Apparently the subsidy requires you to be connected to a “virtual power plant” plan with your energy company, which means that they control when your battery feeds back in to the grid or can be used by you. This is pretty much a deal breaker for me and should be for most people.
What it means is that the power company could force your battery to send its power to the grid at peak times, meaning any power you use comes from the grid, and your battery gets drained without them paying you a cent. It means that you could potentially not save a single cent on your power bill, while saving the power company money.
I’m with Amber, and while I don’t have a battery yet, their VPP offering does appear different to most. I’d be wanting to check the conditions if this goes ahead as I would not want to sign up if I wasn’t allowed to control when power is sent to to the grid.
Hope this’ll be better regulated than the pink batts. Otherwise it’s not gonna be a good time when people opt for the cheapest batteries and cheapest tradies.
Statistically, how did the pink batt scheme fall short of your expectations/hopes?
They interviewed this guy in a van on today tonight. /s
“You wanna buy some speakers or what? The client ordered them and I can sell em to you now for cheap.”
I am very keen for batteries. We have 20’ish kw of solar and so much is wasted because of export limits. If I could pump all that waste in to a battery to use over the peak period of an afternoon/evening we’d greatly reduce our bills.
I wonder if this will also include extra subsidies for electric vehicles which support bidirectional charging. Could really help push for an increase in electric vehicle uptake if you can also use it as a battery overnight.
Grab a new V2H/V2G charger as they start to come out and add it to an ecar.
https://zecar.com/reviews/bidirectional-v2h-and-v2g-ev-chargers-guide
The batteries on ecars are massive in conparison to home battieries.
Got an EV too - 85kw’ish of battery ready to roll.
Would love to soak it up over peak period, then recharge it overnight at off peak rates. Doing that alone would be a big saving.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/redearth-bidirectional-chargers-mb3054/
Was interested in this one as
Through a partnership agreement with ambibox, RedEarth will produce the devices from its facility at Darra in Brisbane’s south-west suburbs – the first company to manufacture (assemble?) bi-directional chargers locally.
But have to see how it compares
The Ambibox DC Wallbox is a flexible bidirectional charger supporting both V2G and V2H applications. It offers up to 22kW of charging power. It has even been used in experimental setups to enable bidirectional charging in vehicles not originally designed for it—such as the Tesla Model Y. It’s ideal for both residential and commercial use.
This is interesting
The Ambibox unit has been able to successfully discharge energy from several EV models during testing:
Tesla Model Y BYD Atto 3 Polestar 2 Volvo EX30
This is something I’ve been waiting for, for ages, and is the reason I didn’t get any previously (because the interest free loan didn’t make sense, because of the risk of batteries dropping faster than any savings from the loan)
If it’s a good deal, I’ll likely buy more Solar panels too and double them from 6.6kw (5kw inverter).
Obviously, wouldn’t be buying a tesla powerwall, but ideally something AC coupled still (so really hoping BYD makes something like that)
grab a BYD var and do this ?
https://zecar.com/reviews/bidirectional-v2h-and-v2g-ev-chargers-guide
I think it’s taking longer for bidirectional to be legal in most parts of Australia, though that might be happening soon. V2G is going to be a game changer for reducing dependence on coal, can’t come soon enough!
I am want to sell my jeep… Been waiting for a 4wd which is cheap enough though, with enough range. Don’t need towing capacity at all, but need the capabilities if things go to crap (I operate a hiking group, and at least 1 or 2 overnight trips we went on, the weather turned to complete crap the next day and we needed high clearance to get out of it… But places like Falls Creek at 450km from me (so 900 round trip), so range is somewhat important too, but I do accept that on the way home from some of these things, I might charge
Ideally want an EV though with enough range. Of its a Hybrid, I’d only need something with only a tiny pissy petrol engine, for emergency use that can be disabled mostly.
Really, no idea why people wouldn’t want an EV if one suited
if one suited
This is why not everyone wants one. EVs are great and I’d love to get one as my next car, but they don’t cover everyone’s needs at every price point, and most people don’t have the ability to charge them at any useful speed thanks to the power infrastructure. There’s also the issue of the second hand market - no one wants to buy a second hand electric car, but most people understand that buying a brand new car is a fools game.
I have bought two secondhand electric cars and about to buy my third. Most people still don’t understand this isn’t quite as risky as it appears.
It costs half the price of a new EV to replace the battery. Buying a second hand EV means you have no idea how the battery has been treated, and you know the clock is already ticking until you have to shell out a massive amount of $ for a new battery.
Have you actually bought a second hand EV?
Why on earth would I do that based on my post?
@Whirlybird @kudra
The condition of a used EV depends on how it’s been treated. EVs are not alone in that.In general, the battery of a modern EV can be expected to last for the useful life of the vehicle. “… scientists discovered that battery replacements were very rare, with only about 1.5 percent of EVs needing a replacement – and almost all of those replacements were under warranty.”
https://www.greencars.com/expert-insights/research-shows-ev-battery-replacements-very-rareCorrect, new EVs have even better batteries than first gen too. My first EV I replaced the battery, but not because they’re was anything wrong with it: that battery likely would have lasted at least twice as long, but an enterprising engineer created a battery upgrade that doubled the original range in the same footprint, and we can expect further improvements in batteries, so I expect to upgrade again in future, maybe 10-15 years, and double the range again.
Old EV batteries can be reused and make ideal off grid house batteries.
A small study by a pro EV company, reported on by a pro EV site…yeah nah lol.
The warranty is what matters. Unless an EV is 10% of its sale price, if it’s even within 2 years of its warranty on the battery ending it’s no deal. Might it last 10 years past the warranty retaining ~70% of its capacity? Sure. It’s possible. Could it also just drop dead at the drop of a hat, or capacity just drop like a rock? Absolutely. One of those scenarios will cost you almost the price of a new car, the other won’t.
Hopefully they’re decent rebates on decent battery systems, and not means tested so only the low income earners would qualify (but couldn’t afford anyway).
Every year I run the numbers to see if it makes sense to get batteries, and every year it doesn’t. Would love to go completely off grid.
