4 ms·

* This leads to the power companies naturally feeling rather sour about being forced to credit residents for the power they supply to the grid during low-demand

* This leads to the power companies naturally feeling rather sour about being forced to credit residents for the power they supply to the grid during low-demand hours. Their costs are staying about the same, but now their revenue stream goes down.* Time to get rid of coal? What the Duck Curve indicates to me, is that California's grad-scale solar really should be located about 6 hours time difference to the west. How about ocean solar farms located in the plastic laden mid-Pacific gyre? They could be equipped with plastic harvesting equipment.

CapitalistCartr 9y ago
Operating a power plant in the middle of the World's largest ocean, then transmitting the power 4500+ miles (7000+ km) across that ocean would be one of the World's major engineering undertakings, and vastly more expensive than any current method of generating electricity.
- magduf 9y ago
  Agreed. The ocean is just too deep there. I have a better idea for a megaproject: build a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, and lower the water level of the Mediterranean. You could get an enormous amount of power from a hydroelectric dam in this location (and later another one near Sicily, after the Mediterranean's level is lowered), plus you'd have a huge amount of new land in the area.
  - coryfklein 9y ago
    Queue the next crypto fancy: Gibraltarcoin! Decentralized electricity monetization transfer something something profit.
  - skookumchuck 9y ago
    Would you want to live below sea level and trust the dam? Not me.
    - magduf 9y ago
      Why not? Countless people worldwide live in places that would be flooded if a dam broke. We saw this last year in California. And how many more people live at sea level in coastal areas that are prone to flooding? Maybe you refuse to live in such areas, but there's probably several billion people who do.
      - skookumchuck 9y ago
        If the Gibraltar dam broke, you'd have nowhere to run to.
        magduf 9y ago
        You'd run for higher ground, just like if any dam broke. There's plenty of places where people are going to be in big trouble if some big dam suddenly bursts. How often does that actually happen though? Never. That one in California didn't suddenly burst, it broke down and caused flooding, but not in one giant cataclysm; people were able to evacuate just fine. We have many dams out there, many quite old, that work just fine. Look at the Hoover Dam for instance; it's over 80 years old now I think. By your logic, no one should go into a skyscraper: what would happen if it suddenly collapsed? But that never happens.
        skookumchuck 9y ago
        > You'd run for higher ground, just like if any dam broke. Good luck with that when you're in the middle of Mediterranean basin.
  - cesarb 9y ago
    > build a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, and lower the water level of the Mediterranean. You mean like this? https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-bonkers-reallife-plan-to-drain-the-mediterranean-and-merge-africa-and-europe https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-bonkers-reallife-p...
    - magduf 9y ago
      Yep, I was wondering if anyone would get the reference. I don't know why they call it "bonkers", though: it seems perfectly feasible from an engineering perspective, although it's obviously a serious megaproject, and would be extremely costly. But the cost could very well be worth it, for both electricity generation and land creation. The main problem I see is political: who would own and control it, and who would get to take ownership of the new land, and also a lot of people would probably fight it because it'd be changing the geography so significantly (lots of wealthy people with waterfront property wouldn't after the sea level fell).

CapitalistCartr 9y ago

Operating a power plant in the middle of the World's largest ocean, then transmitting the power 4500+ miles (7000+ km) across that ocean would be one of the World's major engineering undertakings, and vastly more expensive than any current method of generating electricity.

magduf 9y ago
Agreed. The ocean is just too deep there. I have a better idea for a megaproject: build a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, and lower the water level of the Mediterranean. You could get an enormous amount of power from a hydroelectric dam in this location (and later another one near Sicily, after the Mediterranean's level is lowered), plus you'd have a huge amount of new land in the area.
- coryfklein 9y ago
  Queue the next crypto fancy: Gibraltarcoin! Decentralized electricity monetization transfer something something profit.
- skookumchuck 9y ago
  Would you want to live below sea level and trust the dam? Not me.
  - magduf 9y ago
    Why not? Countless people worldwide live in places that would be flooded if a dam broke. We saw this last year in California. And how many more people live at sea level in coastal areas that are prone to flooding? Maybe you refuse to live in such areas, but there's probably several billion people who do.
    - skookumchuck 9y ago
      If the Gibraltar dam broke, you'd have nowhere to run to.
      - magduf 9y ago
        You'd run for higher ground, just like if any dam broke. There's plenty of places where people are going to be in big trouble if some big dam suddenly bursts. How often does that actually happen though? Never. That one in California didn't suddenly burst, it broke down and caused flooding, but not in one giant cataclysm; people were able to evacuate just fine. We have many dams out there, many quite old, that work just fine. Look at the Hoover Dam for instance; it's over 80 years old now I think. By your logic, no one should go into a skyscraper: what would happen if it suddenly collapsed? But that never happens.
        skookumchuck 9y ago
        > You'd run for higher ground, just like if any dam broke. Good luck with that when you're in the middle of Mediterranean basin.
- cesarb 9y ago
  > build a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, and lower the water level of the Mediterranean. You mean like this? https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-bonkers-reallife-plan-to-drain-the-mediterranean-and-merge-africa-and-europe https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-bonkers-reallife-p...
  - magduf 9y ago
    Yep, I was wondering if anyone would get the reference. I don't know why they call it "bonkers", though: it seems perfectly feasible from an engineering perspective, although it's obviously a serious megaproject, and would be extremely costly. But the cost could very well be worth it, for both electricity generation and land creation. The main problem I see is political: who would own and control it, and who would get to take ownership of the new land, and also a lot of people would probably fight it because it'd be changing the geography so significantly (lots of wealthy people with waterfront property wouldn't after the sea level fell).