We need more generation near the end users. We already lose 25% of all electricity to transmission.
solar, wind, with nuclear and sunsetting natural gas. Coal should die tomorrow.
I find it amusing that Texas going their own way on power grid, then letting is become a mess, is somehow a failure of renewable energy and not, you know, the fucking obvious problem.
This is like pointing to drug seizures at the border and declaring it bad because Biden.
I find it amusing that Texas going their own way on power grid, then letting is become a mess, is somehow a failure of renewable energy and not, you know, the fucking obvious problem.
Grid insiders know how fragile the grid is becoming. Unfortunately, they have no incentive to solve the problems because near-misses increase their profits.
ERCOT the grid has always been its own grid. (The US grid isn't one but many sub-grids managed regionally: ERCOT, CAISO, MISO, SPP, Southwest, et al.)
ERCOT the regulating body got stupid. When wind and solar were coming online there was surplus energy. Rates were low, too low*. Then with the new wind and solar, baseline sources (coal, gas) fell from favor. Those facilities began to be closed. But Texas is growing, as is its demand. ERCOT's mistake is deregulation of production sources. They didn't mandate baseline is covered and thus coal was shut down for "market" renewables (aka unreliables). Thus you get yesterday (or Feb 2021): no wind and max demand creating grid shortfall and the potential of "managed outages" (aka rolling blackouts).
MISO is staring that in the face right now also.
*The subsidy for wind (and solar) was so good that it was worth keeping the tower turning even when there was no load demand. The contracts were written "must buy at set price" (ouch for retailers) or the wind farms would sell at a loss (yes, even negative prices, they pay you to take it) because they'd still get the production tax credits which were worth more than wholesale prices at -$0.025 per kWh. It created a false market when the wind was blowing and the sun shining and the remaining fossil plants running.
James Fenton of the Florida Solar Energy Center is giving a presentation to the @floridapsc
, says 73 percent of primary energy is wasted from production in power plants to homes -- "hideous" waste of billions of dollars spent on energy.
Fenton to @floridapsc
: There are more jobs in rooftop solar installation in Florida than utility installation — 6,839 vs. 89. And solar on rooftops with battery storage will be as cheap by 2030 as utility solar.
Fenton says by 2030 all vehicles will have more storage than utilities are installing. "How do we go ahead and use that battery to help with the grid and help with resiliency?" he asks. $1.80 per gallon equivalent to fuel a Ford F-150 electric pick up vs. $4-plus for gasoline
"It is now cheaper to save the climate than destroy it," Fenton says in conclusion.
James M. Fenton is the Director of the UCF Florida Solar Energy Center, where he leads a staff of 90 in the research and development of energy technologies that enhance Florida's and the nation's economy and environment and educate the public, students and practitioners on the results of the research.
ERCOT is more than just an RTO. It's its own fucking grid, separated from both the East and West (and Mexico) with very few interconnecting seems.
ERCOT the grid has always been its own grid. (The US grid isn't one but many sub-grids managed regionally: ERCOT, CAISO, MISO, SPP, Southwest, et al.)
For as long as they are willing to take the guff, I'm glad Sic and Hovey continue to post their contrarian views (here, at least). The choirbox is full, and it's vocal. I may disagree with most of what they say, but as Justice Holmes once put it:
[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market . . . .
The competition part.
I quit reading when I realized you didn't read.
Ah, see I prefer this quote (not from Holmes). It used to be in my signature on this board until the revamp by board eliminated signatures.
That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes the freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our conviction in the open lists, to win or lose.
Since I don't think we've quite hit that point in the final clause yet, I'll still toss my comments onto the open lists. :>)
Ah, see I prefer this quote (not from Holmes). It used to be in my signature on this board until the revamp by board eliminated signatures.
That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes the freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our conviction in the open lists, to win or lose.
Since I don't think we've quite hit that point in the final clause yet, I'll still toss my comments onto the open lists. :>)