Powering the Rain Shadow

Peak Moment 109: Most of Washington State's San Juan Islands don't have grid electricity. Many people have relied on generators, but these days, an increasing number are turning to solar. Renewables installer Eric Youngren discusses how net metering works to pay individual energy producers for power they put back into the grid, and other incentives for small-scale renewable "power plants". He tells us about "run of the river" hydro, powered by diversions rather than dams in creeks. A strong advocate for conservation and efficiency, Eric says we could be running everything in the home on a fraction of the energy we now use, just with rooftop solar.

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Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• solar
• power
• off
• grid
• efficiency
• conservation
• hydro
• energy

[DrewDawg50]

There is no proof that oil is running out. She is only repeating what she's heard on the news.

[peakmoment]

Peak Oil is not about running out of oil. We'll never run out -- there will always be some left int he earth. What we are running out of is cheap oil. Demand is starting to exceed supply, which is why prices are volatile. The oil that remains is more expensive to refine, find, produce. There's a lot of evidence for this, a lot of data.

[altfseven]

great vid...BUT Solar is only a slice of the solution as i see it, what about merlins well theory and teslar free energy if there all combined they would fraction the costs of solar alone and (on paper) multiply the collection of the energy point 10 fold for a fraction of the cost for meterials and construction... you know the ol' KISS theory? the tec is already there and working.

[peakmoment]

Illuminate us. Google had nothing on Merlin's well theory. So far as I know, "free" energy is in development and isn't in practical application of any scale. All of the renewables are just part of the answer. For me, the goal is sustainability, not simply continuing our energy-profligate way of life.

[buckfastbee]

Whow, here in Germany we can get up about 4 times the money for feeding the grid than using it if we have photovoltaic or wind energy. It's guaranteed by law for about the next 20 years...

[peakmoment]

America needs that kind of incentive and more.

[altfseven]

agree, you vids a hammering solar at the moment ...

[Odziz]

Solar, wind, wave and tidal are all 'free energy', its the equipment to convert it to electricity that costs.

[dugfriendly]

I did a little project for OPALCO. It had nothing to do with renewables, but I can attest to the beauty of the San Juans.