So called "Green energy" is coming, or so 'we' have been promised. The video looks at what is currently on the marketplace or in late development. I'll cover a couple in depth later in this peace. No matter your political leanings, this is going to happen, and you should understand the ups and downs (or perhaps blackouts) when, not if, this shows up on your part of the grid... The grant stampede is soon to begin... Background video. on the different technologies So-called utility scale storage is key to enabling a 'renewable "power base. The price-point base for comparison is pumped hydro, which has been in use for over 30 years. This is a well understood system type and is in wide use today - so costs of ongoing support are well documented. (cheat sheet backgrounder ) One that is now starting to gain traction is the "Liquid metal battery" Now being installed at a massive data center in Reno- its first commercial installation. (overview of the specific tech) (a deeper look) please note the presenters note of "gas fired plants will be buried in expensive carbon-capture systems" ie FedGov marketplace distortions - and on a grand scale.. Next, are the Gravity storage systems - right now at the edge of reality. Peron ally I don't see these as viable, but since the Govt picks winners and losers.... (YMMV). Another storage is the Tesla Mega pack NOTE - the reason power is/was so expensive as references in this video - in South OZ - was due to Govt Carbon taxes, not the cost of generation. Tesla Power Wall this is used in areas of both high cost power and wild rate differences based on time-of-day use. Think - San Diego CA. Hydrogen as a storage medium in Ammonia deeper look (includes a look at a Utah underground storage 'power' project that has changed focus at least 5 times and attracted $$$ from the fedgov - ie black hole) Cryogenic Energy Storage System This is in place and has some real backing as it is all off-the -shelf tech animation of process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDvlh_aG7iA How this rush to the Green will ultimately play out is less about technology and, sadly, more about political process, taxes and tax breaks, subsidies and of course, just how much energy cost the average person will tolerate. Next segment - what can you do about this? Please note, I've tried to post items that are less than 6 months old...
Super-insulated homes Now a reality in the Eu and in the US explination of the technology - retrofitting expect to see this being pushed in a big way within the next two years....
So what will the kilowatt charge be to the consumer compared to fossil fuels ---any thing is possible if you throw enough money at it. Money this country doesn't have. I guess only the ruling elite will have electricity and us serfs will be using candles (if the EPA allows that). If I am not mistaken Spain tried going green and it all went bust.
The price point quoted in many of these videos is that of pumped hydro. - what isn't said is the source for energy for that pumping.... This assumes solar/wind as the source. Electricity Rates by State (Updated December 2020) – Electric Choice in Alaska we pay over $0.22/KWH - not cheap by any means. We heat with gas, but cook, wash and dry with electric. Not like we have much choice... My son pays less than half that near Austin, TX. His rates drop - significantly - late at night, so if he had a Powerwall, his monthly rate would be even less. Doubtful the savings would offset the cost of the Powerwall....
Super insulated homes.......ahahhahaa.....what I did in 1985 when I built mine. Look close, you can see the double 2x4 wall on the outside: (back when I had hair, and it was brown) Only evidence today is around the doors and windows....takes about an 8" extension jamb from the window back to the wall molding: Couple of other tricks in this photo. One is the massive (like 30 or more tons) of masonry chimney I built in the center of the house. Parts I'm working on faces the living room, and that room has a cathederal ceiling. On the back side is the master bedrm, which is exposed brick wall of the chimney. MASS is where it's at when it comes to evening out change in internal temperature.....takes lot longer to heat up the inside in the summer and a lot longer to cool down in the winter. Other thing of note. I used 2x6 rafters in the house. But that doesn't give much cavity to insulate in an open ceiling like over the living room. So I came up with a homemade truss deal. You can see one about 1 o'clock above my head. I took a long 2x4, turned it flat. Nailed a 14" pc of 2x4 block to one face of the long 2x4, and a 16" x 8" pc of plywood to the other SIDE of of the long 2x4. Push the blocking up against the under side of the roof sheathing right under a rafter, nail into the rafter. Do the same with the plywood plate on the other side. Now you have a 14" deep "truss" rafter thing you can fill with 12" of insulation and still get 2" air space over the top....AND you have 4" of bottom to hit sheetrock with instead of 2". Here is a photo of the end of them out over the upstairs knee wall to show more about what I did:
If you already use gas for heat, you can also cook with gas and run a dryer with gas. The biggest costs in electric are for things that use electric to HEAT something.....like a stove element or water heating element or dryer heating element. The power it takes to run a washing machine is near nothing in comparison. I assume your gas is propane ? What do you pay per gallon for it there ?
