Interesting graphs and charts department

[Undertoad]

Yesterday's electricity supply in California by type over the course of the day. See that big green bump during the middle of the day? That's solar. It only woks when the sun shines. The rest of the time, they have to bring the natural gas plants on line and import electricity from neighboring states. Nuclear output doesn't fluctuate at all.

Keep thinking about this a lot. The graph gets more more interesting with other news.

One, I had heard CA was going to close down another nuclear plant; I didn't realize it's the last one in the state, the one creating that black line of constant generation.

That happens in six years; nice work, hippies; hope you know what you're doing.

Two, there is a huge solar facility being constructed in Virginia. It will be the largest solar facility in the eastern US. It will use 6,000 acres, of which 3,500 will be panels, I think.

To build this, they are cutting down trees in an area about 40% the size of Manhattan. That's a lot of forest lost!

The largest solar facility in the east will only be rated at 500MW. I do not understand whether that is during sunlight hours, or an estimated average across time. It is sad that you only get 500MW out of losing that many trees.

For comparison, VA currently has two nuclear plants and one of them is planning an expansion. Currently those plants produce 3568MW of power, they are hoping a future unit will raise that to 5103MW.

After considering all these numbers, it still seems to me like we need another round of nuclear while we wait for a few more rounds of innovation on solar and batteries and conservation. At least, insist that panels go on top of commercial and industrial buildings first.

Or shut down the remaining coal plants and replace with gas, as the interim measure.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I wonder if they include the corporate owned units mounted on homes under contract, in their total output calculations?

The reason is simple: Homeowners usually pay nothing upfront. A company like Sunrun puts solar panels on your roof, connects them to your home, and claims a tax benefit for owning the system. Going forward, you pay Sunrun to provide the bulk of your electricity needs instead of your utility.

I’d soon learn that the system was tied to the title of the house. It appeared that if we bought Jug’s place, we’d have to assume his lease arrangement with Sunrun. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this as a buyer, but it definitely piqued my curiosity as a journalist. I set out to examine the value proposition carefully.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Where your food dollar goes...

[xoxoxoBruce]

The longest war...

[Gravdigr]

Porn Chart