I love the idea of a hot water utility for ground source heat pumps. But there was no discussion of how heat usage is going to be metered. Are there already heat pumps that can do that metering? It seems to me that in addition to converting gas utilities to heat utilities they also need to merge (or enter data sharing agreements) with electric utilities.
I think these thermal networks are a bit of a blank canvas, at the moment.
I envision the pilot discussed to be a network of pipes where the water circulates at a depth and volume to where it stays in a fairly tight range of temperature without any external heating or cooling applied. Residential customers are charged a flat monthly fee. I imagine an only slightly more complicated determination of the fee for commercial, maybe based on building volume or square footage - still just a flat fee. Just speculating, though.
I could go on. Like I said - "blank canvas". Keep in mind that heat pumps provide heating *and* cooling. So, tapping into a source of waste heat may benefit the system only seasonally. If the water of the system varies by a few degrees, it's still *drastically* more helpful to the heat pump than outside air.
I'm curious about EV battery safety -what's true currently and what R&D is being done for improvements. During hurricanes there was talk about EVs causing fires from seawater flooding. Now suddenly we're in wildfires on the west coast and EVs are propbably pretty dangerous if not moved by owners. I've been driving an EV since 2019 and can't imagine going back. I'd like to be more informed for discussing current risks, having safety plans, and learning/sharing about the potential for batteries that are less risky.
Given the recent rash of fraud from distributed resources (ketchup caddy, voltus, American efficient) how can DER providers rebuild trust with grid operators?
You've spoken before about your fear of climate fascism coming from the right. Do you see Trump's absurd push for Greenland and the Panama canal as possible first steps in that direction?
With 2023 and 2024 the hottest years on record, and with constant high profile climate disasters in the news seemingly every week, it seems like climate change is finally starting to feel "real" to people. Given that the right still has no viable solutions to climate change, do you have any ideas how they might respond to this sudden salience if climate rises higher in people's priorities?
Despite truth, science, economics and public health being on the side of the energy transition we are losing the information war. Astroturfing, disinformation, bots, you name it are running circles around "us". Any thoughts on how we can, or organizations who are fighting back on this depressing trend?
I wanted to share a load of Mapping Resources that I've been gathering and just used for a "Hackamapathon" event through Urbanist Shoreline, a very exciting new group that I've been collaborating with. If you're interested in using Maps, DataViz, Simulations and more to Tell Your Story, check out these resource links and the whole slide deck from our first event: (I'll give a heads up here about the next one!) https://bit.ly/hackamap1
As part of super insulating the lower level of my home in Kirkland, I am doing a seismic upgrade. I have learned lots technically and about the of seismic insurance and certification that simplifies the process. Contact me to glean what I have learned. You can find me at ken.albinger@gmail.com.
I want to give a huge "thank you" to the Volts team. All the positive info that Volts shares is one of the things keeping me hopeful. I'm a lifelong liberal, and I'm deeply worried about the next four years. But because of Volts I'm learning things that I never would have heard about - thermal energy networks, thermal energy storage, hydro power, Fervo, etc. I love hearing about smart, inventive, and dedicated people working hard to save the planet. Keep up the great work!
Hi David, curious if you've looked into the theory of social diffusion of innovation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations). Basically, it says that the adoption of new technologies is primarily a social phenomenon. People buy a new thing after someone they know has bought it, and they can kinda look at it and ask how it works. This is why after one person in a neighborhood gets solar panels, others do too.
With the federal policy likely to be stymied for 4 years, I wonder if more attention should be paid to diffusing clean energy technologies socially. Is anyone deliberately trying to drive adoption this way, and do they have any tips on how to do that? I've had some success convincing friends to put solar panels on their roofs, even though I'm a renter and can't put up panels myself. Similarly, I left my EV with a friend while I was out of town for a week, and I think he's much more likely to get an EV now that he's had a chance to see how smooth and quiet it is and figure out that charging is pretty easy/convenient since he has regular access to an L2 charger, even with a 50+ mile daily commute.
This is well known re solar panels and there is a lot of material online, a search on something like "solar panel neighbor contagion" (without the quotes) will give plenty of info, going back at least 10 years and from several countries.
