Paying YOU To Use Electricity?

Did your parents ever yell at you for wasting electricity? You know, for keeping the TV and the radio on at the same time? Or not turning your light off when you leave a room? Mine did. I was the child of a thrifty family.

So, naturally, this would drive my mother to drink: apparently, there is so much energy being generated by wind and nuclear power, that electricity has become ‘cheaper to use than free’ for certain people. Check this:

In west Texas and Illinois, when the wind blows at night and nuclear plants run around-the-clock, power generators produce more electricity than people need. This oversupply “has forced electricity prices into the negative range,” an expert explains—meaning that some customers are paid to use electricity.

Energy companies are experimenting with ways to store this excess energy, such as with compressed air. Pacific Gas and Energy can be done by “pumping compressed air into an underground reservoir, using mainly wind energy produced during non-peak hours, and then release it to generate electricity during periods of peak demand”. However, it’s going to take 5 years to develop this technology. As of now, there’s no technology in place, so all of this energy is going to waste. Is this drastically unsustainable? What do you think?

Posted by:

Steve Romain

Who Says You Can’t Pimp An Electric Ride?

Countless men and women across the country will agree with this one: your first ride was your first love. You probably remember it as junky and cheap, prone to breaking down every morning, but you loved it just the same. Let’s face it: even though it probably guzzled gas like Gatorade and needed to be started just the right way or else it might have blown up, it was still yours. In the near future, 16 year olds will remember the first time they plugged their car in, rather than the first time they filled up the gas tank.

Let’s hear about some electric cars and green jobs, after the jump!
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Posted by:

Steve Romain