Editor,
Solar prices decreased 170% in the last 20 years and will decrease far more in the future if we take the right steps to expand solar. California is one of the 10 sunniest states in the country and we are fortunate to be part of the western electrical grid that includes many other sunny states.
This gives California an unparalleled opportunity to generate very low-cost power from solar farms located within the western grid on inexpensive nonagricultural land. It would produce a vast amount of cheap power to lower everyone’s power bills, and not just those who can afford rooftop solar.
For when the sun doesn’t shine, we can use excess solar power from sunny days to make and store hydrogen for later use in existing power plants to generate power until battery prices become affordable. California’s new “gold rush” will be for inexpensive solar power.
Ed Kahl
Woodside
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(4) comments
Ed, the energy utility monopoly has lobbied hard to reduce payments to homeowners who feed electricity into the grid. Why? Because the monopolies want consumers to be dependent upon the monopoly controlled grid, which is where they make their revenue. The problem with huge solar installations in remote areas is they are still reliant on the old brittle, expensive grid, which is increasingly vulnerable to climate risks that cause outages. A better alternative is locally cited micro-grids - on a neighborhood or city-wide scale. Instead of covering swaths of natural habitat, we should cover parking lots (which are solar heat traps anyway), and industrial rooftops - here where we are using the energy, not in some far-flung isolated site. Energy generated locally can be used locally without burdening the wider grid.
Micro-grids have less flexibility with load management and rely heavily of batteries that drive prices up due to their expense. Electricity produced on large solar farms is cheaper than customized roof-top systems Also solar cells can't be turned off while the sun shines. If there isn't a sufficient load, the voltage in roof top solar can increase to high levels which you might not want on your roof. A large grid manager like PG&E can better manage this than a small micro-grid manager. But Assembly Bill 3416 now undermines PG&E's pricing power by letting lower cost solar producers sell their power to PG&E customers and receive a discount for their PG&E bills.
Ed - KDM makes a few good points but what is missing here is that even microgrids need backup as they are by design not as reliable as a macro grid. Thus, a utility like PG&E, would still have to install and maintain a robust transmission and distribution system. At our expense, of course.
A better option, which is being pursued in The Netherlands, is to use the excess or cheap solar and wind electricity to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen is already being piped using former natural gas lines. Besides being carbon-free, hydrogen can also be stored and energy losses resulting from transportation are minimized.
The much-hyped battery storage technology is not penciling out and can only be considered for further development with massive subsidies. As the Europeans are already aware of these pitfalls, we should at the least study their experiences. There are now folks who are pushing a two-way connection of EVs to the grid. Owners of these cars are not made aware that constant charging and depletion of their batteries will shorten their lives. So, they would be looking at a more frequent, and costly, battery bank replacement. And all for what? Just because some off the wall theorist thinks it is a great idea?
Thanks you for your input. Germany and Saudi Arabis have invested $100,000 in a test solar/hydrogen cycle plant. Hydrogen doesn't necessarily have to be piped to an end user but can instead be converted to electricity close to the source and transmitted as electricity. Other hydrogen can be stored for winter use where it's produced. Our politicians seem to have no interest in this because it's so simple and inexpensive and they don't want to "loose" the issue.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.