In the world of electricity there are 4 principles that must be balanced:
1) Affordability
2) Reliability
3) Availability
4) Sustainability
It used to be three and balancing them was hard. Now there are 4, with the addition of sustainability.
Solar and wind are cheap only if you can use ALL the power produced when it is produced and only need power when wind and solar are producing. Otherwise, you need some other form of generation to fill in the gaps, or storage to hold until needed. So, maintaining affordability is an issue.
With aging infrastructure and the need for more power to most premises to support electrification, not upgrading the existing grid is not possible, and removing alternate energy networks means the current reliability is not acceptable.
With the loss of schedulable generation, keeping enough power in the system to support customer’s needs and desires is harder.
Solar and wind both occupy more land than the previous generation equipment, meaning there are issues with building as much solar or wind as needed. Small scale wind and solar are expensive compared to large scale wind and solar. In many cases laws and regulations will need to be addressed to support their installation.
These are all issues that any system design must address. Demand response, energy efficiency and re-thinking the workday are all options. Technology may help as well. Unfortunately, it is tough to turn off heating during a polar vortex or cooling during a heat dome without risking some people’s lives. Tearing down existing power plants before they are fully replaced with firm supply (e.g., solar and storage, etc.)
Fusion may in 50 or 200 years become the magic to making the grid work. Until then any plan must include mature technology with known characteristics.
In the next 20 years or so, we will more than double electricity use, while reducing fossil fuel use. Adding new uses for electricity (e.g., data centers, faster wireless infrastructure, etc.) may raise that number still further.
To create the Plan to Zero, we must stop arguing, and stop being divided. We need to, as a society, make decisions. Like it or not we need more poles and wires, more nuclear, more storage, more solar, more electric vehicles, and still more. Utilities, state commissions, and governments need to work together to find pragmatic solutions to these issues.
This completes the Plan to Zero series. Thank you for reading. Now it is up to you, are you ready to stop arguing, and start working together. We only have one planet.
- Plan to Zero
- Plan to Zero - Stop! Don't Do That!
- Plan to Zero - Nega-Watts!
- Plan to Zero - Baseload
- Plan to Zero - Made in the USA
- Plan to Zero - Do No Harm
- Plan to Zero - The electric super speed way
- Plan to Zero - Load Growth
- Plan to Zero - Get out of the Way
- Plan to Zero - Power to the People
- Plan to Zero - This means you!
- Plan to Zero - Measure it Right
- Plan to Zero - Figure it Out
- Plan to Zero - Now Hiring
- Plan to Zero - Another Link in the Value Chain
- Plan to Zero - You got to know when to hold them…
- Plan to Zero - Get out of the Way III
- Plan to Zero - Fail Useful
- Plan to Zero - Dig, dig, and dig some more
- Plan to Zero - It starts with Storage
- Plan to Zero - Red Tape and scissors
- Plan to Zero - The forgotten grid
- Plan to Zero - Raise the bar
- Plan to Zero - Thinking generation portfolios
- Plan to Zero - Time for a real plan