Oregon Electric Grid

[nagant]

Time for a change in government

 

[Bob D]

Time for a change in government

Luckily we get to do that every two years if we want to! I'd love to vote for someone who has an energy plan that accounts for both financial reality and also ecological reality.

 

[The Heretic]

Regardless of whether there is enough coal/oil/etc. to power a region, the grid can go down. I had 3-4 power failures last year, and 4 this year. One last year was 2-3 days due to the fire we had up here, and one this year was 3 days (IIRC) due to snow, then ice and wind.

Of course a genset would help (and did help on the last power failure), but what happens when we have a Cascadian earthquake? What will happen if we have another Columbus Day storm?

I can't do solar where I am at - too many trees that I do not want to cut down and I am on the north side of the mountain. But my next property will be a south facing exposure with solar potential. If I get anywhere near what I want for my current property, then I will hopefully have enough left over to setup a solar system, preferably with a "flow" battery system. That and a geothermal hydronic radiant heating system, with partial earth bermed walls and extra insulation, will hopefully get me where I want to be regarding energy self-sufficiency.By reducing my need for electricity and having backup systems, I hope that power outages will no longer be an issue for me and mine.

Energy, whether liquid/solid or electricity, is only going to get more expensive, and until all of the electrical grid is underground (not going to happen in my lifetime - probably not in this century - if ever), then the grid is vulnerable and we will continue to have outages due to wind/ice/snow. Maybe local thorium nuclear power stations would help?

 

[jayR]

I've been running a solar system for my blueberries for over 15 years now. Figured reliable access to water was the highest use for solar power. It extracts about 10gpm @ 800 watts. Well is 80 feet deep. Last year however when the smoke settled in - there was no energy produced for almost a week.
I did get a simple pump but haven't set it up yet.
As far as solar goes - it works.. most of the time but the energy needed to run a modern household is very high + the question remains what to power via solar.. Anyway for me it's secure potable water...

 

[nagant]

We were on 100% solar during daylight for 10+ years. We were at payback in 5 years. Now PGE is working hard toward making solar cost ineffective by raising connection fees and true up costs. I know a number of new solar buyers who now openly regret going to solar due to all the increased fees and costs. Some will never see payback. Recently a directive to not charge electric vehicles went out as grid was overloaded again. I see an infrastructure collapse and feel it is intentional.

 

[Bob D]

We were on 100% solar during daylight for 10+ years. We were at payback in 5 years. Now PGE is working hard toward making solar cost ineffective by raising connection fees and true up costs. I know a number of new solar buyers who now openly regret going to solar due to all the increased fees and costs. Some will never see payback. Recently a directive to not charge electric vehicles went out as grid was overloaded again. I see an infrastructure collapse and feel it is intentional.

I had solar installed this year, and have been quite happy with the financial end of it. I'll break even (looking at monthly budget) within 5-7 years, not including rising energy costs. If I were to pay cash instead of financing the thing, it would happen much quicker, but I would still need to recoup all that initial. With interest rates as low as they are, financing made more sense. The advances in efficiency in the solar industry are moving much faster than they have in the past; I've been eyeballing it for a decade or more and it finally made sense. Makes even more sense if your goal is more energy independence than financial benefit.

 

[nagant]

I had solar installed this year, and have been quite happy with the financial end of it. I'll break even (looking at monthly budget) within 5-7 years, not including rising energy costs. If I were to pay cash instead of financing the thing, it would happen much quicker, but I would still need to recoup all that initial. With interest rates as low as they are, financing made more sense. The advances in efficiency in the solar industry are moving much faster than they have in the past; I've been eyeballing it for a decade or more and it finally made sense. Makes even more sense if your goal is more energy independence than financial benefit.

Hope so for your sake. Solar is great when it works and is really nice when you reach payback and makes your feel like your getting a real break on your energy costs . If OR sells much more power to adjacent states like CA all bets are off. The move to Undam rivers seems farfetched but look at where we are right now.

 

[billdeserthills]

Japan has plan to get rid of tainted Fukushima water: just dump it all into the ocean

New Fukushima plan: an undersea tunnel

Nuclear plant will build an undersea tunnel and pump it out

www.newser.com

 

[JohnnyMac]

My last job was maintaining the Coast Guard emergency radio sites on mountain tops around Alaska. They all had a robust solar power system (48 panels separated into four loops, two Outback solar controllers, two banks of 12ea 2vdc VRLA batteries in a 24vdc system) that augmented a pair of propane fired generators.

What I learned about the solar power setup is that it was nearly impossible to buy US made panels. 80% of panels are made in China and are pretty poorly made at that. If one panel burns up, it generally takes out the rest in that loop. The panels were subjected to pretty harsh conditions on the Alaska mountaintops, but nonetheless they only lasted a couple years before the seals broke and had water intrusion shorting them out or corroding beyond repair. Snow rendered them useless. Short winter days and cloud cover limited them. The original batteries we installed (Absolyte) lasted 10-12 years a piece, but the most recent replacements only lasted an average of three years. The battery companies had to change the build components to meet EPA standards so they were tremendously less hardy. Due to the massive maintenance costs, the CG has now scrapped replacing the solar power and are just running the generators alone. It was enough to turn me away from solar.

 

[wjv]

The wind power coming out of The Gorge is reasonably reliable, but even then it's not 100%.
Also it can't supply all of Oregon, and I'm sure the wind farms on the WA side will send their power to WA, not OR.

Solar is OK, and is better than ever before because of better, more efficient, longer lasting panels. . . But this is the Pacific NW which means clouds 2/3s or the year or more.

To bad we can't figure out how to turn rain into electricity. . .
The PNW would be a major power provider!!!

 

[The Heretic]

To bad we can't figure out how to turn rain into electricity. . .

List of dams in the Columbia River watershed - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[wjv]

Dams are evil. . . Haven't you heard!

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

We have been having planned outages here in Eastern Oregon once a week on random days between 2AM and 7AM so they can work on the grid. Last week the power did not come back on until 7:20AM. Heck, people got to get to work at that time. I have been using my 300watt camping battery for my CPAP on those nights and recharging it with a 100w solar panel.

 

[solv3nt]

The wind power coming out of The Gorge is reasonably reliable, but even then it's not 100%.
Also it can't supply all of Oregon, and I'm sure the wind farms on the WA side will send their power to WA, not OR.

Solar is OK, and is better than ever before because of better, more efficient, longer lasting panels. . . But this is the Pacific NW which means clouds 2/3s or the year or more.

To bad we can't figure out how to turn rain into electricity. . .
The PNW would be a major power provider!!!

The wind mostly comes at night when everybody is asleep and not using power.

 

[wjv]

The wind mostly comes at night when everybody is asleep and not using power.

Been at the wind farms during the day. And there is power being produced.
We have a target in the high 90s for availability and almost always make it.

 

[solv3nt]

Been at the wind farms during the day. And there is power being produced.
We have a target in the high 90s for availability and almost always make it.

There's wind for sure during the day, but there's even more during the night when people aren't using power. Which means that you have to have energy storage if some sort of let them freespin. Also, they don't recycle the turbines, so the blades get buried.