Solar power & Wind Power for residental use

[buickanddeere]

On the Death Cancer was mentioned eh.
It happened; what if's don't mean much after the event.
How much may be the question. How mucih is too much?
Seems the "How Much" has been increasing lately. Seems it exceeds Japanese standards!
Chances are areas of higher radiation with increased cancer rates can be found. Radon gas situations come to mind.


On the Japanese Nuclear situation.
[video]http://www.globalresearch.ca/nuclear-apocalypse-in-japan/23764[/video]

I would think the type of reactor would be a significant item in Safety.

Radon gas is a nasty hazard that does not receive enough recognition. it's a fission daughter of natural U235 in the soil. Being an Alpha emitter the external hazard is mute. However ingest or inhale high energy alpha particles and susceptible internal tissue will be bombarded with ionizing radiation .
It's good that you brought this topic to attention. Home owners should be buying kits and avoiding the dangerous natural radiation in their homes. Instead of panicking over a relatively small spill half way around the world.
Has anybody noticed that Japan rebuilt right on top of both Atomic Blast sites ? Cancer is no higher than anywhere else.
The real concern to health are heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury. irritants such as asbestos, tobacco and weed. And organic chemicals such as PCB's, furans, dioxins, too many calories in the diet and excessive use of ethanol.

 

[buickanddeere]

I agree.
To believe otherwise, one would also believe nothing else new will happen either.

tt://forumTableView/137?title=The%20Front%20Porch

I don't want to disappoint you. However there are no other elements on earth that will provide the energy density of lithium batteries. At room temperature, atmospheric pressure , not being overly toxic or dangerous.
A pound of lithium is just as energy limited as a pound of gasoline. There is a set limit, no more. As in gasoline the efficiency of use can be improved at a price but there is a limit. Same goes for lithium. There can be some improvements to try and lower resistance which will lower waste heat and potential fires during charge and discharge. There are just so many moles per pound of lithium, you can't add more. And please don't be offended when the truth is not what you want to hear.

 

[buickanddeere]

On the residential level solar doesn't compete at 4-6 cents per kWhr because that's not what residential customers are being charged. I was at 15.5 headed to 19 before gas prices dropped last year. Under my net metering agreement I can only produce as much as I use yearly and anything over that goes to the grid for free. I don't consider that a subsidy. The $2500 tax credit sure is and I have no problem with that. I make a good living and have no kids, I've paid plenty of taxes. Even with the credit I'm sure I paid in more this year than many.

Wholesale pays the bills for the conventional generators. "Green" is subsidized with rate payer and tax payer $$$ above actual wholesale rates.
If wind and solar was paid the grid rate. Existing green sites would go bust in weeks and no new green sites would be built.
The wholesale rate here is below zero on nights and weekends. 1-4 cents mid afternoon until the end of the evening peak. My power bill is still 18-19 cents per Kw even through we used 2934 kw/hr off peak , 325 kw/hr mid peak and 350 kw/hr peak.
The spread between 0-4 cents wholesale and my 18-19 cents retail pays for green power, for dispatachable green power not to operate and for NY and Michigan to take green power.

 

[Redneck in training]

Utilities are in a bind. As more customers install solar they might increase rates in turn accelerating the solar installation. If economical energy storage is available the trend will accelerate even more. Since the bulk of power consumption is heating and AC the energy can be stored in thermal storage.
Here is an idea: In the old days breweries used to harvest ice in the winter and stored it in underground cellars for chilling beer for rest of the year. Since I have the land I could dig a large hole, insulate it, line it with a liner and fill it with water. Then place a heat exchanger above ground and circulate a antifreeze through it to freeze it solid in the winter. Then use it to cool my house when my PV doesn't produce power. My rough estimate is 50X50X10 block of ice would cool my house for about 100 nights. Now I need to think about ROI. ????