I've recently started to loan money to some clean energy projects on Climatize. https://www.climatize.earth/. I like that I know the money wouldn't be there without my support. Thought some folks here may be interested to do so also.
Hi David, I used to live in Seattle and have a lot of old friends there. I posted a note to some on Facebook with your question and got these two recommendations re trainers for highly reactive dogs:
David, if she's available, Meghan Karnes is located between Sequim and Port Angeles and has an excellent reputation with reactive dogs. She does a boot camp with your dog. They are also helping out with the loss of our local humane society's ability to care for dogs, so I'm not sure her availability. https://www.collared-scholar.com/about-us/
We had some similar issues with out cattle dog/pitt mix. A couple things worth looking into (apologies if you've already mentioned + tried them):
- The book "Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed" by Leslie McDevitt (https://www.cleanrun.com/product/control_unleashed_book_3_reactive_to_relaxed_ebook/index.cfm) provides a ton of exercises for improving your reactive dog's life. It does take a bit of mental re-framing: asking questions and letting your dog (and their body language) guide the way on walks / in new situations vs "powering through" or trying to give commands when their brain is in fight-flight mode, but proved to be extremely helpful for knowing what to do in a potentially triggering situation with my dog, and gave my dog the ability to "default" to these behaviors on his own.
- I'm not sure if you've mentioned it, but had you looked into medication? It wouldn't be a silver bullet, but paired with training and mental stimulation / physical activity, it can really help.
- To the last point, the behavioral vet we worked with talked about 3 major pillars of behavior management: training, medication, and activity. Obviously doing stuff outdoor sounds stressful for all involved, so finding some indoor enrichment activities could be helpful. One go-to we used was hiding treats in cardboard boxes filled with paper, as well as doing nose-work classes to have him search out certain smells. These were not physically taxing, but wore him out and allowed him to chill out a bit.
I also just want to empathize how tough it is to have a reactive dog, I'm sorry it's been so tough with Abner. Having ideas of what having a dog could be (i.e. going leisurely, social walks) get thrown out the window is brutal. You have to be constantly vigilant with reactive dog, know their body language and triggers, and always be adapting. I think a lot of people (including other dog owners) don't get how much work goes into it and think you're doing something wrong, which is alienating. Wishing you the best of luck in helping Abner.
Gavin Newsom has announced he wants to do a Marshall Plan 2.0 for Los Angeles to rebuild after the Fire Hurricanes destroying 20,000 homes.
What does that mean? Seems relevant to a lot of volts topics and industry specialists that are guests on the pod.
The Marshall Plan was undergirded by the phenomenal USA logistics The War department assembled during (and maintained after) World War II. The Marshall Plan wasn’t just a success because it was a blank check, it was a success because it put expertise, people and material where they needed to be and pre-met supply until demand was exhausted.
So I wonder what are some logistics that California could start doing to “pre-meet” fire-rebuilding supply until demand is exhausted?
A basic one is appliances. Have California buy =~ 10,000 heat pump water heaters in the most common sizes and then let any rebuilding unit draw from that supply at cost until the supply is drawn down. Theres a lot of benefits to “pre-supply”; One is economies of scale drive prices down, two is prevents price gouging, three it gets a big order in early to prevent future supply chain issues and four it prevents inflation by not impacting the supply and demand of regular appliance sales at retailers from non-rebuilding markets.
Now apply this for every standard home appliance and most importantly: HVAC, Heat Pumps for everyone. Naturally this can applied elsewhere: fireproof steel roofs, solar, home batteries etc. and California could pick some of the best performing options, climate wise.
They could also organize centralized classes and installation training, let every CA licensed installer attend for free and let army COE and national guard and homeowners in too, so every one can get familiar with installing the one or two options available for rebuilding. This is the expertise and people side of Marshall Plan logistics. It also speeds rebuilding because it reduces installation time with standardized options as well as “paradox of choice” issues that delay rebuilding efforts.
No one would have to participate and uptake would be lower with aesthetic appliances (like refrigerators), but these sorts of things are very possible to organize and implement.
