[ausev] AusEV Digest, Vol 31, Issue 8

[Joby Wieser]

John,
 
It’s easy to say “We should develop alternative energy”, but how do you propose that would happen?   The PV industry has been working hard for that cost /KW manufacturing breakthrough that would make solar cost effective for 40 years with very slow improvement.  The Wind farms only work in certain areas and they are far far away from population centers which is why T Boone wants the Feds to get into the transmission line business and even if he gets it built there still has to be a conventional power plant idling on line to back up the wing generation because sometimes the wind just stops blowing like it did for an hour this last march which triggered a capacity emergency that came very close to tripping off large interruptible customers.  As Wind generation becomes a larger percentage of the total generation mix this problem will increase without higher levels of spinning reserve.
 
The bottom line is that the only economic alternative to fossil fuels, Is Fission fuel. Nuclear generation combined with an effective battery technology allowing more people to use electric cars that would be charged at night when demand is otherwise low is our best hope.  
 
Joby

 


      
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