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Microsoft 'Cuts The Cord' With A Local Power Utility To Pursue Greener Energy (seattletimes.com)
Frosty Piss summarizes the Seattle Times:
Microsoft will bypass Puget Sound Energy to secure carbon-free power on wholesale markets under an agreement with state regulators. In 2015, 60 percent of PSE electricity came from coal and natural-gas plants, according to company statistics. The agreement calls for Microsoft to pay a $23.6 million transition fee to Puget Sound Energy, which the utility will pass on to its Western Washington customers... But the settlement does not address one major financial issue that hangs over PSE and its customers -- how to handle the costs of shutting down coal-fired units in the Colstrip, Montana, power station... State regulators and Puget Sound Energy determined that Microsoft is legally responsible for a share of the Colstrip, Montana coal-fired generating plant costs.
nothing in montana bothers you
There is no mention of "cord cutting" in TFA. The power company will just route "cleaner energy" to MS through the existing network.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Yet another example of why the climate change deniers are just irrelevent. Let them scream, argue, bitch and moan, lie about the " war on coal" like Mitch McConnell (R- retard) does, but in the end, they are nothing.
Things are changing and things as being done - regardless of the Republicans quest to turn this country and World into a hot backwards theocratic shithole.
Quebec is 99% hydro, go to Quebec then...
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Power companies do this sort of thing all the time. For instance...
Back when we still resided in Seattle, (20+ years ago) my wife and I were up in NE Washington on our way home from a vacation in the Canadian Rockies. We decided to take in a dam tour up in that corner of the state. Funny thing was, that dam was owned by Seattle City Light! They weren't sending that electricity over 300 miles of dedicated line over to Seattle, though - they were selling it to local utilities, and through a game of economic musical chairs were in turn eventually getting an equivalent amount of electricity from sources much nearer to Seattle.
#DeleteChrome
You always get the same electrons with AC, they just move back and forth to transmit energy so the electron from the plant never reach you ;-)
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
For extra money, you can get windmill electrons instead of normal electrons! This is totally not an accounting gimmick that means that you get the same electrons anyway, because the grid kind of, well, mixes and matches.
You're missing the point. Also, Microsoft is in the business of making money, so if the cost didn't work for their accountants, they wouldn't do it because the momentary Public Relations value is, well, momentary.
And, no one thinks they are getting "different" electrons. Your statement is meaningless blather about nothing.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The electrons never reach anyone, regardless of whether it's AC or DC.
At the source, an electron transfer in the valence band of an atom affects the valence band of a nearby atom.
And so the chain goes.
It's more a matter of pressure transfer than actual flow.
No electrons propagate from the source to the destination. Only the force is transmitted.
This is true at radio frequencies as well, including WiFi charging (or communications).
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
... the path to grokking this is to chase the money.
Obviously, this is a business move for Microsoft.
"Millions of dollars," is a negligible amount, compared to the order of magnitude of Microsoft's disposable income, which is in the billions.
So, what I'm getting from this is that Microsoft does not want the source of PSE power, but it does want to use PSE's transmission lines .
That's what Microsoft is paying for: the use of infrastructure to deliver alternative sources of power.
There's probably something I'm missing because Microsoft makes moves that benefit their bottom line.
There is no way in fucking hell that Microsoft is doing anything for the betterment of any entity other than itself.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
What does "DC" mean? Here on /., I only have heard about AC.
Nah, I won't search the topic because I vaguely remember something similar to what you say so, I will assume that you are correct!
Thanks,
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
are you a separatist?
Hint:
Google for: "Frank magazine wants to disconnect Julie Payette"
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
PSE is going to be stuck with the clean-up costs of the sites containing the coal-fired energy generation plants.
Since they presumably own those plants what is the problem? If a customer decides to stop doing business with a company they are not responsible for the associated costs because of the loss of business. Frankly, I don't understand why MS even has to pay $23.6M just to not use PSE's power anymore. It would be completely unacceptable for a customer who switched from Windows to Linux to have to pay Microsoft a fee to cover the increase in costs to Microsoft due to the switch.
The electrons never reach anyone, regardless of whether it's AC or DC.
That's true for AC but not true for DC although the drift velocity is usually in milli- or micro- metres per second so it will take a while for the electrons to get very far. Even with AC there will be some diffusion of electrons as the current flows since when the current reverses it's not guaranteed that exactly the same electrons will flow back, just the same number. However, this process should be even slower than DC.
In the end, though it's a pointless exercise since there is no such thing as a "green" electron. However, if you look inside the nucleus you will find that all the protons and neutrons each contain a green quark.
You'd think so but a "creative" decided that there would be "better optics" if they used the phrase as a deliberate move to mislead.
This is totally not an accounting gimmick
Sarcasm aside you hit the nail on the head but for all the wrong reasons. This IS exactly an accounting gimmick designed specifically to drive investment in green energy. If I pay extra on my bill I don't expect a green electron to flow down my cable instead of a black one, but I do expect that money to be transferred to a green energy project.
Enough green energy projects start up, eventually the black electrons go away completely as the coal plants are no longer viable as customers pay a bit extra to ensure that they don't receive money.
Accounting, yes
Gimmick, no.
Reading between the lines, as your sig suggests, I think you're pulling my leg.
Hey, I down with it.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Funny thing was, that dam was owned by Seattle City Light! They weren't sending that electricity over 300 miles of dedicated line over to Seattle, though - they were selling it to local utilities, and through a game of economic musical chairs were in turn eventually getting an equivalent amount of electricity from sources much nearer to Seattle.
Ownership of infrastructure is often set up the way it is for odd economics reasons. For example, IIRC historically a lot of companies that had nothing to do with whatever they owned would buy infrastructure, airplanes, and certain other major capital investments because the IRS let them deduct significantly greater amount for depreciation than the actual economic depreciation, and they could be re-sold after complete tax depreciation and start the process again. In effect it was a massive government subsidy to owners.
Real lawyers write in C++
A physical electron does not travel. It simply moves out and back.
Not in a DC circuit. With a DC circuit, the electrons do have a net movement - they may more back and forth but they move forth more than they move back. If they did not move there would be no constant magnetic field. The electrons do move a lot slower than the electric field but they do move and you can measure their speed.
Scintillation is a completely different phenomenon to do with emission of light. In AC circuits the electrons still have a net movement but it reverses with the current so that over time it averages to zero. If there were no movement of charge there would be no magnetic field. Yes, there is a flow of energy but there is also a physical movement of electrons too.