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Why not handle the daytime excess problem first, and keep shutting down more coal plants as the storage gets better? Summer requires more energy than winter (go
by ebiester 14y ago
Why not handle the daytime excess problem first, and keep shutting down more coal plants as the storage gets better? Summer requires more energy than winter (good for solar), and daytime requires more power than nightime. (Again, good for solar.) Spread the solar plants around enough, modernize the grid to work nationally/internationally (US, EU) and take advantage of what we can do now.
Besides, as we bring more cars off of fossil fuels, we will need the electricity on the grid anyway.
- justincormack 14y agoIn most of the world winter uses more energy than summer.
- Retric 14y agoThat's not really true for electricity though. In the US we use more electricity in the summer for ac than than heating in the winter. Partly this is based on where people live, but also because people in the north use fuel oil etc in the winter for heating and people in the south have little need for winter heating and less need for AC. There is some regional spikes in demand though unusual cold snaps in southern regions, but as the overall grid has lower demands they just import power from other regions. As to why AC uses so much power, a lot of it relates to dehumidifying air which takes a lot more power than you might expect. PS: In most areas you can substitute solar hot water heaters for the vast majority of home heating needs so long term it's not really a problem.
- justincormack 14y agoI said in most of the world. The US uses more energy on AC than the rest of the world combined. It is true that gas heating is common elsewhere, but so is electric heating. Fuel oil globally is no longer that important an energy source.