Posted on 03/17/2022 5:43:35 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
ISLE AU HAUT — The news reports were glowing: A planned microgrid on Isle au Haut could “hold the answer to the future of electricity,” wrote ensia, an environmental media outlet based in Minnesota. It could one day “be a model for the entire nation,” according to another national broadcast.
The project, depicted in 2020 as being on the verge of installation, would include solar panels to generate energy and supercapacitors and heat pumps to store it. That hardware would be accompanied by state-of-the art software that would decide when it was most cost-effective and efficient to store and release power.
No longer, the media reported, would the Maine island outpost be tethered to the mainland by an old-fashioned, underwater electrical cable.
Reality on Isle au Haut proved much more complicated.
While the Isle au Haut Electric Power Company did install a few heat pumps and has solar panels sitting in storage, the board has decided to move away from the microgrid, supercapacitor storage plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at penbaypilot.com ...
Perhaps they should take a second look at a coal fired generator.
“possible model for the nation and the world.”
It’s a model for how new technology should be adopted: locally, with a rational assessment of costs versus benefits of various alternatives, short and long term.
Asle au Haut is about midway between the equator and the North Pole (about like Minneapolis). The two pictures in the article that showed the sky, also showed it to be 100% cloudy. Completely covering the island with solar panels still wouldn’t provide enough power to sustain the island over the winter. There’s no way to store it economically for that length of time.
It’s good that they came to their senses. It’s bad that the Green Charlatans dragged it out this long. Someone can pick up a few obsolete solar panels from them for a good price, but it will probably be too expensive to ship them to somewhere that might make use of them. Galapagos Islands at the equator, maybe? The iguanas there likely have enough sense to avoid it, though.
There is so much wrong with this fanciful idea it is not even worth the time to comment further.
“we had a great plan if it would work and was reliable, didn’t cost so much, wasn’t so hard and costly to maintain.”
the board got sold on a big pile of unicorn crap and fairy dust.
Quick facts
“Isle au Haut is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States, on an island of the same name in Penobscot Bay. The population was 92 at the 2020 census. Home to portions of Acadia National Park, Isle au Haut is accessible by ferry from Stonington, Maine.”
Further north than Toronto! Cloudy, rainy weather = Bad solar efficiency, even when the days in summer are long.
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