How to convince industry experts like these authors of this Gristmill article, that an internet enabled grid could be 100% renewably powered without backup fossil/nuclear power or large scale electric power storage systems?

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/7/17/94038/1275#18

We need more of this energy industry insider perspective to hone our arguments.

How to move the debate around to storage/conservation now?  With an internet enabled grid that stores energy in the form of heating/cooling in everything from your home freezer to the thermal mass of malls.

For instance,cool a mall's floor down (using geothermal cooling that uses a fraction of the energy of air conditioning, that's conservation) during hours with lowest power demand and coast on that cooling for the next 24 hours (that's storage), right through the peak demand time.

Since building heating/cooling produces 36% of our GHG emissions,and large scale wind could provide 95% of our grid power already, this indicates there is more than enough buffering capacity in heating/cooling alone to dispense with other storage.

This is without adding the effect of charging plugin vehicle batteries off peak and doing large scale industrial heating/cooling in such a way as to smooth the grid.  Like recycling glass during off peak grid time and using the waste heat to generate power during the peak.

With an internet enabled grid, energy use could be timed over the whole grid to make electrical storage of power unecessary.  Even in a 100% wind/solar powered grid.

Now how to make industry  insiders like the authors of this article realize and incorporate this information about an internet switchable grid into energy policy?  

Show them it is the bottomline profit path of the future.  That motivates the corporate leviathan.  Prodded by a message about profits, then the monstrosity begins to move a bit.

Then utilities will race to compete in this area, with customers all connecting their various high energy use heating/cooling  devices through switches that are controlled by the smart grid.  Eventually plugin vehicles will connect through these switching systems too.

These authors are the ones to convince.  But will they interact on revolutionary concepts like this?  Hard to say.

We have had a number of comments by utility engineers here in the grist blog in the past year.  There is reason to hope!  These voices of everyday working utility engineers were positive and helpfull.  

Board room sentiment?  Less than helpful?  Most likely.

I met several utility execs at the Midwest Renewable energy fair from Wisconsin electric, they were happy to report their new policy of paying 23 cents per kwh to customers for their solar PV electricity and raise the limit on 11 cent per kwh wind to 100kw generators. 

More hope!!  

Wheew, it was fantastic.  15 miles through the rocky, hilly woods of the Keweenaw Peninsula on Lake superior in the UP.

First 600 feet down a steep, winding, slippery trail.  One track over the giant rock covered by a thin layer of soil and Tolkienesque ecosystem.  You expect an Elf, Hobbit, or Dwarf to appear around the next tree or over the next cliff.

15 miles in the summer heat around Manganese lake and next to Lake Fanny Hooe (fanny who?). 

Check out the map and topography. 

http://www.greatlakesendurance.com/objects/maps/keweenaw/25k.pdf

The energy of the participants after this run was amazing.  The whole room with the breakfast after the run was glowing.

The group features a zen earth friendly tude that transcends.  Transcends petty politics and goes right to the source, body, mind, spirit united with the living planet.  Incredible energy!

I was forced to walk back up the 400 foot climb to the finish, but i did not stop to rest and ran into the finish.  13 minute miles.  Pretty slow but I survived.  Excellent.  Slow and steady finished the race at the same speed I started it.  Zen.

Check out the third youtube video on this linked page.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/7/24/01547/5447#10

Edwards says no to nukes.  Obama says that nukes should be part of the mix.

Hillary says conservation, efficiency, and technological inovation.  Payed for by shifting the subsidies for oil companies to the effort.

She leaves a window for nuclear.  If innovation can solve the waste and cost issues, fine.

That comes back to a compromise.  Let thenuclear industry build a few new waste eating, less expensive, demonstrably fail safe reactors as a test project.  Examine the results and then reconsider nuclear.  Can it then be done safely and cost effectively.

