[ExI] Fwd: announcement for talk "Storing Sunlight in Waste-derived Syngas"

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> 
...
>>... Consumers will not tolerate intermittence in power either.  The 1999-2001 era rolling blackouts made that very clear.  The message was sent to politicians and the power company to make sure there will be no rolling blackouts, regardless of economic impact or what endangered species must be brutally extinguished.

>...That was Enron playing games by shutting down power plants for maintenance when the power demand was highest to get a premium price for power...

Well it worked.  We have been paying premium prices for power ever since.

>>... The power must keep coming.  Result: the local peaker plant, which 
> turned out to be unnecessary and is now being prepared to run a data center.

>...That's interesting.  That's the Metcalf 605 MW plant.  

I heard it was called the Los Esteros Energy Center, a 300 MW facility, so we might be talking about two different plants.

>...I remember when it was built.  It is a seriously large combined cycle plant with (I
think) two gas turbines... Keith

It is exciting to see the data center go in.  It is yuuuuuge.  There was a big homeless community out there a year ago.  They exported them to South San Jose; now the new data center takes up most of what used to be McCarthy Ranch.  Fun aside: you may recall Alviso used to be the wrong side of the tracks.  Well, it isn't that way now.  A prole can go walking down there and no need to worry.

Now with that big data center there, Alviso will likely be the happening place to live.

spike