May 21st, 2006
GreanPeace is committed to stopping climate change through the use of decentralized energy alternatives. "The scope for reducing electricity demand, and thus CO2 emissions, through energy efficiency measures is widely accepted, if weakly pursued by government. Less well known,
but at least as important, is the potential to reduce wastage and emissions by remodeling our electricity system around a decentralized pathway, where energy is produced close to where it is consumed."
They make a strong point in their report, by utilizing a local point power system that relies on locally generated power such as local co-generation plants and wind/solar supplemental home energy systems instead of a distributed power systems, the direct cost of transmission is not a factor in consumer's utility bill therefore utility costs decrease. On the other hand, is the old transmission grid obsolete or is their still a use for a networked power system?
Additionally, they infer that enabling local consumers shifts the grip of power control away from the industrialist power authorities. True again but what about the importance of a networked power grid?
Here's their report: Decentralizing Power
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:11 am
This report leads us to believe that we could use energy 3 times more efficiently if used locally. In fact, compared to best practices for electricity and heat generation (a condensing boiler and a combined-cycle power plant), the saving can be around 15%, provided there is a demand for the heat locally. If not, one has just built an inefficient local electricity generation plant.