This is why Hillary is presidential.  Edwards ought to be Attorney general.  Gore should be energy secretary.  Obama should be VP.  This is how leadership works.  The leader has the full picture, the people on her team have their own areas of competence.

It has notrhing to do with talking out of both sides of ones mouth or putting a finger in the wind.  It has to do with looking at the big picture.

I wish Edwards hadn't mentioned cellulosic ethanol, but at least hillary did not tout corn ethanol.

No one mentioned the GM Volt.  That name ought to have been dropped.

Snow drought here in northern Wisconsin threatening local recreation/tourism economy.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/7/4/102427/4505#8

Thus my July 4th parade sign on my bike, pulled by my sled dog, along with the local democrat's float.

http://www.vilasdems.org/stger.html

SLED DOGS AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING.   SAVE OUR SNOW.  And the local jobs and businesses that depend on it!  

We have a job and business killing snow drought here in northern wisconsin.

Local tourism related businesses depend on snow to power their winter income.  Without it many can't make it.  Snowmobilers are turning to much more destructive ATVs.  They operate year round tearing up trails and emitting GHG.

The sign drew a lot of positive comments and one frustrated attempt at argument by a hefty GOPer.  He claimed Al Gore was responsible for promoting  Tennessee coal mining and creating global warming.  I told him there are a few democrats like Robert Byrd that do pose a problem.  He then claimed republicans don't all want to kill children and pollute the air and water.  

I said, "Except in Iraq, right?"

He replied, "Well we are fighting them over there so they don't attack here."

"Yeah those 300,000 kids that died from water bourne illness in Iraq from the bombing of the water system during 'shock and awe' WERE a real threat to US!" I retorted.

Hehey.  Not much rhetorical power from this plus sized pub.  A Drug Limbaugh fan I suppose.

Overall I think it shows that the GHG related weather problems are  local issues with real political traction.

On/off sensor LEDs could save BIG energy (and GHG), light up walmart for BIG cost savings, and be mass produced by the Chinese/american combine to bring the cost down to consumers.

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/02/led_lights_save.html#comment-74614342

Yep that on/off sensor feature is great!  Automatic light on/off would allow most lighting to operate on solar power alone.

Flourescents take extra power in the turn on phase negating the possibility of saving energy with very frequent on/off cycling.  LEDs do not have that problem.

Imagine you office or home lights, or even lights at a huge store or factory that is open 24 hours only turning on to illuminate the room or area with a human eye in need of light.  That would be a huge energy savings.

The lights at big box stores on/off sensor LEDs on the shelf, instead of giant bulbs glaring down 24/7 from the cavernous ceilings.  pretty signifigant savings for the Walmarts of this world.  And GHG savings for the climate.

Another thought.  walmart, the newly green conscious Walmart, is the main sales push behind compact flourescents.  Could they do the same for human proximity  sensing auto on/off LEDs?  Make them plugin to wall sockets or existing lamp fixtures.

Use them in their own stores on their shelves and mass produce them to bring the cost down to consumers?  And make a few more billion doing it?  Yep. 

Call me walmart if you need a consultant on this, and solar panels and batteries and utility net metering inverters and small wind systems that mount on roofs and telephone poles and electric cars and bikes and motorcycles with small backup generators...  I work from home or wifi!  hehehey.

Who has the corporate power to lobby for distributed renewable energy generation and storage?  Google does.  An eco-friendly corporation of creative people.  Maybe the corporate leopard (at least this one)can change spots?

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/18/23499/4714#17

The Hymotion Prius plugin conversion uses the A123 battery pack.  12.5k extra for that, rumored to be 9.5k when introduced to the public.

The Ford Escape conversion is important too.  why?  Because government agencies like the US Forest service are required to buy american.

My guess is that the good people at google will use this tiny experiment to launch internet billing services for buying/selling renewable energy over the future renewable distributed generation and storage grid.

That will make google the new power company.  Gleaning a few tenths of a cent from each kwh exchanged.  Another mega billion revenue stream?  yep.  

