[mdlug] Router - now power.

[Aaron Kulkis]

Peter Bart wrote:
> On Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:38:31 -0800 (PST)
> Allen Majorovic <amajorov at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>>
>> --- On Fri, 11/6/09, Robert Adkins <radkins at impelind.com> wrote:
>>
>>   This is why you don't just build a Wind power only installation.
>> You mix it with Solar and as methods to more efficiently store the
>> energy become available, you build more renewable sources of
>> generation to go above and beyond the peak so that the energy can be
>> stored for later, when less is produced by wind or solar.
>>
>>   -Rob
>>
>> Except that mixing a periodic energy source like solar and an
>> inherently unreliable energy sources like wind with a reliable source
>> like nuclear means that you need base load capacity that would be
>> very nearly, if not actually, the same capacity as you'd need without
>> either wind or solar. Otherwise, when the sun goes down or when the
>> wind doesn't blow you've got a power shortage.
> 
> 	Which would take a major shift for us to deal with. We're used
> 	to having 100% of capacity available all the time, even when we
> 	don't need it.

The problem here is defining "when" that we do and do not "need" power.

If I wake up at 2:30 AM because the smoke alarm is going off,
or if I wake up at 2:30 AM because I suddenly got sick and have
to go throw up, the ability to turn on a light can make all the
difference in the world.

Having actually LIVED with frequent power outages (its a way
of life on military bases in a war zone where all of your
electricity comes from the big noisy diesel generators only
a few dozen yards away, at most), let me tell you, power outages
for even 2-4 hours are no fun, even if you have forewarning
and adequate time to plan around it.

Here in Michigan, in the summer or deep winter, it could be fatal.

> 
>> If you have to have adequate base load capacity to make up for the
>> shortcomings of solar and wind then what's the case for solar and
>> wind? If the base load capacity's nuclear you can't even trot out
>> pollution or carbon release as a negative.
>>
>> Allen
>>