Comments on: Intentional Energy http://alchemicalmusings.org/2009/04/20/intentional-energy/ Aurum nostrum non est aurum vulgi Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:17:01 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: sky http://alchemicalmusings.org/2009/04/20/intentional-energy/comment-page-1/#comment-35163 sky Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:47:04 +0000 http://alchemicalmusings.org/?p=301#comment-35163 A couple points 1. The grid already works both ways. Apparently standard Con Ed meters will not measure the backwards flow accurately, so if you're generating power and want to be compensated accurately for it, you need to request <a href="http://m020-w5.coned.com/dg/service_categories/netMetering.asp" rel="nofollow">net metering</a>. 2. Circuits abound without any capacitors--in fact, most solid state processors (e.g. x86 processors, etc.) avoid them altogether, because they cause problems on the circuit and can't be made that small (though I think I remember hearing of some new advance on that). I think the better metaphor is the stock market. When you sell stocks, there's always a buyer at some price. Batteries are only necessary if you're interested in leveraging in the energy market. As long as prices match supply (wherever it comes from), batteries should be useless (unless you want to make 'energy distributed default swaps' or whatever....). I don't know how prices are set on the grid, but that seems like a better focus. Obviously, battery technology improvements are still welcome for mobile devices like cars and laptops. A couple points
1. The grid already works both ways. Apparently standard Con Ed meters will not measure the backwards flow accurately, so if you’re generating power and want to be compensated accurately for it, you need to request net metering.
2. Circuits abound without any capacitors–in fact, most solid state processors (e.g. x86 processors, etc.) avoid them altogether, because they cause problems on the circuit and can’t be made that small (though I think I remember hearing of some new advance on that).

I think the better metaphor is the stock market. When you sell stocks, there’s always a buyer at some price. Batteries are only necessary if you’re interested in leveraging in the energy market. As long as prices match supply (wherever it comes from), batteries should be useless (unless you want to make ‘energy distributed default swaps’ or whatever….). I don’t know how prices are set on the grid, but that seems like a better focus.

Obviously, battery technology improvements are still welcome for mobile devices like cars and laptops.

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