If you listen to the majority of consumers, they complain that the cost of their electricity is too high for the amount they use. Even after changing all their incandescent light bulbs to CFL bulbs and purchasing expensive energy saving refrigerators and washers and driers, they complain that their energy bills continue to skyrocket out of control. So they add another layer of insulation to their attic and wrap their hot water heater in a thermal blanket. Their bill continues to rise in spite of all they are doing to conserve electricity. So now they check the seals around their vinyl, double paned, argon gas filled windows, insulate their hot water pipes and turn down their thermostat in the winter and turn it up more in the summer. Guess what? Their bill still continues to rise. In desperation, they purchase power strips for their computers and turn them off completely at night. Finally, their bill goes down, about ½ of a per cent.
In anger, they complain to the power company only to receive a letter in the mail stating that the power rates are going to increase, yet again. Confusion sets in when the consumer learns that the power companies have developed new, efficient generators that can generate twice the electricity at half the cost, yet their bill continues to rise. They learn of so-called “smart grids” that are supposed to use energy more efficiently thus cutting the cost of power usage, yet their bill continues to rise.
So, why is this happening?
There are a number of reasons for this happening. Primary amongst those reasons is plain old greed. But, since there is very little we can really do about that, we will not waste time discussing it.
Next is politics and regulations. I know what you are thinking right now: “But you just said we weren’t going to discuss greed!” Ordinarily I would agree with you, but in this case simple greed is compounded by politician’s inability to actually do something that is good for the people. Since they are more interested in being re-elected than anything else, they are motivated by whomever fills their campaign fund bank account. Guess who is doing that?
However, there are a lot of regulations currently in place that were good for their time but are now outdated or obsolete because of changing technology. Since the aforementioned politicians are unable or unwilling to work for their constituents, the regulations are very slow to be changed or updated to reflect the new tech. This makes implementing the new tech more costly as it has to be retrofitted to comply with outdated regulations and fit old infrastructure.
So our options are to either scrap the entire existing power grid and replace it with the new smart grid or retrofit the new technology with the equipment to make it work with the old. Unfortunately, it is actually less expensive to retrofit than to build a new grid. So, now you have a power generator that produces twice the power at half the cost pumping out electricity into a grid that can use the power more effectively but less efficiently. The end result is that less electricity is actually making its way out to the grid and demand for that electricity is increasing every day.
This is the problem. I wish to propose a simple, inexpensive solution.
We need to generate more power more effectively and transmit it to the end users more efficiently. WRONG!
We need to stop looking at the problem from that view. The problem doesn’t start with the producer and it doesn’t end with the consumer. The problem is in the transmission and storage of electricity.
So, let’s reverse the problem. Let’s not start looking for solutions from the electric company’s power production plants, whether they be coal, hydro-electric, geothermal, nuclear or whatever. Let’s start looking at it from the end of the problem: the consumer. Rather than have the consumer passively use up all the power that is brought to their house, let them generate a small amount of power to send to the grid. If each and every house in America generated only one kilowatt hour of electricity each day, that would increase America’s energy production by more than 100,000,000 kwh EVERY DAY!
Now, this is a drop in the bucket of the 11 billion kwh America uses each day. It also does not take into consideration businesses, factories, warehouses and other structures that can be utilized to generate power. If we factor those in we can generate 300 million kwh each day. Remember, this is based on each structure generating only one kwh per day. Most structures can be modified to generate from three to 100 kwh per day.
This can be accomplished by utilizing solar power ONLY! Yep, if we put one solar panel on every rooftop in America, we could generate 300 million kwh or more per day.
Now, let’s consider what we could do if we added small wind generators into the mix. A good residential wind generator can generate one kwh per day. While it is not practical to add a wind generator to every structure, it is practical to add them to many locations which have unused potential, such as on top of water towers, sky scrapers, etc.
These solutions aren’t going to revolutionize the world or create abundant free energy for everyone. They aren’t intended to. The point with these ideas is to get people thinking outside the box. Look at the problem from another perspective. There are literally hundreds of millions of structures across America that can be utilized for energy generation. I have only listed two of the myriad methods which can be utilized by these structures for energy generation. We haven’t even discussed enzyme powered electrical generators, atmospheric free electron capture devices, earth batteries and other new and old technology that can be used to generate power.
It really comes down to the people demanding that the government remove the monopoly that power generation companies have over the grid and generating systems and start doing something that will benefit the PEOPLE for a change.
Much of what I have written in this article will be read by blind eyes because of the recent criticism the President has received regarding the epic failures of his misguided attempts to assist companies like Solyndra. While I agree that these failures are certain to be a major setback to the development of efficient solar power generation, they should not be seen as a funeral procession for the industry.
Another issue is the actual method of generating of electricity. It seems that we have developed the idea that the best way to generate electricity is to rip electrons from an atom and send those electrons to the device which needs them. Why does it have to be done that way? Is there not a better way? Is there any research being done on other ways to generate electricity? Is electricity the only power source we can use? Can we not use other things? What are those other things? Where are we with regard to cold fusion?