Oddly, no - I use NAtGAs - with some of the larest gas fields in the US right on my doorstep - gas used to be cheap. Then a series of Foreign companies bought the local gas supplier - each time using the massive new debt as a reason to jack up my rates. Daddy gotta have his private jet, ya know. The State of Alaska sat on its thumb during this entire merry-go-round of buy and sell There is a reason we have a "Corrupt Bastards Club" in the State house...
Bud of mine build a new house in Overtown NV - at the head of Lake Meade. R-80 roof, R60 walls - walls 10 in thick. Said it cost him about 4% more to super-insulate. Cools the whole place with a window shaker
Just finished building a house at the beach for a guy ,, R-38 ceilings, R-15 walls,, R-30 floors,, house is built on pylons . Don't know why he wouldn't have at least r-19 walls. I just do what they want.
Well that was my day ,gone watching all and reading the TN Andy build ,, Glad its crappy outside , i don't feel as bad for STP. Sloth Edit add , Hydro in BC for household 8.2 cents /KWh First Tier
"The price point quoted in many of these videos is that of pumped hydro. - what isn't said is the source for energy for that pumping...." The Dims think they can take the output of the generator turbines and use it to pump the water back up.... Exactly the same cretins that fall for other perpetual motion devices.
I had been promoting battery-operated homes for many years. My homes for the past several years have been wired for both AC and DC power and primarily use DC for lighting, and since the advent of LED, lighting got a whole lot better. I started out with automotive 12-volt lighting, which is still better than AC incandescent or fluorescent lighting IMO. Even if the battery bank uses the grid to charge it, the house is further ahead seeing it does not suffer the browns and surges of grid power, since it is absorbed in the battery system, like a shock absorber. I built my own UPS for our first computer, especially because the power in the mountains is unreliable and people lose the electronic equipment all the time because of it. Our computer outlasted many of my friend's equipment.
There are a couple problems with these "green" ideas. Energy conversions simply cannot be done without losses, and storage of electrons gets tricky, too. Loss on storing and loss on recovery pretty much makes things more expensive in energy terms than in generating to meet demand. Conservation is the correct approach, at least until a reasonable solution to the fuel questions are produced. A lesson I got from a relative who was involved in the Yard's Creek Pumped Storage project is that it often costs money to save money. (A simple ROI study will bring that into focus.) Pumped storage is one of the most economic ways to even out swing loads, or at least it was back at the time it was built and commissioned. Hydro power remains economical, BUT all the sites with the economics to be used are already spoken for or are in service. And the greenies want the systems dismembered and return the streams to "pristine" conditions. Take a look at the Bonneville Power dams on the Columbia for some object lessons there.
Back in the early 80's This Old House did a season called "The New This Old House". It was a green solar / passive solar home. Very informative.
At one point in my life I was very Save the Environment (college years) but I remember the first Earth Day and there was a cartoon at the time Pogo one character says to the other "We have met the enemy and it is us" no truer words were written. Read a few years back the world population will go from 6+ billion to 9+ billion by 2050 US population 300 Million to 450 million by 2050 well on our way. All these people will have to be clothed, housed, more energy use, more water use, more waste generated, more land clearing -- on and on. As the human species increases other species decrease. You can't keep adding people to a planet with finite resources. Gave up on save the planet long ago.
