Global Warming?

[Rob-D]

I understand the advantage of distributed power generation and its effect on reliability of the grid. Nevertheless (perhaps until home energy generation become wide spread) there is still need for transfer of energy over long distances. Since HVDC have lower losses than HVAC transmission lines it could be used for such purpose. In example line from east to west could take advantage of the fact that there is four hours difference between the coasts.
Coal burning power units have relatively small turn-down ratio. Typical lignite burning boiler has to be stabilized with oil or gas under 90% of rated power. That is why we have street lights to provide load on the generators at night when the demand is otherwise low. It would be advantageous to move energy from west coast to east coast in the morning and the other way around in the evening.

Interesting, I didn't know that!

Sounds like charging electric cars at night isn't such a bad idea!

The thing again is infrastructure and converting to DC from our already in place AC, it seems to me that this would be very costly at this point.

Rob

 

[newbury]

<snip>
Coal burning power units have relatively small turn-down ratio. Typical lignite burning boiler has to be stabilized with oil or gas under 90% of rated power. That is why we have street lights to provide load on the generators at night when the demand is otherwise low.

Do you have any links for that statement?
I run 3 street lights and pay about $20/mo for each.

Why don't they drastically drop the cost of KW's at night?

 

[Rob-D]

I just did a little research to see how many homes have computers. Here's an older chart that ends in 2003, the latest figures I found, you may be able to do better, is 68% of American homes had computers in 2010.

Thinking back to when I started with computers, I got my first real computer in 1985 (I built a Sinclair before 85), a "FatMac". Not many people had computers back then. It wasn't cheap and it didn't do much! I bought it to do EDA (electronic design automation) and had to literally make my own circuit board foot prints. Needless to say, it didn't work well. Most of my real work back then was on HP hand held calculators, some of you will remember the 41CV, I used an 11C which was pretty remarkable. It could write programs and I did all my electronics calculations on it. Before then we used slide rules and I remember college physics classes where everyone had a Pickett slide rule. You couldn't take a final exam without one! That was in the sixties and seventies.
Printed circuit boards back then were flimsy, at best. The better boards were made by companies like HP and Tektronix but all the Tek scopes were CRT, pretty much hand wired until semiconductors kicked in. That changed everything. The spiral since LSI (large scale integration) has been remarkable.
I worked on the first government computers in the late 60's, today my handheld calculator has tens of thousands of times more memory and ability. That gov. computer crashed constantly and the company that supplied them to the government had a top technician on site at all times. By the way, it took a whole room!

The transistor has changed this world completely. Mail, flight, medicine, manufacture, etc. etc. are only possible because of the transistor. A country without transistor technology could not win a war, regardless how large or powerful it is. Communication would still be by telephone but no cell phones, smart phones, no web and no home computers. Communications would be very slow because it would still require a good percentage of mechanics. The test instruments I use today rival those of even twenty years ago at a fraction of the cost. I get to talk to the designers of chips, get data sheets and application notes that never could happen without the transistor. Period.

Now think of that technology and think of the future. Is there any better way to solve our energy problems? Is there any other technology that can exceed its potential?

So those of those of you who think that PV won't work, think again, it's our best answer.... and it's a good one!

In the next 5 years you will see renewables take over. Electric cars, PV, LED lights with over 99% efficiencies , etc. You will see PV rise in homes the way computers did. New homes without PV will be unthinkable. You will see a transformed grid with interties as the norm and not the exception.

Rob

 

[Rob-D]

I run 3 street lights and pay about $20/mo for each.

Sixty bucks a month is more than my total energy usage with no intertie advantage.

Can I ask why you run three street lights?

Rob

 

[Spicer]

If global warming didn’t exist it would have to be created. As government bureaucracies balloon, balance of payments becomes their enemy.

Taxing the non-tangible is the answer.

The think tanks that are used are not tasked with the science only how to sell it. How many grants are available to disprove global warming?

 

[vtsnowedin]

Now think of that technology and think of the future. Is there any better way to solve our energy problems? Is there any other technology that can exceed its potential? So those of those of you who think that PV won't work, think again, it's our best answer.... and it's a good one!

In the next 5 years you will see renewables take over. Electric cars, PV, LED lights with over 99% efficiencies , etc. You will see PV rise in homes the way computers did. New homes without PV will be unthinkable. You will see a transformed grid with interties as the norm and not the exception.

Rob

I started college with a very fancy slide rule in a leather case on my belt. Required equipment along with the text books. I'm not as optimistic as you are. I don't think any technology ever exceeds it's potential. What it may exceed or fail to do is meet humans expectations of it's potential. It's potential is a fixed quantity set by the laws of physical reality and cannot change but our perception of it's value is much more fluid based on our human emotions which vary from unbridled optimism (Cold fusion, ) to certain near time end of the world (Peak oil theory).
Your enthusiasm for PV and other renewable energy solutions to our current problem are enthusiastic but may not prove out to be able to scale up to the levels required to pull our fat out out of the fire. Saying it's good a thousand times doesn't make it so.

 

[Rob-D]

I started college with a very fancy slide rule in a leather case on my belt. Required equipment along with the text books. I'm not as optimistic as you are. I don't think any technology ever exceeds it's potential. What it may exceed or fail to do is meet humans expectations of it's potential. It's potential is a fixed quantity set by the laws of physical reality and cannot change but our perception of it's value is much more fluid based on our human emotions which vary from unbridled optimism (Cold fusion, ) to certain near time end of the world (Peak oil theory).
Your enthusiasm for PV and other renewable energy solutions to our current problem are enthusiastic but may not prove out to be able to scale up to the levels required to pull our fat out out of the fire. Saying it's good a thousand times doesn't make it so.

It works empirically for me.

What's your solution?

 

[Rob-D]

If global warming didn稚 exist it would have to be created. As government bureaucracies balloon, balance of payments becomes their enemy.

Taxing the non-tangible is the answer.

The think tanks that are used are not tasked with the science only how to sell it. How many grants are available to disprove global warming?

Grants are not given to 'prove' or 'disprove', they are established to find facts that either support or refute a theory.

If you are a scientist and don't believe in CC than do the research to back up your opinion. There is no reason you can't get a grant.

 

[Spicer]

Search for “You can't get grants unless you say, 'Oh global warming, yes, yes, carbon dioxide”.

 

[Rob-D]

Search for 添ou can't get grants unless you say, 'Oh global warming, yes, yes, carbon dioxide?

You search for it, you're the one who made the statement!