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Solar Power isn't Feasible
Topic Started: Dec 30 2013, 12:31 AM (2,242 Views)
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Yep, it had to be financed to the tune of a billion and a half by taxpayers. That makes sense to idiots I guess.
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Brewster
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Dec 30 2013, 04:16 AM
Yep, it had to be financed to the tune of a billion and a half by taxpayers. That makes sense to idiots I guess.
Compared to the Billions and Billions given to Fossil Fuels, it does to true conservatives.

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Your Right Wing Gullibility's showing again.
Edited by Brewster, Dec 30 2013, 04:33 AM.
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Fossil fuels work very well, your stupidity is showing.
You've changed course three times now, keep trying.
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Brewster
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Not me Neut, just knocking down your idiotic points as you bring them up

Now you're trying to tell me Fossil Fuels work very well?

45 Fossil Fuel Disasters the Industry Doesn't want you to Know About

And NOT ONE of those would have happened with Solar!

There are no limits to Right Wing Gullibility, are there? :busted:

:hystery: :hystery: :hystery: :hystery: :hystery: :hystery: :hystery:
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Thumper
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Nope, as evidenced here daily.
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The facts back me up, we are using fossil fuels much more than solar so your BS doesn't fly.
Thumper, do you have anything to say besides an insult?
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Berton
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California planning to run on battery power due to unreliable wind & solar energy

Costly renewable energy policies are already set to raise California power costs by $5 billion or 33 percent due to expensive and unreliable wind and solar energy. However, that may be only half of the additional cost, since the "California Public Utilities Commission has called on utilities and private companies to install about $5 billion worth of batteries and other forms of energy storage to help the state power grid cope with the erratic power supplied by wind and solar energy."

Thus, in total, new renewable sources and the battery capacity necessary to provide reliable electricity may cost $10 billion by 2020, representing about a 66% increase in electricity rates.

The California Public Utilities Commission has called on utilities and private companies to install about $5 billion worth of batteries and other forms of energy storage to help the state power grid cope with the erratic power supplied by wind and solar energy.

The need to store energy has become urgent because the state is planning to get a third of its electricity from renewable sources by the end of the decade. And the shift in strategy could open up some big opportunities for small startups, including one called Stem.

Stem is housed in an abandoned showroom in Millbrae, Calif., just across the highway from San Francisco International Airport. And the company's not just aiming to help the state's power grid.

"We make a product that reduces electricity bills for businesses," says Tad Glauthier, Stem's vice president for customer development.

In fact, Stem's first priority is to focus on individual businesses. To explain how this works, Glauthier walks over to a couple of large computer monitors hanging on the wall.

"The monitor on the right is showing the electric load from the carwash across the street," he says.

The graph is all over the place. There are lulls when the carwash is waiting for business — punctuated with big spikes when blowers, vacuums and other large pieces of equipment switch on.

"If you look at just the range within the last 15 minutes, that's an incredible amount of volatility," Glauthier says. "The utility has to serve them that electricity."

It turns out the car wash has to pay extra on its electric bill for those periods of high demand. All companies in California get billed for their peak use, as well as their total electricity consumption.

So if the carwash can shave off those power peaks, they can also shave this extra charge from their electric bill.

Here's how Stem does it: When demand spikes, batteries kick in so the company doesn't have to draw so much from the grid.

The battery packs they install in businesses look like glitzy gym lockers, and are controlled by a small computer, connected to the Internet. The computer's job is to decide when a company should be pulling energy from its batteries, rather than from the grid. When the company's energy demand is low, it can recharge the battery.

"With the Stem system, they're not using less power," Glauthier explains. "They're just using power in a more level way."

And by doing that, the company is reducing the part of its bill that's based on peak power usage.

So is Stem simply building a system that allows companies to "game" their electric bills? Glauthier says, no. "You absolutely help the [power grid] system," he says.

But Glauthier may be getting a little ahead of himself here.

"Right now, it does only help the customer," says Haresh Kamath, a battery expert at the Electric Power Research Institute in nearby Palo Alto.

Kamath says batteries will eventually help the state power grid deal with the ups and downs of electricity supplies from wind and solar. But it will take a lot of battery power to make a difference.

That's exactly why the California Public Utilities Commission has called for billions of dollars of energy storage to be installed between now and 2020.

"If you get a small energy storage system in every body's home, or every business, that could have a substantial impact on the grid as a whole," Kamath says. "Of course right now it's difficult to do that because it's a relatively expensive product."

Everybody's hoping that creating this huge demand for batteries will also help drive down the cost.

Batteries can help with short-term power fluctuations — like those created when a cloud passes over a bank of solar panels, for example, or when the air goes still at a particular wind farm. And they can help keep the power grid stable, as operators work to match supply and demand second by second.

Stem is planning to scale up its operations so it can play a role in stabilizing the grid. The grid operator actually pays for that service, so it could be another revenue stream for Stem.

Glauthier says the company has installed just 10 systems so far, but they have 150 more orders in the works. And once they reach a critical mass, they will be able to control all the batteries they install from one central location.

"It's taken us four and a half years to get here, and I think there's another three to four years to go before we're really blowing the doors off," Glauthier says.

And they do have competition, including Tesla Motors, which has teamed up with a solar energy company to get into this business as well.

The race is not simply to refine battery technology, but to invent business models that will make energy storage practical.

Link with links
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Brewster
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Berton, links with links doesn't matter much when they're just one Right Wing blog linking another.

And the rest of the links all are basically saying it's a good idea.

The best, which you obviously copy 'n' pasted without reading, says;

Quote:
 
Right now, it does only help the customer

Imagine! Putting something in place which only helps the customer! How Awful! We can't have that!


:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
Edited by Brewster, Dec 30 2013, 08:01 AM.
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LOL You are a hoot Brew.
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Berton
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Brewster, you keep claiming that solar power is less expensive yet keep leaving out all the costs. Why is that? Why do you keep leaving out all the bad part? Left wing propaganda?

If solar is so cheep one wonders why Germany is not building more of it.

Edited by Berton, Dec 30 2013, 09:36 AM.
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