Dennis's Comments

The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River is known as 'the last free-flowing section of the Columbia River in the United States'.

It is also known as the "Hanford" Reach.


There had been an effort to build a run-of-the-river impoundment dam upstream from the Tri-cities, Wa., similar to all the other Columbia River dams except Grand Coulee.

The fact that it would flood portions of the Hanford Nuclear Superfund Site has since dampened the enthusiasm for a dam building project but not for hydropower. The idea of submerged turbines in specific portions of this area of the fast-flowing could be acceptable environmentally, biologically and politically if, and only if, the focus is on how benign the effect will be on salmon and steelhead. I have floated the 40 mile stretch and it is beautiful and ironically eerie. Million year old geological artifacts on the port side and nine decommissioned plutonium production plants to starboard. The water is clean, clear, fast-flowing and full of fish, and probably should not be changed too much.


Run-of-river turbines are essentially underwater wind turbines. We accept some raptor deaths regionally so probably we would accept a few dead fish (carp, trout minnow) but no disruption to salmon, steelhead or sturgeon spawning habitat and absolutely no dead sturgeon. Humans have no right to wipe out a species, unless it eats our children; every day!!!


non sequitor alert

60% of the power used in the state of Washington is hydropower. We have not quite accepted the fact that it is federally owned instead of 'ours'. Since we live here, of course we are entitled to $0.08/kW-Hr power rates, are we not? Check your bill, see if you agree.

Tesla invented and developed the 3-phase motor generator and transformers to raise AC voltages. Edison stuck with DC but could not develop a good method to raise DC voltages for transmission.

Tesla's concept won the competition. Although Tesla did not benefit much from the patent which was purchased cheaply by George Westinghouse. Even today most industrial DC applications are derived from full-wave rectified AC rather than pure DC sources. DC generators use some kind of rectifier or commutator and a DC filter to convert the natural AC output of a rotating machine into usable DC.

The HVDC (@2000 MW at < 1 MV DC) California intertie has a rectifier station near The Dalles, Oregon and an inverter in northern California/Nevada.

Utilities could and would lay off all their line workers tomorrow if Tesla's remote wireless transmission scheme was safe and commercially feasible, which it is not and probably never will be demonstrated outside a laboratory as a "Gee Whiz!!" experiment.

Line losses and power theft are really very different.
The referenced company helps to identify theft, diversions and failing meters.


It is an effective law enforcement tool. Except for laws of physics.



It does not reduce line losses caused by the impedance characteristics of the transmission/distribution lines.
These losses do represent a significant portion of total generation capacity. Power factor correction is a mature industry providing line loss reduction for utilities and end users for decades.

For more than 2 billion people around the plant, solar PV is the least expensive way to provide reliable residential and village power and water pumping. This is a huge step forward and will be noted in history.

The investment of billions of dollars from industrialized countries have created a global research and manufacturing complex that can provide $2/Watt (nameplate) in South Africa, India,Bangladesh and a thousand oceanic island nations depending upon fuel imports.

I am sure that most of those investing and subsidizing countries expected the industry and jobs to stay within their borders. That did not work out so well, even in China. Todays churn and turmoil in the global industry is probably a symptom of maturing markets but it is also similar to a bad hangover after a really good party that ended with the house buring down. Wait until the smoke and fog clear to decide which is more correct.

In the old days we only had tube style radios, including in our military aircraft. Bell Labs developed a gizmo called a P/N junction or transistor. They cost about $25/single junction device. There were no factories in the world but the US government offered a contract to buy the entire output of a new factory for $5/transistor device. Ross Perot and others stepped up to cash in and an industry was born. Two years later I had a transistor radio from post-war reconstructing Japan that was much easier to carry than the old Philco.

Energy efficiency improvements achieved through equipment replacement with high efficiency motors, variable speed drives and automated controls tend to permanently reduce baseload and peak demand in the building. In the USA,@50% of the baseload is coal-fired.
Efficiency measures displace coal.
Efficiency goals and planning drive new equipment development and manufacturing.
More efficient equipment and operation means less energy-intensive sources like solar PV and solar thermal can provide much more of the total power needs of a household or structure.
Insulate everything. Fix the holes in the leaky bucket before you pour more money into it.

ditto on HOMER software, cheap or free download
very good for off-grid hybrid designs

Anon#6 It is probable that by the time the US finally commits to solar PV, we will depend upon India and China for 90% of our manufactured equipment. Will they make the same judgement about US nuclear, space, social welfare and war policies? I hope not. They will probably just do it for the money, like we always do.

kimgerly, you are quite correct about about ignorance of the 2nd law of thermodynamics. I am a science-tech-geek and my eyes glaze over after two minutes of discussion about entropy in closed and open systems. I have never heard a satisfying explanation of how entropy can only increase in a closed system yet I believe it to be a true statement and the core of current observed enviromental phenomena.

