GM solar panel energy management system

[jonah-jorgenson]

It is good to see this strategy! Rather than development proceeding in parallel, the two streams can be complimentary/integrated and help solve issues in both streams to include the fragility of the aging grid structure and EV vehicle charging availability and rising costs.

Now someone needs to address a solution for those of us who live in apartments and condos!

[kennystrawnmusic]

Solar-to-grid would be an especially good thing for the Aptera in particular — after the battery reaches a full charge from the solar panels, you could have a switch in there that allows the solar panels themselves to switch from charging the battery to sending the solar power directly into the grid so it isn’t wasted.

[jonah-jorgenson]

A good idea for home if you leave your Aptera parked out in the sum, but would not work if out and about or at work where you would not be able to connect to the grid.

[dan-stevens]

As someone who has a home in the mountains that will frequently lose power, I’m a big fan of V2H backup systems. For now, we have an auto-start generac whole home generator that keeps us going when we need it. Burns through a lot of propane though.

This concept, if I understand correctly, where you have a reasonable but smaller battery (15-20KW perhaps?) permanently in the home and then can plug your car in to supplement that, just makes a HUGE amount of sense to me. The Ford F150 system is similar, but you need to figure out the ‘what if my car isn’t plugged in right now’ piece for yourself. This seems to have that covered.

Not really clear on why power companies want you to sell your power to them, except I’m sure they will significantly underpay your costs of doing this. That said, if you have solar, then you can rate-shave the dickens out of it, sell when the price is high, charge back when its low, all thanks to net-metering. This only works to offset your own usage, but very doable if you have a wide price change between peak hours and off peak, like I do with PG&E.

[curtis-cibinel]

“There are more power failures in the US than any other country in the industrialized world,”

Why do people just accept this as normal. US power reliability is a joke. Does power need to be nationalized or more highly regulated to not suck.

[dan-stevens]

A lot of people have become callous to statements like this in articles since most of them are there to try to sensationalize the article. Statement made, no proof given, is it right or not? Taken out of context? Who knows…. A quick google search has varying opinions but mostly says it is right because we have one of the oldest power grids.

I’m a small federal government kind of guy, but I do think the national power grid should be treated as a legalized monopoly OR better, treated as national infrastructure, owned by the government, maintained by the government, similar to highways.

For anyone wondering why a small government guy would thing the power grid should be national infrastructure it is pretty simple. For free markets to work correctly, there has to be at least the option for reasonable competition. The power grid needs to be a one and done.

Of course, without competition, governments are able to tax stuff to death, so that is a problem as well……

[Greek]

I would go even 1 step further..the grid should be treated as a National Security priority. How good is cheap electricity if you can’t receive it. As technology changes and improves, these improvements should be implemented, just as we constantly upgrade are national weapons systems.

[michael-kahlow]

I live in a Midwestern city with a municipal (not-for-profit) utility. I’m shocked when I hear all the talk about power outages – In 30 years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a power outage more than 90 minutes.

I might get one or two 20 minute outage per year caused by a squirrel that’s decided to end his/her life by acting as a current path on a transformer.

[Greek]

We also don’t have many power outages in my suburb of Schaumburg. It usually only happens when someone takes it upon themselves to do some digging without contacting Julie.

[993cc]

Cleveland?

[curtis-cibinel]

Here is a study on the topic. I would love to see more detail, up to date (its from 2010) or how California compares but this is what I found so far.

https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/R42696.pdf

Update: Here is another study from 2019 which shows the west coast / midwest of the US (zones 5, 6 and 9) have far more outages and longer average outage per year. This shows CAIDI (same thing as SAIDI) at ~4x the national average) https://www.mcphersonpower.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2019-APPA-Annual-Benchmarking-Report-eReliability-Tracker-002.pdf

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by  Curtis Cibinel. Reason: Added 2nd study
• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by  Curtis Cibinel.

[Fran]

If you nationalize the power grid, that is the best way to guarantee that it will fail, increase rates, increase outages, and increase customer frustration.

[loren-gilbert]

I live in he foothills southwest of Denver. Power outages here are so common that Xcel Energy occasionally owns up to it and issues me a rebate for lack of service. The possibility of using my Aptera as a power backup for my house would be a huge deal for me, I fervently hope that this is built into the design of the vehicle. Beyond that, using an Aptera or any other EV as a micro power source for the grid makes sense on so many levels that I think it would be hard to list all of them. It would, of course, require a good re-evaluation of the design of the national grid, but that is long past due.