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Chicago powering its municipal buildings with renewable energy NOT!
Analog Kid:
A little while ago I heard a report on NPR (National Public Radio in the US, one of the most incredibly biased outlets I've ever had the misfortune to listen to). It told us that the city of Chicago, in a bold move, was now going to power (or was powering) all of its municipal gov't. buildings with clean, green renewable energy:
--- Quote ---More cities are looking to green projects to fight climate change. Chicago is now powering all its municipal buildings with 100% renewable energy and the city helped finance a major solar farm.
--- End quote ---
What a stinking pile of horseshit!
Never mind the good intentions of the city in doing this, and never mind their plan, which was to buy power from a supplier who had a good deal of renewable energy in their portfolio.
It seems that people actually believe this, that somehow the electricity that is supplying these buildings comes from 100% renewable sources (solar, wind, hydro).
This, or course, is impossible. Because, as I hardly have to point out to most people reading this here on this forum, it's not as if they ran alternate sets of power cables to these buildings. The buildings are still receiving their power from ComEd, the regional power company.
According to this page, here's the energy mix that all ComEd electrical customers receive:
--- Quote ---As of 2023, Illinois generates 54.89% of electricity from nuclear power, 31.58% from fossil fuels (comprising of coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases), and 13.53% from renewables (comprising of wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass).
--- End quote ---
So whoop-te-do, they're using about 14% renewables to generate electricity. A Good Thing, to be sure. But far from 100%, which is the impression that this brain-dead piece of so-called "reporting" leaves.
So the city may now be paying for 100% renewable electricity through its supplier, but it certainly isn't actually receiving that power through the outlets in its buildings.
I swear, if the US becomes any more technologically ignorant, we richly deserve to be overrun by the likes of China, Russia and India.
Analog Kid:
Of course, buried down in about the 11th "graf" of the story is the real explanation:
--- Quote ---Of course, the city is still connected to the regional grid, which in northern Illinois, relies heavily on nuclear power. Still, Chicago will effectively be paying for the renewable energy equivalent to what it uses every day.
--- End quote ---
(italics mine)
100% renewable energy my ass ...
Haenk:
I'm not sure if you are aware of interconnects in the electrical grid?
I.e. while they might receive no renewable energy at all; company X might, while paying for coal power. At the same time, both the coal plant and the solar plant are connected to the grid and pumping power into the grid.
So the term "powering" might be a bit misleading, "empowering" might be suited better, as they are paying for the generation of renewable energy. In the greater scheme of things, it is eventually pointless to be nitpicky about who is the actual provider and user of grid resources.
tszaboo:
It's not like that. The DSO needs to have a certificate, that the power was coming from renewable sources. This is usually comes for each unit of power, which is 1MWh. If the city buys 10GWh per year, then that needs to come from renewable sources and the same 10GWh cannot be sold to other customers. If more and more customers do this, they need to build new power plants.
It also creates jobs, that are not useless time wasters sitting at a government desk creating burocracy.
Analog Kid:
--- Quote from: Haenk on January 16, 2025, 11:54:42 am ---I'm not sure if you are aware of interconnects in the electrical grid?
I.e. while they might receive no renewable energy at all; company X might, while paying for coal power. At the same time, both the coal plant and the solar plant are connected to the grid and pumping power into the grid.
So the term "powering" might be a bit misleading, "empowering" might be suited better, as they are paying for the generation of renewable energy. In the greater scheme of things, it is eventually pointless to be nitpicky about who is the actual provider and user of grid resources.
--- End quote ---
No.
The article leaves the definite impression that the municipal buildings in Chicago are going to be powered 100% by electricity from renewable sources. Not "empowered" but actually powered, i.e. the electrons come from solar, wind or hydro.
This is clearly impossible with the current infrastructure, where those buildings, indeed the entire city, channels power from the sources I described above (nuclear, fossil fuel and renewables). It's not as if they can divert the "green" electricity alone to their buildings; everyone receives the same mix of power through the transmission lines, transformers, etc. It's just that they are paying for a different mix.
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