Plantagenet, when you have some of those batteries, with a minimum of 10 years satisfactory & proven economical history, do give me a call.

Prior to that I'll stick to reliable coal powered electricity, which has the advantage of helping in a minor way, to return the planet to an adequate level plant feeding CO2 in the atmosphere.

Aging batteries are just not as reliable as bladder stored methane made from the average family's biological waste!

Used to power up a ceramic fuel cell, costing around the same as the battery wall, most families produce enough waste to cater to their entire power needs needs 24/7, and given the massive energy coefficient of the gas powered ceramic fuel cell (80%) produce a (50%) salable surplus!?

Plus free hot water day and night!

Given I already have a roof full of solar panels the batteries can't get cheap enough soon enough!
I don't believe I'm alone in resenting the hell out of being a captive cash cow for a patently dishonest energy supplier who has clearly reneged on the deal I signed up for when the panels were installed. which resulted in the meter wind backwards, earning me around $50.00 a month!
Not what the power authority wanted?

Given they replaced the old meter, which was perfectly fine before I installed the panels, with another all over the place electronic meter, which just didn't register my surplus?

And destroyed my modest contribution ( a very fair unsubsidized 8 cents per kilowatt hour) to the grid and instead started to charge me (around $ 50.00 a month) once again!

This in spite of the fact based on last year's averages the system was designed to produce more Kilowatts per month than I ever used last year!

And reminiscent of moving the goal posts once the kick had been taken, or being gazumped by another buyer when the contract had been signed?

This sort of caveat emptor power company response, is sure to force as many people as can somehow afford to do so; buy batteries and go completely off the grid; with or without the power authorities permission!

Waiting to see what that will do to an already dropping power company profit graph line; given enough of us are being treated like the proverbial mushroom?

I mean I used to work for a power authority and there's an electrician in the family!

"Honesty" is it's own reward!
Rhrosty.

No worries Hasy.

Footnote: The Aussie invented ceramic fuel cell produces mostly pristine water vapor as the exhaust product; regardless of the source of methane! Be it homemade biogas or CSG or NG!

Me I'd opt for endlessly sustainable homemade biogas and all the other advantages it confers, including getting most folks off the ultra costly gold plated grid!
Rhrosty.

There are very few countries if any that do not utilize wind on a commercial scale and numerous have achieved 15% or better and a few close to 50%. Currently the world is producing 330 Gw/hr of wind power and rising fast. A number of contributors on this forum seem to think they know something the rest of the world does not know. I suggest the following sites as giving some basic information on the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_by_country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Economics

The bottom line is wind power is very close to achieving price parity with new fossil power generators, but without the pollution problems associated with burning and mining fossil fuels. Wind power when combined with solar, hydro and biomass is perfectly viable . The energy needed to cover the building and construction of a modern wind turbine takes less than 3 months of generation to recover, but will continue to produce power for at least 20 years, which is a massive energy gain overall, don't yourself to be bamboozled amateurs talking about ERoEI.

Some erroneous ides pushed on this thread are
1 Renewables push up the price of power,
Wrong because there are no fuel costs which allows them to always under cut the fossil fuel generators especially during peek periods thus putting downward pressure on prices.
2 Wind needs too much back power
Wrong because this issue applies to all forms of power when a massive fossil fuel station goes down they can put the whole system at risk. Wind units being smaller and more geographical diverse is less of a problem.

Rhosty

Maybe you missed my last post to you, but please let me know what "endlessly sustainable homemade biogas" you have (or are planning on) investing in? Is this commercialized or just at concept stage?