Another huge part of a Marshall Plan is debris removal and restoration of base infrastructure. There are going to be thousands of heavy trucks and equipment on every affected street removing tons of debris and scraping toxic top soil. Underground piping from gas to water to sewer are going to have to be inspected and at times replaced in large projects. Electrical potentially could be undergrounded but underground utility service wires carry less power than overhead wires because there is no air-cooling of wires when electrical is undergrounded. so that multiplies the electrical infrastructure needed and how and where that infrastructure might connect to the existing grid infrastructure.
More thousands of heavy trucks are probably going to be coming in to prevent mudslides, to restore top soil, rebuild housing and finally rebuild the streets destroyed by the massive debris removal and restoration projects. The palisades will loudly demand wider major streets, and fair enough given the circumstances of last tuesdays evacuation, but many areas could be built with street upgrades that build in bus lanes on major streets and include modern separated bike lanes (protected at intersections not weaving into traffic at intersections as is standard in LA). And rebuilding streets with sidewalks and bulb-out intersections and roundabouts in neighborhood streets etc.
Well the SoCal Santa Ana winds are howling today, so fingers crossed no fires ignite in my area, so far we are lucky to be spared the tragedies so many Angelenos have suffered the past week.
I don't speak for the Newsom crowd, and have been on the outside of the mainstream of thought on the political economy of power systems in our shared Brown^3/Newsom political family.
I speak from my experience starting as Principal Market Design Economist at the Cal ISO from the collapse of the ancillary services markets until shortly before the Real Y2K bug, the failure of the energy markets and attendant bankruptcies. I got myself fired before the rocks all came tumbling down, and that time I absolutely did not toss any pebbles down any unstable slopes. I just talked too much about locational pricing and too little about how our $250/MWh price caps were just what the doctor ordered. Not this doctor.
Newsom's forestry policy, which grew from the initiative of Sierra County, flanked as always by the neighbors of Nevada and Plumas Counties, is unfolding around us, particularly on the Federal lands of the watershed of the North Yuba River.
The Newsom policy was born in Loyalton, in the latter Brown years, in a conversation involving a prominent local rancher, logger, firefighter, and politician, who has never voted for a Democrat in his life.
Supervisor Roen suggested that putting a few million into getting the old 20 MW steam-turbine known locally as the Loyalton Cogen (no steam customer anymore) supported Governor Brown's then-revolutionary carbon targets.
And so carbon economics came to California forerts policy, where spending decision iare increasingly driven by minimizing Expected Net Present Value GHG, measured in Tonnes CO2. In the forestry context, where we are managing a growing carbon sink, this is implemented as maximizing Tonnes Avoided CO2 (TAC).
Those relentless innovators the Californians, with those who walk with us, are now making the jump to the carbon economy.
This jump has been made possible by the recognition, including by smart money, including victims of the Palisades calamity, that forests are an essential, at risk, subject to both stewardship and investment, asset on the balance sheet of the global carbon economy.
The forests in which I live and walk are fortunate indeed to share this great place California with the financial and technical resources of not-just-LA, with our phenomenal working communities.
Heat pumps and solar and wind and everything else are good, in a functioning carbon economy which we have already launched in the forests communities of the Northern Sierra, which we are already sharing with urban counterparties such as our dear friends, neighbors, and colleagues of the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water, an amazing organization which makes me proud of my time in the power industry.
Without drawing you into the social media platform wars, can I ask you to please bridge your Bluesky account to Mastodon/Fediverse so I can follow you from my Mastodon account?
"Bridge your Bluesky account to the fediverse by following @ap.brid.gy on Bluesky".
>> Well, it turns out he's a nightmare dog. He's very sweet with us at home and generally sweet >> with people, but he is insanely reactive toward other dogs when he is out on a leash.
I assume you have bought him a muzzle. I have a dog with the same issue and boy does he need one.
(Ausie)Tsu, here. With a half-baked thoughts about characterizing the balance between generation and use in a given geography. (Sub station?).
