Our Buddies

[megaladon6]

have you looked at the system?!?!?!? remember about 4-5yrs ago when ONE power station went down and took the entire eastern half of the US with it? the system is designed so that when one section goes down the load shunts to other sections. this way the areas with a power loss is minimized in the event of a failure or a plant going down for maintenance. the system was also designed in the 20's or 30's for a predicted output in later years. their prediction was based on US growth statistics, unfortunately they were blown away by the actual growth, post WW2. and the system WAS NEVER UPGRADED!!! yes it was added on to, it's like adding a supercharger onto your 11:1comp engine without lowering the compression. sure it'll work, for a little while. when the system was operating at peak power output due to hot weather and one plant went down the overload went to the next system, which was already at peak. so the safety sytems shut down the that system to prevent a burnout and it spread like ripples in a pond.
look at the power problems they've been having in california the last few years. the only "good" option without a complete system redesign is to make a bunch more small power plants (but we can use green sources for this) and a "circuit breaker" setup. this way when one area goes down, it's the only one and the area's size is limited to that of a smaller station. or we need to start building nuclear reactors and LOTS more power lines.

it's much like the bridge collapses, last year the infrastructure was never upgraded like it should have been.
so you know, this is something we were taught about in my nuclear field electricians mate a-school. (this was long before the massive outage, but they had taught us about this weakness and why it was there.)

 

[Tony_SS]

Yes, I do remember the rolling blackouts they held it California, it was a well known market manipulation exercise to pervert the supply and demand system thus contriving shortages to increase their own profit margins. They have since ceased with the demise of Enron and subsequent arrest and conviction of CEO Ken Lay. :idea:

 

[megaladon6]

and they still have a power problem there, just like the one that caused the eastern half black outs.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Exactly, no one has the money to plop down up front, only to hope it pays for itself in the years to come. Plus, the market is slim for solar tech being that only a handful of states would really benefit due to the climate. It's just not feasible on many levels.

Then why is Germany leading the world in the deployment of solar technology? It has the same latitude ( or is it longitude?) as the American Northeast, yet it has been very successful. Solar does not need to be done by an individual only, it can be done by large corporate interest as well. There is a company in Sarasota Florida that has a leasing plan where it installs the system and then you lease it from them at a set rate.

Like I have said before, in 10 years max Solar will be huge and start to replace other forms of electrical power generation. It makes economic sense on too many levels not to. Power companies no longer would require as much infrastructure, nor the large expensive power generation plants in order to provide power. Linking homes together with a battery station would allow for localizing generation, and limit the problems associated with power outages. Plus, there would be less of a need for large rights of way for overhead cables which so many communities do not want in their back yard.

 

[Tony_SS]

and they still have a power problem there, just like the one that caused the eastern half black outs.

... if you say so. I agree there is a power problem though. :wink:

Then why is Germany leading the world in the deployment of solar technology? It has the same latitude ( or is it longitude?) as the American Northeast, yet it has been very successful. Solar does not need to be done by an individual only, it can be done by large corporate interest as well. There is a company in Sarasota Florida that has a leasing plan where it installs the system and then you lease it from them at a set rate.

Define successful....Just because they are heavily vested in the tech, doesnt mean it's most efficient there.