Lichtblick and Volkswagen To Build 'Swarm' Power Plants

Dr. Hok writes "As more and more renewable energy enters the grid, it gets increasingly difficult to match supply and demand 24/7. The answer of German power company Lichtblick and Volkswagen is a swarm of 100,000 flexible base-load generators. These fridge-sized CHP (Combined Heat and Power) generators that will be installed in people's basements in Hamburg starting early next year will feed electricity into the grid and the waste heat into their home's water/heating. The "ZuhauseKraftwerk" (HomePowerPlant) features a vanilla VW Golf natural-gas engine that generates 20kW electrical and 34 kW heat with an efficiency of 92%. The units are remotely controlled via a mobile network or DSL; they can ramp up in a minute if needed. A water tank ensures that heat is continuously available, while electricity is produced on demand. The swarm will replace two nuclear plants, they say. And your old oil heating needed replacement anyway."

Comments

Re:Uh?

[polar red]

nuclear plants that emit no CO2

That's just plain WRONG see here : http://www.peakoil.org.au/news/index.php?does_nuclear_energy_produce_no_co2.htm

Re:Uh?

[polar red]

apparantly, you won't accept the fact that nuclear power produces any waste. I'll ignore you.

Re:Uh?

[jonadab]

> If the US tariffed-in rates were set at even $.38 per KWH, solar
> would be a no-brainer investment for majority of homes in the US

Maybe it would be out west, where the sky is usually not overcast. I don't think solar power could ever seriously catch on over here in the midwest, where I grew up (in Northeastern Ohio) thinking of the idea that the sky is blue as a very strange cultural phenomenon, because as everybody knows the sky is actually a dull gray color in the daytime, black at night, and a weird yellow-orange color for a few minutes around sunrise and sunset. When I was in seventh grade we went to western Michigan, and the first day we were there I got out my camera and took pictures of the sky, because it actually *was* blue that day, and I wanted photographic evidence of the fact. I didn't think anyone would understand what I meant or believe me if I just told them about it.