We don't know the balance. Don't know how to measure behind-the-meter, and still we talk of Building new transition/distribution. Anyone interested in building the system that is able to claim: said suburb is generating 80pc of the power it uses/ generate?
I'm becoming obsessed about Level 2 V2H charging. Now that I've replaced my fossil gas FAU with a heat pump & bought a used VW ID4, my 10-panel solar system (4,200kW) is somewhat under-sized. So I'm hoping that when my VW ID4 software gets updated in May to Version 3.5, I might be able to get a V2H charger, allowing me to use stored energy in the vehicle battery during the peak rate 3 pm - 12 pm hours, then recharge the VW battery during low-rate 12 pm to 3 pm hours, as usual. I haven't had a utility power outage since 2017, so i can't justify spending $10k on a stationary storage battery. Any expert comments appreciated.
I empathize with you on Abner. Our one year old Boomer is a delightful dog, with such intense separation anxiety that he has figured out how to escape the house to come find us on multiple occasions, somehow not getting hit by a car, yet. I hate having to crate him every time we leave for 5 minutes, but he can open door handles and flip deadbolts. He’s such a hard dog to love!
David, Abner may be reactive with other dogs because he is with you. Try taking him to some woods and running him off leash and then try a large dog park at a quiet time. You may find he is different when on his own and will start to take his place in the pack. He may be alpha, so ….. Worth a try. I would suggest Maymoor Dog Park Redmond. It is large and has river access. Ken
--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---
I love the idea of a hot water utility for ground source heat pumps. But there was no discussion of how heat usage is going to be metered. Are there already heat pumps that can do that metering? It seems to me that in addition to converting gas utilities to heat utilities they also need to merge (or enter data sharing agreements) with electric utilities.
I get the general point, but for the pilot project in question Eversource IS the electric (as well as gas) utility.
I think these thermal networks are a bit of a blank canvas, at the moment.
I envision the pilot discussed to be a network of pipes where the water circulates at a depth and volume to where it stays in a fairly tight range of temperature without any external heating or cooling applied. Residential customers are charged a flat monthly fee. I imagine an only slightly more complicated determination of the fee for commercial, maybe based on building volume or square footage - still just a flat fee. Just speculating, though.
I could go on. Like I said - "blank canvas". Keep in mind that heat pumps provide heating *and* cooling. So, tapping into a source of waste heat may benefit the system only seasonally. If the water of the system varies by a few degrees, it's still *drastically* more helpful to the heat pump than outside air.
I'm curious about EV battery safety -what's true currently and what R&D is being done for improvements. During hurricanes there was talk about EVs causing fires from seawater flooding. Now suddenly we're in wildfires on the west coast and EVs are propbably pretty dangerous if not moved by owners. I've been driving an EV since 2019 and can't imagine going back. I'd like to be more informed for discussing current risks, having safety plans, and learning/sharing about the potential for batteries that are less risky.
Given the recent rash of fraud from distributed resources (ketchup caddy, voltus, American efficient) how can DER providers rebuild trust with grid operators?
You've spoken before about your fear of climate fascism coming from the right. Do you see Trump's absurd push for Greenland and the Panama canal as possible first steps in that direction?
With 2023 and 2024 the hottest years on record, and with constant high profile climate disasters in the news seemingly every week, it seems like climate change is finally starting to feel "real" to people. Given that the right still has no viable solutions to climate change, do you have any ideas how they might respond to this sudden salience if climate rises higher in people's priorities?
Would you interview Trump or any of his administration? What would you ask?
Despite truth, science, economics and public health being on the side of the energy transition we are losing the information war. Astroturfing, disinformation, bots, you name it are running circles around "us". Any thoughts on how we can, or organizations who are fighting back on this depressing trend?
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
I wanted to share a load of Mapping Resources that I've been gathering and just used for a "Hackamapathon" event through Urbanist Shoreline, a very exciting new group that I've been collaborating with. If you're interested in using Maps, DataViz, Simulations and more to Tell Your Story, check out these resource links and the whole slide deck from our first event: (I'll give a heads up here about the next one!) https://bit.ly/hackamap1
If there’s a list for these events I’d love to be added! Sounds fascinating. majemc@gmail.com
As part of super insulating the lower level of my home in Kirkland, I am doing a seismic upgrade. I have learned lots technically and about the of seismic insurance and certification that simplifies the process. Contact me to glean what I have learned. You can find me at ken.albinger@gmail.com.
