A reminder as we come up on Earth Day:

Climate scientist Michael E Mann & historian Timothy D Snyder define doomerism:
Doomerism is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.
It is how authoritarians win. Let’s try to fight the doom.

I’m going to start this post out with a caveat, while I’ve been a long time proponent of examining the United States electric grid and revamping it – everything about electricity traveling over long distances is way above my limited technical knowledge.

I have pulled together some experts I trust and am sharing their opinions on what needs to happen to the grid in order for alternative energy sources to be viable, and to meet the 2030 and 2050 climate goals.

From Dave Roberts’ Volts Podcast:

Getting More Out of  Current Transmission Infrastructer

Audio Here

One of the primary threats to the clean energy buildout spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act is a lack of transmission. Models show that hitting our Paris climate targets would involve building two to three times our current transmission capacity, yet new lines are desperately slow to come online. Meanwhile, existing lines are congested and hundreds of gigawatts of new clean energy sits waiting in interconnection queues.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there were some relatively cheap and speedy ways to get more capacity out of the transmission infrastructure we’ve already built? To ease some of that congestion and get more clean energy online while we wait for new lines to be completed?

As it happens, there are. They are called grid-enhancing technologies, or GETs, and they can improve the performance of existing transmission lines by as much as 40 percent. Full transcript here

Another from David (he has several you can search for more on his website):

Upgrading Current Powerlines 

Audio Here

Utilities are not under constant pressure to improve their products, and consequently, power lines haven’t improved much over the years. The standard design used in the industry dates back to the early 1900s. The more “modern” design dates back to the 1970s.

Now, at long last, some companies are popping up with new power lines that can transmit more power, and leak less of it, than traditional lines. Simply replacing old lines (or “conductors”) with the latest technology — or “reconductoring” — could, according to some recent studies, double the capacity of the existing grid, or more. But that would involve persuading utilities to actually deploy the latest tech, which is no mean feat. Full transcript here

This is a good video primer of what the challenges are and how they are achievable:

This is a good listen, but it also feels like a infomercial for 3M, so keep that in mind: Optimizing the Grid

And one of my favorite vloggers:

I’m keen on smaller, micro-grids myself. AND we need to create more public utilities and break up the monopolies. We had a concrete example of how bad monopolies are right here in Colorado. We had a wind event a few weeks ago that rivaled what caused the devastating Marshall fire. So what did XCEL do, now that they are facing lawsuits for leaving damaged lines up and running? They shut down power to tens of thousands of customers, including essential services at retirement and assisted living facilities. By many reports, this was a last resort sort of move and they skipped a lot of intermediary steps to avoid it.

Meanwhile, the communities that had locally owned or co-op utilities (I’m lucky enough to live in one of those towns) had limited loss of electricity, in my case, power was up in an hour, and no widespread precautionary shutdowns. Also, no small matter as we continue to electrify everything, public utility rates are much lower than that of XCEL. Right now an average of seven cents to fifteen cents for each.

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A few additional items, especially with Earth Day, I wanted to continue with the next two Carbon Cowboy videos.

May 14, 2020 CORNWALL

Dairy farmer Ben Mead, and beef producer Martin Howard are renegades in southwest England – figuring out ways to graze their cattle using nature as the starting point – eschewing chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides while giving their animals, and their land, the best chance of health and regeneration. There is no soil run-off from their farms while their neighbors’ soils cause the port of Plymouth to be dredged on an annual basis. Filmed in Devon and Cornwall, UK

May 14, 2020 CORONA

26,263 views • May 14, 2020 • CORONA

At the Ranney Ranch in arid Corona, New Mexico, Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing is restoring soils and benefiting the environment while producing healthy food for consumers – and they changed to AMP grazing during a 15-year drought – this was unheard of. Ranch manager Melvin Johnson was extremely resistant to trying this new method of grazing, having been a conventional rancher all his life. Filmed in Corona, New Mexico

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And an addendum to the EV and Battery post, I meant to include this primer on battery fires and completely whiffed it. So here it is now:

Dec 10, 2022

A sober look at the problem reveals less of one than hysterical headlines suggest, and some technological answers that make EVs and other vehicles far safer than gas-powered ones.

Despair only limits future action – Simon Clark

I know grid talk isn’t all the exciting, next post I promise we’ll look at cute little beavers and other rewilding efforts and why they are good for carbon sequestration.

This is a doom and gloom free thread