Category Archives: Electric Grid

Generating electricity with biomass at utility-scale in California limited to direct combustion in small 50 MW plants

Posted on January 20, 2020 by

Preface. It’s obviously much easier and more energy efficient to set logs on fire for heat and electricity than to turn them into ethanol.   Burning biomass can’t do much to solve our energy crisis.  To produce just 10% of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biomass, Electric Grid | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Challenges to making California’s grid renewable

Posted on September 10, 2019 by

What follows is a report from the California Energy Commission. But in less bureaucratic language, this may summarize it better (Petersen 2019): “I’ve always been amazed at a strange mental disconnect that’s common among renewable power advocates. On one hand, … Continue reading →

Posted in Grid instability | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Black starting the grid after a power outage

Posted on June 5, 2019 by

Black starts Large blackouts can be quite devastating and it isn’t easy to restart the electric grid again. This is typically done by designated black start units of natural gas, coal, hydro, or nuclear power plants that can restart themselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Grid instability | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Utility scale energy storage has a long way to go to make renewables possible

Posted on May 15, 2019 by

What follows comes from my book “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation” , which is also where you’ll find the references backing up what I’ve written below. I often get letters from people about energy breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Critical Thinking, Electric Grid, Electricity, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Challenges to the Integration of Renewable Resources at High System Penetration

Posted on February 2, 2019 by

Preface.  This overview of challenges for wind and solar written in 2010 is still true today. We are far from being able to reach even a 50% renewable grid (excluding hydropower from the total) given the lack of storage, the … Continue reading →

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Robert Rapier: Oil demand is growing, not shrinking. There is no peak oil demand in sight.

Posted on July 4, 2018 by

[ Yes, this article was published 10 months ago, but with all the attention to fake news today, I thought it would be worthwhile pointing out that peak demand is propaganda, not based on facts. Since the goal of fake … Continue reading →

Posted in Dependence on Oil, Electric Cars, Other Experts, Peak Oil, Transportation | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Can the lights be kept on with distributed generation? 2015 U.S. House hearing on a reliable electric system

Posted on April 20, 2018 by

[ Corporate speakers testify – could they have any self-interest, hope for government grants?  Since Congress often asks the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to write unbiased papers on topics,  why didn’t NAS and National Laboratory scientists speak? Corporations are … Continue reading →

Posted in Congressional Record U.S., Distributed Generation, Grid instability | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Can the lights be kept on with distributed generation? 2015 U.S. House hearing on a reliable electric system

The Lights are going out in the Middle East (New Yorker)

Posted on April 11, 2018 by

Robin Wright. May 20, 2017. The lights are going out in the Middle East.  New Yorker. Six months ago, I was in the National Museum in Beirut, marvelling at two Phoenician sarcophagi among the treasures from ancient Middle Eastern civilizations, … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Blackouts | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Underground pumped hydro storage is the only technology capable of massive storage for renewable electricity

Posted on September 27, 2017 by

[ Picard concludes that “None of the candidate technologies for massive-scale renewable and sustainable generation of ‘‘green’’ electricity deliver it in a form suitable for high-efficiency storage. None of the prospectively-massive storage modes for transformed electricity is at present well … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid, Energy Storage, Grid instability, Hydropower, Renewable Integration | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The electromagnetic pulse EMP Threat: House of Representatives hearing 2005

Posted on March 10, 2017 by

[ Related articles: Russian hackers suspected in attack that blacked out parts of Ukraine How the weapon works (pdf): CRASHOVERRIDE Analyzing the Threat to Electric Grid Operations The EMP Commission estimates a nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill up … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Nuclear spent fuel fire | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment