09-20-2014, 12:32 AM
The fundamental problems with renewables is their price. I know manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels is getting cheaper, but that's only one aspect of the price problem. Wind and solar deliver energy at inconvenient, unplanned times, and none of the countries supporting serious renewable projects (e.g., Germany) are building matching storage systems. Germany, for all its renewable power, is far behind the US in power storage capacity. This is forcing all sorts of awkward utility compromises: running base-load plants like coal in load-following modes; selling electricity at a loss when they get an off-schedule glut of wind or solar; and so on. The result is costly. Here's the German perspective on the problem:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germ...20288.html
Germany's got all the political will in the world to ram forward with renewable power generation, but it isn't building a complete renewable grid. Its response to erratic renewable output is to ignore storage (like pumped hydro, compressed air, even batteries), shut down clean nuclear plants, and open coal plants running on Germany's local, filthy brown coal.
A smart approach would be to mandate that a given capacity of renewables would be matched to some amount of storage.
And if you can, stop the irrational fear and hate of nuclear power. If you can get a nation running 40-50% on nuclear, then a combination of renewables and stored energy would cover the peak loads and rest of the nation's needs.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germ...20288.html
Germany's got all the political will in the world to ram forward with renewable power generation, but it isn't building a complete renewable grid. Its response to erratic renewable output is to ignore storage (like pumped hydro, compressed air, even batteries), shut down clean nuclear plants, and open coal plants running on Germany's local, filthy brown coal.
A smart approach would be to mandate that a given capacity of renewables would be matched to some amount of storage.
And if you can, stop the irrational fear and hate of nuclear power. If you can get a nation running 40-50% on nuclear, then a combination of renewables and stored energy would cover the peak loads and rest of the nation's needs.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
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"Everbody's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oh, suddenly you've gone too far." -- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama
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"Everbody's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oh, suddenly you've gone too far." -- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama