Water generators are the best, but few areas have a good spot to
set that up. Not too long ago they were talking about a water
genertor plant (Hydro Electricity?) in Ontario that has been in
service so long that they have to convert the 25 cycle power to
60 cycle. We got rid of 25 cycle power in the mid 1950's.

I'm sure that one has paid for itself. B)

Once upon a time, didn't Canada actually reroute, or reverse, the flow of
some of their rivers in order to build more hydro plants?

For many decades we had so much of that that our power company is
called Ontario Hydro and most Canadians refer to all power as Hydro
(have you paid the Hydro bill?), something we have to avoid when
travelling in the USA or it gives us away as visiting Canadians.. B)

The city I grew up in had a huge hydro plan at the falls on the river. I toured it as a Cub Scout. ;) It made a big impression. The Canadian references to "hydro" may seem more logical to me than others.

Mike

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Hello Rob!

** On Saturday 05.04.25 - 02:10, Rob Mccart wrote to GRANT WEASNER:

There area some things about that, like solar panels and
wind generators are not nearly as efficient as they claim
they are. My sister bought a bunch of solar panels and
they don't make near the power claimed, not near enough to
handle all their needs and they paid $80,000 for them.

I suppose they have a system that charges a bank of batteries.
Perhaps they can expand the capacity with more batteries?

But the best strategy would be to adjust how they use the
available power.


--
../|ug

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August Abolins wrote to Rob Mccart <=-

** On Saturday 05.04.25 - 02:10, Rob Mccart wrote to GRANT WEASNER:

There area some things about that, like solar panels and
wind generators are not nearly as efficient as they claim
they are. My sister bought a bunch of solar panels and
they don't make near the power claimed, not near enough to
handle all their needs and they paid $80,000 for them.

I suppose they have a system that charges a bank of batteries.
Perhaps they can expand the capacity with more batteries?

But the best strategy would be to adjust how they use the
available power.

I think Rob's sister's issue is with oversold Solar performance claims
by a sleazy solar salesperson, not a problem with solar. Home solar
salespeople are some of the worst around here.

I work in renewable energy, you're exactly right about hybrid systems
combining battery, solar and intelligent power direction. One of our
products combines the two with a back-end that figures what to do with
power based on time of day, historical weather, power tariffs and usage history. You can either run off solar, charge your batteries or sell
power back based on which is more cost effective at the time.

The abundance of similar systems makes politicians saying "what happens
when it's dark?" sound like idiots pandering to idiots. Or someone on
the dole from "clean coal".



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RM >> Water generators are the best, but few areas have a good spot to
>> set that up.

Once upon a time, didn't Canada actually reroute, or reverse, the flow of

>some of their rivers in order to build more hydro plants?

Yes, I'm sure in most locations they have to stop the river from
flowing some way while they install the turbines, and in some areas
you end up with small towns under water by the time they sort it all out.

---
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My sister bought a bunch of solar panels and
they don't make near the power claimed, not near enough to
handle all their needs and they paid $80,000 for them.

I suppose they have a system that charges a bank of batteries.

>Perhaps they can expand the capacity with more batteries?

But the best strategy would be to adjust how they use the

>available power.

Actually it was set up with a contract with Ontario Hydro and
all the power they made was measured and fed back into the grid
and they were paid for that power while still being billed like
normal for the power coming into the house.

It seemed like that was going to be super profitable since they
were being paid per KWH more than 4 times what they had to pay
for the electricity they bought. But as I said it didn't work out
too well for them.. and the later contracts that Hydro set up like
that paid less than half per KWH what my sister was being paid.
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Hello Rob!

Actually it was set up with a contract with Ontario Hydro
and all the power they made was measured and fed back into
the grid and they were paid for that power while still
being billed like normal for the power coming into the
house.

Ah.. so no batteries.

It seemed like that was going to be super profitable since they
were being paid per KWH more than 4 times what they had to pay
for the electricity they bought. But as I said it didn't work out
too well for them.. and the later contracts that Hydro set up like
that paid less than half per KWH what my sister was being paid.

Is the contract still in play?

I know someone who has such a set up too. During the summer,
the results are very good! But.. in the winter the returns are
poor - primarily because they don't clean the snow off the
panels!

--
../|ug

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Rob Mccart wrote to MIKE POWELL <=-

Yes, I'm sure in most locations they have to stop the river from
flowing some way while they install the turbines,

They spend the first part of the construction routing the river around the dam.

and in some areas

you end up with small towns under water by the time they sort it all
out.

It's happened many, many times. But they know what towns will be impacted ahead of time.


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Actually it was set up with a contract with Ontario Hydro
and all the power they made was measured and fed back into
the grid and they were paid for that power

Ah.. so no batteries.

Yes.. I have a friend with a smaller but similar system at his
cottage with no contract with the power company, actually he has
his system because he couldn't get access to the grid where his
place was located without paying to have underwater lines run to
his place at a cost of about $25,000. He could have easly afforded
it but he decided to go off grid out of spite.. B)

It seemed like that was going to be super profitable since they
were being paid per KWH more than 4 times what they had to pay
for the electricity they bought.

Is the contract still in play?

Yes, it was set up for (?) maybe 15 years? Hydro was paying them
more than 80 cents a KWH, but after a couple of years offering
that amount they dropped the payment to new contrats to around
30 cents/KWH. Since my sister feels she is losing money at her
rate the new people may be in for a rude awakening.

I know someone who has such a set up too. During the summer,

>the results are very good! But.. in the winter the returns are
>poor - primarily because they don't clean the snow off the
>panels!

She talks about how much her husband complains about cleaning off
the panels in winter so it sounds like they are trying to stay
on top of that. She's near Peterborough though so she's getting
weather that's similar to what you and I get.
(Her power is still out from that ice storm 10 days ago.)

Ha.. speaking of, I'm starting to think a lot of our recent bad
weather is my fault. I had a dental appoitnment (50 mile round trip)
last week, and that day we got 4 inches of snow followed by freezing
rain I had to drive through.. Then this week I had a follow up visit
and the evening/night before we got about 10 inches of new snow here.
I worried I'd be unable to get there and be charged a fee for the
cancellation since the plow that does this road didn't show up but
I decided to give it a shot and managed to slip and slide my way
out the 1/2 mile to where the city plow comes in to, but it was
fun, trying to keep my speed up dangerously high so I didn't get
bogged down on hills and curves in all that snow, but I did make it.
Makes me wish at times I'd gotten a car with 4WD though.. B)

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