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Alternative & Renewable Energy Blog

The Alternative & Renewable Energy Blog is the place for conversation and discussion about solar power; fuel cells and hydrogen cells; biofuels such as ethanol; wind, water and geothermal energy; and anything else related to renewable power generation. Here, you'll find everything from application ideas, to news and industry trends, to hot topics and cutting edge innovations.

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2 comments

Demand Another Option for Grid Integration

Posted January 17, 2012 9:45 AM

The disruptive impact of renewables introduction to the grid is typically manifest in terms of system instability and declining power prices. Countering these effects requires increased transmission and storage capacity, two costly and not always readily available solutions. Why isn't more emphasis placed on demand response programs to curtail peak demand and help accommodate renewables integration?

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Commentator

Join Date: May 2008
Location: Malanda, Australia
Posts: 83
Good Answers: 11
#1

Re: Demand Another Option for Grid Integration

01/18/2012 3:23 AM

Hey, this is an ad based on hoping readers are ignorant, your initial premises of instability, and (heaven forfend) lower prices are without supporting argument or any facts and your link is to some self serving company's ad page. Cheers.

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Guru

Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Virginia, Georgia, Idaho
Posts: 624
Good Answers: 17
#2

Re: Demand Another Option for Grid Integration

01/18/2012 2:08 PM

The disruptive impact of traditional energy production far outweighs the alleged minor disruptive issues of excess power supply that could (but as yet have not) surface as renewables grow the capacity at which they can contribute to the grid based supply. The obvious answer is to strengthen and intensify the grid infrastructure. The wind energy issue in Texas could be solved with an infrastructure distribution investment to Houston, Dallas, New Orleans. It is possible that too much capacity exists in one location, but that is not the case in Texas.

I agree with Lookfar, this blog is chock full of nuts. The economy thrives on energy. Arguing that the way to integrate renewables is to penalize demand is a pretty bald faced attempt to enthuse the anti renewables sentiment on the right. Of course we should attempt to reduce demand, if we do not have supply, and in the interest of efficiency. But what if we do have demand? It's far too complex to make blanket statements like that. Are there technical issues that could challenge us? I hope the mere existence of the status quo is not reason enough to throw us off. What if real problems arise, like dangerous air emissions, groundwater contamination, climate change, habitat destruction, geopolitical energy sourcing issues, etc etc . Oh, wait a minute. Those must not be disruptive.

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