Monthly Archives: July 2019

Renewable Energy Milestone




One of the beauties of solar is its scalability. Practical installations range from small home systems providing most if not all of an individual homeowners electric power needs up to utility-scale monsters that cover hundreds of acres. Slightly larger than home size installations are those for schools and churches. Even larger installations include power for businesses such as Walmart Supercenters. The real growth, however, is in utility-scale solar arrays.

Wait just a minute you say, what about when the sun goes down? Not to worry, at least for a couple of decades. Power grid managers won’t worry until intermittent sources reach somewhere between thirty and fifty percent of the total load. Right now wind and solar represent less than ten percent. Two factors are important, source management and grid size. Although wind and solar are intermittent, they are also predictable, and increasingly so.

Utility grid managers have become quite good at wind and sun forecasting. They know about how much wind and solar power will be available in the short term and can effectively plan for alternate sources during those times. The total size of the US power grid adds to the stability. Power can be shipped for one region to another with the flip of a switch – well, that and a more robust national grid of transmission and distribution lines.


Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid, and Full Electric Cars

Vehicles powered by electricity come in several flavors; simple hybrids (HEV,) plug-in hybrids (PHEV,) and fully electric (EV.) Their biggest advantage is that vehicles powered somewhat or completely by electricity are more efficient. This means they are inherently less costly to operate.

Toyota has led the charge with the introduction of their hybrid Prius in 1997 in Japan and 2001 in the US and the rest of the world. It is basically a traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and drive train. It has a small battery and electric motor which provides supplemental power, increasing the efficiency of the vehicle, even though the battery is charged mainly by the ICE. Scores of cars now use this hybrid technology and even a few pick-ups.

A very important component to all these electric vehicles is regenerative braking. When the car decelerates it causes the alternator in the vehicle to become a charging device for the battery, in the process slowing the vehicle without using the brakes.

Intermediate between simple hybrids and fully electric are plug-in hybrids. They are different in that they are true electric vehicles with an ICE to extend the range. The drive train in these vehicles are powered by the electric motor, the ICE is just used as a generator. The PHEVs have a battery which gives the vehicle a range of about 40 to 50 miles, generally enough for the majority of commuters. The vehicle can then be plugged in at home to recharge the battery for the next day’s commute. For longer trips, the ICE charges the battery on the fly.

The ability to charge a battery-powered car from the grid, that is by plugging into a wall outlet creates considerable savings as the energy to power a vehicle by electricity costs one third to one quarter as much as the cost of gasoline. Another bonus is cleaner air. Electric power is inherently cleaner than ICE power because much of the energy used to produce the electricity is from clean sustainable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower.

The real future of surface transportation is all-electric cars. These vehicles take advantage of regenerative braking and other computer controlled mechanisms. The EPA rates EVs by comparing the electric energy used to the amount of gasoline an equivalent ICE car would use. It comes out to something like 130 miles per gallon equivalent or better. Although electric cars initial costs are higher, over the lifetime costs are frequently lower than ICE vehicles due to lower fuel and maintenance costs.

By far and away the best known electric vehicle is the Tesla, built by visionary Elon Musk. Depending on the model, Teslas have a range of between 250 to over 300 miles on a charge. More importantly for Tesla however is the fact that a fast charging network has been built out across the US such that travel, at least on interstate highways, not a problem. The Tesla charge stations are located so that a 200 to 300 mile drive get one to the next charger. Charge times to fill the battery are on the order of an hour or less.


The Celebration Gap

Early in the cold war, there was a missile gap. In the late 1950s, America was threatened by the perception that the Soviet Union possessed superiority in the size and number of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Turns out the fear was unjustified, as President Eisenhower’s science advisory committee greatly overestimated the Soviet arsenal.

What threatens us now is a celebration gap. Actually, it’s a get away from work to relax gap. The Fourth of July is here. Most get off work to be with family and friends so we can celebrate our independence from the rule of King George. The problem is, when it comes to celebrations we’re a bunch of pikers. We have ten federal holidays, which are usually matched by states but we have no national holidays where all workers have an expectancy of time off – paid or otherwise.

In most of the world, the civilized world with the sole exception of the United States, laws afford workers a guaranteed minimum number of paid National holidays. Leading the world is arch enemy Iran with twenty-seven paid holidays. Most of Europe guarantees somewhere between ten and twenty days.

But it gets worse (or better depending on your perspective), not only does much of the world guarantee paid holidays, they also mandate vacation time. This is most commonly two to three weeks on top of the holidays. France is instructive, where all full time employees are guaranteed five weeks of vacation in addition to twelve national holidays. Oh, and they have thirty-five hour work weeks. Remember this is all full time employees, not just government employees but butchers, bakers and candlestick makers.

Should we Make America Vacat(ion) Again? Is there an advantage to taking time off or does it distract from productivity? There is significant evidence that worker productivity is better when interspersed with paid time off. One study showed that employees and were in a better mood and more effective in their jobs for over a month after a paid vacation. Another study showed that vacations increased net productivity and lowered stress.

Americans don’t get it. Almost forty percent don’t take a single vacation day in a years time. Even when vacationing, sixty percent take work with them. One of the longest-running collective studies of health, the Framingham Heart Study began in 1948 showed a positive correlation between vacation time and well being and longevity.

When compared to other nationalities such as Europeans, we work longer hours, spend less time with our friends and family, only to live shorter less fulfilling lives. Somewhere we seem to have lost our way.


Water Management