Proper language is the key to teaching and words like warming and cooling and change are meaningless at best and most likely totally misleading. In his book 1984, Orwell was probably right about the power of language to manipulate the masses. Only when environmental conditions become double plus ungood, will the citizens of Oceania (Orwell's) become concerned. Of course, the residents of today's Oceania are already double plus concerned.

Eric Hoffer: "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."

The Solar PV industry seems to exist as all three categories simultaneously rather than developing sequentially. Today's market chaos may just be the businesses and rackets sorting themselves out globally.

The movement will continue where it began, off-grid.
PV: Simple to install, no moving parts, no fuel. Resistance is futile! Well not exactly.

"Energy efficiency in buildings" Variable Frequency Drives on HVAC electric motors >20HP provide the most immediate energy savings payback and a permanent reduction in baseload. Millions have already been installed in the USA and globally in the past decade; millions more are needed. VFDs are also beginning to appear in smaller residential HVAC equipment.

Yes,EV batteries and other forms are slowly improving in capacity, weight and charge rate however an EV battery pack that can absorb a 15kw-hr/minute charge does not yet exist and is not just around the corner. A 15 kw-hr/minute charge rate requires a large current flow at any reasonable charging voltage (1800A @ 500VDC).There will be a time when the cost-weight-performance characteristics will push development of home swappable battery packs. Swappable battery packs will lead to a home standby power system development and facilitate smart grid development and the recycling of spent batterry packs. This will happen before huge infrastructure projects to prepare the grid to supply large, intermittent point loads like high speed charging systems along the interstate.

Good article and insight but please correct this nitpicky detail.
"energy independence should confer the highest order of cache". I think the word you wanted was cachet (ka shay'). A cashe (kash) is a hidden stash of valuables, weapons or people. Gulf War reporters misused these words for years and drilled them into our verbal culture.

It should be noted that almost all the hydropower in the the Pacific Northwest comes from federally built, owned and operated facilities. Originally they were built for flood control but irrigation and river transportation soon followed. They were not built by the cleverness and foresight of local residents, in fact it was despite the objections of many. At one time there were also many tens of thousands of acres of prime riverbottom farm land now covered with a recreational boaters paradise and fifty years of industrial waste contaminated silt.

Worker skill training and customer education probably occupy most of both sides of the marketing coin and will be found together in a successful technical marketing effort.

Thanks Fred for the consistent enthusiasm

Solar PV has no moving parts and no fuel input cost and is simple to install compared to all other electrical production systems.

Eventually, nothing else will matter much.

Huge solar installations served the purpose of absorbing the initial over-production of modules as manfacturing capacity grew dramatically. Global capacity is now in place and utilization is growing almost as rapidly.

Solar PV was born to be load-centered and distributed whether on a cabin in the woods or the ISS. It will soon return to its roots on a neighbor's rooftop near you.


As an aside, Mr Wallace and Mr Claven are both prolific commentors on this website and I thank them both for interesting reading. I have been a lurker on this site for several years and have noticed a reduction in the number of commentors, particularly newbies to solar PV. It is possible that less confident people become intimidated. Lots of pertinent but anonymous comments might also indicate that trend.

To the editors: please try to fix that editing glitch which eliminates paragraph formatting

Happy New Year

The small scale, point-of-use solar PV system will probably be how PV will dominate the global energy future. Regretably, This market offers little opportunity for large investments through REITs. The emerging model might be as is being seen in previously unelectrified Bangaldesh. More than 1 million microsystems (>100MW total capacity) were installed during the past two years through micro loan financing largely through Grameen bank. What value do a 100W module, a battery and and LED lamp have for young students who only had kerosene lamps before? The monetary value of the electricity produced is trivial. The cultural value will be seen in the future