42 kw/h per day which varies from as low as 5kw/ day in winter and as high as 75kw in summer.
We are on a 20 year gross FIT so battery storage does not make any economic sense in our situation.

M

 

You're lucky as there is no sense whatsoever in sending power back to the grid now.
Another thing to add is the system has to be designed from the ground up taking into account your energy usage. Your first step is to absolutely maximise the energy efficiency of the house before you even look at solar as the economic return is far greater. That means efficiency in the design phase of the house, LED lighting throughout and highly efficient appliances etc, etc.
Once that is maxed out you look at the energy required, your usage patterns and design your system around that. You really can't go half arsed at it or you may as well not bother.
There is also a limited ability and timeframe to "uprate" your system if you do something that drastically alters the energy usage - like adding an electric car into the mix.

In short it is a highly technical field that is filled with suppliers who do not necessarily have the expertise to deliver. Choose your supplier wisely !

 

I was being cheeky to our Michael, he knows what he is talking about

And your system looks good, I was expecting something along those lines but the gel batteries will be the difference to the future systems obviously.

What is the life expectancy of those units used in that setup ?

 

Set-up is absolutely critical to battery life expectancy. You have to keep charge/discharge cycle within a defined range or you can dramatically decrease the life span of them. My gun sparky has seen huge batteries that are 40+ years old still operating at circa 75% of original capacity. The solar guy reckons these will go 20 years; but time willl tell. The reality is that even if they last 10 years the replacements will be much better at a fraction of the price.
The solar panels are 20+ years.

 

Thanks mate, I suspected as much, if you let the batteries in your car run flat too many times the life of the battery is very short but a battery used on a daily basis for circa half an hour will be going strongly for many years so along those lines is there any charge level monitoring software that will top the batteries up from the grid if they go for several days with little to no charge or does it solely rely on the solar panels for charging ?

There are some very interesting storage devices being made which should make your setup very attractive