Keeping the lights on.
Just in from a local community expo on renewable energy. This is after a day of negotiations to put another 12 kw of solar on our Community Technology Centre which will double our current capacity. It was so good to see the turn out, local community owned energy company was there, my credit union was there, local insers as well as our local council.People from throughout the district considering solar. Yet our Federal Government is still pushing coal powered power stations. Front page of my internet news if the possibility that we will run out of fuel next month as an indirect result of the bombing of Syria. We have been telling the government for years we need a 1000% increase in our reserves. But they won't listen. Wish I had my electric car now.
9
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4 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Hi - do you have energy storage with that solar? Various trade-offs and considerations here, depending on your use, but just curious.
kmaz
Level 7
Apr 16, 2018
1
I don't have energy storage with solar at this stage, we import so little from the grid a battery set up would take a few hundred years to cover the cost at the moment. I am thinking of it to cover blackouts, but they are rare. Apart from the refrigerator, everything has smaller battery backup, computers can run for a day, lights for a few days without power.We export minimum 30kwh per day to the grid and only import 2 over night. So the battery option will be a hard one, Even at work I looked at it, but we are only open during the day.
US businesses, towns, and cities are going green much faster than the coal and oil companies want. Even the car companies have abandoned ICE cars, after Elon Musk announced the Tesla Model 3, and within 24 hours had 100,000 pre-orders at $1000 each and an expected 2 year delay before delivery. In the entire history of car announcements, no car before the Model 3 had shown such a customer response. Shortly thereafter, every major auto manufacturer said they would produce EVs. It is extremely good news, but the UN says millions of people are dying from climate change; we need to help the move to renewable energy and EVs.
EdEarl
Level 8
Apr 16, 2018
2
Our uptake of EVs is far too slow here, but it is coming.
Often one must hit bottom before real changes happen. I remember reading years ago about the massive drought in Australia and the steps that were done to make people more aware of the importance of not wasting water.
However, just remember, as long as there is a population growth, from any source, nothing you do will be sustainable.
JackPedigo
Level 9
Apr 16, 2018
3
We are also having huge water issues, hmmm, both our main political parties are pushing for population growth. They are far from intelligent.
@Rugglesby it is what many politicians do. In their mind growth is absolutely necessary for economic stability. We still have what is known as cornucopia not economists running and ruining much of the world. They are simply not smart enough to come up with an alternative and sustainable economic model.
@JackPedigo exactly, increasing the population is a way of increasing GDP without actually producing or achieving anything.
I don't see much reason to think world governments will succeed in combating resource depletion, environmental degradation, or over population. On the other hand, I also expect those institutions to fail colossally. Keep worrying about you and your neighbors. As for Syria, convening world leaders repeatedly, sending an armada half way around the world, and dropping $224 million in ordinance alone on abandoned targets is exactly the kind of asymmetric response you'd use as an example when describing counter insurgency pyric victories. That type of military response is short lived for our world.
EricWalton
Level 3
Apr 24, 2018
1
Agree, I can't seeing them fixing anything either, the boulder rolling down the hill has built p too much momentum, too late to stop it now.
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