“Grid-Enabled” Water Heating: “Deep Decarbonization” as Crony Environmentalism (Part II)
By Mark Krebs -- March 10, 2016[Editor note: An under-the-radar energy intervention is to force fossil-fuel fired water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part I yesterday.]
Why should electricity monopolize energy if gas-fired alternatives are more economical as determined by self-interested consumers?
If the objective is low carbon water heaters, there are more direct means of doing so. The following graphics compare the full fuel-cycle efficiencies of traditional gas water heater to electric water heaters:
Gas Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency
Electric Resistance Storage Water Heater Site and Source Energy Efficiency
Note: The previous two graphs are used with permission form the Gas Technology Institute
The electric utility industry prefers a site-based energy efficiency metric because it can indicates that switching to an electric resistance water heater from a gas water heater can “save” over 30% more energy. …
Continue Reading“Grid-Enabled” Water Heating: “Deep Decarbonization” as Crony Environmentalism (Part I)
By Mark Krebs -- March 9, 2016[Editor note: An under-the-radar federal energy intervention is to force fossil-fueled water heating to go electric “regardless of adverse economic impacts,” as Mark Krebs explains in this post and Part II tomorrow.]
In March of 2015, MasterResource.org published my article, Giving (tax) Credit Where Credit Isn’t Due: “Geothermal” Heat Pumps (and beyond) where I asked: “So what’s next, calling toaster ovens and electric resistance water heaters renewable?”
Apparently, the answer is electric resistance water heaters since they are now being depicted (unwittingly or otherwise) as “batteries” for thermally storing “clean” electric energy. But toasters may not be far behind. The following article is about the latest rash of “crony environmentalism” under the guise of “deep decarbonization” through increased electrification of everything possible; regardless of adverse economic impacts.
Introduction & Background
For better or worse, Congress has delegated broad authority to the Department of Energy (DOE) to mandate minimum energy efficiency standards for most major (and many minor) residential and commercial energy consuming products.…
Continue ReadingVogtle Settlement: Ratepayers Lose Some More (inside another nuclear bust)
By Jim Clarkson -- March 8, 2016“As the magnitude of the Vogtle project disaster becomes clearer, the Public Service Commissioners are becoming less toleratant of criticism…. Steve Prenonvitz … heaps criticism on Georgia Power but also on the Commission itself…. Then there is Nuclear Watch South [whose] … assertions are painfully true and therefore irritating to the Commission, which is joined at the hip with Georgia power on the Vogtle project.”
Georgia Power has now provided details concerning the settlement with the Vogtle contractor. The total payout is $915 million of which Georgia Power’s 45.7% share is $350 million. Also agreed was a $69 million change order. This is a hit for customers, quite different from what the Company said for years: they expected to prevail in the litigation but were working on a possible settlement. (Ratepayers are protected unless the Commission orders a cost disallowance, which they should.)…
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