The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change Forever

[Marlin]

Otherwise, we would be reading about Enron buying all of these solar projects, while typing away on our virus-free Kaypro computers running CP/M.

Enron Plans Huge Solar Power Generation Plant 

https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1P2-5669411/enron-plans-huge-solar-power-generation-plant

[HydroDave63]

The future is bright I gotta wear shades.  

Just lemme know when you are posting using grid-disconnected rooftop solar with a Muskrat Tesla garage storage battery

[Marlin]

Just lemme know when you are posting using grid-disconnected rooftop solar with a Muskrat Tesla garage storage battery

When that cost/power ratio meets my budget I shall. I must point out that the Tesla batteries are only designed as an emergancy backup and newer cheaper batteries will be required. 

 

[HydroDave63]

So much for the offshore wind portion of that colorful yet misleading chart...

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-backed-floating-wind-project-may-lose-funding-as-utilities-reject-power/401496/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Utility+Dive&utm_campaign=Issue%3A+2015-06-30+Utility+Dive+Newsletter#.VZMIp8tQdGE.linkedin

DOE-backed floating wind project may lose funding as utilities reject power prices

Principal Power’s WindFloat Pacific project, a 30 MW floating wind turbine pilot project planned off Oregon’s coast, could lose its federal funding because Pacific Power and Portland General Electric, the state’s two investor-owned utilities, have rejected its above-market power price.
The undisclosed requested price for the electricity from the Department of Energy-backed project could be as high as $0.16-$0.35 per kWh, Breaking Energy reports. The Oregon utilities wrote a letter to lawmakers that said the proposed rates are 3 to 4 times the price of onshore wind, which comes in at less than 5 cents per kWh.

[Marlin]

So much for the offshore wind portion of that colorful yet misleading chart...

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-backed-floating-wind-project-may-lose-funding-as-utilities-reject-power/401496/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Utility+Dive&utm_campaign=Issue%3A+2015-06-30+Utility+Dive+Newsletter#.VZMIp8tQdGE.linkedin

DOE-backed floating wind project may lose funding as utilities reject power prices

Principal Power’s WindFloat Pacific project, a 30 MW floating wind turbine pilot project planned off Oregon’s coast, could lose its federal funding because Pacific Power and Portland General Electric, the state’s two investor-owned utilities, have rejected its above-market power price.
The undisclosed requested price for the electricity from the Department of Energy-backed project could be as high as $0.16-$0.35 per kWh, Breaking Energy reports. The Oregon utilities wrote a letter to lawmakers that said the proposed rates are 3 to 4 times the price of onshore wind, which comes in at less than 5 cents per kWh.

OK wind did not show much if any increase over the span of the chart anyway.

[Marlin]

So much for the offshore wind portion of that colorful yet misleading chart...

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-backed-floating-wind-project-may-lose-funding-as-utilities-reject-power/401496/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Utility+Dive&utm_campaign=Issue%3A+2015-06-30+Utility+Dive+Newsletter#.VZMIp8tQdGE.linkedin

DOE-backed floating wind project may lose funding as utilities reject power prices

Principal Power’s WindFloat Pacific project, a 30 MW floating wind turbine pilot project planned off Oregon’s coast, could lose its federal funding because Pacific Power and Portland General Electric, the state’s two investor-owned utilities, have rejected its above-market power price.
The undisclosed requested price for the electricity from the Department of Energy-backed project could be as high as $0.16-$0.35 per kWh, Breaking Energy reports. The Oregon utilities wrote a letter to lawmakers that said the proposed rates are 3 to 4 times the price of onshore wind, which comes in at less than 5 cents per kWh.

It is nice to see market driven decisions though. 

[hamsamich]

Just read an article on a combined country European pilot program to test the feasibility of using batteries along with renewable power.  Looks like KW-hr need to be near .30$ or higher for it to be worth it.  The article says the tipping point may be 2020 for battery prices to close in.  These are things that people pushing renewables on a large scale don't seem to take into account - variable timing of power production.  It may be solved in the next 30 years but there is no slam dunk answer yet it seems.  Hawaii could be another viable test bed due to high electricity prices there.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/05/us-utilities-grids-france-idUSKCN0PF06M20150705

[GLW]

..... Hawaii could be another viable test bed due to high electricity prices there.

don't count on it,...

the NIMBYs in Hawaii are fanatical,...

from indigenous folk claiming sacrilege anytime a hillside is drilled into, to naturalists decrying the loss of island species breeding habitat anytime a big solar project is proposed, to the surfers and tourist monies decrying the visionscapeblight of wind towers, the speed bumps and sinkholes to renewables in Hawaii are just about unfreakin' unbelievable,...

all poor verbage intended,...

Hawaii actually has one of the best shots at "renewable" sustainable,...

yet the stupid hue and cry from the NIMBYs of every persuasion carries the day,...

which is really stupid because nothing is "renewable",...

the sunlight you capture today is gone forever, sure the sun will keep burning for as long as any of us can imagine is necessary, but the sun is hardly "renewable", indeed the sun is burning out as we type,...

wind, geothermal, any of them, are all transient in terms of geological time and none of them answer to our whim as to when we need it, indeed the more primal the forces we attempt to harness and bend to our will, the more likely we are to encounter fundamental paradigm shifts which we can do nothing to influence,...

tectonic plates shift and the heat source for the world's largest geothermal power plant disappears just like that, all the infrastructure and money and jobs and dependance by upwards of millions of people shrugged off into nonrelevance by the equivalent of a tectonic plane scratching an itch, and with no more concern by the planet towards mankind's plight, than that by mankind towards an incidental gnat on his backside,...

also let me mention that every island in the Hawaiian island chain is landsliding back into the ocean ala pyroclastic deposit instability, which should persuade anyone who thinks to really wonder why anybody contends that some sacred totem must be maintained sacrosanct for all perpetuity at the cost of contemporary well being and quality of living,...

since Hawaiian Island perpetuity is a non-starter argument,...