These are questions which must have answers as we plod ever so slowly into the future. If we do not solve the energy problem, then, quite simply, we will eventually not have any. While this won’t mean the end of mankind, it will mean the end of our lifestyles as we know it to be now.
In anger, they complain to the power company only to receive a letter in the mail stating that the power rates are going to increase, yet again. Confusion sets in when the consumer learns that the power companies have developed new, efficient generators that can generate twice the electricity at half the cost, yet their bill continues to rise. They learn of so-called “smart grids” that are supposed to use energy more efficiently thus cutting the cost of power usage, yet their bill continues to rise.
So, why is this happening?
There are a number of reasons for this happening. Primary amongst those reasons is plain old greed. But, since there is very little we can really do about that, we will not waste time discussing it.
Next is politics and regulations. I know what you are thinking right now: “But you just said we weren’t going to discuss greed!” Ordinarily I would agree with you, but in this case simple greed is compounded by politician’s inability to actually do something that is good for the people. Since they are more interested in being re-elected than anything else, they are motivated by whomever fills their campaign fund bank account. Guess who is doing that?
However, there are a lot of regulations currently in place that were good for their time but are now outdated or obsolete because of changing technology. Since the aforementioned politicians are unable or unwilling to work for their constituents, the regulations are very slow to be changed or updated to reflect the new tech. This makes implementing the new tech more costly as it has to be retrofitted to comply with outdated regulations and fit old infrastructure.
So our options are to either scrap the entire existing power grid and replace it with the new smart grid or retrofit the new technology with the equipment to make it work with the old. Unfortunately, it is actually less expensive to retrofit than to build a new grid. So, now you have a power generator that produces twice the power at half the cost pumping out electricity into a grid that can use the power more effectively but less efficiently. The end result is that less electricity is actually making its way out to the grid and demand for that electricity is increasing every day.
This is the problem. I wish to propose a simple, inexpensive solution.
We need to generate more power more effectively and transmit it to the end users more efficiently. WRONG!
We need to stop looking at the problem from that view. The problem doesn’t start with the producer and it doesn’t end with the consumer. The problem is in the transmission and storage of electricity.
So, let’s reverse the problem. Let’s not start looking for solutions from the electric company’s power production plants, whether they be coal, hydro-electric, geothermal, nuclear or whatever. Let’s start looking at it from the end of the problem: the consumer. Rather than have the consumer passively use up all the power that is brought to their house, let them generate a small amount of power to send to the grid. If each and every house in America generated only one kilowatt hour of electricity each day, that would increase America’s energy production by more than 100,000,000 kwh EVERY DAY!
Now, this is a drop in the bucket of the 11 billion kwh America uses each day. It also does not take into consideration businesses, factories, warehouses and other structures that can be utilized to generate power. If we factor those in we can generate 300 million kwh each day. Remember, this is based on each structure generating only one kwh per day. Most structures can be modified to generate from three to 100 kwh per day.
This can be accomplished by utilizing solar power ONLY! Yep, if we put one solar panel on every rooftop in America, we could generate 300 million kwh or more per day.
Now, let’s consider what we could do if we added small wind generators into the mix. A good residential wind generator can generate one kwh per day. While it is not practical to add a wind generator to every structure, it is practical to add them to many locations which have unused potential, such as on top of water towers, sky scrapers, etc.
These solutions aren’t going to revolutionize the world or create abundant free energy for everyone. They aren’t intended to. The point with these ideas is to get people thinking outside the box. Look at the problem from another perspective. There are literally hundreds of millions of structures across America that can be utilized for energy generation. I have only listed two of the myriad methods which can be utilized by these structures for energy generation. We haven’t even discussed enzyme powered electrical generators, atmospheric free electron capture devices, earth batteries and other new and old technology that can be used to generate power.
It really comes down to the people demanding that the government remove the monopoly that power generation companies have over the grid and generating systems and start doing something that will benefit the PEOPLE for a change.
Much of what I have written in this article will be read by blind eyes because of the recent criticism the President has received regarding the epic failures of his misguided attempts to assist companies like Solyndra. While I agree that these failures are certain to be a major setback to the development of efficient solar power generation, they should not be seen as a funeral procession for the industry.
Another issue is the actual method of generating of electricity. It seems that we have developed the idea that the best way to generate electricity is to rip electrons from an atom and send those electrons to the device which needs them. Why does it have to be done that way? Is there not a better way? Is there any research being done on other ways to generate electricity? Is electricity the only power source we can use? Can we not use other things? What are those other things? Where are we with regard to cold fusion?
These are questions which must have answers as we plod ever so slowly into the future. If we do not solve the energy problem, then, quite simply, we will eventually not have any. While this won’t mean the end of mankind, it will mean the end of our lifestyles as we know it to be now.
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