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What are you talking about? They can do whatever they want. But it would be nice if THIS site was about sharing content we can all view.

by tux1968 11y ago

melling 11y ago
If there's something interesting worth discussing, and some people can read the article and start the conversation, I don't see why we should skip it because it's behind a paywall. Here's the gist of it: "With 21% of its power now coming from renewable sources like wind turbines and solar panels, Hawaii has become a laboratory for those intent on reinventing the grid. A new law mandates that renewables supply all of the state’s electricity by 2045. But Hawaii’s grid is already running into problems with its heavy helping of rooftop solar and other carbon-free renewables. Among them: sudden swings in the output of solar and wind, which force the state’s main utility to scramble to try to keep the overall supply of power steady."
- technofiend 11y ago
  This is the WSJ we're talking about here: a Rupert Murdoch mouthpiece, not some bastion of balanced reporting. Utilities have peaker units that burn natural gas and are designed for absorbing and offsetting usage upticks. Honestly I think Germany is a far better place to look at solar and the problems associated with it because they have fewer hours of sunshine and many more people, so their scale and storage problems are presumably that much greater.
  - snowwindwaves 11y ago
    Hawaii doesn't have natural gas plants though. The article says 70% of their energy comes from oil. I know they have diesel and coal plants too. They would have to build LNG terminals, pipelines, and gas fired power plants on each island in order to use natural gas as a quickly dispatchable source of electric power. Each island in hawaii has it's own small electric grid. The challenge for Hawaii is running small grids with high percentages of uncontrollable generation. All of Europe is interconnected, so Germany can install as many solar panels that don't get any sunshine as they want and it is only ever going to be a sliver of the total generation on the system. The price of electricity in Germany is also 29 cents / kwh, 2nd highest in europe. That doesn't make it seem like a good model to me.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

What are you talking about? They can do whatever they want. But it would be nice if THIS site was about sharing content we can all view.

by tux1968 11y ago

What are you talking about? They can do whatever they want. But it would be nice if THIS site was about sharing content we can all view.

melling 11y ago

If there's something interesting worth discussing, and some people can read the article and start the conversation, I don't see why we should skip it because it's behind a paywall. Here's the gist of it: "With 21% of its power now coming from renewable sources like wind turbines and solar panels, Hawaii has become a laboratory for those intent on reinventing the grid. A new law mandates that renewables supply all of the state’s electricity by 2045. But Hawaii’s grid is already running into problems with its heavy helping of rooftop solar and other carbon-free renewables. Among them: sudden swings in the output of solar and wind, which force the state’s main utility to scramble to try to keep the overall supply of power steady."

technofiend 11y ago
This is the WSJ we're talking about here: a Rupert Murdoch mouthpiece, not some bastion of balanced reporting. Utilities have peaker units that burn natural gas and are designed for absorbing and offsetting usage upticks. Honestly I think Germany is a far better place to look at solar and the problems associated with it because they have fewer hours of sunshine and many more people, so their scale and storage problems are presumably that much greater.
- snowwindwaves 11y ago
  Hawaii doesn't have natural gas plants though. The article says 70% of their energy comes from oil. I know they have diesel and coal plants too. They would have to build LNG terminals, pipelines, and gas fired power plants on each island in order to use natural gas as a quickly dispatchable source of electric power. Each island in hawaii has it's own small electric grid. The challenge for Hawaii is running small grids with high percentages of uncontrollable generation. All of Europe is interconnected, so Germany can install as many solar panels that don't get any sunshine as they want and it is only ever going to be a sliver of the total generation on the system. The price of electricity in Germany is also 29 cents / kwh, 2nd highest in europe. That doesn't make it seem like a good model to me.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]