Utilities in California and nationwide are fighting rooftop solar, the major threat to their effective monopoly on the electricity market, said the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA)…
The excess solar energy goes to a battery charging vending machine for EVs that sits in the driveway. Someone with a low battery for an e-bike/scooter or nanocar books a battery and pops by to swap their low battery for a full one. That would perhaps be a way to profit from selling the excess energy instead of getting ripped off by the grid.
That would require all (or at least a critical majority) of the manufacturers of such vehicles to implement a standardized form factor, which isn’t going to happen short of legislative action. (I mean sure, they’re almost entirely just 18650 cells at their core, but swapping individual cells is hardly practical or safe for average end users.)
Indeed universal standards can’t be expected to exist or relied on and my comment doesn’t assume that.
What I would envision is a company that needs to deploy a battery swapping infrastructure for a car like this one (which I hear is common in Spain). People and businesses with extra solar power could have a 3rd-party drop off a vending machine which could be brand-specific.
Or it could be scooter batteries. I heard about battery swapping station for scooters in the UK. I don’t recall the brand though.
(update) It’s worth noting that a sustainable user-repairable battery is being planned, called the “Infinite Battery”:
How about this as a fix:
The excess solar energy goes to a battery charging vending machine for EVs that sits in the driveway. Someone with a low battery for an e-bike/scooter or nanocar books a battery and pops by to swap their low battery for a full one. That would perhaps be a way to profit from selling the excess energy instead of getting ripped off by the grid.
That would require all (or at least a critical majority) of the manufacturers of such vehicles to implement a standardized form factor, which isn’t going to happen short of legislative action. (I mean sure, they’re almost entirely just 18650 cells at their core, but swapping individual cells is hardly practical or safe for average end users.)
Indeed universal standards can’t be expected to exist or relied on and my comment doesn’t assume that.
What I would envision is a company that needs to deploy a battery swapping infrastructure for a car like this one (which I hear is common in Spain). People and businesses with extra solar power could have a 3rd-party drop off a vending machine which could be brand-specific.
Or it could be scooter batteries. I heard about battery swapping station for scooters in the UK. I don’t recall the brand though.
(update) It’s worth noting that a sustainable user-repairable battery is being planned, called the “Infinite Battery”:
https://www.ifixit.com/News/101675/bike-manufacturers-are-making-bikes-less-repairable