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Originally Posted by Big Dave
1. The Germans' plan would require a big increase in T&D lines to wheel power about the country. When was the last time a T&D project of any size was done in the US? Last one I can think of was a 25 mile interconnector link that Schwartzenegger pushed through eminent domain to mitigate the power wheeling problems CA had in the early part of the decade. The German plan would require thousands of miles of either 765 kV or DC transmission lines. It would take decades to force that through the courts.
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They don't have to run different corridors, they can simply use existing ones, or add capacity for new ones, maybe by using rail corridors for example. That said, it may be cheaper to push through a new corridor than deal with the current owners. CA has a ballot initiative that would turn corridors into a state matter instead of a city/county matter since there's quite a bit of NIMBYism in terms of transmission capacity for renewables such as wind, solar thermal, and geothermal. It may take decades for the lawsuits to work their way through the courts, however the transmission capacity could be built w/ little delay, assuming of course we don't expand current corridors or create new electric corridors via other existing such as rail. IIRC, someone posted an interesting propostion regarding the electrification of rail, which would also provide much of the requisite transmission capacity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Dave
2. A biogas generating plant is still a generating plant and still subject to New Source Review. for the US we are not talking dinky little 70 Mw peakers. We are talking 400 Mw minimum. Not to mention the emissions from the gasification process itself. Surely nobody things that destructive distillation of cellulose is going to occur without air pollution. It would take at least a decade to get the permit and years more of court challenges.
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Yes, unfortunately we can't just burn whatever we find w/o controls for pollution. That said, you can't seriously state this is a practical obstacle to biomass used for electricity generation, especially when cellulosic ethanol plants have already gotten the go ahead in the state with the
nations' harshest AQ rules. Yes emissions systems cost more, and states require their installation because they don't want to end up paying for the health problems and lost productivity (read taxes) from power plants, automobiles, or whatever happens to be producing said emissions.
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Originally Posted by Big Dave
3. Most of the good pumped storage sites in the US have already been developed. In the West you get into water rights issues. In the Midwest and Middle South you have no delta-y. Once again you are talking more than a decade to get the necessary permits and fight off court challenges.
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Fortunately for us we already have way more pumped storage, as a proportion of electricity generated, than Germany does. Yes, I know, it would be so hard for us, with greater resources, to do what those Germans can do with fewer resources...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Dave
5. The only idea that is not poisoned is the vanadium redox battery, and it is still at a primitive stage. The technology is at least a decade away from application if some lawyer doesn't find a way to challenge it in court for decades more.
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It's nice for short term load balancing, but it just isn't cost effective on a scale large enough to make a difference, at least compared to a decent mix of renewable sources.