Microgrids May Provide Distributed Energy

jobcello wrote to mention a BBC article discussing a new technique for power distribution that might provide electricity using a series of small "microgrids", in a manner similar to peer-to-peer software. From the article: "'This would save something like 20 to 30% of our emissions with hardly anyone knowing it ... A microgrid is a collection of small generators for a collection of users in close proximity ... It supplies heat through the household, but you already have cables in the ground, so it is easy to construct an electricity network. Then you create some sort of control network.' That network could be made into a smart grid using more sophisticated software and grid computing technologies."

Re:DG and you

[evillejedi]

btw those who say big utilities won't let it happen ==> http://www.plugpower.com/ [plugpower.com] yeah they want a cut, but once it gets reasonable it will happen in a lot of places.

Connecting small generators...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's really difficult to connect small generators together to form a power network. As any self respecting /. nerd knows, gnerators generate AC power... unlike connecting DC batteries together to form a more powerful source of power, generators have to be synched up exactly in phase. Only the more expensive generators have this capability, which usually requires them to synch up. If one generator puts out slightly more power then the other, the weaker one would act like a motor and suck the power from the stronger one. Getting them to match up and balance the load can be tricky

Re:This would be cool

[ergo98]

If this sort of grid system gets implemented, it may be incentive for me and others to go ahead with local power generation systems so that we can share.

Perhaps I'm just totally misunderstanding the article (it seems to talk alternately about electricity, and then about heat, and then about electricity. While they can be converted back and forth with varying efficiency, it did seem confusing), but if you are generating more power than you use, in most areas (at least here in North America) you absolutely can push the power onto the grid [energyvortex.com] (which is a lot of intermeshed small grids), getting paid for your generation (or alternately offsetting your consumption used when there is no wind/sun/uranium/whatever). Several jobs ago I worked at a shop that installed control software for generators, and several of the customers used them as mini-generating stations, pushing lots of power onto the neighbouring grid (and thus eliminating the transmission losses).

Re:Big companies

[Anonymous Coward]

BC Hydro allows this here in Canada. If you produce your own power and install a proper converter BC Hydro will buy your power from you. This makes things like solar power or wind power much better. When it's sunny you build a credit, but at night you spend it rather than needing to store the power in batteries. If you actually produce more power than you consume they'll mail you a cheque at the end of the year!

Sometimes crown (government) corporations can do good things! :)

Best bang for the buck...

[skids]

...is curently in space heating and hot water. Solar PV will catch up in a few years with low-silicon panels and mini CPV arrays, but other than the panels which will eventually come back down after the shortage ends, the grid-tie components are for the most part incredibly overpriced.

Even with the price gouging that goes on in the home power industry, though, you can still make solar hot water pay back in a few short years... and of course solar air daytime space heating is extremely cheap since DIY is for some weird reason the only real option available. Horizontal geothermal heat/cool banking ("slinky coils") can self-finance on a home equity loan with their power savings, if you are in the right climate... best to have a pro do a site survey before trying to crunch the numbers on a heat pump system, though.

It's astounding how much of the electricity and fuel we use is just turned straight to heat (or cold), and since heat/cold is much easier to collect/store than electricity, that's where the savings are to be had.

(Though a space heater that ran the current through a massive BOINC parrallel computing array might be an interesting way to avoid "wasting" electricity when heating with it.)

Re: BitTorrent Creator

[KURAAKU Deibiddo]

Actually, BitTorrent was created by Bram Cohen (not Brian). You can find his website here [bitconjurer.org].

Ceramic Fuel Cells

[Col Bat Guano]

A company in Australia (http://www.cfcl.com.au/ [cfcl.com.au]) (and a couple of others) are developing ceramic fuel cells.
Natural gas + O2 = electriicity + high temp waste heat that can heat your water.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Connecting small generators...

[njh]

I have a little box under my house that plugs into the wall socket, it takes 24V DC and puts out the 240V in phase and everything. It cost me $1000. And it's not a mass produced device yet - if everyone had one I bet they would be cheaper than UPSs.

The technical term is "Grid interactive inverter" - google it.

May not work as well in the U.S.

[Dr. Mu]

In Britain, entire neighbourhoods share one large secondary power transformer. They can do this because the voltage delivered to the home is twice what it is here in the U.S., so the I^2R losses over the longer service distances are not so great. In such cases, neighbourhood power grids are a reasonable endeavour.

But in the States, a pole-mounted transformer may serve only two or threee homes. Here, the technical issues resulting from bridging multiple transformers might make the prospect of a neighborhood-wide grid less economically feasible.