Friday, February 7, 2014

The Math Doesn't Add Up

I've always said the math doesn't add up. When you kill the coal industry and shut down nuclear reactors, no amount of wind/solar will close the gap.

Californians might take note. (I had missed this story; an alert reader sent it to me.)

AP is reporting:
Californians were urged to voluntarily cut their electricity use Thursday in a rare mid-winter conservation alert, after frigid weather across the U.S. and Canada caused a shortage of natural gas at Southern California power plants.
"While the natural gas shortage is only impacting Southern California power plants, statewide electricity and gas conservation will help free up both electricity and gas supplies for Southern Californians," the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power grid, said in a statement.
Requests for Californians to curtail their power use typically occur in summer, when temperatures soar and air conditioners roar, especially across Southern California.
Most interesting: public officials are grossly underestimating how much electricity demands are increasing due to charging smartphones, laptops, tablets, and in California, EVs. This will only keep increasing. Probably faster than solar/wind can accommodate.

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