Electric Grid Alert

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by Cement Bench

was it Medicine Hat that did solar or wind for municipal buildings and then abandon that project in the last few years
will need to look it up

Medicine Hat - and it was Solar Hot Water heaters, not electricity generation.

[Sledhead71]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

Medicine Hat - and it was Solar Hot Water heaters, not electricity generation.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...-hat-1.5137428

Aside from the obvious, there where many many issues with this project.

[mac1983]

These guys think it's feasible, south of GP.

https://www.albertano1.ca/, Terrapin Geothermics

They're getting 118 C at 4000 M depth, Takes 100 C to generate electricity

They plan on generating 10 MW of baseload power

Wind and solar not working to well up here lol.

Natural gas is crazy expensive to produce electricity.

Lot's of nice coal at Grande Cash, but Rachael cancelled that.

[MountainTi]

Originally Posted by mac1983

These guys think it's feasible, south of GP.

https://www.albertano1.ca/, Terrapin Geothermics

They're getting 118 C at 4000 M depth, Takes 100 C to generate electricity

They plan on generating 10 MW of baseload power

Wind and solar not working to well up here lol.

Natural gas is crazy expensive to produce electricity.

Lot's of nice coal at Grande Cash, but Rachael cancelled that.

I think the term geothermal is rather misleading when it comes to the systems being referred to in the thread. Drilling a 2-300' hole and running a loop down doesn't produce heat. It keeps the circulated glycol at a constant temp and then an electric heat pump makes the heat or A/C.
118 degree fluid would be ideal circulating thru a roughneck, but pretty expensive hole to drill

And I agree, Nutjob shutting down coal fired generating stations is going to cost electricity users a TON of money down the road. I guess as long as she promises cheap high speed internet and subsidized university, maybe she's not that bad

[Big Grey Wolf]

One of the smartest moves Notley made was shutting down coal fired plants. We gained significant green house gas credit at very limited cost to Alberta. It was also nice to get rid of all the SO2, NOX and mercury pollution in Stony, Spruce Grove and Leduc. We have lots of clean, cheap natural gas in Alberta.

[mac1983]

Originally Posted by MountainTi

I think the term geothermal is rather misleading when it comes to the systems being referred to in the thread. Drilling a 2-300' hole and running a loop down doesn't produce heat. It keeps the circulated glycol at a constant temp and then an electric heat pump makes the heat or A/C.
118 degree fluid would be ideal circulating thru a roughneck, but pretty expensive hole to drill

And I agree, Nutjob shutting down coal fired generating stations is going to cost electricity users a TON of money down the road. I guess as long as she promises cheap high speed internet and subsidized university, maybe she's not that bad

I agree it would be expensive , but they're working on it.

Drilling tech has come a long ways since my day, lol.

Wells are in pairs, 4000 m deep, large diameter so say 12 ", you would start out at what 16"?

One producing well and one injection well run through a heat exchanger.

Not sure how many pairs you would need, but they're putting a lot of wells on those pads nowadays.

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

One of the smartest moves Notley made was shutting down coal fired plants. We gained significant green house gas credit at very limited cost to Alberta. It was also nice to get rid of all the SO2, NOX and mercury pollution in Stony, Spruce Grove and Leduc. We have lots of clean, cheap natural gas in Alberta.

Yet Notley breaking the electricity contracts cost Alberta almost $2 billion.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Speaking of coal - and not to derail too much here - what's with all the gear and structural material laid down in the Genesee yard lately? Is it for a NG conversion project?

[Map Maker]

Ontario is going all-in and GM by retooling machine to build electric vehicles.

https://stocks.apple.com/AoRLl6YDbRtWca42EFkLbaQ
Do we let them be the Guinea pigs or do we jump in too?

[Stinky Buffalo]

I could see that there may be a market for more localized, community-based electric power generation. That way it can be produced from whatever is more abundant for that locality.

Some areas have more sunlight. Others, wind. And most would have ready access to natural gas or organic feedstock. Some would make more sense to have nuclear or hydroelectric supplies.

The smaller scales could make distribution less of an issue.

[MountainTi]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

Ontario is going all-in and GM by retooling machine to build electric vehicles.

https://stocks.apple.com/AoRLl6YDbRtWca42EFkLbaQ
Do we let them be the Guinea pigs or do we jump in too?

Oh good, another bailout. Or will it just be coined green subsidies?

[Big Grey Wolf]

Us Albertans paid Capital power $millions to covert plant to natural gas. Pipeline was built few years back. Now I see they are expanding coal mine west even towards our pheasant hunting area. Did UCP give them an 'Get out of Jail' card?

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by MountainTi

Oh good, another bailout. Or will it just be coined green subsidies?

I thought it was called "buying votes in Ontario".

ARG

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by MountainTi

Oh good, another bailout. Or will it just be coined green subsidies?

Hey, the lithium is supposed to come from Alberta. Any lithium capability here is still in early development and may or may not prove practical in the end. In the meantime, make them African kids work triple shift.

Grizz

[gunluvr]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

I’ve always been an advocate of letting homeowners access the electrical grid with solar or wind power generation. Rooftop solar and selling back the power at the same all-in rate we buy at.
I estimate the payoff/payback time would be about 3 years (currently it is 5 years). That would make it very inticing to 75% of homeowners.

This would boost supply and reduce demand.

