Petrol station conversions

 

The demand for petroleum products (LPG, Gasoline, Diesel and lubricating oil) is not going to suddenly stop.  Second hand ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars are going to be around for a long time and they will become very very cheap as the demand  for them wanes.  Everyone will want an electric car but the cheapness of ICE cars will persuade many to continue to use them.   And there will always be "petrol heads" who just love their ICE cars.

 

However, the demand for petroleum products will start to decrease and it will be a one way trend.  What do "gas stations" do.  They work on very small margins and large volumes and on having a monopoly on the fuel we need for transportation.  It doesn't take much of a decrease in their sales to make them a stranded asset.

 

Clearly, if they want to continue in business, they have to become energy providers rather than petroleum providers and allow us to charge our battery cars at their facilities.  They have a problem here that all sorts of other companies have realized that if they have a charging station, it will attract customers to their premises to shop while the car is being charged.  Charging stations are springing up at super markets, restaurants and other businesses. 

 

The petrol companies need other streams of revenue.  A couple come to mind.  Already many 'gas stations' have stores and restaurants connected to their petroleum outlets and I suspect that they make more money on these than on the sale of petroleum.  Just here where I live, one gas station showed real initiative when it started to sell really large ice cream cones at cost.  Suddenly their business boomed and the kids pushed Dad into stopping there to fill up.

 

When you are charging your car, no matter how fast 'fast charging' gets, it will always take more time than to fill up the tank of an ICE car so you have a little time on your hands.  It is likely that smart gas stations will expand the goods that can be purchased at their stations.

 

But there is another revenue stream that could be attractive to a petrol station that is also a charging station.  Mega Batteries.

 

If a lot of cars are charging at the same time, especially if they are all fast chargers as seems to be the trend now, it will put a huge demand on the grid.  The whole grid will have to be upgraded to avoid burning out the wires at peak times.  that is unless the petrol stations install a mega battery.

  

Let's say for the sake of the argument a petrol station installs a one mWh (mega Watt hour) battery.  A typical car of the future will have, say, a 100kWh battery.  A fully charged 1mWh battery could therefore charge up 10 cars without needing recharging.  Batteries are now being developed based on Li that will be able to charge right to the top and be used right to the bottom without damage.  Anyway,why such a large battery, Isn't it a waste putting in such a large capacity you might say.

 

Well no.  Mega batteries by themselves are ridiculously profitable.  Look at the Hornsdale example.  It is rumored to have paid off its $66m(Aus) cost in three short years by buying power when it is cheap and selling it when it is expensive.  Better still, for the Hornsdale site, it is part of a wind farm so they  store power when it is being generated in excess of demand rather than having to feather the wind turbines.

 

This points up the next profit generator for the gas stations we are converting.  They should install solar panels on every surface they have available.  Most of them have a large roof over their petrol pumps and the roof of the adjacent building where they sell pies, ice cream, bread and milk. 

 

A petrol company with many gas stations could become a major player in the energy supply of a country.  One of our NZ petrol companies has upward of 250 stations.  With a one mWh battery at each station, they become one of the largest battery operators in the world and as a bonus it is distributed storage.  They become a large peaker plant and benefit from our insane spot price system.

 

There is also a possibility that negotiations with existing power distributors might result in less expensive power to charge the mega battery since the power distributor avoids the need to upgrade their grid to cater for a whole bunch of fast chargers all operating at the same time. The only really grunty cables that are needed are those from the mega battery to the charging points, not the whole grid.

And here is one more revenue stream generator.  As ICE cars age, there is, going to be, for a while, an ever increasing demand for mechanics.  The cars will be getting longer and longer in the tooth and need ever increasing maintenance.  For a while, a connected garage, the way it used to be, will be a real money spinner.  Mind you, at some point this will fade as electric cars take over.  The smart operator will make money in this golden period and then get out of this part of the business.

 

It is going to be a difficult time for 'gas stations' unless they innovate and become energy stations.

Open letter to NZ power companies.

 

        An open letter to NZ power companies

 

Just curious.  A rhetorical question, if you like.  Why is it that none of the power companies and none of the wind farms have installed mega batteries.  The 100mWh Tesla battery at Hornsdale in Southern Australia has paid off it's total capital costs in 3 short years.  I've never heard of such a profitable investment.  Now virtually all the income is pure profit.  In addition it has greatly stabilized the voltage and frequency of the grid it is part of and has reduced power prices.  They are now installing more batteries, more or less doubling their capacity.

For new wind farms, I wonder why they don't put in a mega-battery first before they even have the first wind turbine up and running.  With our crazy spot price system, it would seem likely  that they would have started to make a profit right off, buying low and selling high.  When the turbines are working, they can, of course, store any excess power they generate instead of having to feather the the turbines.  Mega batteries basically constitute a peaker plant*.

*A power plant that is only used when power demand is unusually high.  They are highly uneconomical but are needed to ensure a constant supply of electricity regardless of the demand.

From the customer's point of view, if power companies had mega batteries, the power companies could stop being so twitchy about their customers installing solar panels.  They could give the customer a decent price for the power that he sends to the grid, say 75% of the price that they charge the customer for power he takes from the grid.  This would eliminate the need and the motivation for the customer to go off grid and/or install his own batteries.  The customer foots the capital cost for the generation infrastructure (panels) and the power company gains all this extra generation capacity for free.  It is a win win all around.

 Lithium is not the only game in town.  For instance, there are the ZnBr plating batteries and the liquid metal batteries using Ca and Sb.  Both have the distinct advantage of not degrading over time and both can be fully charged and discharged without damage.   They also don't lose their charge if left fully charged.  They don't have quite the cycle efficiency of Li batteries but are a tad better than pumped storage. If you go to youtube and type in 'Just Have A Think Iron Batteries' you will see another innovation that, if it is all it is cracked up to be, will revolutionize renewable energy.  Then there are a range of redox batteries using the different oxidation states of Fe or V.

Why are you power companies so slow off the mark. You could be creaming the profits while at the same time serving your customers, something that is somewhat lacking at present.  I think I know what the answer is.

You are making lovely wind falls when the spot price peaks.  When enough mega-battery capacity is installed there will no longer be these wind falls.  Mind you the first adopters will really cream the profits.