I guess it makes the totem boosters feel important,...

well, that's nice,...

meanwhile, it's a good thing the climate is so mild, if it was like Pittsburgh, the wahines would be freezing to death for want of a means to pay the heating bill,...

you know what decisions people who have to worry about freezing to death make when faced with choosing between development and living or protectionism and dying?

look to Iceland,...

IIRC when the NIMBYs get all uppity in February about this, that or the other, the thinking people show them the door,...

it's about 10F outside the door,...

[hamsamich]

anyway the price of electricity in Hawaii is much higher compared to most places in the U.S. so assuming the sun keeps burning and the islands don't slide into the ocean then it could be a viable market for more expensive batteries depending on the political situation there.

[Ksheed]

French renewables power grid pilot shows limits of batteries in Europe-Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/05/us-utilities-grids-france-idUSKCN0PF06M20150705

[Marlin]

And yet another positive article about reducing cost of solar this time Motley Fool. Money talks.

Solar energy revolution: Past point of no return

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/07/05/motley-fool-solar-energy/29583021/

[hamsamich]

hey great article ksheed!  surprised no one posted it yet.

[Marlin]

hey great article ksheed!  surprised no one posted it yet.

    

[SloGlo]

meanwhile, it's a good thing the climate is so mild, if it was like Pittsburgh, the wahines would be freezing to death for want of a means to pay the heating bill,...

yins say that like its a bad thing... The burgh is mild, haven't many bad winters in the last couple decades. may bee won oar too hear n their lately. probly dew two the global warming affect.

[Marlin]

So much for the offshore wind portion of that colorful yet misleading chart...

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-backed-floating-wind-project-may-lose-funding-as-utilities-reject-power/401496/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Utility+Dive&utm_campaign=Issue%3A+2015-06-30+Utility+Dive+Newsletter#.VZMIp8tQdGE.linkedin

DOE-backed floating wind project may lose funding as utilities reject power prices

Principal Power’s WindFloat Pacific project, a 30 MW floating wind turbine pilot project planned off Oregon’s coast, could lose its federal funding because Pacific Power and Portland General Electric, the state’s two investor-owned utilities, have rejected its above-market power price.
The undisclosed requested price for the electricity from the Department of Energy-backed project could be as high as $0.16-$0.35 per kWh, Breaking Energy reports. The Oregon utilities wrote a letter to lawmakers that said the proposed rates are 3 to 4 times the price of onshore wind, which comes in at less than 5 cents per kWh.

AUSSIE PM TONY ABBOTT CANCELS ALL GOVERNMENT WIND FARM SUBSIDIES

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/12/aussie-pm-tony-abbott-cancels-all-government-wind-farm-subsidies/

[GLW]

lemme help you here:

within twenty years the PVs et al will be running at no more than 50% capacity,...

because they'll be covered in snow;

A 'mini ice age' is coming in the next 15 years

Solar activity is predicted to drop by 60 percent in 2030.

http://www.sciencealert.com/a-mini-ice-age-is-coming-in-the-next-15-years

I'll stick by my earlier assessment:

....I'm not seeing much more out of Bloomberg than "buy solar",...

[HydroDave63]

AUSSIE PM TONY ABBOTT CANCELS ALL GOVERNMENT WIND FARM SUBSIDIES

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/12/aussie-pm-tony-abbott-cancels-all-government-wind-farm-subsidies/

[hamsamich]

You know, with all the hub bub about climate change and the unforeseeable power providing future involved with climate change from a green base load, you would think our national government would be more concerned about keeping nuclear as a large reliable base load power supply until unproven (on a large scale) green power shows it can "handle things" for a few years at least.  The uber-greenies all talk about how climate change is coming and how this is written in stone, but what's not written in stone is how green power plants can handle the swings in weather which will accompany said climate change.  I haven't read too much about that.  The uber-greenies don't seem to pay that much attention.  They seem to only want to talk about solutions that cater to a very defined future, which climate change will most certainly not be.  Those pictures GLW put up make you think.

[Bonds 25]

It's because most Greenies are ABN (anything but nuke) and can't disassociate Nuclear Power from Nuclear Weapons.........and no matter how many facts they are shown, still believe that Nuclear Power is dangerous and has no place in the world's energy portfolio. They also can't seem to understand the importance of base load power. What kind of a real environmentalist would chose a power source (wind, solar) that REQUIRES fossil back up? They also preach energy conservation.....well I don't. I want to be comfortable in the summer (central AC might be the greatest thing ever) and winter, I want my electronics to be charged and running and I like the way my house looks with the lights on. I don't want to worry about if the wind is blowing or oh no its getting dark  .

Clean, safest, highest capacity factor,  24/7, massive base load power that uses very little real estate = Nuclear Power

[Smart People]

 

[SloGlo]

sum forward thinkers are re-solving the problem.

http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/policy-powersource/2015/07/17/Pittsburgh-inks-deal-with-U-S-Department-of-Energy-Moniz-to-develop-clean-energy-plan/stories/201507170250

[SloGlo]

http://myendlesspower.com/