MileHighM
Posts: 400
Joined: 10/8/2009 Status: offline
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Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff. Ultimately the problem is it needs burrying. The reasons they don't bury transmission lines outside of cities are numerous. The biggest being cost, the second being siting, permitting, regulation, and the distruction of private property (at least temporary). The easiest solution to transmission, is distribution. If you distribute generation, you don't need transmission as badly. Something I think solar is quite good at, better and more reliable than wind. You still have to have power storage no matter what with a intermittent power source. http://www.lenr-canr.org/Collections/USNavy.htm this is the CF research I am refering to. You can look up the published papers if you like. I agree we need to be competitive now, but I don't see the current crop of green techonologies being the large scale answer we need. The excess burden and cost they require right now offset their overall economic benefit. Even Friedman in the article you provided advocated teh need for taxes or a capandtrade system to prop up the AE industry. Pretty close, ain't close enough, still need batteries. Peak demand is in the evenings in the US, that is when solar production is waning fast Listen, if you haven't noticed through our discussions, we disagree more in the details than in principle. As I have said, I am an engineer in the solar biz. I am neck deep in this every day. You are right we need to move out of F-Fuels. However, I think you have been fed too much kool-aid with regard to its present day viability and competitiveness. We focus on off-grid work because it is economically viable and a substancial improvement over traditional fuel sources. We are thouroughly competive without subsities or tax incentives. We can produce off-grid systems with full power storage that make power at about a cost ranging from $0.31-$0.46 per kWh (figured on 10year system life). While considerably pricier than grid, compared to diesel generators and other off-grid means, that whips the $0.98-$1.20 per kWh they cost to run. Until you have fully backed up integrated systems like ours runing in the $0.18 per kWh normalized to todays energy prices, do I think you are truly grid competitive. Competitive to the point that you don't ass rape the consumer and commercial energy market to a point of economic crisis. The comodity prices are starting fall, and the technology only gets better year after year. I think there has been to much political grab-ass surrounding AE over the past decade, pushing it out before it is really ready. To cite one of your usual sources: http://www.solarbuzz.com/facts-and-figures/markets-growth/cost-competitiveness. While they claim the gap is closing, that is based on a zero profit model (not good for the economy). It is still based on altruistic net metering models. Those net-metering models will be scrapped when AE is a significant percentage of the generating capacity. Becasue this is when the need for energy storgae reaches critical mass. That is why I know the pricing figures constantly spouted are bunko, because they never included the storage buffers necessary to keep the grid stable with intermittent sources.
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