California to brace for emergency blackouts: Just wondering, in the land of electric cars, how much do they contribute to the strain on the electric grid?

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Just wondering, in the land of electric cars, how much do they contribute to the strain on the electric grid?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-warned-brace-another-summer-energy-blackouts-n1268879

Kraken Loc: Barry's Bay

SteveR wrote:

Just wondering, in the land of electric cars, how much do they contribute to the strain on the electric grid?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-warned-brace-another-summer-energy-blackouts-n1268879

Overall, we rate NBC News Left-Center biased based on story se******n and word choices that moderately favor the left and High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a reasonable fact check record. (5/18/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 10/07/2019)

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

California's grid problems are easily explained in one sentence. Too many people competing for limited resources. It's kinda obvious

SteveR Loc: Michigan

boberic wrote:

California's grid problems are easily explained in one sentence. Too many people competing for limited resources. It's kinda obvious

So, why compete for one resource? It electricity is at a premium in CA, it would seem that it would be difficult to charge all those cars during peak electrical usage. BTW, are there that many windmills in CA? How does CA produce their electricity?

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

SteveR wrote:

So, why compete for one resource? It electricity is at a premium in CA, it would seem that it would be difficult to charge all those cars during peak electrical usage. BTW, are there that many windmills in CA? How does CA produce their electricity?

I was driving through southern Cal coming back from Texas the other day and in what I believe is the palm springs area, or maybe 29 palms (I'm not really familiar with that area) I saw what must have been thousands of windmills. We have wind farms around here, and I've certainly seen wind farms on TV, but I've never seen anything like that. The only blackouts I've seen in the last couple years has been when PG&E shut down areas for fire safety in high wind areas. I don't know why they don't just clean out the crap that makes for a fire hazard, and if lines slap together in high winds spacers can be installed to prevent that. These blackouts won't be affected, positively or negatively by increased load.

InfiniteISO Loc: The Carolinas, USA

thom w wrote:

I was driving through southern Cal coming back fro... (show quote)

A California facility that the company I work for owned operated a very clean, coal-fired power plant that generated all the power the facility needed and sold a bit back to the grid. They were forced to shut their boilers down in 2014 and buy all their power from the grid, about 20 megawatts. The cost of electricity for the facility tripled and was unreliable. That plant that employed over 100 people was closed in 2018. Energy costs and Taxes were cited as the reasons.

The people making decisions in California don't care about the long-term financial health of their state. It is much more imporatant to be green and woke.

trainspotter Loc: Oregon

SteveR wrote:

So, why compete for one resource? It electricity is at a premium in CA, it would seem that it would be difficult to charge all those cars during peak electrical usage. BTW, are there that many windmills in CA? How does CA produce their electricity?

California buys from Oregon

(BPA Bonneville Power Administration )

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

InfiniteISO wrote:

A California facility that the company I work for ... (show quote)

I have no way to dispute that, but it would be the first "very clean coal-fired power plant" I've ever heard of. Cement plants are the cleanest coal fired industry I know of because of the extreme high temperatures and the ash is incorporated in the product, and they aren't all that clean. There is a coal fired cement plant in Cupertino (founded by Henry Kaiser) and it is the largest pollution producer in the valley.

trainspotter Loc: Oregon

Kraken wrote:

Overall, we rate NBC News Left-Center biased based on story se******n and word choices that moderately favor the left and High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a reasonable fact check record. (5/18/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 10/07/2019)

same OL poo huh kracker.....you NEVER run out of ammo....do ya?

InfiniteISO Loc: The Carolinas, USA

Coal ash can be an issue depending on the variety of coal, but the discharge from the furnace can be made very clean with electrostatic precipitators and cyclonic separation.

Coal ash is actually good for a number of things, but it tends to have trace amounts of heavy metal because coal has minuscule amounts, and burning it consolidates these materials. Regulators have made it nearly impossible to use coal ash in soil because their limits are outrageously low. This when all soil contains these metals in some amount. The coal-fired boiler where I currently work is calculated to generate a few ounces of mercury and arsenic a year, but this is spread over tons and tons of ash. We pay to have our ash processed.