What's Wrong with Wind and Solar?

FWIW

Which is why we will never be free of oil productions d use unless we give up driving and powering homes or businesses. This is so logical.

Showtalk said...

Which is why we will never be free of oil productions d use unless we give up driving and powering homes or businesses. This is so logical.

Yep... it only goes to show you what type of bull crap they're trying to feed us with this expensive alternate energy which will never pan out into anything but more wasted taxpayer dollars!

FWIW

It will get people out of suburbs and cars.

Showtalk said...

It will get people out of suburbs and cars.

I'm not so sure... it seems to be driving people in the downtown New York area to more rural areas or even out of state. Taxes are one of the main reasons, just look at the exodus of people from California to other states too.

At least with many suburbs, they do offer some kind of transportation not found in the more rural areas.

But then again, those in really rural areas tend to live off their own land better as well and not so dependent upon other inner city suburbs.

We need transportation to get to and from work. Electric cars are getting better, but they still need to be recharged and the range which you can drive them is limited as well as the time to recharge is quite long. They have yet to replace the traditional gasoline cars yet. I've seen some hybrid models that are impressive, they continue to require gasoline, but not as much as the gas guzzling monsters of the past.

My car is a 2016 Honda Accord Hybrid. It gets 24 kilometers per liter or 56.45 miles per gallon. As it's a hybrid, it uses both an electric engine and a gasoline engine and switches between the two using an advanced electronic system. While the tires are moving, it automatically generates power stored in a battery, once the level stored in the battery goes over 30%, the electric engine kicks in. And even though the electric engine runs without the use of gas, it still generates it's own electricity because the tires are still moving. Depending on the speed you're running at, the faster you go, the quicker it charges. So the worst gas mileage is at 35MPH as it doesn't generate that much electricity. But at speeds of 45MPH, 50MPH or greater, the electric battery is charged much quicker and gives much better mileage! Once the battery goes back below a certain point, the gasoline engine kicks back in again until the battery is charged to about 30% and then cuts back over to the electric engine.

You don't need to externally charge the car as it generates it's own electricity and stores it in it's own battery.

If everybody drove one of these, you could less than halve the amount of gasoline we currently consume! They say the batteries will last for 12 ~ 15 years, but I'm going on my 6th year so I don't know for sure about that.

My home also uses solar power as well, we have 22 solar panels on top of my house that generate 5.5KWatts per hour. Since installing them, my electric bill has been in the minus. And yes... I said minus. They charge me $40 ~ $60 per month for the electricity I use after the sun has gone down and I cannot generate electricity any more. BUT... they also buy back the energy I create which I don't use. And the amount they buy back varies per month, but it's always between $90 ~ $170 per month. So if you subtract the amount I pay them... I get more from them and thus my actual electric bill is in the negative number!

So solar is a viable energy source, but they cannot totally replace my evening (after sundown) electricity usage!!! Similarly with wind power, when there is no wind, they won't generate electricity, when they freeze over, they won't generate electricity, and to top it all off, those wind turbines require a lot of grease and oil to keep them operational.

FWIW

People are moving out of cities by choice, but eventually may be pushed back by someone else’s choice.  I read an article a few years ago describing how the most efficient use of resources would be for everyone to be relocated to high density cities where they would not need transportation to obtain necessities. The only obstacle would be committing to work. Now that telecommuting has proven to be ideal for many, people can live anywhere they want to, including being relocated to cities.  

I’m not sure your success with alternative energy can be duplicated in the U.S. because I don’t think there is a way to receive a negative utility bill. I think they are charged a basic fee anyway just for being attached to the grid.

Showtalk said...

I’m not sure your success with alternative energy can be duplicated in the U.S. because I don’t think there is a way to receive a negative utility bill. I think they are charged a basic fee anyway just for being attached to the grid.

I'm charged a basic fee of roughly $13.20 per month. Then they have 3 charge rates depending upon the time of day you use the electricity...

(10:00 ~ 17:00), (7:00 ~ 10:00 & 17:00 ~ 23:00) and then 23:00-7:00. They charge slightly differently depending upon what time(s) you use their energy.

So last July 2020, I paid $50.51 total which is a combined value of $13.20 (basic fee) + $1.61 (10:00 ~ 17:00)  because we mainly generate our own electricity, $23.57 (7:00 ~ 10:00 & 17:00 ~ 23:00) and $11.98 (23:00-7:00) when we don't generate any electricity.

But that same month they paid us $130.02 for the energy we created but didn't use and they bought back from us.

So I pay $50.51 and receive $130.02 from them so I made a profit of $79.51.

FWIW

That is a very nice arrangement. It doesn’t happen here.

Solar doesn’t make sense in a lot of places because the initial costs are so high. Electric utility companies charge flat fees even for people with solar because they have fixed costs. In essence they tack on fees and taxes. This article from 2016 explains it in more detail, but basically they argue people with solar don’t pay their fair share of research costs, tree trimming and maintenance and other benefits the power companies give the communities.  Many people don’t have solar because the panels are expensive and cut into any savings.

Consumer Reports

How Utilities Are Fighting Back on Solar Power

Utilities argue that solar customers aren't contributing their fair share of transmission costs and are fighting back, says Consumer Reports.

Read more from Consumer Reports

Showtalk said...

Utilities argue that solar customers aren't contributing their fair share of transmission costs and are fighting back, says Consumer Reports.

They are going about it the wrong way.

With more and more solar panel users, more and more energy can be created using those solar panels than the users can actually use. So if power companies bought back the amount of unused energy from those solar panel users, they could reduce their entire production capacity which would drastically reduce their own costs.

Tokyo Power & Light pays me roughly 30 cents per kilowatt of energy they buy back from me. I sell them 560 ~ 580 kilowatts during summer months and 380 ~ 390 kilowatts during the winter months. That is energy they don't have to produce and because they can use the energy I produced but didn't use to pass on to other customers, it reduces their cost drastically.

When the 2011 tsunami hit northern Japan, all nuclear power plants were taken off line for inspection and confirmation that their standards were up to par and that the melt down which happened up north was not going to occur in their facilities. For close to 6 months, with all their nuclear power generation stopped, they were unable to boost up their coal/oil production to replace the nuclear output levels. During the first 2 ~ 3 months they had what was called rolling blackouts. Certain areas were warned before hand that they would have a blackout between x & y times. Each power outage was for about 4 hours and each location was notified before the rolling blackouts occurred so that they would be prepared for it. They rolled those blackouts while the electric companies attempted to spread their coal/oil production limitations to the masses.

So Japan started a push for solar panel use. The government even offered a $700 discount to people who decided to go for solar power and the rolling blackouts stopped. I received my $700 discount as well and have been very happy I went to solar because my electric bills now all pay for themselves and I get money back from it as well. They basically offset the loan payment towards the solar system payments and still make it worth while.

Since the government sponsored push for solar power, the coal/oil plants have not had to increase their production capacity much at all due to the offset of unused energy bough back from those solar panel users!

FWIW