Remember back about 6 months ago when gas prices were through the roof and it was all Obama’s fault….his policies were driving the prices of gas…..fast forward to today….gas prices are below $3 in some ares…and yet it is not Obama’s fault or his policies that are causing the price to drop…..why is that?
Sorry about that…but I had to get it off my chest…….and point a finger (middle one would be fine) at the morons that trys to tie gas prices to anything a president does….shows a serious lack of knowledge….but when have some ever let facts get in the way of their bullsh*t?
This post is about renewable energy and the problems……well the biggest problem…..
Electricity generated from renewable sources such as wind, marine and solar helps to cut carbon emissions by reducing the need for fossil fuel power generation. Renewable energy can also diversify supplies, helping to make a power system more resilient to failures and less exposed to fluctuating fuel prices. However, renewables pose a challenge in the form of intermittency, as their output varies with the available sunlight, wind speeds and wave activity.
Managing intermittency while keeping the system reliable can add costs. When renewables supply only a small proportion of the power on a grid this effect is negligible but as the proportion increases the costs can become more significant. For example, estimates suggest that managing intermittency would add about 1p to a unit of wind energy in the UK should wind supply around 30% of electricity. (That’s around a tenth of the current retail cost of power.)
In some situations, however, renewables can help meet peak demand, reducing the need for grid upgrading or new power stations. For example, in cities where the peak demand is for air-conditioning, solar generators can help supply power at peak times. Solar power can make a strong contribution to daytime power needs even in cloudier countries, as German experience has shown. Moreover, modern weather forecasting means that wind speeds can be predicted quite accurately over four-hour periods. This allows a planned response to variable generation.
In future, other options for managing intermittency may become cheaper. This will decrease the cost of adding renewables to the grid and allow the share of renewables to grow. Connecting grids over large geographical areas allows renewable power from a variety of climates to be combined, reducing overall variability and sharing out ‘backup’ fossil fuel power stations more widely. Storing electricity tends to be expensive, but innovation in storage technologies could make electrical backup systems cheaper. Finally, changes in consumer behaviour can help balance renewable electricity supply and demand. For example, the introduction of ‘smart’ meters will allow prices to be changed across the day to encourage people to shift consumption towards times of abundant supply. Householders in the UK have already been found to reduce their overall power use and shift towards daytime consumption after installing solar on their homes.
As the UK’s Guardian pointed out there can be some power problems with renewables….but personally I think it is worth the effort to try them and lessen our dependence on fossil fuel…..that is something we will never have until it is all gone….and then only then will companies start taking renewables seriously….
Lob,
To suggest that nothing a president does affects gas prices is simply an ignorant and politically-driven statement. It’s made all the more absurd by the air of certainty with which you said it.
Obviously, a president’s foreign policy can affect the scares of disruption in supply, which currently fuels the hostile markets. Opening up more land for exploration would serve to calm some nerves, thus driving down the price of oil.
Terrance, I believe we have covered this once before….I am not ignorant or a moron…..do we really want to insult each other? This post was about the problems that could be encountered with renewable. If you like we can revisit the discussion we made a couple months ago about the prices of oil.
Since you brought it up…..then I suggest that some should give Obama some credit for the lower prices after all you guys tried to crucify him for high prices….BTW I do not believe either is correct…..
I didn’t say you were ignornt; I said your remark was ignorant – and it was. It was incredibly ignorant. President’s, by their policies, can and do influence the price of oil. If more federal land and more permits were being given out, we could discover anc extract more oil, thereby increasing supply.
We’ve had this discussion many times, and you always fail to explain what you’re talking about.
Morning….all oil goes to the spot market…and because of that it will not necessarily bring the price down….I will say that what a prez does could effect prices but just what he says does not…..and since I made the remark, ergo…….
As I have said in the past…..sure open up Fed land for exploration, but as it is now the companies get the leases at a lesser rate than on private land….so let them pay the same NO matter where they drill…..if it is about the supply then they will have no prob and the government can make some revenue…..
In theory the supply thing is a sound one…but I do not believe that it is about that…..it is where can they get cheaper oil..just like Keystone…that is Canadian oil and will sell it where they damn well want so this will not necessarily increase our supply…..but few people want to look at that side of the equation.
If you don’t think increased exploration will impact prices, then you don’t believe the market is supply & demand driven. To believe otherwise is ludicrous. And if you say it’s different because it’s driven by future supply and demand (speculated), then you have to believe exploration and discovery will have an impact.