Watch for broadband wireless internet that uses the power grid for a backbone and antenna to enable this necessary leap forward.  

You will sell kwh into the grid, from your solar or wind system at home, or your vehicle batteries or your vehicle backup generator (fuel cell/microturbine running on your own home generated biogas sometime soon) into the grid, then buy some back to recharge your plugin vehicle batteries at work or the shopping center or school or even inductive (the new tuned resonant induction system from MIT) strips under the highway.

Wisconsin electric is paying 22 cents per kwh for solar PV.  A gold rush in distributed renewable power is coming and google will be opening up an assay office over the internet.  That's my guess.  Call me for details google I can work from home, hehey.  

Prairie National park and Wind Farm, Wetland National Park and pumped hydro storage for the national power grid.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/4/16758/96095/#comment9

50 square miles of extra resovoir would be no problem at all.  Especially distributed around the nation.

It also restores aquifers to have that much water around.  Some scheme to recover and store flood waters is sorely needed.  This could be integrated with the pumped hydro energy storage.

I favor shunting flood waters into wetlands myself.  The pumped hydro storage water could be taken from those wetlands and returned.

This could be a huge benefit in terms of GHG, by replacing fossil generation with renewables backed by pumped hydro storage.  And in terms of water conservation.  

We are at crisis stage already on drought problems from GHG disaster, water shortage is already threatening economic growth.  Australia's more extreme problems are a warning.

Many of these various energy solutions seem to fit symbiotically with other environmental solutions.  Such as prairie restoration, wind power, carbon sequestration by prairie soil, and biomass energy sources to supplement renewables.

Maybe our representaticves will start listening to us more closely if we come up with better coordinated solutions like this.  It's worth a try.

Just this additional point.  Direct wind powered water pumps that pump into storage whenever the wind blows, eliminates a whole host of problems with variability and power grid stability too.

Something to consider where high wind areas would coincide with large wetland resevoir areas like on the great plains.  The plains some have huge lakes.  And a lot of wetlands on the edges.

This stuff is a conservationist's dream.  Teddy Roosevelt is probably smiling down from a national park in heaven at efforts like this right now.  That's gotta be a positive karmic effect, hehey.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/1/7418/90981#15

I'm thinking of it as an ongoing publicity device rather than a real strike.

We really need higher profile for solutions that actually work right now.  By demanding we get payed for the renewable energy we generate, it also creates the basis for a class action to get access to the power grid.

A level playing field where we can buy and sell renewable kwh amongst the like minded on energy policy reform.  

This would create more publicity.  Would these efforts ever be succsessful by themselves in overturning the status quo?  Doubtfull.

Here is the problem we face.  Any green minded politician we support will likely be targeted for swift boating by the power monopolists if they propose reform.  

But with grassroots pushing hard enough, our green politicos (mainly democrats, excepting exceptional republicans like Kristy Whitman) can say they are merely responding to their constituent's direction, as democracy is supposed to do.

What will the swift boaters say?  These eco-terrorists are trying to tax your gas and raise the price you pay for electricity!  

Our guys and gals can then say no, they are trying instead to bring relief for the people who elected them from high energy prices and climate disaster and endless oil wars brought on by corporate monopolists and their bought and payed for members of government.

We need to be idealistic and politically practical at the same time.  My epiphany after seeing our new (progressive) congressman here negotiating the crowds at a fundraiser and town meeting.  Pragmatic idealism.  

It might just work where politics as usual is continuing to fail miserably in the face of disaster ...economic, environmental, and international.

Oh and BTW, what percentage of the workers of this world has any labor strike ever encompassed?  1%?  Maybe.  Look at the vast improvement in working conditions, pay, safety, health, and pensions that this tiny percentage has won for the rest.  

There is phenomenal power in collective bargaining.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/5/23/9207/30312#43

Geothermal power generation versus...
...Geothermal heating/cooling.