batteries will cost roughly half the price of a new one .
RePurpose has received several million dollars in state grant money to bring its concept to life , and early next year , the company is scheduled to fit a large local grocery store ( Barr says he can ’ t name it yet ) with 75 batteries to store electricity produced by on-site solar panels . If this test run proves the system viable , Barr says , RePurpose intends to replicate the model with customers around the state .
The economics seem to work out , and plain common sense says the RePurpose team ’ s business model is a great idea , but there remains a significant obstacle in the company ’ s path , Barr says . California Public Utilities Commission ’ s Self-Generation Incentive Program , which offers those who install solar panels and energy storage systems significant rebates on battery costs , specifically excludes repurposed electric vehicle batteries . “ That exclusion all but eliminates a customer ’ s incentive to choose a cheaper , more sustainable battery system over a new battery alternative ,” Barr says .
He says RePurpose is attempting to educate state officials “ about the potential that will be wasted if we don ’ t remove this exclusion .”
Simpl Global
Making home solar batteries smaller and grid independent Solar plus storage is the energy combination that will one day power the world . But while solar panels are now required for all new homes in California , the storage side of the equation poses challenges . Battery systems are expensive and complicated , big and clunky — obstacles that clean-tech entrepreneur Farid Dibachi believes must be cleared for the energy revolution to play out .
His vision : Achieve in the solar battery universe what computer pioneers did with computers when they downscaled room-sized systems into lightweight , more efficient desktop PCs and mobile phones .
“ I said , ‘ Let ’ s build something that anyone with absolutely no experience as an electrician or an electrical engineer can install and operate ,’” Dibachi says . “ And I ’ m happy to say we succeeded .”
Since launching Simpl Global in 2018 , Dibachi and his two partners , working out of Dibachi ’ s home in Lincoln and funding the project themselves , have reduced conventional solar batteries from shed-sized systems to portable , easy-to-install units as small and simple as a toaster . The battery , called the SimplBox , isn ’ t cheap . It runs about $ 1,000 , and Dibachi says it will take the average home 10-15 of them to go “ essentially off the grid .” He says he has sold several dozen of the boxes , which are manufactured in Reno .
As production is streamlined , that cost will decrease . “ When we start selling them at quantity , economies of scale will kick in and bring the cost down and get energy storage to a place where it ’ s just another household appliance that people can install themselves ,” he says .
Dibachi ’ s next goal is to make his batteries grid independent , so that a property owner ’ s solar panel system can directly power their building , even during a power outage . Most rooftop systems in use today are designed to work in sync with the local utility ’ s grid , meaning that if the utility ’ s power goes out , the building ’ s does too — even if there are batteries to store the solar electricity . But Dibachi has designed a
Simpl Global cofounder Farid Dibachi says SimplBox can allow an average home to go “ essentially off the grid .” PHOTO COURTESY OF SIMPL GLOBAL
new battery rigged with electrical hardware that allows the unit to send AC electricity directly into a home or business when the grid shuts down , making customers fully grid independent .
He has a prototype of this system completed . It ’ s called the SimplBackup , and Dibachi hopes to begin selling it midway through 2021 .
As fossil fuels lose favor , Dibachi sees just one path forward : Solar power will generate more and more of our energy as our economies — homes , kitchens , buildings and cars — shift away from combustibles to clean electricity .
“ That ’ s a change that ’ s upon us — it ’ s happening around us ,” he says . “ To complete that picture , you need energy storage . Cheap , easy , appliance-level energy storage really is the missing link .”
Hank
Making existing dumb HVAC systems much smarter Managing energy use for precision efficiency is not a task that should be left to humans when there is an affable computer system capable of doing it .
Using artificial intelligence software , Hank — also the name of the McClellan Park company that created the system — overrides the standard programming of conventional heating , ventilation and air conditioning units . Ultimately , Hank claims to control temperatures inside buildings in a more even and efficient manner than most systems now in use , resulting in greater
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