Shocked! Shocked to hear the EIA underestimates renewables! October 22, 2017
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid.Tags: solar power, wind power, year in review
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When I was still on the front lines of the PV market, we would look forward to receiving the latest US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) reports. Invariably they predicted a price for PV that was much higher than what we were shipping it out at retail, and every year we managed to ship a non-insignificant portion of what they said the entire US’s installations would be.
Error? What error?
Everyone knew their predictions were way off, but as the official mouthpiece of the industry it was hard to argue that they weren’t the “official numbers”. Well no longer; the Natural Resources Defense Council had Statista review the EIA’s numbers, and it makes me laugh all over again.
LED lighting April 23, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid.Tags: energy efficiency, power grid
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Buy some, trust me.
I thought I’d put up a little post about my latest power bill.
Now that you’re all hanging on the edge of your seat…
Renewable growth in the US: 1, 2, 3 March 14, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid.Tags: power grid, wind power
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They’re popping up like weeds!
Three reports that came out about the same time highlight the dramatic changes to the US power mix which is going on largely without comment outside the nerdy circles (like this one).
The long and short is this: wind power in the US will double to about 10% in the next five years, and make up something like 35% of the US grid by around 2050. That’s fast, but solar is going in ever faster, outpacing wind. Coal is disappearing, while gas turbines take up its place.
As always, this is really about cost. Wind turbines and gas plants are far, far less expensive than any non-hydro conventional source. PV isn’t that far behind. Coal plants are actually more expensive than any of these, nuclear even more. And that, basically, is that.
Too slow and steady: household battery packs are going to take a while October 25, 2014
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid.Tags: batteries, energy storage
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That can’t be good.
I would like nothing more than to have an inverter and battery pack in my home.
The recent ice storms left us without power for just over three days in the dead of winter. We had a gas stove in the basement and some great camp lights that kept us going, but camping in your own basement without any form of communications gets boring fast. I’d love to have backup power, but at something north of $15k, I have other things to worry about.
So it’s with some sadness that I saw recent numbers from Sandia Labs that suggest I’m going to have to keep waiting a while before I can actually afford a whole-home UPS (uninterruptible power supply), but not for the reasons I thought.
Japan’s rapid switch to PV September 30, 2014
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid, solar.Tags: solar power
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Kagoshima Nanatsujima PV plant
I came across this article mentioning that Japan has installed 11 GWp of renewables in the last two years. That’s not record-setting by any means (the US beats that), but definitely worthy of comment for a couple of reasons…
Future grid: energy and transport September 16, 2014
Posted by Maury Markowitz in power grid.Tags: electric cars, power grid, solar power, wind power
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I was watching the fairly silly Extant last night and saw a bit of tech that caught my eye; it was a burner cell-phone powered by a chemical reaction you started by twisting it like a glo-stick. It’s a little throwaway prop that I just love.
The reason I bring this up is that they also assume every car is electric. Nothing new there, but in this case they use an actual car instead of a made-for-TV model. Lots of Teslas and BMW i3’s.
And that got me thinking. What sort of overall effect is there on the grid if everyone starts driving electric? I know that electric cars use less power overall, but what sort of effect does that have on the big picture?
Well unless I’m doing the math seriously wrong, it looks like the answer is “bring it on!”
Energy Matters 