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
I want to give a huge "thank you" to the Volts team. All the positive info that Volts shares is one of the things keeping me hopeful. I'm a lifelong liberal, and I'm deeply worried about the next four years. But because of Volts I'm learning things that I never would have heard about - thermal energy networks, thermal energy storage, hydro power, Fervo, etc. I love hearing about smart, inventive, and dedicated people working hard to save the planet. Keep up the great work!
I wonder if there is an episode in the works specifically about the transformer supply chain?
I am under the impression that:
- there are *years* of transformers on back order
- a lot of transformers are built to spec
- a necessary grade of steel is only produced in China
I think a lot of good work and progress is set up to be stifled by this situation.
Thanks.
I would love this too but I think trade secrets keeps this from being an interesting discussion
Hi David, curious if you've looked into the theory of social diffusion of innovation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations). Basically, it says that the adoption of new technologies is primarily a social phenomenon. People buy a new thing after someone they know has bought it, and they can kinda look at it and ask how it works. This is why after one person in a neighborhood gets solar panels, others do too.
With the federal policy likely to be stymied for 4 years, I wonder if more attention should be paid to diffusing clean energy technologies socially. Is anyone deliberately trying to drive adoption this way, and do they have any tips on how to do that? I've had some success convincing friends to put solar panels on their roofs, even though I'm a renter and can't put up panels myself. Similarly, I left my EV with a friend while I was out of town for a week, and I think he's much more likely to get an EV now that he's had a chance to see how smooth and quiet it is and figure out that charging is pretty easy/convenient since he has regular access to an L2 charger, even with a 50+ mile daily commute.
This is well known re solar panels and there is a lot of material online, a search on something like "solar panel neighbor contagion" (without the quotes) will give plenty of info, going back at least 10 years and from several countries.
I also found this post on X :) https://x.com/drvolts/status/1734692141417574807
I've recently started to loan money to some clean energy projects on Climatize. https://www.climatize.earth/. I like that I know the money wouldn't be there without my support. Thought some folks here may be interested to do so also.
*this is not financial advice*
Hi David, I used to live in Seattle and have a lot of old friends there. I posted a note to some on Facebook with your question and got these two recommendations re trainers for highly reactive dogs:
A specific place, West Seattle Wonder Dogs: https://westseattlewonderdogs.com/
A site that lists a LOT of Seattle / Western Washington trainers who work with reactive dogs: https://www.sniffspot.com/blog/dog-trainers/seattle-wa
Hope those are helpful!
David, if she's available, Meghan Karnes is located between Sequim and Port Angeles and has an excellent reputation with reactive dogs. She does a boot camp with your dog. They are also helping out with the loss of our local humane society's ability to care for dogs, so I'm not sure her availability. https://www.collared-scholar.com/about-us/
We have a reactive dog, too. It's so challenging.
We had some similar issues with out cattle dog/pitt mix. A couple things worth looking into (apologies if you've already mentioned + tried them):
- The book "Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed" by Leslie McDevitt (https://www.cleanrun.com/product/control_unleashed_book_3_reactive_to_relaxed_ebook/index.cfm) provides a ton of exercises for improving your reactive dog's life. It does take a bit of mental re-framing: asking questions and letting your dog (and their body language) guide the way on walks / in new situations vs "powering through" or trying to give commands when their brain is in fight-flight mode, but proved to be extremely helpful for knowing what to do in a potentially triggering situation with my dog, and gave my dog the ability to "default" to these behaviors on his own.
- I'm not sure if you've mentioned it, but had you looked into medication? It wouldn't be a silver bullet, but paired with training and mental stimulation / physical activity, it can really help.