 

[Knight9]

Electrical power Canada.
[video]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Canada[/video]



Let me add a little about oil & gas subsidies in Canada.
[video]http://www.pembina.org/reports/fossil-fuel-subsidies.pdf[/video]

Quoting the Pembina Institute is almost as bad as quoting the Rolling Stones Magazine

For the other side of the equation, let's take a look at the Fraser Institute's perspective on some issues:

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sit...rks-in-renewable-energy-subsidies-program.pdf

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Radon gas is a nasty hazard that does not receive enough recognition. it's a fission daughter of natural U235 in the soil. Being an Alpha emitter the external hazard is mute. However ingest or inhale high energy alpha particles and susceptible internal tissue will be bombarded with ionizing radiation .
It's good that you brought this topic to attention. Home owners should be buying kits and avoiding the dangerous natural radiation in their homes. Instead of panicking over a relatively small spill half way around the world.
Has anybody noticed that Japan rebuilt right on top of both Atomic Blast sites ? Cancer is no higher than anywhere else.
The real concern to health are heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury. irritants such as asbestos, tobacco and weed. And organic chemicals such as PCB's, furans, dioxins, too many calories in the diet and excessive use of ethanol.

It may seem like a small spill to someone living on the east side of Lake Huron, but here on the West Coast it looks a lot bigger. Fukushima released more radioactive material into the environment in the first six months than all the atmospheric weapons tests ever conducted, and the leak has been going on for years. There is no projected timeline to get the leaks stopped that does not involve decades. Iodine and cesium are high level radioactives so will reach equilibrium within a few years. The strontium-90 has a half life of 28.79 years, and will continue to build up in the ocean, and the food chain, for decades.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Radon gas is a nasty hazard that does not receive enough recognition. it's a fission daughter of natural U235 in the soil. Being an Alpha emitter the external hazard is mute. However ingest or inhale high energy alpha particles and susceptible internal tissue will be bombarded with ionizing radiation .
It's good that you brought this topic to attention. Home owners should be buying kits and avoiding the dangerous natural radiation in their homes. Instead of panicking over a relatively small spill half way around the world.
Has anybody noticed that Japan rebuilt right on top of both Atomic Blast sites ? Cancer is no higher than anywhere else.
The real concern to health are heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury. irritants such as asbestos, tobacco and weed. And organic chemicals such as PCB's, furans, dioxins, too many calories in the diet and excessive use of ethanol.

Radon is mostly a decay product of radium, which is a decay product of U238. It's decay products are also highly radioactive, and solid. The most dangerous is polonium. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, and causes the majority of non-smoker lung cancers.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki have the highest rate of liver cancer in the world. Gastric cancer is also elevated in those cities.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

So not realistic for 99.99% of real people applications and life style not to mention physical surroundings, space, locations. Natural gas and coal fired plants making electricity is going to be answer for many thousands of years to come. HS

I will concede decades, but not millennia. I very much doubt that fossil fuels will be a majority energy source 100 years from now, not because we will run out but because the remaining supplies will be so expensive to extract that other energy sources will be more economical.

 

[JCByrd24]

A lot more numbers, apparent facts, and references in the 40 page Pembina paper than the 7 page Fraser paper. Don't know which is more correct, but one certainly appears more factual than the other.

Just realized buickanddeere is in Canada not the US, also within 100 miles of Niagra falls...no wonder the power situation there is a little wonky. In my opinion a person in the nuclear industry which competes primarily with a very large hydro industry is likely not unbiased. I don't have much against nuclear power really, and in Canada it appears to be classified more like a renewable than a fossil. This thread is about solar, and in both the US and Canada solar as a percent of production is a minuscule. Wind is just a fraction more.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3
About Electricity | Natural Resources Canada

I struggle to believe that the proceeds of all the rest of that power being sold a $0.15+ per kWhr are going primarily to the tiny wind and solar industries in an unfair market situation. Sure there are subsidies, there are on both sides, but the traditional power companies are still profiting hugely. Based on the sizes of the industries I don't see how it's possible that solar and wind could be receiving more, but I'm certainly not an expert on this a very complex topic. I do maintain that wind, solar, and hydro as renewables should receive some advantage, and nuclear next before fossil.

But what I was able to do and I think should be a right for anyone is to be able to take matters into there own hands and invest in solar. Net metering should be a right up to your own production and after that you should get the hourly wholesale rate. At $0.19 per kWhr you would be wise to consider the same. Until the solar market share is significantly larger I can't see that it's actually influencing any of the things you say it does.

 

[Egon]

Mr. Knight, it surely looks like a He said---She said situation based on quotes of quotes and on and on.

What it sounds like to me is some folks don't want completion or other influences on the distribution system or the input to it.

It would seem that the physical aspects of solar and wind do work as might be evidenced by all the complaints of excess power.