Dreams and Details

Hype, BESS, Peakers, and “repugnant conclusions”

We cover the notion of the hype cycle, push the logic of peaker plants and attempt a connection to Parfit’s ‘repugnant conclusions.’ If you prefer more specific posts there will be more of those soon: I’m still reflecting on the “rush” to come up with indices for BESS investment in Germany and I think I might have an idea of my own based on what I am tentatively calling “shadow spreads.”

In the last short post we wondered about the seeming lack of interest in non-Battery energy storage systems. I think BESS are a wonderful technology, but we must keep the ultimate purpose in mind. If we couple a purpose (cleaner energy) to a particular new technology (BESS) then the purpose will become entangled with the stages of the hype cycle, a version of which arguably applies to every new technology. Here’s an illustration based on Gartner’s hype cycle concept.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hype-Cycle-General.png

Where are we now with BESS on this illustration of a rough caricature of how technology is adopted? Somewhere near the peak, I would say.