Category Archives: Electricity

Chinese Bank Challenges The World Bank-Providing Funds To Build Electrical Power Plants

Posted on April 23, 2015 | Leave a comment

China has established a bank that competes with the World Bank. One of the things that this Chinese bank will offer will be loans to third world countries that want to improve the lives of their people by providing them with electricity. The World Bank has banned any loans to these same countries if the country’s means of producing electricity is through the use of coal. The World Bank’s policies are dictated by the US, Japan and the European nations. They have decided that these countries will produce just too much CO2. This is a wrongheaded policy predicated upon the questionable theory of catastrophic man-made global warming.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in AGW, China, CO2, Coal, Electricity, Electricity from Coal, fossil fuels, Nuclear Energy

Wind Subsidy Defeated In The Senate

Posted on March 20, 2015 | Leave a comment

The wind producers Production Tax Credit (PTC) extension was voted down in the Senate. The PTC awards a tax credit of $0.023 for each kilowatt-hour (KHW) produced. The PTC expired at the end of last year. This subsidy began in 1992 with the idea that it was a temporary assist for renewable energy to become competitive with traditional sources of electricity. The subsidy was initially set at $0.015 per KWH. It is adjusted annually. It has been renewed many times. Twenty-two years of subsidies and the PTC wind and solar are still not competitive.

Unfortunately about half of the States have renewable energy mandates that require the State to buy a certain percentage of its total power from renewable sources. This will keep some amount of renewable power in business.

Wind and Solar produced electricity can’t be reliably scheduled. Wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun is on average only available for something in the range of half a day, given no clouds. The nations power grids must balance supply and demand on a moment-to-moment time frame for its customers. Until (and if) a reliable and economic way to store the electricity generated by renewables is developed, fossil fuel generated power back-up is necessary to quickly adjust to changes in supply and demand.

These subsidies allow crony capitalism to exist. Favored groups are selected and the subsidies allow them to make money. Because the government doesn’t have any money except what they can take from the taxpayers, this means we are the ones that pay. And on a continuing basis the homeowners pay for high priced power.

Well, before we think we have made at least one step toward sanity because the PTC was voted down in the Senate, remember that the advocates of the PTC have found ways to get it renewed year after year. The vote in the Senate was 51 against the PTC and 46 for. Not a big margin. Especially considering that three Republicans voted for its renewal. It will not be renewed if there is a vote on the PTC all by itself. But there will be many opportunities to bundle the PTC into some big bill everyone wants passed.

cbdakota

Leave a comment

Posted in Alternative Energy, Electricity, Electricity from Coal, Energy Development, fossil fuels, Fracking/Shale Gas, Government Revenues, Renewable Energy

President Obama Is Prevaricating Again

Posted on November 17, 2013 | 3 comments

The President in his weekly address did it again. He said things that are demonstrably untrue and in other cases terribly misleading. This comes after the debacle resulting from his lying when he made assurances about keeping your medical policy under Obamacare, period!!!! Why is he doing it again? Because he knows, with the compliance of the Main Stream Media (MSM), he can mislead the low information voters. And he is happy to be doing that. See the video of the address by clicking here.

He takes credit for the increase in oil production in the US. He has had nothing to do with it. And he knows that. The oil boom comes from private landowners operating on non-federal land.(See chart below.) He cannot prevent exploitation of those reserves.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration based on DrillingInfo and LCI Energy Insight

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in AGW, CAFE Standards, cap and trade, carbon tax, Domestic Energy, Electric Vehicles, Electricity, EPA, Fracking/Shale Gas, Government Regulations, Media Bias, solar cells, Windpower

Bloom Box Surcharge Increases 570%, Stunning Delaware Utility Customers

Posted on August 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

In 2012 the Governor of the State of Delaware, Jack Markel, entered into a long-term contract with Bloom Energy. The contract obligated Bloom to begin manufacturing their “Bloom Boxes” in the closed Chrysler Assembly plant. Delaware was obligated to subsidize Bloom to the tune of the difference of the cost of the electricity produced by Bloom Boxes and the cost of open market electricity. That subsidy rose from $0.67 in October 2012 to $3.83 for September 2013, a 570% increase, where it increases each ratepayers month’s bill. Delaware has mandated a requirement to buy renewable energy produced electricity that grows to 25% of the total energy used in the State by 2025. The open market electricity price has been dropping due to the increased availability of natural gas from fracking operations around the Nation. The natural gas is becoming the major source of energy for producing electricity. Natural gas is not considered a “renewable” form of energy. But the State passed an exception to their renewable energy law that allows Bloom Box energy to be called “renewable” even though these boxes use natural gas as their energy source. The irony here is that the electricity produced using natural gas the standard way, the electricity is much less expensive than electricity produced by Bloom Boxes. But remember, the State has a law that demands the use of “renewable” energy produced electricity.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Batteries, Climate Alarmism, Domestic Energy, Electric Vehicles, Electricity, fossil fuels, fuel cells, Renewable Energy, solar cells, US Manufacturing Companies

Department Of Energy Forecasts 2040 World and US Energy Use/Source

Posted on July 26, 2013 | 1 comment

The Department of Energy (DOE) projects that global energy consumption will increase 56% between 2010 and 2040 from 524 quadrillion Btus to 820 quadrillion Btus.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Alarmism, Domestic Energy, Electricity, Energy Development, Environment, fossil fuels, Fracking/Shale Gas, Renewable Energy, solar cells, Windpower

Gasland Part II Reviewed

Posted on July 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

Gasland Part II, a sequel to “Gasland “, was released 28 June (a limited release according to Rotten Tomatoes). It carries the same theme that fracking is bad. The documentary “stars” are Josh Fox, the director and Dennis Kucinich, former US Representative from Ohio. Can’t imagine that Kucinich is going to bring people into the theater. The documentary has not yet appeared in the “Box Office” top 50 grossing films. TheAmericanInterest.com reviewed the documentary with it’s posting “Gasland II: Muddying a Fractured Debate”. The reviewer tries to play it down the middle saying that the movie and the movies critics tend to go over the top. But he writes this:

Gasland II is chock-full of errors and falsehoods. Some might be unintentional (Fox readily admits that he’s a “theater guy,” not an engineer or chemist), but at least one seems to be a case of deceit. At one point, Fox throws up a graph purportedly showing the high rate of cement casing failures in fracking wells. Its steeply ascending red bars make for an alarming picture, and as he triumphantly explains, “[gas companies’] own documents showed that cement encasings failed in five percent of wells immediately upon drilling, and that the failure rate increased over time; that over a thirty year period, fifty percent of wells failed.” But the caption to the graph, barely visible in the film explains that it’s showing sustained casing pressure (SCP), a condition that can lead to cement casing failure. Worse, the graph showed the SCP only for offshore wells, explicitly stating, “[t]hese data do not include wells in state waters or land locations,” a fact conveniently left out of the film.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Alarmism, Coal, Electricity, Electricity from Coal, Environment, EPA, fossil fuels, Fracking/Shale Gas

Solar Panel Defects Surfacing

Posted on July 7, 2013 | 2 comments

The NY Times is reporting that solar panels failures are becoming a major concern for the industry.

The photovoltaic cells, incorportated into the panel, generate electricity when exposed to the sun. A thin film protects the cell from moisture and it is encapsulated between layers of glass. The life expectation of the cells is 25 years and the economics of their use is predicated upon that length of service. But inspection of some these panels finds that cheaper materials are being used to bring down the manufacturing costs.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, China, Electricity, Energy Development, solar cells