Recent content by zoobyshoe

I can't understand how this place could be so unprofitable and still be thriving: http://www.visitludington.com/stories/ludington_pumped_storage_project They like it so much they're doing an 800 million dollar upgrade.

Solar cells are very energy intensive to make. They have to use a carbon arc furnace to melt the silica, and there's another heating later in the process. So, there is this complaint they are not green products because all that energy is now coming from fossil. People point to the irony of...

I don't think I suggested the idea this would only be done on energy construction projects. The reason I suggested it here is that another member has been maintaining that solar and wind only exist because of fossil. I think that's a very good point. The strategy, therefore, should include the...

There's no reason it has to compete with the cheapest alternative available in charge per kWh. In fact, being "Green" you could certainly charge the same as the most costly CO2 emitter and no one would blink. I have ideas about the construction cost, but first, do you think the idea is viable...

I can see how Europe could be maxed out in terms of reasonable places to put pumped hydro: western civilization has been entrenched there centuries longer than here, so I'd expect any available resource has long been portioned out to serve more people than here, and there's much less room for...

I was just talking about that with mfb, about how peaker plants, the ones with the on/off switches, that are only 35-40% efficient due to their on/off ability, could be made more efficient. Adding power during peak times doesn't solve the problem that the main plants have a limit below which...

This is something that would never have occurred to me. Why worse for materials in big power plants, as opposed to, say, the common car engine? What about natural gas? I found out that the "peaker" plants that serve my local utility are natural gas and use gas turbines. I googled gas turbines...

I don't recall this project. Link me, please. When I lived in Minnesota, I observed this to be a common problem: people did not have adequate insulation on their (decades old) homes. And that caused unnecessarily high heating bills. Yes, my fridge is only about 4 years old. It replaced an...

Thanks! But for humans you should figure in AC in the summer and an all-electric household, the goal being to replace our dual gas/electric system entirely. I have to tell you that most people I know in San Diego do not even bother turning on any heat in the winter! 60 ºF feels pleasantly...

Exactly. But, it should be pointed out that some few utilities have already incurred that "high cost" in pumped storage (pumped hydro) for the purpose of simply not wasting the fossil energy they have to make at the "wrong" time. The mismatch between time of generation and time of demand...

Thanks. That clears it up.

OK. I find what you are saying confusing with respect to the particular plant the wiki talks about: First, did someone not notice there wasn't enough money to complete this project without a government reboot? What's your understanding of why it was ever started when there was no money for it...

Oh, I missed the fact there was a heater involved. It looks like each West Coast utility has it's own way of charging you the same as every other one. I think that's just about perfect. They have been trying to figure out what to do with the Salton Sea for decades. The water is very polluted...

I don't know where you are posting from, but here in California I think we're at the point where we need storage: http://www.pe.com/2017/03/18/heres-how-california-ended-up-with-too-much-solar-power/ I'm not sure what level of strain of the system you think is best, but there is already a...

This is surely the main reason for the difference. If I were all electric, the bill would definitely be higher than my combined bill now. Still, I'm surprised by the fish tank consumption. I do, but I grew up in New England, lived in Ohio for 5 years, and then in Minnesota for 8 years. I can...