Ok friends, I need your help. I’m trying to form an intelligent point of view on something that’s been bugging me for some time. The topic is the feasibility of small scale grid connected solar or wind.
Yesterday Diane and I went two Bread and Puppet up in Glover. In one of the political skits, the characters were making fun of ‘industrial power’ like our own Green Mountain Power… And we’re making the point that they supported small local power from solar and wind. I’ve often heard my friends talk that way..but as a scientist.. I’m not so sure I agree. While I could not be more committed to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels… I am not sure i get the economics nor the ecological sense of small scale installations.. On one hand, I love the consciousness raising aspect of seeing more small scale solar panels or wind generators behind folks houses.. But I can’t help thinking until we have a) closed loop metering (aka smart grid) which allows us to adjust generation to instantaneous load and/or b) low cost high capacity energy storage It seems that small scale solar is only feasible because we artificially give financial incentives… And those incentives are probably going disproportionately to middle class or above folks that might not need the break.. I also wonder about the cradle to grave environmental cost (say in carbon ) of manufacturing these complex panel assemblies for such low scale generation. My instinct tells me that what would really make this feasible is simplicity and scale.. That means larger scale fixed position solar installations or larger wind farms .. I know there’s a not-in-my-back-yard aspect to this.. But I think any energy generation change we make is going have pros and cons and will have to come with compromises.
So here’s where I need folks help.. Help me understand if I’m wrong in my thinking.. I may well be.. For example, my good friend gary reasoned that if enough folks got small grid connected solar that even without closed loop metering, the overall average energy load on the grid would decrease which would allow the generation to be reduced somewhat… Though the savings would be limited unless you could predict weather well enough at all the generation points to account for variations in sun or wind..
How can I get a handle on the economics of all this..? Opinions are fine, but i am looking for data and the math to support it . I want to be the best advocate i can for alternative energy…and want to have a well reasoned, fact based opinion. Any pointers most appreciated. !
Nite all, nite Sam
-Jc
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