Comments hdsolarguy has made

On-Grid Solar Costs

The advantage of on-grid solar is that you only have to meet your average electricity needs, rather than your peak needs.

For example, a avg house in San Diego using about 800 kWh per month requires a 6 kW (DC) system that will produce 792 kWh/month of electricity. That is (30) 200-watt panels.

At $.15/kWh that is equivalent to a $120/month electric bill.

During the daytime, the house produces more than it needs but the extra is sold back to the utility at prevailing rates, literally rotating the meter backwards for credit.

At night, the house "withdraws" the power which was "deposited" during the day, spinning the meter forwards again.

Solar homeowners in CA pay their electric bills only once per year -- at the end of 12 full production months -- and pay the difference between what they produce and what they use (the "net").

See video at www.stellarsolar.net/how.html

In San Diego, a system like this -- installed by professionals -- will pay for itself in about 8 years. Or immediately if you consider the solar house now has a higher market price.On A smart grid, yes. A new national grid, no. posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago 27 Responses

Some hard numbers to back this up

Courtesy of John Petersen at Seeking Alpha: "The nameplate capacity of U.S. generating facilities is about 1 million Megawatts (MW), so if all of our power plants ran 24/7 we would have a theoretical annual generating capacity of 8.7 billion Megawatt-hours (MWh). Since demand for electricity fluctuates on both a daily and seasonal basis, total electric power generation in 2007 was only 4.2 billion MWh, or less than 50% of nameplate capacity. The goal of the Smart Grid is to maximize the efficiency of existing generating facilities and accommodate the integration of renewable power resources."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/119404-smart-grid-s-enabl ...On A smart grid, yes. A new national grid, no. posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago 27 Responses

World Wide Web of Electricity

There is a new world wide web emerging right before our eyes.

It is a global energy network and, like the internet, it will change our culture, society and how we do business.  More importantly, it will alter how we use, transform and exchange energy.

Enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year.

There is no energy supply problem, there is an energy distribution problem -- and the emerging solution is a new world wide web of electricity.

For more information, see http://www.terrawatts.comOn Obama talks up electrical grid improvements on cable tv -- seriously, I have video evidence posted 1 year ago 11 Responses

re: Utilities

I was told years ago that electric utilities would gradually evolve from being in the "energy-making business" to the "energy-MOVING business." With the growth in renewables, that seems to be finally happening. Some of us think a new global energy network is evolving which will forge a new global energy marketplace. For more information, see http://www.terrawatts.com
On Innovation from the nation's most progressive electricity providers posted 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses