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Neighborhood Solar Power
http://sandiegofreepress.org/2013/03/neighborhood-solar-power/
Neighborhood Solar Power
March 29, 2013
By Jay Powell
Last week state Public Utilities Commissioners at a March 21 hearing threw down the gauntlet. Declaring that the sun don’t always shine and we have to guarantee reliable power for SDGE customers, they said San Diego had two, maybe three years to convince them not to let SDGE charge its customers for two new proposed gas-fired “peaker” power plants.
<snip>
Doesn’t it make sense to use already developed land near the power users as the first priority to generate power? In fact, state energy policy says that energy efficiency and local user generated solar power are the number one priorities (first in the “loading order”) along with energy demand management for meeting our energy needs. There is a conservative estimate of over 7,000 Megawatts potential solar electric generation from existing roof tops and parking lots in San Diego County. That is over three times the entire output of SONGS, and nearly 16 times SDGE’s share of SONGS power.
The new paradigm to meet the challenge by the PUC is to set up neighborhood-based systems that integrate with the existing power distribution system, that use the existing power lines and already available and developing energy management and storage technology to complement the extraordinary potential of local solar generation.
While state agencies continue to promote the use of gas-fired peaker plants as essential to fill in power periods when the sun isn’t shining or the wind is isn’t blowing, the fact is that technology is far outstripping the current institutional framework. Recently representatives from General Electric, the Navy and even SDGE highlighted the use of technologies to create “micro grids” that can operate separately or connected to the overall county and statewide electric grid. Such a system is being set up in Borrego Springs as a pilot demonstration on a community scale to evaluate a number of energy management systems, many of which could facilitate a neighborhood-based energy system.
<snip>
Neighborhood Solar Power
March 29, 2013
By Jay Powell
Last week state Public Utilities Commissioners at a March 21 hearing threw down the gauntlet. Declaring that the sun don’t always shine and we have to guarantee reliable power for SDGE customers, they said San Diego had two, maybe three years to convince them not to let SDGE charge its customers for two new proposed gas-fired “peaker” power plants.
<snip>
Doesn’t it make sense to use already developed land near the power users as the first priority to generate power? In fact, state energy policy says that energy efficiency and local user generated solar power are the number one priorities (first in the “loading order”) along with energy demand management for meeting our energy needs. There is a conservative estimate of over 7,000 Megawatts potential solar electric generation from existing roof tops and parking lots in San Diego County. That is over three times the entire output of SONGS, and nearly 16 times SDGE’s share of SONGS power.
The new paradigm to meet the challenge by the PUC is to set up neighborhood-based systems that integrate with the existing power distribution system, that use the existing power lines and already available and developing energy management and storage technology to complement the extraordinary potential of local solar generation.
While state agencies continue to promote the use of gas-fired peaker plants as essential to fill in power periods when the sun isn’t shining or the wind is isn’t blowing, the fact is that technology is far outstripping the current institutional framework. Recently representatives from General Electric, the Navy and even SDGE highlighted the use of technologies to create “micro grids” that can operate separately or connected to the overall county and statewide electric grid. Such a system is being set up in Borrego Springs as a pilot demonstration on a community scale to evaluate a number of energy management systems, many of which could facilitate a neighborhood-based energy system.
<snip>
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
And the "sensible" way prevailed.
