Having been a water and power leader in AZ for 30 years, the crazy liberal bias towards renewables and solar is dangerous. Solar doesn't work at night even with batteries.
80% of the solar supply chain is populated with slave labor camps in China. Even Binden banned solar panels made with slave labor. I don't support using rate payers money going to China with forced labor problems. Smarten up or get off this subject. It's an epic fail for your credibility.
The debate to me simply proved that Kari Lake is just Trump in a skirt. Constantly interrupting and lying her ass off. I'm sure soon after the debate, she charted a flight back to Mar-A-Lago for the DonOLD's approval.
Solar is already overbuilt here. The issue isn't the cost per MWh (which is competitive), it's that storage sucks and therefore we already have slightly more solar than the baseload/ramp-load capacity can allow us to make effective use of. Some day storage capacity will probably get there but, with rare possible exceptions (e.g. SRP's pumped storage project), that day is not today. Unfortunately Democrats are always trying to dramatically oversimplify this area of policy by pointing out that the sun is shining.
And there’s more being built all the time. Storage is the bottleneck but it’s a problem worth solving. Energy demand is booming, likely won’t slow down. Cutting water demands wherever we can is critical. And energy independence is a plus. PV cost efficiency keeps getting better. Every year they say it will flatline but the curves keep curving. And in general it’s hard to say when the next major innovation will happen. 100-year lifespan panels? Pumped hydro. Gas peaker plants will probably be key. The future is blurry because we’re in the midst of tech innovation, but my forecast calls for plenty of solar. I’ll refrain from calling specific ratios of our energy mix. Who knows what will happen with nuclear, maybe they can make it more efficient (we’re still relying on steam of all things). But ideally, low water use solutions, low interconnection costs. And domesticizing production/supply chains would be good, but isn’t easy. I would like to see innovations in thermal storage, but I don’t know if there’s much to be found there.
If it's a problem worth solving let it be solved on the backs of ratepayers elsewhere. As opposed to most of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I'm almost completely technology agnostic: Build whatever is cheapest and most reliable for the ratepayers of Arizona.
Democrats rarely "oversimplify" anything except the need to rid our State of Republicans who can't lead or govern. Lots of things aren't "today". Fossil fuels aren't tomorrow...or forever. So, yes...we do tend to try and look forward to solve problems. Going backwards doesn't work at all.
And I’ll agree that the problem/solution space is oversimplified, but it’s over simplified by everyone, all parties, just like everything else. Maybe one day policy making will happen in daylight among good faith stakeholders from all corners, without the spectre of partisanship and culture war hanging over everyone’s heads.
Immediately after the Gallego/Lake debate a commercial aired showing Gallego with the endorsement of the Arizona Police Departments. Blam.
Having been a water and power leader in AZ for 30 years, the crazy liberal bias towards renewables and solar is dangerous. Solar doesn't work at night even with batteries.
80% of the solar supply chain is populated with slave labor camps in China. Even Binden banned solar panels made with slave labor. I don't support using rate payers money going to China with forced labor problems. Smarten up or get off this subject. It's an epic fail for your credibility.
M Anthony Lewis
The debate to me simply proved that Kari Lake is just Trump in a skirt. Constantly interrupting and lying her ass off. I'm sure soon after the debate, she charted a flight back to Mar-A-Lago for the DonOLD's approval.
Solar is already overbuilt here. The issue isn't the cost per MWh (which is competitive), it's that storage sucks and therefore we already have slightly more solar than the baseload/ramp-load capacity can allow us to make effective use of. Some day storage capacity will probably get there but, with rare possible exceptions (e.g. SRP's pumped storage project), that day is not today. Unfortunately Democrats are always trying to dramatically oversimplify this area of policy by pointing out that the sun is shining.
And there’s more being built all the time. Storage is the bottleneck but it’s a problem worth solving. Energy demand is booming, likely won’t slow down. Cutting water demands wherever we can is critical. And energy independence is a plus. PV cost efficiency keeps getting better. Every year they say it will flatline but the curves keep curving. And in general it’s hard to say when the next major innovation will happen. 100-year lifespan panels? Pumped hydro. Gas peaker plants will probably be key. The future is blurry because we’re in the midst of tech innovation, but my forecast calls for plenty of solar. I’ll refrain from calling specific ratios of our energy mix. Who knows what will happen with nuclear, maybe they can make it more efficient (we’re still relying on steam of all things). But ideally, low water use solutions, low interconnection costs. And domesticizing production/supply chains would be good, but isn’t easy. I would like to see innovations in thermal storage, but I don’t know if there’s much to be found there.
And to think we used to waterski on the Arizona Canal:) Yippppppieeeee!!!
If it's a problem worth solving let it be solved on the backs of ratepayers elsewhere. As opposed to most of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I'm almost completely technology agnostic: Build whatever is cheapest and most reliable for the ratepayers of Arizona.
P.S. My money's on fusion in the long run.
Democrats rarely "oversimplify" anything except the need to rid our State of Republicans who can't lead or govern. Lots of things aren't "today". Fossil fuels aren't tomorrow...or forever. So, yes...we do tend to try and look forward to solve problems. Going backwards doesn't work at all.
And I’ll agree that the problem/solution space is oversimplified, but it’s over simplified by everyone, all parties, just like everything else. Maybe one day policy making will happen in daylight among good faith stakeholders from all corners, without the spectre of partisanship and culture war hanging over everyone’s heads.
The perfect story for Art Intern to illustrate and where was he/she. We need moar Art Intern.
And indeed the intern made some illustrations. Email space limitations meant they had to go into the archive though: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FGsxLyrnWE1V9lvLIlck_5ptF8JHS97DmTwWxRb6Zg0/edit
👍👍 for Art Intern's solarpunk renderings.