- To the last point, the behavioral vet we worked with talked about 3 major pillars of behavior management: training, medication, and activity. Obviously doing stuff outdoor sounds stressful for all involved, so finding some indoor enrichment activities could be helpful. One go-to we used was hiding treats in cardboard boxes filled with paper, as well as doing nose-work classes to have him search out certain smells. These were not physically taxing, but wore him out and allowed him to chill out a bit.
I also just want to empathize how tough it is to have a reactive dog, I'm sorry it's been so tough with Abner. Having ideas of what having a dog could be (i.e. going leisurely, social walks) get thrown out the window is brutal. You have to be constantly vigilant with reactive dog, know their body language and triggers, and always be adapting. I think a lot of people (including other dog owners) don't get how much work goes into it and think you're doing something wrong, which is alienating. Wishing you the best of luck in helping Abner.
Gavin Newsom has announced he wants to do a Marshall Plan 2.0 for Los Angeles to rebuild after the Fire Hurricanes destroying 20,000 homes.
What does that mean? Seems relevant to a lot of volts topics and industry specialists that are guests on the pod.
The Marshall Plan was undergirded by the phenomenal USA logistics The War department assembled during (and maintained after) World War II. The Marshall Plan wasn’t just a success because it was a blank check, it was a success because it put expertise, people and material where they needed to be and pre-met supply until demand was exhausted.
So I wonder what are some logistics that California could start doing to “pre-meet” fire-rebuilding supply until demand is exhausted?
A basic one is appliances. Have California buy =~ 10,000 heat pump water heaters in the most common sizes and then let any rebuilding unit draw from that supply at cost until the supply is drawn down. Theres a lot of benefits to “pre-supply”; One is economies of scale drive prices down, two is prevents price gouging, three it gets a big order in early to prevent future supply chain issues and four it prevents inflation by not impacting the supply and demand of regular appliance sales at retailers from non-rebuilding markets.
Now apply this for every standard home appliance and most importantly: HVAC, Heat Pumps for everyone. Naturally this can applied elsewhere: fireproof steel roofs, solar, home batteries etc. and California could pick some of the best performing options, climate wise.
They could also organize centralized classes and installation training, let every CA licensed installer attend for free and let army COE and national guard and homeowners in too, so every one can get familiar with installing the one or two options available for rebuilding. This is the expertise and people side of Marshall Plan logistics. It also speeds rebuilding because it reduces installation time with standardized options as well as “paradox of choice” issues that delay rebuilding efforts.
No one would have to participate and uptake would be lower with aesthetic appliances (like refrigerators), but these sorts of things are very possible to organize and implement.
Another huge part of a Marshall Plan is debris removal and restoration of base infrastructure. There are going to be thousands of heavy trucks and equipment on every affected street removing tons of debris and scraping toxic top soil. Underground piping from gas to water to sewer are going to have to be inspected and at times replaced in large projects. Electrical potentially could be undergrounded but underground utility service wires carry less power than overhead wires because there is no air-cooling of wires when electrical is undergrounded. so that multiplies the electrical infrastructure needed and how and where that infrastructure might connect to the existing grid infrastructure.
More thousands of heavy trucks are probably going to be coming in to prevent mudslides, to restore top soil, rebuild housing and finally rebuild the streets destroyed by the massive debris removal and restoration projects. The palisades will loudly demand wider major streets, and fair enough given the circumstances of last tuesdays evacuation, but many areas could be built with street upgrades that build in bus lanes on major streets and include modern separated bike lanes (protected at intersections not weaving into traffic at intersections as is standard in LA). And rebuilding streets with sidewalks and bulb-out intersections and roundabouts in neighborhood streets etc.
Well the SoCal Santa Ana winds are howling today, so fingers crossed no fires ignite in my area, so far we are lucky to be spared the tragedies so many Angelenos have suffered the past week.
I don't speak for the Newsom crowd, and have been on the outside of the mainstream of thought on the political economy of power systems in our shared Brown^3/Newsom political family.
I speak from my experience starting as Principal Market Design Economist at the Cal ISO from the collapse of the ancillary services markets until shortly before the Real Y2K bug, the failure of the energy markets and attendant bankruptcies. I got myself fired before the rocks all came tumbling down, and that time I absolutely did not toss any pebbles down any unstable slopes. I just talked too much about locational pricing and too little about how our $250/MWh price caps were just what the doctor ordered. Not this doctor.
