Both the fact and the human cause of global warming, as well as its threat to continued human existence have been amply demonstrated (again and again and again). There is also some evidence (on these lists mostly reported on in the posts of Gar Lipow) that if certain policies are chosen that threat can be, if not averted wholly, at least made more bearable. But the question of power (political power, not electric) is almost always glossed over. Frankly, I do not believe that capitalist societies will ever bring power consumption under control: that the avoidance of the destructive effects of global warming will be possible only in a predominantly non-capitalist world. Whether such a world is achievable is itself doubtful.
Carrol _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom Walker Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 5:44 PM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Structure of the energy system: fossil vs renewables A bit of a digression from the technical issues... there is a notion among techno-optimists like Amory Lovins that with enough efficiency gains economic growth can be "decoupled" from energy consumption. Relative decoupling of energy consumption per unit of GDP is well established but absolute decoupling (where energy consumption has declined and GDP increased) has only occurred seven times in the last 36 years -- and these were "growth recession" years. A closer look at even relative decoupling, though, reveals the dark underside of what it is that is actually being decoupled. The lion's share of GDP uncoupled from energy consumption has not gone to wage earners. One way to interpret this outcome is to view much of the GDP growth of the last three or four decades as a statistical artifact that hasn't trickled down to middle-income earners -- whether because it was redistributed upward, an increase in that items should have been excluded from the accounts as intermediate goods or both. I have posted several charts and more extensive commentary at Ecological Headstand: http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2012/03/unpacking-decoupling-tautolo gy.html On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 2:44 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: Here is an update to the emails I sent earlier about the structure of the energy system and storage technologies: (1) Previously I wrote: "FERC has oversight over electric power lines, it must approve them, but it cannot tell the states where to put them, this is why we don't have a viable interstate electric transmission system. I heard a national expert about these issues say that it will take another multi-day national power outage to make it possible for FERC to get this authority. Right now everybody is opposed, even the progressive governors don't want to cede their authority to site the transmission lines to the Federal government." This national expert was Alexandra B Klass, the talk I attended was videotaped and is on the web at http://ulaw.tv/videos/electric-power-in-a-carbon-constrained-world-3-of-4/0_ 9b8sr2ep her talk goes from minutes 5 to 27. The much more technical article unterlying this talk is Klass, Alexandra B. and Wilson, Elizabeth J., "Interstate Transmission Challenges for Renwable Energy: A Federalism Mismatch", to appear in Vanderbilt Law Review, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2012075 (2) A vivid demonstration of the merit order effect, which shows how much electricity prices are lowered in the middle of the day due to renewables, is http://climatecrocks.com/2012/03/29/why-utilities-fear-solar-power/ This explains why the fossil utilities do not like solar power. Although they say they don't like it because it is too expensive, the real reason they don't like it is that it is too cheap. (3) The combined heat and power "swarm" generation of residual power as pioneered by Lichtblick has only 420 units installed right now, with the market "just a few hundred units a year". Therefore their goal of 100,000 units may never be reached. See http://www.renewablesinternational.net/a-swarm-of-residential-cogen/150/537/ 33356/ I don't think this makes this technology obsolete. It has its place alongside many other technologies. It is appropriate for older bigger buildings which cannot easily be super-insulated and/or retrofitted with more modern ways to heat water, such as preheating the water by the sun and then using heat pump technology to bridge the few degrees for what is needed for showers or dishwashers. And it has the big advantage of delivering power where it is needed in the distribution grid, no transmission needed. Hans _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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