Posted on 09/06/2002 7:35:43 AM PDT by SierraWasp
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:42:26 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The showpiece of Sacramento's electric utility, an internationally known solar power program, is in shambles.
It has fallen short of its goals, rocketed past its budget limits, lost its long-term chief and left Sacramento Municipal Utility District directors scrambling to figure out how to salvage their commitment to renewable energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Now if you want power when the grid goes down while the sun isn't shining, you can add some backup batteries to your intertie system, a small wind generator, or an adequate sized fossil fueled generator.
The intertie systems can handle the various alternate inputs and pump the excess power back into the grid, or tap it when you need additional power yourself.
What? You don't think a lot of our liberal know-it-all, do-gooder smart alecs ever have to move back wherever you are because they need work? If the Repellicans don't quit infighting and Devious Davis get re-elected, you can bet thousands upon thousands will be packing up, heading for your town, looking for any business that'll be able to keep 'em employed.
Next, they'll be down at City Hall or the County Seat howlin at the moon at the podium with their kid in their arms wearing dirty diapers, telling the board and the bored that you must do it like CA, cause it's "for the future generations!"
Mark my words, it's coming your way and then you won't be so dang smug, cause it'll become exactly as screwed up as ours is. Then, BOHICA!!!
I would love their explanation of this one...
No batteries, I feed directly into the grid thru my meter, which runs backwards when I'm generating more than I use.
And how often do you clean the array and how long does it take?
In the valley the dust is ubiquitous and eternal, and the efficiency plummets unless the cells are kept clean.
There is no "storage" in the grid, unless there's something like a pumped storage reservoir available (there aren't many, relatively speaking). Electrons put out on the grid are used by the systemwide load as they are supplied by the sources.
The reason I ask is because in the mid 1970s my town got on the cogeneration bandwagon, the old trash-to-cash idea of using a trash incinerator to generate power for the municipal grid (streetlight and such). One of the justifications for the plant was the extension of landfill lifetime. Smaller volume of disposable material, you see (ashes vs. unburned trash). So they built the plant and it ran for a few years. Ironically (but so in character), the very environmental wacko groups who were pushing the cogneration bandwagon a few years prior then turned around and stabbed the county waste authority in the back and got the plant shutdown on so-called environmental grounds. This time it was "too much" dioxin being emitted. So the empty plant sits there unused, with taxpayers stuck paying off the bonds for the next 20 years or so. And the landfill is back to filling up to capacity. So much for that wacko idea. Funny thing though, the press never takes those wacko groups to taks. They are given a pass because "their motives are pure". I say bravo sierra to that. Their motives are nothing but Draconian and Luddite.
Haven't ever. They are angled with the roofline, wind and rain keep them "clean enough"...
AMEN! Bro!!!
Yeah the sun went down!! ROTFLMAO!
I guess they missed the "Sunset Clause" in the "contract ON Rancho Seco!" This just proves the fallacy of "event driven," ballot box legislation and direct democrazy!!!
But not forever. A technological society with a reasonable standard of living will always need baseload power. Peakers won't do it. They're fine for filling in the gaps but just aren't up to the challenge of running full out for the long haul. For that, its hard to beat large baseload units, like nuclear or coal-fired facilities.
Another thing a lot of people don't know about peakers, and that is their incremental costs are high. You can get a reasonably low cost on fuel and dollars per kilowatt of capacity installed for things like gas-fired turbine units, but by nature peaker units sit idle a lot of the time waiting to be called upon to fill in demand. When idle, they generate no revenue. But you still need to pay your loans to build the units, and have a crew available to run it and maintain it when necessary, whether the unit is operating or not. Thus, on the basis of cost per kilowatt of output over a given period, the costs can be quite high.
Same with PV arrays or windmills. You don't stop paying the capital costs when the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow. The bank still wants their payment.
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