Storage.
Electrical utilities must maintain a constant load to work. They monitor use of the resource on one end, push new electricity into the system at the other.
They're used to thinking big. And they want their big inputs to be flexible. Coal and natural gas are very flexible. You can turn them down, turn them off, turn them back on pretty quickly. Solar and wind power aren't flexible. If the wind doesn't blow or the Sun doesn't shine it doesn't matter how much demand you have for what they make — you won't get supply.
So while most states, including Georgia, have laws requiring utilities to buy alternative energy — it's called net metering — most limit the amount of power a utility is obligated to buy. In Georgia it's .2% of the system's peak load. If it's unreliable the power company won't treat it seriously.
The key to making alternative power reliable is storage. When I first approached this subject, I assumed the best way was to turn electricity into hydrogen, then store-and-forward the hydrogen in some way, either as a gas or as liquid ammonia, NH3.
Turns out that's not the only way to go about it, and right now the power loss from the round-trip hydrogen conversion makes it uneconomic anyway.
Most current mass energy storage methods — raising water, compressing nitrogen, underground heat storage, wind bags — are still on the drawing board. Two are not:
- Beacon Power is building a 20 MW plant in upstate New York (above) that uses a flywheel, spinning on magnets, to store power until it's needed. The company says it can scale this to the GW range.
- General Compression uses excess power to compress air, which is stored underground, and then released to create power when needed. It's planning a commercial launch next fall and is backed by, among others, Duke Energy, so it should have customers.
Both these plants are relatively small. Even a 1 GW plant will only handle the energy needs of a single office building for a year. That's why the New York Power Authority is still looking to fuel cells, which run on hydrogen, as the long-term solution.
The problem with current fuel cells, of course, is where the hydrogen comes from. It comes from natural gas. Having hydrogen produced directly, at a solar, wind, or geothermal plant, then piping it using the same infrastructure natural gas now uses, is what I consider a long term solution. But it's still a long way away. Those natural gas pipelines we have now are all in use. It would cost serious money to build an overlay system, based on hydrogen.
Encourage the construction of new lines and the natural gas industry might eventually have excess capacity hydrogen can take over, unused lines worth buying, but any such system would have to be isolated from what currently exists, and that will also take money.
All this is early days. It's good people are thinking about these things, and good that solutions are in the works. But it's cold comfort to people who want to generate alternative power right now that the grid is not yet ready for them.
I agree that alternative energy such as wind energy and Solar Energy are not flexible compared to natural gas and coal. As they are completely dependent upon the sun and the wind. However, fossil-based energy is not renewable, and is depleted as we continue utilizing it, may even come to the point of scarcity and this would be really costly for an average family. Alternative energy can help avoid situation.
I agree that alternative energy such as wind energy and Solar Energy are not flexible compared to natural gas and coal. As they are completely dependent upon the sun and the wind. However, fossil-based energy is not renewable, and is depleted as we continue utilizing it, may even come to the point of scarcity and this would be really costly for an average family. Alternative energy can help avoid situation.
Solar energy is also not renewable. Wind power is also not renewable. Oh – you mean to say those panels last an eternity? Oh – you mean to say those wind-things last 4,000 years? Lol of course not. Now, use your brain – I know it’s hard for a liberal but give it a try. What needs to happen when one of those things reaches the end of its useful life due to breakdown of reduced efficiency? Well – try again.. think. Of course – they need to be replaced! Good jobbie, lefto. And…. what is required to make those things? Think….. Eventually you’ll learn leftie – your ideals are just that. So. We’ve just proven that there’s no such thing as renewable energy.
And by the way, the proven reserves of oil and gas are higher now than 40 years ago (when the world was supposed to be doomed already because your ideoligical loser-fathers predicted that there would be no energy left.)
Always fun. Facts hurt so much for the liberals. I just laugh at them. They circle the wagons when confronted with facts and as a kind of pavlov reaction they start screaming ‘racist!’ in all directions. It’s truly funny.
