News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Google says it will run entirely on renewable energy in 2017. Parent comment

Re:Google says it will run entirely on renewable energy in 2017 by ChuckMcM on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @11:44AM (#13123870)
Can I test an assumption with you? Lets say that "everyone does it", and by that I mean literally everyone on the planet generates more renewable energy on some grid somewhere, than they use on the grids they are using.

That is the definition of 100% renewable energy use is it not? You can't push power into a grid if nobody is using it, they don't work that way. So if the world is using 12.3 TW and 12.3TW is being generated by renewable sources, your done.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google says it will run entirely on renewable energy in 2017 by matchagaucho on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @05:36PM (#13126920)
If I'm generating 20% more solar energy than I need and resell the excess it to the grid, am I operating at 120% renewable energy?

What about the consumers of my excess energy? Are they operating at 20% renewable and 80% fossil?

If my 20% in excess is counted towards my total renewable energy consumption, and other consumers also claim that 20% towards their renewable consumption, then we're just double counting. No?

[ Parent | on HN ]