[ExI] cost of renewable energy, was: RE: RES: self driving cars again

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Henrique Moraes Machado
Subject: [ExI] RES: self driving cars again

<spike>
>>...Young people, I am not kidding: back in the olden days, gas stations
hired guys to do that, for every customer.  It was so creepy!  ...
</spike>


>...Would you think it's weird that, where I live, they tried to introduce
self-service gas stations and the workers syndicate lobbied and successfully
passed a bill that outlawed it? I do. So gas stations are required by law to
hire guys to do that, for every customer and customers are not permitted to
pump their own gas.
_______________________________________________

Henrique we have some states which do that, such as Oregon.  That particular
state was very hard hit by methamphetamines.  My dentist friend explained it
thus: you get a cold, runny nose, watery eyes, you take this medication, you
feel better.  Dopers make the logical extrapolation, what if you don't have
a cold and you take this medication, do you still feel better?  Yes.  Your
normal eyes are now dry, nasal passages dry, mouth dry, compensate with
soda, first choice Mountain Dew, twice the sugar, twice the caffeine.  Dry
mouth and lots of sugar creates bacteria heaven, pretty soon their teeth rot
out.  Would you hire some young person with no teeth?  I wouldn't; I would
have to assume they are or were meth addicts, NEXT!  Result: jillions of
toothless recovering addicts who are not employable.  Oregon legislature's
response: create a law requiring gas to be pumped by an attendant.  Well,
how hard is it to pump fuel?  Any bonehead can do it.  That policy mops up a
good percentage of the otherwise unemployable, and yes as Objectivist as I
am, I realize we need to give them some kind of job, or failing that,
dentures.  

Result: if you go to Oregon, you will likely have your gas pumped by a
toothless person, and you will pay a lot more for your gas.  Example, last
week I returned from a camping trip, paid 55 cents per gallon more in
Ashland Oregon than I did three hours south of there in Weed Taxifornia.

On a lighter note, here is a news story about what CA is paying for carbon
free energy:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2012/02/07/california-reveals-price-it
-pays-for-renewable-energy/

Here is the report the above news story is based on:
 
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/3B3FE98B-D833-428A-B606-47C9B64B7A89/0/Q
4RPSReporttotheLegislatureFINAL3.pdf

The table on page 17 gives the average 2011 PG&E contract price for new PV
from 3-20 MW systems as 11.39 cents/kWh.  A gallon of gasoline is about 38
kWh, so if we can estimate a conversion efficiency, this seems to suggest we
may be able to eventually solve our load leveling problem with the
renewables.

This was a surprise for me to find that solar energy isn't as expensive as I
thought.  PG&E sells it to me for 33 cents/kWh, so I assumed it costs nearly
that much to make, but they can buy it for 11.4 cents according to this
report, and that was the high end.  At that price, we are approaching
viability for solar and wind powered coal to liquid fuel conversion (I
confess I don't know much about the capital cost to build that plant.  Any
hipsters here on that?)  That would represent the highest price we would
ever need to pay for motor fuels, not counting the oddball cases where
toothless dopers run up the cost.

spike