Turn the sun off!!!

[P-hack]

well PF is a factor (hyuk), the correcting needs to be near the source to not affect the grid. And I don't know that a properly designed inverter is going to deviate from PF=1 much (I mean what's the point of designing a "faulty" inverter)? I think folks are going to have to get creative with how to use excess peak power, or minimize it somehow.

[CFECO]

jamesqf

Hawai'ian electric generation has always seemed really strange to me: they ship in fossil fuel to run generators when they're quite literally sitting on top of what's probably the second biggest (after Iceland), if not the biggest, geothermal resource on Earth? Meanwhile the geothermal plants at the piddling little hot spring up the road from me have been cranking out ~100 MWatts for decades...

In different areas Geothermal can have different problems with recovery. I worked for a company, who in the 70's Fracked a Geo-well for the DOE near Los Alamos New Mexico. The results were positive but there was so much Sulfur in the down-hole strata, the resulting steam was too acidic with Sulfuric Acid to allow the Equipment to live very long. I went by the site last year and it brought back many memories...Anyway, Geo-thermal wells cannot be done "Just Anywhere" there is hot rock close to the surface. We even have a well drilled by Exxon for IBM here in Tucson, I believe in the Eighties, the tests showed potential for power production.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Of course to get at the Geothermal energy requires (wait for it) Fracking.

Wrong. There may be some low-quality resources where fracking has been used, but it's certainly not required, especially for high-quality sources like Hawai;i. Suggest you read up on the tech.

[CFECO]

Where there is an Injection well and a Retrieval well, fracturing the rock is required to get the water-steam from one well to the other. It also increases the "Area" of absorption.

[gone-ot]

For better-or-worse, "fracturing" is the down-hole physical equivalent of a radiator, both of which perform the process of gathering as much HEAT as possible into the coolant/fluid as possible, ie: maximum surface area.

[Cobb]

Beats the hell out of me, but I assume it goes to my neighbors. In all I have a hundred dollar power bill, so I use mo than I give,but those moments when the meter stops or spins backwards are lovely.

Plan B if I couldnt bank power in the grid I would use a charge controller in the mix with some batteries so I can store power and use the surplus for the grid tie inverters during the day.THen at night use the batteries charge for the grid tie inverters.

Originally Posted by P-hack

So what do you do with excess power even during the times when the company says they can't accept it? I think you still need local storage options (or use it to cool some thermal mass?) and your generation capabilities need to be "right sized", or even undersized. You can't really expect a company to invest in infrastructure that makes it easier to lose customers or turns them into a customer, with a peaky supply. A government entity on the other hand...

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by Cobb

..but those moments when the meter stops or spins backwards are lovely...

Yes, and equally unlovely to the company But local storage is the only solution that doesn't tie your excess to the grid, and hence to the company. I can see more and more companies playing this "excuse" and I don't think it is their problem to solve since they didn't create it and there is negative incentive.

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by P-hack

since they didn't create it

To be clear, I'm not entirely convinced they didn't create it. I have trouble imagining the network topology where the wires would be more taxed with multiple sources and fixed demand (as long as you don't put out more than your service rating) Maybe some components in the network have trouble w/reverse power flow or something...

[Cobb]

Funny you should mention that. It wasnt long ago when the leaf came out that there were articles about how evs could be used as banks to even out electrical load and how your ev could pay for itself by connecting it to the grid when not being driven.

[Cobb]

I use to work for a company that sold utility trucks. In some areas they lease lines, lease telephone poles, etc.

Originally Posted by P-hack

To be clear, I'm not entirely convinced they didn't create it. I have trouble imagining the network topology where the wires would be more taxed with multiple sources and fixed demand (as long as you don't put out more than your service rating) Maybe some components in the network have trouble w/reverse power flow or something...