At COP28 in Dubai, there was an intensity of debate, a tsunami of evidence, a profusion of advocates, an electrifying urgency and a grasp of consequences we lack in New Zealand. Rod Oram reports.
I have solar. My power bill halved, so total imported units is probably reduced by about 30%. If everyone had solar, demand on the grid would drop by a significant amount.
Your turn. Why would rooftop/local solar and wind not help?
our peak power usage happens on the coldest nights of the year.
I already did, but allow me to expand on that point.
Our hydro dams are, in effect, colossal batteries, and are vital to back up the many other types of renewables we have, including solar, wind, run of the river hydro, and geothermal. Geothermal is a base load, and we don’t have control over the output of the others the way we do with hydro. This is why Labour was proposing to build a colossal pumped storage hydro scheme, because they understand this as well as anyone.
We need them, we will always need them, and we need a national grid to bring power from them to the rest of the country. Your solar doesn’t do anything on a cold winter night.
Absolutely nobody apart from you, stop creating strawman arguments.
Yet, to achieve that we need nothing less than a fundamental transformation of our electricity system from a 20th century model dominated by gentailers involving large-scale generation, long distance transmission and concentrated market power to a 21st century one based on local generation, use, trading and storage of renewable sources of electricity.
The author of the article does seem to think we won’t need them in the future though.
I’ve seen the cost involved with house batteries, they’re not cheap at all. You still need the grid to back you up, especially if electricity is your sole source of heat.
I’d love some technical details on how you think this will work.
No you wouldn’t
Quite frankly, I think both you and the author lack the technical knowledge to make that claim.
Case in point, you’re not actually interested. Where’s your technical argument oh great one?
My technical argument is there’s a good reason why we do things the way we do, and if you want to change, it’s on you to prove your way is better.
I have solar. My power bill halved, so total imported units is probably reduced by about 30%. If everyone had solar, demand on the grid would drop by a significant amount.
Your turn. Why would rooftop/local solar and wind not help?
I already did, but allow me to expand on that point.
Our hydro dams are, in effect, colossal batteries, and are vital to back up the many other types of renewables we have, including solar, wind, run of the river hydro, and geothermal. Geothermal is a base load, and we don’t have control over the output of the others the way we do with hydro. This is why Labour was proposing to build a colossal pumped storage hydro scheme, because they understand this as well as anyone.
We need them, we will always need them, and we need a national grid to bring power from them to the rest of the country. Your solar doesn’t do anything on a cold winter night.
Who said anything about removing our hydro?
Absolutely nobody apart from you, stop creating strawman arguments.
The author of the article does seem to think we won’t need them in the future though.
It’s very common for solar installations to have batteries these days. That goes a long way to reducing peak load.
I’ve seen the cost involved with house batteries, they’re not cheap at all. You still need the grid to back you up, especially if electricity is your sole source of heat.