Controlling Renewable Resources New Opportunities Bring New Challenges Part 2

摘要

Part one of this series sketched out some of the regulatory and financial constraints that must be considered when planning to use alternative methods of generating electricity. We must think differently about the distribution of electricity before we consider the details of the different technologies. Historically, when it has been decided that more power is needed, a new plant is constructed, and it is either con- nected to existing power transmission lines or new lines are built. The amount of power able to be produced using traditional methods is a function of the plant size, the availability of fuel and consumer demand. The problem with using nonpolluting resources, such as wind and sunlight, is they are fuels over which we have little control. Sunlight and wind are not stable resources, meaning there is no guarantee how much power they will supply at any given moment.