Future infrastructure for residential electric service?

[Doug Garson]

My wife and I volunteer at a foodbank and thru that I have learned that there is a whole industry with a combination of non profit and for profit organizations that recover unsellable foods and direct it to charities that distribute it to those in need. One for profit company collects near expired produce from grocery stores, triages it into three streams. One stream is food still good for humans and goes to food banks like the one we volunteer at, a second goes to farmers for animal feed and the last is worm composted and the compost is sold as a soil supplement, virtually none goes to landfill.

[Mike Henderson]

My wife and I volunteer at a foodbank and thru that I have learned that there is a whole industry with a combination of non profit and for profit organizations that recover unsellable foods and direct it to charities that distribute it to those in need. One for profit company collects near expired produce from grocery stores, triages it into three streams. One stream is food still good for humans and goes to food banks like the one we volunteer at, a second goes to farmers for animal feed and the last is worm composted and the compost is sold as a soil supplement, virtually none goes to landfill.

I'm sure your organization does a good job, but it's probably a drop in the bucket. Here's a quote from "Feeding America" an organization dedicated to reducing food waste:

Each year, 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion in food thrown away each year. Shockingly, nearly 40% of all food in America is wasted.
Food goes to waste at every stage of food production and distribution - from farmers to packers and shippers, from manufacturers to retailers to our homes. Food waste in our homes makes up about 39% of all food waste - about 42 billion pounds of food waste. While commercial food waste makes up about 61% of all food waste or 66 billion pounds of food waste. Feeding America focuses on reducing food waste on farms and in food service, manufacturing, and retail.

Mike

[Doug Garson]

No doubt Mike's numbers are true, lot's of food still goes to waste despite the efforts of food recovery companies.

[Ole Anderson]

Just saw a YouTube that noted Europe is now about 80% high efficiency inverter HVAC (think mini-split) use whereas the US is at just 4%. Lots of room for improvement there.

[Bill Howatt]

No doubt Mike's numbers are true, lot's of food still goes to waste despite the efforts of food recovery companies.

Part of the problem is the consumer's desire for blemish-free, nicely shaped, produce. There have also been various reports that the Best Before Date is causing needless disposal of foodstuffs.

[Mike Henderson]

Part of the problem is the consumer's desire for blemish-free, nicely shaped, produce.

That is really true. I sell a small amount of avocados to a local grocery store and they will only take the perfect avocados. If the avocados have any mark on them, the only thing they'll take them for (at low prices) is for making guacamole. We eat those avocados and they're just fine.

I've watched farm workers picking tomatoes. If any are too ripe, or misshapen, or too small, and I guess if they have any marks on them, they're just thrown on the ground. If you were raising them in your back yard, you'd use those tomatoes.

Mike

[Malcolm McLeod]

The recent thread on electric vehicles brings up questions about future infrastructure for residential electric service ( power lines, transformers, etc.) Will a future home need 500 AMP service? Can contemporary power poles safely hold the power lines and transformers that can supply that much power to whole neighborhoods?

Re-visiting this (in a spare moment) and returning to Mr. Tashiro's OP, since I just got out of a related meeting about an hour ago: The electric utility providers in my small corner of the world (SW TX + SE NM) have informed my company that by 2025YE they will be 210MW short of supplying us with sufficient power. They are unwilling or unable to build the required plants. And we are only a part of this area's electrical needs and growth.

Sort of sounds like a 'every person for themselves' kind of situation - - in case it helps with your planning.

[Doug Garson]

Here in BC, our main utility BC Hydro predicts a shortfall of power by 2030. BC Hydro announced in June of this year that they expect to launch an official call to IPP's in the spring of 2024 for the required additional renewable power production with the hope that projects will start connecting to the provincial grid by 2028. Currently BC Hydro has a surplus and has additional power coming on line in 2025.

[Mike Henderson]

California has so much solar that during some days in the summer the power companies had to pay other power companies to take the excesss power.

Mike

[Doug Garson]

California has so much solar that during some days in the summer the power companies had to pay other power companies to take the excesss power.

Mike

Sounds like an opportunity to employ batteries or pumped storage?

[Mike Henderson]

Sounds like an opportunity to employ batteries or pumped storage?

Yes, I'm sure that's being worked on.

Mike

[Maurice Mcmurry]

People have been predicting that for a long, long time. Years ago there was a prediction that we would not be able to grow enough food but the Haber-Bosch process came along and gave us lots of nitrogen fertilizer.

There's no shortage of food in the industrialized world.

There will be soon if the status quo for agriculture continues to be Anhydrous Ammonia + Glyphosate + Genetically Modified crops. What this combination is doing to our health and soil is a big concern. Our little country place is surrounded by big AG. I have given up on the hope that I can have a vegetable garden there.

[Monte Milanuk]

Had an interesting 'all plant' meeting at the hydro yesterday. A couple interesting items that relate to this discussion here... one, there's additional regulation going into effect requiring utilities to reserve more capacity for supporting the grid, which means less available to sell elsewhere. And two, because of the emphasis on ixnaying coal and gas despite rising power demands, it's starting to look more and more like baby nukes may be on the table (finally). Interesting times...

[Ronald Blue]

Had an interesting 'all plant' meeting at the hydro yesterday. A couple interesting items that relate to this discussion here... one, there's additional regulation going into effect requiring utilities to reserve more capacity for supporting the grid, which means less available to sell elsewhere. And two, because of the emphasis on ixnaying coal and gas despite rising power demands, it's starting to look more and more like baby nukes may be on the table (finally). Interesting times...

I think the reality is electricity is going to become a lot more expensive. I'm already paying the most I have ever paid in my life and it's almost doubled in less than 10 years. With all fees added in now I am at 20 cents per KWH.

[Mike Henderson]

I think the reality is electricity is going to become a lot more expensive. I'm already paying the most I have ever paid in my life and it's almost doubled in less than 10 years. With all fees added in now I am at 20 cents per KWH.

We're on a tier system and the lowest tier is about $0.30/kWhr. I think the highest tier is about $0.41/kWhr.

I remember when it was $0.07kWhr.

Mike