Many that have hung around the shop here awhile, know that I live about 75% offgrid. My electric power is ALL provided by alternate means, no wires from the grid to me. My water is spring fed and collected at a point higher up the hill than the house, fed by 2″ line to the house. Heating the house is by woodstove and I do not have AC during the summer months (and have never felt the need for it) Air circulation is a simple 12v ceiling fan made for RVs. Where I am still “grid tied” is my propane; I use it for cooking and in my on demand water heater. I’m not exactly on the grid there, I use propane bottles that I take to be refilled, but if something happens and that ‘dries up’, I will have to “figure sumpin out”.
Heres where I point out to people looking at going off grid, why they may want to reconsider. All of this is work. Maintaining the system, storage of accumulated power needs regular maintenance. Making sure panels are uncovered of snow or leaves, so that when you do get the light, they can do their thing. Making sure that wind genny is free to turn into the wind and spin freely to make electron flows: making sure annually, that the tower is secure and not going to crack up when things get wild in the westher department.
And I keep a backup generator on hand for those times like this past week, when its low wind and NO sun for an entire week. Battery banks do not take getting depleted very well and sometimes do not recover. Batteries are what hit ya in the wallet like a piledriver to the head.
Texas is finding out about that need right now aren’t they? Ouch! What really hurts about that would be that at least 2/3rds of the population down there had zero clue where the juice came from and likely didn’t care so long as it flowed.
And how many people made bank on kickbacks for a failure prone system with no backup.
My system is my issue and no others. I have said it here and in my little book, that going renewable should be at the immediate and local area for reliability, and to make it an infrastructure base is asking for problems.
Even hydro power has cycles that need reinforced of some sort, be that fossil, gas, or nuke. A Dam built 50 years ago will not have the capabilities of the locality currently, simply due to population growth. A Dam built 50 years ago may be having silting issues as well. Eventually a dam will be a wall leading to a shallow marshland or peat bog as the silt builds and fills the cavity behind the dam. Granted, this may take a century or more to happen, is able to be alleviated, but it is something the long term needs to consider.
If every home had a small set of panels, or wind genny, or waterwheel if such were feasible in the location, the loads on the infrastructure would stabilze. The problem is more that people don’t want the added work in their lives to administer to those things. They pay for the convenience of plug and play, and “green energy” ISN’T good at plug and play. Its great for things like roadside lighting that has intermittent useage, like school zones. Or for pumping water to a reservoir during peak sunlight hours. Things that dont need daily or continuous use and can be automated to take advantage of peak power or facilitate closed system / maintenance free storage cells. To use those megawattage windgennys as the foundation for a surge prone system is just asking for a bullet through an ass cheek: and Texas just took that bullet.
I also read this morning that many of the electric vehicle owners in the Iowa area are finding a little glitch in their chosen transportation model. Litium batteries HATE cold weather. Charge capacity is severely diminished when temps drop below 10C. That 300 mile range on your Tesla Roadster might become 50, or 5. And there you are, side of the road near a potato field in the middle of East boofoo, with no motive power, no heat, and likely no cell service.
Battery powered cars are and will remain toys until such a time as battery capacity equals or exceeds power to weight ratios of fossil fuels. Hybrid vehicles are the current compromise and hold some promise, but there is still that power to weight aspect. You can not violate the laws of physics like the Demonrats and Repugnicants violate human laws. Elon Musk and his engineers know it, and he is one of the biggest Toy car makers around, and keeps trying to find that magic recipe. I wish him luck on it, I really do, but if/when it happens, it will be a world changing event just like steam power and the gasoline engines were. All the paradigms will shift. (For Heinlein readers, think Shipstones, and all the societal changes ‘free energy’ created.)(for those out of the loop, Shipstones were a big part of the plot in “Friday”)
Good luck Texans. Ya might want to start demanding a couple nukes or natural gas plants be built ASAP.
