Willem Post's Blog (1,037)

Vermont Senator Bray is being pressured by the starry-eyed, "90% RE by 2050" folks (the latest trend is 100% RE, a nice round number). Many of those RE folks, a.k.a. "stakeholders" are looking to cash in as much federal and state subsidy money as possible, as quickly as possible. They use the mantra of fighting climate change, global warming and job creation. Other RE folks likely have near-zero experience in the analysis of energy systems.

Accordingly, Senator Bray, eager to…

For the past 200 years, we have multiplied from 1.0 billion in 1800 to 7.4 billion in 2016, and will multiply to a likely 9.5 billion by 2050.

Most of them have lived the good life, courtesy of our fossil fuel inheritance. Transitioning to biofuels is like having to get a real job and work for the annual yield, year after year; a yield subject to the vagaries of the weather.

No more freebees from nature that were just lying around for millions of years waiting…

Vermont’s proposed carbon tax is as described in this URL. Proponents claim the carbon tax would be 90% “revenue neutral”, i.e., mostly returned to the economy likely in convoluted ways, via inefficient, ponderous, government programs in the form of “targeted” tax credits, subsidies, rebates, grants, etc. There would be taxpayer and employer tax rebates, but amounts and eligibility were not specified.…

This article has two purposes:

- A review the “100% RE by 2050 Plan for the US”, which is based on wind, solar and miscellaneous. for ALL of US primary energy, as presented in the Jacobson Group Report, issued in May 2015

- A presentation of two alternatives, which include wind, solar, hydro, nuclear and bio energy.

In the past, the Jacobson Group has published similar reports regarding for New York State, California, and the Whole…

It is 7 pm, 29 June 2017 in New England.

Nuclear 29%, gas 56%, hydro 5%, coal <1%, renewables 9%, of which wind 2.3%, solar 0%.

It is 6 am, 30 June 2017.

Nuclear 38%, gas 49%, hydro 4%, coal <1%, renewables 9%, of which wind 0.8%, solar 0%.

https://www.iso-ne.com/isoexpress/

It is overcast, i.e., there is not sufficient sunshine to produce any solar power.

There…

In this article it is shown, the direct emissions of methane and CO2 of the world’s 3.6 billion ruminants is 6.939 billion metric ton of CO2 equivalent per year, and of the world’s 1.0 billion light duty vehicles is 4.830 billion Mt CO2 eq./y; ruminant emissions are about 43.7% greater than LDVs.

Additional ruminant related emissions are due to pasturing, feeding, processing, packaging, selling, etc. of meat and dairy products. For example, in the US, the life cycle CO2 eq.…

National Energy Systems are Wasteful: About 75% of the fossil energy taken out of the ground to generate electricity never reaches the end user as electricity due to various losses from mine or well to user’s meter, and due to changes in embedded energy due to repairs, replacements, enhancements, expansion, etc., of the various systems, from mine or well to meter, plus, for a more inclusive approach, the energy required for the various other activities of the power industry-government…

The purpose of this article is to present major topics relevant to COP21. Independent articles represent most of the topics. The independent articles should be read in sequence.

The entire article and the independent articles are updated/revised as new information becomes available. In that manner, the articles continue as living, real-time documents, instead of remaining a dated, stationary slice of time, a major benefit for the readership made possible by Internet…

Source energy is the energy taken from the earth, such as from a well, a mine, a forest. The energy for exploration, extraction, processing and transport is used to convert the source energy to primary energy for the US economy. The US electrical system uses about 40% of all primary energy.

- Source energy is the energy taken from coal mines, oil and gas wells, and forests for conversion to electricity and heat.

- Primary energy = source energy - energy used for…

Many articles have been written about the comparison of the energy efficiency of gasoline vehicles (E10 vehicles) and electric vehicles, EVs. Most such articles have various flaws. Many studies fail to use the lower heating value of the fuel, or fail to use the correct heating value of the fuel.

This study assumes, for proper comparison purposes, the EV and the E10 vehicles have the SAME drag resistance and rolling resistance, and therefore require the same energy (17.172…

The Vermont Legislature and the Vermont Public Service Board created Efficiency Vermont in 1999. The following year, it began offering services to help reduce energy costs for Vermonters and protect the environment.

Prior to 2000, those services were delivered by Vermont’s 20-plus electric utilities, and the cost was built into the overall utility rates. The city of Burlington, which has a long-standing and successful efficiency program,…

The Montpelier District Heating Plant is a joint project of the City of Montpelier and the State of Vermont to provide local renewable energy to downtown Montpelier. With the rebuilding of the State’s existing central heating plant, modern wood-fired boilers will heat the Capitol Complex and connections will be put in place to expand its service area to City and School buildings as well as connect to private buildings in downtown Montpelier.

Before renovation, the heating…

“NextEra may produce wind energy, but its real business is subsidy mining,” said Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an expert on the energy sector. “Renewables need subsidies because they aren’t economic in the free market. By subsidizing renewables, the wholesale power markets across the country are getting more and more distorted."…

During the past 10 years, solar systems, large and small, have been installed in many areas of the world, especially in southern Germany and southern California. With many small solar systems connected to a distribution system, the passing of clouds causes their output to become highly irregular. When there were few solar systems this was not a problem, but not so with many systems.

Increasingly, battery systems are added to such distribution grids for regulation, i.e.,…

New England has clean energy generation alternatives, other than variable wind and solar energy, which requires the inefficient operation of gas turbines for peaking, filling-in and balancing, and tree burning, which wastes at least 5 out of 6 trees.

NOTE: Wood Source Energy Factor: Losses = Upstream (harvest, chipping, transport, about 2.5%) + Conversion to electricity, including self-use for entire site (about 75%) + Transmission and distribution (about 7%) =…

Some Vermont renewable energy proponents have a fanciful notion of “Making Vermont Energy Independent”. Some legislators repeat it as part of their RE rhetoric and talking points. There is an organization “Energy Independent Vermont”, sponsored by VPIRG that espouses this independence movement, along with a tax on carbon. One such carbon tax envisions raising $520 million per year by 2026.

 …

Hawaii has increased its PV solar systems in recent years. The energy is generated mostly between 10 am and 2 pm, whereas peak demand is later in the evening. Battery systems have been installed to shift a part of the solar energy to peak hours.

https://hawaiienergy.com/about/get-the-facts

Here is a description of a PV solar/Battery system combo.

In Kauai, Hawaii, there is a 52 MWh of battery…

This article shows a method of calculating the CO2 associated with electricity consumption of any state in New England. In this case it was applied to Vermont. At the end of the article is a list of references.

The Energy Information Agency, EIA, calculates CO2 emissions based on in-state fossil fuel electricity generation; Vermont has very little of such generation, i.e., according to the EIA Vermont has a small quantity of CO2 emissions relating to electricity. It is…

WIND, SOLAR AND HYDRO ELECTRICITY COSTS

If massive build-outs of heavily subsidized wind and solar were to occur (at great expense and environmental damage), which would have upstream CO2 emissions, electric grids would gradually become “cleaner”, i.e., have less CO2/kWh.

That approach would take decades, plus the variable, intermittent, grid disturbing, electricity from:

1) Large-scale, ridge-line wind…

This article deals with the energy from source to electrical energy user. The complete pathway must be used to enable evaluation of one energy pathway versus another. First some definitions:

- Source energy is the energy taken from coal mines, oil and gas wells, and forests for conversion to electricity and heat.

- Primary energy = source energy - energy used for exploration, extraction, processing and transport of fuels (coal, oil, gas, biofuels, wastes, etc.) to…