Thanks for the responses everyone. A few quick comments:
Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized AC? That might make the meter run backwards, but it seems counter-intuitive. Also, $200K/year might be today's price, but that number should quickly approach zero. Once a small fraction of their users have negative bills, the electricity company is going to be in serious fiscal trouble. How will the governments keep the electric companies in business? Axil: I assume S-CO2 engines aren't ready for commercial use? Just saw a few stories about Sandia working on them. Will be interesting to see if producers of big expensive turbines do well or not. Seems like cheap, unmanned, redundant, inefficient generators would be better suited for most environments. Like a water heater.. One or two per house. Jed: Thanks for the clarifications on global warming and heat release. The desert example is brilliant. - Brad
