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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2021-02-18, 18:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post
… I'd like to see Novans chime in on what a real next-generation electrical grid would look eventually look like.
We had that discussion a while back right after the Fukashima reactor debacle back in 2011. A lot has changed since then, and I've learned a lot.

1) We need cheap oil, because cheap oil means cheap plastic, transportation, manufacturing, etc. Cheap oil is the biggest reason the cost of solar has come down so dramatically in the last four years.

2) We need nuclear wherever it fits, but too much government oversight has made it too expensive. Let's work on that!

3) Every new home built where there is more than 100 days of sunshine should be required to have at least 1/2 it's daytime electrical needs supplied with solar panels from its own roof, and I actually think it should be closer to 100%.

4) We need cheap oil, because cheap oil is the path to cheap alternative energy. And when alternative is cheap, people will build it. And if you build it …

Yes, I mentioned cheap oil twice, because read it again.

As far as the grid is concerned, the grid needs to be "smaller", not bigger. It needs to be solar-focused, and neighborhood-focused. What I mean by that is that small neighborhoods should be tied together in a small grid of solar-powered homes with modern battery backups that supply power for freezers, heating, emergency lighting, and emergency medical, and they should be limited to something like 100 homes (and each of those homes should have 2 days minimum of battery backup on hand). Those neighborhoods should then be linked together with other neighborhoods such that one neighborhood can help supply emergency power to other neighborhoods. Then, groups of neighborhoods should be linked in larger grid-linked neighborhoods and so on.

And, yes, that sounds counter to my argument (smaller is better). But it's not. The focus needs to be on the home (the smallest individual electrical need), and then the neighborhood the home is in, and then the greater sub-grid, then the major grid, then the state grid, and finally the national grid. Right now, power is generated at the "large" level and delivered to the small home, when a good portion of that power (50%+) should be delivered the other way. We should be an interlinked community of power-generating homes backed up by power-generating power plants. Instead, we all rely on the power plants and home-power is the backup (and in far less than 1% of homes), and when they fail everyone loses. A smaller grid system localizes power outages in small pockets in which others have the ability to divert some of their power to help out in an emergency. Naturally, a long storm could cause issues, but what's new with that?

And all inter-neighborhood power lines and batteries should be buried in waterproof, earthquake proof "bunkers" (perhaps beneath the community square?), while the only exposed transmission lines would be those linking one city with another, and those to the power plants.

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Last edited by kscherer : 2021-02-18 at 19:24.
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