Solar energy is also not renewable. Wind power is also not renewable. Oh – you mean to say those panels last an eternity? Oh – you mean to say those wind-things last 4,000 years? Lol of course not. Now, use your brain – I know it’s hard for a liberal but give it a try. What needs to happen when one of those things reaches the end of its useful life due to breakdown of reduced efficiency? Well – try again.. think. Of course – they need to be replaced! Good jobbie, lefto. And…. what is required to make those things? Think….. Eventually you’ll learn leftie – your ideals are just that. So. We’ve just proven that there’s no such thing as renewable energy.
And by the way, the proven reserves of oil and gas are higher now than 40 years ago (when the world was supposed to be doomed already because your ideoligical loser-fathers predicted that there would be no energy left.)
Always fun. Facts hurt so much for the liberals. I just laugh at them. They circle the wagons when confronted with facts and as a kind of pavlov reaction they start screaming ‘racist!’ in all directions. It’s truly funny.
Excuse me Peng, do you think the boiler in a coal-fired plant lasts forever? Having worked around them all my career, I’ve seen the constant replacement of boiler tubes, piping, flue liners, etc. that goes on. Can you not wrap your small mind around the fact that the extraction machinery and the source of energy are two different things? Who knows if your claim about proven resources is true but what is true is that demand for energy as the remainder of the world moves into the 20th century is outstripping our ability to provide it. Solar and wind power ARE renewable…and eternal (as far as us humans are concerned).
Excuse me Peng, do you think the boiler in a coal-fired plant lasts forever? Having worked around them all my career, I’ve seen the constant replacement of boiler tubes, piping, flue liners, etc. that goes on. Can you not wrap your small mind around the fact that the extraction machinery and the source of energy are two different things? Who knows if your claim about proven resources is true but what is true is that demand for energy as the remainder of the world moves into the 20th century is outstripping our ability to provide it. Solar and wind power ARE renewable…and eternal (as far as us humans are concerned).
I see you have met our pet troll, Gary. Not to worry, he’s fairly harmless. He just likes to contradict people, thinking anyone who disagrees with his ideology is a bad person. A profoundly anti-American attitude, I know, but one that has survived throughout our history. As we’ll survive him.
I see you have met our pet troll, Gary. Not to worry, he’s fairly harmless. He just likes to contradict people, thinking anyone who disagrees with his ideology is a bad person. A profoundly anti-American attitude, I know, but one that has survived throughout our history. As we’ll survive him.
Gary, Thanks for responding. To answer your question – of course boilers are not ‘renewable’. But the interesting part is this: I didn’t say that. There you go – your balloon deflated. Your eyes went red of anger before your mind was able to reason lol! And Dana – good to see you’re still trying to ignore me! All those damn facts to deal with right? Lol – let’s flee to ideology 2! (after the balloon of The One deflated).
Always great to see leftists getting entangled in their own ramblings. And it of course never fails – when they get angry they start screaming ‘hate, hate!’. By the way Dana, we haven’t heard your Bush Bashing lately – I mean, he was the cause of almost everything evil in the world right? Including the millions of murdered babies in the woombs – the murders of which you approve wholeheartedly but still hypocritically go to your seeker-sensitive watered down church.
Oh – and are you driving that hybrid already? Guess not.
Gary, Thanks for responding. To answer your question – of course boilers are not ‘renewable’. But the interesting part is this: I didn’t say that. There you go – your balloon deflated. Your eyes went red of anger before your mind was able to reason lol! And Dana – good to see you’re still trying to ignore me! All those damn facts to deal with right? Lol – let’s flee to ideology 2! (after the balloon of The One deflated).
Always great to see leftists getting entangled in their own ramblings. And it of course never fails – when they get angry they start screaming ‘hate, hate!’. By the way Dana, we haven’t heard your Bush Bashing lately – I mean, he was the cause of almost everything evil in the world right? Including the millions of murdered babies in the woombs – the murders of which you approve wholeheartedly but still hypocritically go to your seeker-sensitive watered down church.
Oh – and are you driving that hybrid already? Guess not.
It is very nice content which you are sharing with us.I think we people need to do something better for this.We should share this content everywhere.It will be good for us.
John
It is very nice content which you are sharing with us.I think we people need to do something better for this.We should share this content everywhere.It will be good for us.
John