The cost of being on-line

[Martin Naef]

On 24.06.2011 16:39, Tony Scharf wrote:
>> Talking about "not in my backyard": All across Europe it's nearly
>> impossible to build new power transmission lines due to public
>> opposition. What people just don't get is that these are absolutely
>> essential to integrate renewables at a large scale. Oh well...

> This is why I advocate making a move to more local power generation
> with solar, and small scale thorium based reactors (thorium reactors
> are a very interesting concept if they could be commercialized).

Going off the grid is a popular demand particularly in the US where 
reliability isn't all that great. However, the key to make that both 
practical and economical is storage. While you can compensate for the 
daily cycle, it's pretty hard to deal with seasonal fluctuations.

Such variations, however, can be compensated by combining wind and solar 
(they tend to be inversely correlated in their power production). In 
Europe, that means having the wind farms in the north, solar in the 
south, and pump storage right in the center.

That still leaves plenty of space for de-centralized production. But you 
might quickly find that your roof isn't large enough for the energy you 
consume.

Martin