The only way to make home solar or wind generation affordable is to get entirely off the grid. All those transmission charges, distribution charges, administration fees, gst and carbon taxes are money down the drain, month after month and are often more than 50% of the bill. Even if your co-generation offsets your usage, you still pay all the fees.

[Homesteader]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

One of the smartest moves Notley made was shutting down coal fired plants. We gained significant green house gas credit at very limited cost to Alberta. It was also nice to get rid of all the SO2, NOX and mercury pollution in Stony, Spruce Grove and Leduc. We have lots of clean, cheap natural gas in Alberta.

Gas still produces NOX, and the SO2 is substantially reduced with scrubbers like on G3, Mercury also has very high capture rates these days, but many people are unaware that coal can be fired cleaner then ever.

At 110k cubic meters an hour for one unit, I’ll be very surprised if we have cheap natural gas for long……….or electricity for that matter. Better buckle in for what’s coming.

[Hunt4Ever]

Here is Alberta’s energy providers
http://ets.aeso.ca/ets_web/ip/Market...DReportServlet

[mac1983]

Originally Posted by Hunt4Ever

Here is Alberta’s energy providers
http://ets.aeso.ca/ets_web/ip/Market...DReportServlet

Thanks for the link Hunt4. Interesting breakdown of our power supply.

https://twitter.com/ReliableAB, Is the link I've been following

The diversity of power generation types and locations is surprising.

And we still buy power off of BC, Saskatchewan and Montana daily.

We need to give the people the ability to generate and sell to the grid.

[Vantage Point]

Was wondering if anyone knows what the drilling rig setup is after on the west side of the main building. Was kind of thinking possible goethermal.

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by mac1983

We need to give the people the ability to generate and sell to the grid.

Not sure what you mean here. Everyone has the ability to generate electricity and sell to the grid. If you are a residential customer with the financial ability to prepay the next 8 years of your electrical bill via a capital investment in solar panels there are hordes of companies in Alberta ready to set you up. That should leave you with 12+ years of electricity where all you need to pay is the maintenance on your equipment.
Unfortunately if your service type is "farm" then the payback is closer to the 20 year life expectancy of the solar system.
Small scale wind generation does not make economic sense for anyone in Alberta.

[mac1983]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

Not sure what you mean here. Everyone has the ability to generate electricity and sell to the grid. If you are a residential customer with the financial ability to prepay the next 8 years of your electrical bill via a capital investment in solar panels there are hordes of companies in Alberta ready to set you up. That should leave you with 12+ years of electricity where all you need to pay is the maintenance on your equipment.
Unfortunately if your service type is "farm" then the payback is closer to the 20 year life expectancy of the solar system.
Small scale wind generation does not make economic sense for anyone in Alberta.

Thanks for the update FC, but I find that idea rather limiting, but you got me researching bill 22.

I'm thinking more along the lines of various different types of micro generation with the ability to sell to the grid and receive from the grid privately.

The government has brought in Bill 22 which may accomplish that but i'm not sure yet if that applies to residential/farm service or just companies.

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by mac1983

Thanks for the update FC, but I find that idea rather limiting, but you got me researching bill 22.

I'm thinking more along the lines of various different types of micro generation with the ability to sell to the grid and receive from the grid privately.

The government has brought in Bill 22 which may accomplish that but i'm not sure yet if that applies to residential/farm service or just companies.

https://www.alberta.ca/micro-generation.aspx

Has been in force since 2008

[mac1983]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

https://www.alberta.ca/micro-generation.aspx

Has been in force since 2008

Excellent info FC, Thanks for the link.

[M.C. Gusto]

Nuclear is the only way. I have no idea why one of the Federal Parties won’t get behind this and use this on their platform.

[Map Maker]

Originally Posted by M.C. Gusto

Nuclear is the only way. I have no idea why one of the Federal Parties won’t get behind this and use this on their platform.

Interesting point…I was just listening to a pod cast from Elon musk and he said that if you covered the area and property of a nuclear plant with solar panels, the solar panels would generate more power.

I don’t know if that is true. But crazy if it is true.

[silver]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

Interesting point…I was just listening to a pod cast from Elon musk and he said that if you covered the area and property of a nuclear plant with solar panels, the solar panels would generate more power.

I don’t know if that is true. But crazy if it is true.

Nuclear will give you power at night.

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

Interesting point…I was just listening to a pod cast from Elon musk and he said that if you covered the area and property of a nuclear plant with solar panels, the solar panels would generate more power.

I don’t know if that is true. But crazy if it is true.

Nuclear will give you more power, it will generate 24/7, all year, regardless of weather.

[crazy_davey]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

Nuclear will give you more power, it will generate 24/7, all year, regardless of weather.

Exactly!

[Map Maker]

Well I think he was running off avg calcs which would factor in sunlight per day.

Irregardless, but seeing the forest for the trees.
Vacant land is a potential power supply.
My home has a huge front lot (60’s thing) that I just mow the dandelions.
If I can convert that land base (100m2 ) to generate power to feed the grid.
I should easily be energy surplus.
I could also put the panels 7’ high to still use the space.
Seems like a win win.

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by Map Maker

Interesting point…I was just listening to a pod cast from Elon musk and he said that if you covered the area and property of a nuclear plant with solar panels, the solar panels would generate more power.

I don’t know if that is true. But crazy if it is true.

Doing some research online, different sources stated different numbers, but to produce the same amount of electricity, a solar field would require from 10 to 75 times as much land, as a nuclear power plant depending on whether you use peak output, or average output and depending on location.