Re: theWatt Podcast 77

Christopher,
You raise some interesting points here. Let me take your last point first.

A tiered structure for electricity for residential customers is interesting. It reminds me of the tiered structure for water here in Boston. If you use the minimal amount of water, the price is low per hundred cubic feet(sorry I don't have the numbers in front of me). But if you use a lot of water, the price almost doubles per hundred cubic feet.

I think we generally feel good about this approach, but I don't know how much this helps with conservation. I live in a wealthy community and I think people can afford to pay for the high water rates. As a result, I am skeptical about how much this contributes to conservation. Perhaps someone has studied this. We need to get away from policies that sound good and move to policies that have been proven to work.

In live in the Boston area. Electricity price is US$0.19/KWH. This is about twice the national average of about US$0.08/KWH. Yet, electricity consumption in Boston (in fact the whole North East) is higher than the national average. So I am not sure high prices are much of an answer to reducing consumption. However high prices can make renewable energy more practical.

Regarding wind power, I think the difference in our thinking here might be the difference between commercial scale wind power (i.e. wind farms) versus residential scale. I agree that commercial scale wind power should not be wasted on people of great financial means. This power is hard to come by and it is a shame to see it wasted on increased consumption.
I was thinking more of residential scale wind power. For example, let's say a wealth home owner buys a 20 acre property. On that property he can build as large a house as he wants, but all the electricity (perhaps heat and hot water as well) must come from the 20 Acre property. That might be wind mills or solar panels, or whatever. Once that individual has done that, I think that individual has gone above and beyond his environmental obligations. He is producing his own energy needs and therefore I don't think anyone can complain about his consumption.

Consider one small example of sustainable living.

There is a guy that I know that lives in my area named James Warden. He has a large PV solar array on his property (perhaps 8KW, I am not sure). He uses this electricity to 1) run a geothermal heating system, 2) charge his EVs, and 3) supply all the electric needs in his house. I find this really remarkable. All his energy needs are electric in nature and supplied by his solar panels.
Personally, I have a 3KW solar array on my house. This supplies all my electrical needs, but I still heat with home heating oil and use gasoline for my two cars. I would love to be able to do what James Warden does. He is not significantly affected by the recent increase in gasoline prices and he should never run out of energy.

Thanks
John C. Briggs