[MotoSook]

I'll get my PARF contribution over with and move on to the technical discussion.

The current administration is extremely misguided on the whole power and alternative energy issue. We know that it will cost billions of dollars to build the infrastructure necessary to create a grid that can bring wind and solar generated power to the cities and towns that consume the most electrical energy. Solar farms and wind farms will contribute less than 5% of the total energy needs, and will require billions of dollars to install. They require lots of land and in the case of solar farms, they may add to climate change! The whole solar and wind farm and new grid to bring power to the masses is just a big "feel good" spend it while you can excercise.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of free energy, but the folks that want to do something about it on a large scale and grab federal grant money to do it are really just out to profit!

Which brings me to the latest news that the current administration is about to approve $3.4 billion for a smart electrical grid. The grant will "not be used to build new power lines, but improve the capabilities of the electrical system." The money will be used for 18 million smart meters that is suppose to help consumers manage their home energy use by making them aware (real-time viewing) of when the demand is lowest and they can run their appliances.

This is the biggest load of crap. (Constellation's Baltimore Gas and Electric getting $200 million, Sempra Energy will get $28.1 million...they must have good lobbiests) Consumers are not going to sit by their meters and wait for prices to hit bottom at 2 AM in the morning to run their washer and dryer. And they sure as hell won't be waiting until 2 AM before they turn the AC on. There will certainly be a small number of green team members that will do this, but the rest will never care. But let's say all 18 million smart meter users are green team members and will be smart meter ninjas and always wait for low demand to run their high load appliances. Imagine all those appliances coming on at 2 AM manually or automatically. Now the grid just heated up again, and it won't be long before prices start to rise for those "formerly" off peak hours.

The money will also fund "smart transformers" and new automated substations. The immediate question I have is will the power companies lower their rate after they spend the goverment dollars? Because in the expected free market, a power company might spend their own dollars to upgrade their system and then charge the consumer for it. Nothing wrong with that as the upgrades will improve reliability and the consumer should be expected to help pay for that or they risk an intermittent system and frequent brown- or blackouts. With a more reliable and automated system, the number of line workers and technicians can decrease and the number of callouts for repair will decrease, so in addition to getting government money, power companies will spend less money once the system is improved. So shouldn't we then expect to see lower rates?

I bet we won't see lower rates. Rather the companies will use the excuse that it cost them money to spend the money, and thus the consumer pays too. There is a better way to upgrade the system than this.

Now my solution that makes more sense and should make all the green team members feel good and the current administration feel great: (It won't make everyone feel good, especially the big companies that won't get a big grant)

Instead of building wind farms and solar farms and spending the billions of dollars to build out the grid or upgrade immediately, why not give that money to home owners? Yeah...the current adminstration likes to give money to the people, right? So give the money to the people directly, but require them to use it for roof mounted solar panels and wind turbines. There is a tax credit program already for solar panels, but let's go bigger....BIGGER! Make it even more enticing for homeowners to install roof top solar panels and wind turbines. Give some of that $3.4 Billion to the homeowners to make out of pocket cost almost zero...maintenance will cost the owners down the road, but they won't have to spend $30,000 to get a $10,000 tax credit.

I can't think of a more efficient way to reduce the power consumed off the grid than to augment the energy use with solar and wind energy that is generated right there at your home. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY by the end user! No expensive new transmission lines that see energy loss on the way to the cities and towns from wind and solar farms. No multi-billion dollar project to build wind and solar farms. No massive allocation of land for those farms. No unwanted towering turbines. If you put enough solar farms out there it will change the earth-sun energy transfer balance. That's a whole 'nother discussion.

We've already changed the earth-sun energy transfer balance with our roof tops and asaphalt-concrete cities, so putting solar panels on the roof tops won't change it that much more. It may even help.

With a reduced loading of the grid due to home energy generation, the grid upgrades won't be so critical and can happen (funded by the companies themselves) at a slower pace with small cost increases to the consumer over time.

There are plenty of other issues related to alternative energy and our future energy needs, and this post really is only addressing the latest news, smart meters and grid upgrade.

I know the power industy is waiting on those dollars to spend on new product R&D, new projects, etc to create new jobs ...but it won't be the most direct and efficient use of the money. Cut the waste along the way, and attack the problem! Smart meters? Not at my house.