Renewable Energy

[ysabetwordsmith]

Old Coal-Fired Power Plant Found the Key to Solving America’s Biggest Clean Energy Challenge

Researchers at the Berkeley National Labs have determined that oil, coal, and gas power plants still have a major role to play in America’s energy economy—as electrical sockets.

There are years of red tape needed for renewable energy projects to connect fully with the grid, but because coal and gas plants already negotiated that process long ago, one of their best uses for Americans in the future will be to act like a home electrical socket that the renewables could “plug” into.


This is a good idea. However, if we want to avoid dying out, we should look at all that red tape and figure out how much of it can be discarded in the interests of scaling up green energy for survival needs.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

It's like the reason SpaceX isn't launching it's latest prototype yet, despite the rocket being ready for flight... is because the FAA say their launch licence won't be ready until the end of November. Nor can they guarantee that cadence of flight approval will come even close to matching the speed SpaceX wants to build rockets.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Or the launch windows available, because you can't launch just any old time. You have specific timeframes when you can hit a desired target that you want to reach on the way up, and then your desired landing zone on the way back down. In this regard, any governmental space agency has an overwhelming advantage over everyone else.

Re: Yes ...

[siliconshaman]

True enough, but even NASA has issues with the FAA. They're not likely to hit their desired launch window for Artemis II because of some regulatory requirements that are still pending.

Basically, the FAA suffered badly from cut backs not long ago, and now it's taking ever longer to do the paperwork. That, and there may be a bit of regulatory capture going on...