Comment

Comment by Willem Post on March 26, 2017 at 12:57pm

Thinklike,

Flattening the daily demand curve will improve the utilization of the energy system.

That would lead to a slight reduction in $/kWh.

New England would be much better of by getting an additional 10,000 MW x 8766 x 0.75 MWh/y of low CO2, low cost, hydro energy from Hydro-Quebec as soon as possible, i.e., during the next 5 to 10 years.

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on March 25, 2017 at 4:57pm

Willem,

Thank you. If all vehicle were electric, we'd have to be using an inexpensive electricity source I'd think. I hear stuff like "charge your electric car at night when electric rates are lower". But if everyone did this, the supply & demand would make the once "cheap" rates in the middle of the night skyrocket, right? And also, wind (especially with the transmission and other real costs factored in) would hardly provide low cost electricity.

Comment by Willem Post on March 25, 2017 at 4:38pm

Thinklike,
Owners of electric vehicles should have an electric meter to measure the kWh fed to the batteries.

They should record the miles driven between charging, to determine the real world kWh/mile, instead of some number put out by manufacturers.

If the cost of electricity is low, electric vehicles make economic sense, even in cold climates, because they have heat pumps to maintain battery temperature within desired limits.

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on March 25, 2017 at 3:32pm

Willem, based on what you have written, would then there not be some energy loss simply by charging the batteries of electric cars? If so, is this ever discussed in the utopian rants of the green energy crowd who think we'll all be driving electric vehicles powered by 100% renewable energy?

Comment by Willem Post on March 25, 2017 at 1:55pm

Penny Gray,

The AC electricity from the wind turbines would need to be converted to DC, then fed into the batteries, then discharged from the batteries, then converted from DC to AC, then fed into the grid.

That round trip has an about 20% energy loss few people know about and wind and solar folks prefer not to talk about.

This is true whether the batteries are used for smoothing the variable wind electricty, or for shifting energy from nighttime storage to daytime usage.

Comment by Penny Gray on March 25, 2017 at 8:00am

Thank you Willem Post. So, does that 20%round trip loss translate to a 10% loss of direct feed into the grid from wind turbines that are placed twenty, thirty miles away from the transmission lines?

Comment by Willem Post on March 25, 2017 at 7:39am

Larger percentages of wind electricity would mean increased need for storage capacity, GWh.

As ecomical, utility-/scale storage, other than reservoir hydro and pumped hydro, has not yet been invented, those higher percentages are a pipe dream regarding CO2 reduction, because gas fired gas turbines would need to inefficiently ramp up and down for filling-in, peaking, and balancing the variable wind electricity., using more fuel/kWh and emitting more CO2/ kWh, largely offsetting what wind electricity was meant to reduce.

Any energy storage system would have an about 20% round trip loss.

Comment by Long Islander on March 22, 2017 at 5:46pm

Smith IS the pits.

Comment by Penny Gray on March 22, 2017 at 5:27pm

Interestingly, George testified against open pit mining in Maine while holding a hand carved brook trout and concluded his testimony with these words: 

"Tourism is our biggest economic driver, and I don’t have to tell you that no one comes to Maine to see a mine. But mines could ruin the things that do bring them here – including this beautiful fish.

All I can say is, please, do no harm."  

His testimony was excellent.  It's too bad he doesn't see the fragmentation and industrialization of Maine's mountains to produce tax write offs for corporations and carbon credits for southern New England in the same light as he does open pit mining.

Comment by Dudley G. Gray on March 22, 2017 at 3:57pm

I've been saying this for years but now I will reiterate my points. The subsidies,tax credits etc only enrich the developers. Don't expect a corporation to take a moral position as it it is always in their interest to maximize profit. That is what they are suppose to do. The "all in cost " of wind development would shock any investor who had to risk his own  personal capital.  Construction of components,transportation,destruction of mountains and actual construction does not provide a profit margin but it is not necessary since the project receives .022 KWH guaranteed from ratepayers.

Any entrepreneur would say no,no, no unless he was being bailed out by Federal , State and local taxpayers and by all the subsidies, and tax credits..  What a scam!!!!!!!!!!!

Dudley Gray

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