Alain Sepeda <[email protected]> wrote:
> 2- shared devices are too much regulated and taxed to be affordable/usable. > > 2 will be probably true untill utilities die... > That is an interesting point. Come to think of it, a small shared electric grid should be highly regulated. It would be a dangerous thing to have in the neighborhood. You don't want power lines installed by amateurs going from one house to another. A small neighborhood Wi-Fi system would run at very low power and would not be dangerous. I think that individual installed generators are much safer than a micro-grid. We already have these. Many houses have natural gas-fired standby generators, especially out in the countryside where power is unreliable. Nowadays, PV electricity is becoming cost competitive with conventional generator electricity. It is becoming more popular in the US, although it is still below 1% of all electricity. (Wind is 5%.) Power companies are starting to panic. They are passing laws and regulations to prevent the use of PV. Where that fails they are trying to put into place surcharges to discourage it. One of them wanted to charge $100 a month to people to have PV electricity. The regulator refused to let them charge that much so they ended up charging $5 per month. See: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/alec-calls-penalties-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy The power companies claim they need the $100 because people with PV electricity are getting a free ride on the electric grid, tapping into it only when they need it. This makes no sense. It is like saying that people who have gas-fired stoves and water heaters are getting a free ride because they do not have to pay for electricity to cook and heat water, so they should pay anyway. Except they have to pay for, um . . . natural gas. People who have PV electricity pay for the PV panels. Why should they have to pay for energy twice? Actually it is not so much the power companies making these ridiculous claims and trying to stop PV electricity. It is the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil and the other usual suspects at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), including 103 Republicans and 1 Democrat. I sense a pattern. See: http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F If you are curious to know who will lead the fight against cold fusion once it becomes generally known that the effect is real, just glance at this list. You can be sure the attacks will be paid for by the Brothers Kotch, and the people in the television spot ads claiming that cold fusion is dangerous, expensive, destructive, and communistic will include Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich and the others listed here. I can predict that with the same assurance I predict the sun will rise in the east tomorrow. The power companies will use similar tactics to prevent the use of cold fusion that they now deploy against PV. That is another reason to make cold fusion generators completely standalone with no connection to the power company grid. If there is a connection, the power company will claim the right to regulate or control the generator. If there is no connection it will be none of their business. - Jed
