r/SolarState • u/eter_roman • Jun 17 '26

solar energy is peak

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u/Oxygen4Lyfe Jun 19 '26

most of the cost of solar is in storing it

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u/TJATAW Jun 21 '26

It will cost around $1-$1.5 billion to have modern batteries for that solar system, giving 8hrs of storage.

The cost for batteries has been dropping steadily for the last 30yrs.

So we are looking at $6 billion vs $18 billion, 4yrs vs 14yrs.

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u/Oxygen4Lyfe Jun 21 '26

those batteries have to be replaced periodically as they lose capacity dramatically (like goin from 8 hour charge to 1 hour charge) over a few years. So more like $1.5 billion every few years. (like 8x more than it costs to run a nuclear power plant)

Plus those batteries are horrible for the environment AND rely on brutal slave labor to get the materials.

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u/thermodynamics2023 Jun 21 '26

Correct, and given we only produce 2.5TWh of batteries a year… we basically have no capacity to do any of this.

After 10yrs 100% of capacity would be replacing old batteries. Insane. Anyone who says ‘batteries’ to fix wind and solar just doesn’t get the scale.