by KaiserJeep » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 10:23:37
Let me make this part clear: the power grid is a national asset in the same way the Interstate highway system is a national asset. It allows us to move massive amounts of energy from where it is generated to where it is consumed. In the event of a disaster or drought or even widespread destruction due to civil disobedience or warfare, it is still needed.
The microgrids of which you speak are a technique used to harden the grid against cyber attacks and other outages. They are not intended to replace the grid itself and if used for such a purpose, the grid's most usefull characteristic of wholesale power transport "as needed" would be lost. Microgrids are a detail in the grid design itself, not a means to an end. Local grid management - using SmartGrid infrastructure and automation- replaces national management, temporarily and less efficiently, and compromising power availability not enhancing it for the consumers.
In fact, the grid losses today are a few percentage points using high voltage AC transmission, only a tiny fraction of the losses you find in the loads themselves. Power transmission via high voltage DC will even eliminate most of the remaining losses, as well as reducing the maintenance expenses, since the replacement of main AC feeds with DC feeds can and should include the replacement of high tension towers with underground coaxial power feeds.
The big win, and something that is needed irregardless of whether or not we retire carbon-spewing FF power plants with green power plants is the renewal of the consumption side of the power grid. Take for example the Passivehaus standard. That requires in most of the USA that residential walls be 18" to 24" in thickness, free from thermal conductivity paths and with a well thought out scheme for vapor/moisture management that will preserve the structure from rot. The superinsulation, along with orientation for passive solar gains and heat recovery ventilation actually does reduce the power consumption of an existing house built to most local building codes to 10%, and to 25% of a new and current Energy Star compliant structure.
I know, for example, that you have put considerable thought into reducing your space heating costs with added insulation and HVAC equipment re-design. But Passivhaus requires a ground-up approach, and relatively few existing structures can be brought up to those standards. I doubt for example that you imported windows and doors from Europe - but there are ZERO Passivhaus-compliant window suppliers in the USA. Likewise I doubt that you lifted your house off the foundation, and added thermal breaks in the foundation, and layers of insulation under the floor slab. Nor did you make blower door tests at critical points during construction to minimize air infiltration.
Whatever the details, my point would be that structures which cannot pass the new National standards for energy efficiency should be torn down and replaced 50 years from the original construction date. You have to put this requirement in place so that the power consumers have a motive to build in energy efficiency, in both original construction and renewal/remodelling. No exceptions - you are either serious about energy efficiency, or your home can't be sold or inherited, it can only be destroyed.
In a similar way, ICE vehicles which do not run on green fuels would have to be destroyed versus being sold. All existing vehicles would have to meet current national operating and passive evaporative emission standards before they could be traded in or privately sold.
IOW, we have to be serious about everything we are doing in order to completely replace FF's in America. Eventually, even that will not be enough. (I am getting ahead of myself here.) Once your own country has met the ZCE goal (zero carbon emissions) you must be prepared to put in place first economic sanctions, and then to engage in warfare with those countries that do not. THAT is what I mean by serious. THAT is the level of commitment needed to eliminate carbon emissions from residences and businesses and transportation.
KaiserJeep 2.0, Neural Subnode 0010 0000 0001 0110 - 1001 0011 0011, Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 0000 0000 0001
Resistance is Futile, YOU will be Assimilated.
Warning: Messages timestamped before April 1, 2016, 06:00 PST were posted by the unmodified human KaiserJeep 1.0