Newsom's forestry policy, which grew from the initiative of Sierra County, flanked as always by the neighbors of Nevada and Plumas Counties, is unfolding around us, particularly on the Federal lands of the watershed of the North Yuba River.
The Newsom policy was born in Loyalton, in the latter Brown years, in a conversation involving a prominent local rancher, logger, firefighter, and politician, who has never voted for a Democrat in his life.
Supervisor Roen suggested that putting a few million into getting the old 20 MW steam-turbine known locally as the Loyalton Cogen (no steam customer anymore) supported Governor Brown's then-revolutionary carbon targets.
And so carbon economics came to California forerts policy, where spending decision iare increasingly driven by minimizing Expected Net Present Value GHG, measured in Tonnes CO2. In the forestry context, where we are managing a growing carbon sink, this is implemented as maximizing Tonnes Avoided CO2 (TAC).
Those relentless innovators the Californians, with those who walk with us, are now making the jump to the carbon economy.
This jump has been made possible by the recognition, including by smart money, including victims of the Palisades calamity, that forests are an essential, at risk, subject to both stewardship and investment, asset on the balance sheet of the global carbon economy.
The forests in which I live and walk are fortunate indeed to share this great place California with the financial and technical resources of not-just-LA, with our phenomenal working communities.
Heat pumps and solar and wind and everything else are good, in a functioning carbon economy which we have already launched in the forests communities of the Northern Sierra, which we are already sharing with urban counterparties such as our dear friends, neighbors, and colleagues of the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water, an amazing organization which makes me proud of my time in the power industry.
David,
Without drawing you into the social media platform wars, can I ask you to please bridge your Bluesky account to Mastodon/Fediverse so I can follow you from my Mastodon account?
"Bridge your Bluesky account to the fediverse by following @ap.brid.gy on Bluesky".
https://fed.brid.gy/ has more info on bridging.
Thanks - Joe
>> Well, it turns out he's a nightmare dog. He's very sweet with us at home and generally sweet >> with people, but he is insanely reactive toward other dogs when he is out on a leash.
I assume you have bought him a muzzle. I have a dog with the same issue and boy does he need one.
(Ausie)Tsu, here. With a half-baked thoughts about characterizing the balance between generation and use in a given geography. (Sub station?).
We don't know the balance. Don't know how to measure behind-the-meter, and still we talk of Building new transition/distribution. Anyone interested in building the system that is able to claim: said suburb is generating 80pc of the power it uses/ generate?
Everything Else:
I'm becoming obsessed about Level 2 V2H charging. Now that I've replaced my fossil gas FAU with a heat pump & bought a used VW ID4, my 10-panel solar system (4,200kW) is somewhat under-sized. So I'm hoping that when my VW ID4 software gets updated in May to Version 3.5, I might be able to get a V2H charger, allowing me to use stored energy in the vehicle battery during the peak rate 3 pm - 12 pm hours, then recharge the VW battery during low-rate 12 pm to 3 pm hours, as usual. I haven't had a utility power outage since 2017, so i can't justify spending $10k on a stationary storage battery. Any expert comments appreciated.
If / when you figure this out, please share the info with others
I empathize with you on Abner. Our one year old Boomer is a delightful dog, with such intense separation anxiety that he has figured out how to escape the house to come find us on multiple occasions, somehow not getting hit by a car, yet. I hate having to crate him every time we leave for 5 minutes, but he can open door handles and flip deadbolts. He’s such a hard dog to love!
I'm so sorry about Abner. The gentle leader restrains my hellbaby, but he's only 20 lbs.
David, Abner may be reactive with other dogs because he is with you. Try taking him to some woods and running him off leash and then try a large dog park at a quiet time. You may find he is different when on his own and will start to take his place in the pack. He may be alpha, so ….. Worth a try. I would suggest Maymoor Dog Park Redmond. It is large and has river access. Ken
Please don't let a known aggressive dog off its leash in a public place. I'm not sure why you'd suggest that.