Solar panels on my roof reduce my heating load a significant amount. Good design of homes and home sites make a difference. Part of solarization will be automatic attention to such things.
On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 9:27 AM, Robert Bruninga via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > > The more I think about it, the more I think that the grid's days are > numbered. > > No, not that it'll go away entirely -- at least, not for a lifetime or > more. > > Exactly the opposite. First, back east here, 90% of homes cannot do solar > because of shade. And the value of shade in the summer lowering the cost > of AC is almost as valuable as solar panels on that same area. > > No, the grid will always be here, its just that its funciton will evolve > to meet the two-way distribution of power everywhere. Nothing can beat > the value of moving power around over the cost of storing it (generally) > though on site storage for PEAK instantaneous currents will be needed. > This is several minutes of capacity not whole days of storage. > > The savings will come in having to use less copper over long distances. > The grid is currently built like a tree with a huge massive trunk thinning > out to the leaves. The future grid will be more like English Ivy growing > everywhere supporting more leaves than a tree but with no vine larger that > a pencil. > > Bob, Wb4aPR > > But, rather, that, in ten to twenty years, people will be as comfortable > not having a grid connection as they are today not having a landline > telephone. > > Right now, we're about where we were when the Motorola brick mobile phone > came out...a few people had already had ludicrously expensive car phones, > and the brick was only "portable" in the same sense that a Mac Classic > was...but, if circumstances worked out and you had the money, you could do > away with an AT&T phone entirely -- even if not many actually did unless > they were far enough from civilization that AT&T wouldn't run a line out > to you. > > Today, of course, even schoolchildren have their own smartphones, and most > Millennials can't imagine why they'd possibly want a landline. For that > matter, Millennials don't even use voicemail or email -- mostly just text > and chat, and not even that much voice calling. > > If the power companies want to prolong their relevance and position > themselves as best as possible for a post-grid world, they're going to > have to lead the way on things like V2G. A great way to start would be > subsidies for EVs in exchange for V2G rights. They could do the same with > plain old fixed battery banks. The power company could retain ownership of > the batteries in exchange for reduced rates and a guarantee of > uninterrupted service in the case of an outage. Or, if you want to own > your batteries yourself, the utility could provide a smart meter that > advertised both the amount they're going to charge you for usage and how > much they're willing to pay for backfeed, and you can provide similar > information to the meter. Program your local controller with variables > such as the current charge in your batteries and your anticipated usage, > and it adjusts the prices it advertises accordingly. You naturally wind up > buying power when cheap and selling it when expensive, and the ut ility > does likewise, nicely leveling out both grid load and electricity prices > at the same time. > > Instead, of course, the utilities are dead set against change...just like > the landline phone companies that fought number portability, the utilities > are determined to penalize those who fail to use electricity in the way > the utilities are used to. Solar producers, whom they should see as their > best customers, are their prime target...which just hastens the demise of > the grid. Just as people would rather put up with the hassle of getting a > new number than continue to do business with a company that would be > dickish about letting them leave, so, too, are people going to prefer the > expense and initial inconvenience of going to an off-grid battery solution > to dealing with Ma Bell in an electrician's uniform. > > Cheers, > > b& > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: signature.asc > Type: application/pgp-signature > Size: 801 bytes > Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail > URL: > <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150108/408a86 > bd/attachment.pgp> > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA > (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA ( > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > -- Put this question to yourself: should I use everyone else to attain happiness, or should I help others gain happiness? *Dalai Lama * Tell me what it is you plan to do With your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver, "The summer day." To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas A. Edison <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasaed125362.html> A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. *Warren Buffet* Michael E. Ross (919) 550-2430 Land (919) 576-0824 <https://www.google.com/voice/b/0?pli=1#phones> Google Phone (919) 631-1451 Cell (919) 513-0418 Desk [email protected] <[email protected]> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150109/c535014f/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
