Power companies pledge support for 100 pct renewable energy

[rya96797]

pv is actually garbage energy. useful yes, but highly variable, and not useful at night. so heco needs to make sure generators are running at higher than capacity during the day. wind has the same problem.


renewables that make sense and should be pursued are geothermal on the big island, with undersea cable to other islands, wave generated energy, and deep sea water technology. These technologies are more or less consistent, and don't rely on it being a windy or sunny day. These types of technologies would allow at least powering homes to be 100% renewable. Automobiles are tougher, and would require everyone to use electric vehicles (which are plugged into 100% renewable power generation sources).


The leap in technology that would turn PV into something more useful is a leap in battery technology that can store more energy in the same sized battery and is cheap. It would allow all these homeowners with PV to truly be off the grid, storing energy during the day to be used while they're home at night. No need to draw power from heco unless the batteries run dry.

[thejackalope]

Originally Posted by rya96797

pv is actually garbage energy. useful yes, but highly variable, and not useful at night. so heco needs to make sure generators are running at higher than capacity during the day. wind has the same problem.


renewables that make sense and should be pursued are geothermal on the big island, with undersea cable to other islands, wave generated energy, and deep sea water technology. These technologies are more or less consistent, and don't rely on it being a windy or sunny day. These types of technologies would allow at least powering homes to be 100% renewable. Automobiles are tougher, and would require everyone to use electric vehicles (which are plugged into 100% renewable power generation sources).


The leap in technology that would turn PV into something more useful is a leap in battery technology that can store more energy in the same sized battery and is cheap. It would allow all these homeowners with PV to truly be off the grid, storing energy during the day to be used while they're home at night. No need to draw power from heco unless the batteries run dry.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Hawaii but the highest power usage is during the day to run air conditioners.