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New "Smart Grid" - We need it...
Too many power companies seem to think that their job is to spend as little as possible on their distribution network. The main power company in Maryland was notorious for not trimming trees around their lines. VA would be fine when a storm rolled through, but MD would have tens of thousands without power due to fallen trees. They finally got enough heat to start doing more - when their proposed rate increases were rejected...



I didn't measure the snow this morning, but eyeballing it it seemed like maybe 18 inches. We had about a 3 hour lull, then it started up again a few minutes ago. I just got back from walking Sophie. We walked in the streets that had been plowed and it was fine. I decided to take a shortcut through a park to get back - that was a workout. A few hundred yards of virgin snow nearly up to my knees. Sophie was hopping the whole way. It was a workout for her too - with luck it will keep her from wanting to go in and out every 10 minutes the rest of the day... ;-)

Lots of sidewalks and driveways have been shoveled or cleaned out with a snow blower. I haven't done ours yet. I was thinking of doing so after resting from our walk, but the way it's snowing and blowing now I think I'll wait...

We've had more snow here than this - I can still see railings on our deck that have been buried before (when we had over 2' in the span of a week or so). But it's not quitting...

I hope we don't have too many more weird swings this winter. I'm worried about how the trees are going to survive (it was 70F not that long ago). It looks like we're supposed to get rain and snow on Tuesday... :-/

Here's hoping the rain and snow in the West continues in a way that helps to break the drought!

Cheers,
Scott.
New Hmm. Didn't notice until now that the GIF isn't a snapshot but is "live". Sorry for the dupe.
New No grid is what we need.
Fuel cells in every home. That'd fix it. ;0)
New There is some appeal in that...
Fuel cells need methane or hydrogen to work.

Wikipedia:

It is also important to take losses due to fuel production, transportation, and storage into account. Fuel cell vehicles running on compressed hydrogen may have a power-plant-to-wheel efficiency of 22% if the hydrogen is stored as high-pressure gas, and 17% if it is stored as liquid hydrogen.[62] Fuel cells cannot store energy like a battery,[63] except as hydrogen, but in some applications, such as stand-alone power plants based on discontinuous sources such as solar or wind power, they are combined with electrolyzers and storage systems to form an energy storage system. Most hydrogen, however, is produced by steam methane reforming, and so most hydrogen production emits carbon dioxide.[64] The overall efficiency (electricity to hydrogen and back to electricity) of such plants (known as round-trip efficiency), using pure hydrogen and pure oxygen can be "from 35 up to 50 percent", depending on gas density and other conditions.[65] While a much cheaper lead–acid battery might return about 90%, the electrolyzer/fuel cell system can store indefinite quantities of hydrogen, and is therefore better suited for long-term storage.


I'm a big fan of "all of the above" when it comes to non-fossil fuels. There's still a lot that needs to be done to increase efficiency and bring costs down. We shouldn't optimize "too early" in deciding our preferred new power sources, just as we shouldn't do that in software development. Local generation probably should be a big part of it, but there are efficiency benefits of having larger plants generating power for, say, 1000 homes, also too.

Cheers,
Scott.
     Snowmageddon 2016 - (Another Scott) - (13)
         Cringers Fossed for you! -NT - (mmoffitt)
         Good luck! -NT - (malraux)
         When I was a child in New Jersey . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (1)
             an old friend - (rcareaga)
         thats a good thing being fully prepared - (boxley)
         Nice to be wintering in FL and not where locals don't know how to drive in snow. -NT - (a6l6e6x)
         If you go out, just after.. - (Ashton) - (6)
             I've got 3 suet feeders out, and a couple of shelled sunflower feeders. - (Another Scott) - (5)
                 Re: 100,000+ are without power in NC - (a6l6e6x) - (4)
                     "Smart Grid" - We need it... - (Another Scott) - (3)
                         Hmm. Didn't notice until now that the GIF isn't a snapshot but is "live". Sorry for the dupe. -NT - (Another Scott)
                         No grid is what we need. - (mmoffitt) - (1)
                             There is some appeal in that... - (Another Scott)

Eeeeeteeeee phone home.
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