12-03-2013, 12:23 AM
Would have been nice if they started to run fiber optic lines for future network (communications) network with all the new lines being put in on 130. I thought maybe since they were going to build a new road anyway how hard would it have been to just run all those lines underground?
That being said... Wouldn't it be nice if our appliances were "SMART" say you plugged in your refrigerator to a wireless hub. Instead of doing a manual defrost that is set on a timer... The fridge could check the grid load first before doing a defrost. Say, it could wait till it's sunny outside and instead of doing a defrost at 3AM with no sun... It could reschedule at 1PM. Same thing for hotwater heaters. They could be programmed to come on certain times of day when excess energy is being produced to capture that energy.
I think in a household it's kind hard since our demands are different than the mainland. We normally don't run heating or AC here. At least I don't. But corporations like Walmart/Target/Safeway Could talk to to the grid and decide when it needs power and could tell helco when all of it's compressors are going to kick on or off... Instead of dumping that solar energy because you have no use for it ... If you had a smart load grid you could use it when it's available.
The problem is Energy Storage. You can store a small amount in transformers but what else can you do? I suppose if you had some high effient ion batteries that could capture that load for a day ... and redistribute it when you have a full charge. Tho, even if you had a massive bank of batteries to do that you would be wasting a lot of energy to store it and redistribute it later. Maybe if Helco could build a HUGE flywheel... That could use renewable energy bits at a time and then take it back off the grid at night. But I'm not sure how much energy you could actually store with a system like that.
I find it strange the article didn't really talk about what kind of systems they using for storage.
That being said... Wouldn't it be nice if our appliances were "SMART" say you plugged in your refrigerator to a wireless hub. Instead of doing a manual defrost that is set on a timer... The fridge could check the grid load first before doing a defrost. Say, it could wait till it's sunny outside and instead of doing a defrost at 3AM with no sun... It could reschedule at 1PM. Same thing for hotwater heaters. They could be programmed to come on certain times of day when excess energy is being produced to capture that energy.
I think in a household it's kind hard since our demands are different than the mainland. We normally don't run heating or AC here. At least I don't. But corporations like Walmart/Target/Safeway Could talk to to the grid and decide when it needs power and could tell helco when all of it's compressors are going to kick on or off... Instead of dumping that solar energy because you have no use for it ... If you had a smart load grid you could use it when it's available.
The problem is Energy Storage. You can store a small amount in transformers but what else can you do? I suppose if you had some high effient ion batteries that could capture that load for a day ... and redistribute it when you have a full charge. Tho, even if you had a massive bank of batteries to do that you would be wasting a lot of energy to store it and redistribute it later. Maybe if Helco could build a HUGE flywheel... That could use renewable energy bits at a time and then take it back off the grid at night. But I'm not sure how much energy you could actually store with a system like that.
I find it strange the article didn't really talk about what kind of systems they using for storage.