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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Austrian village and smart grid
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| domwild Guru  Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873 |
Hi, Just read an Austrian newspaper: A village near Salzburg, Austria in the "Sound of Music" area is connected via smart grid and every second house has solar panels. Even houses running East-West have the panels tilted to the South. Participants to this subsidised scheme also got an electric vehicle for free to use for one year, to be rented after one year. People try to wash during sunny days and also try to fit in with sun shine with other energy hungry activities. During night time the grid is used. The smart grid diverts the power to the houses which need it. I do not know if it is compulsory to make the vehicle available for social services (taking the elderly to the library or doctor's appointments) for two days of the week or if this is done on a voluntary basis, but it certainly has brought the community together. Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up. Winston Churchill |
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| M Del Senior Member  Joined: 09/04/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 155 |
This sort of idea would be good for some of the small towns in remote areas of our wide brown land also. Some small towns, even close to larger population zones suffer from brown outs and blackouts, especially after fires and severe storms (sometimes not so big storms). But as some here know, getting it up and running can be another thing. We can always hope. Mark |
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| domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873 |
Your are right, Mark. Walpole suffers from outages as the power comes from Albany (WA) and lots of things happen along the way. Besides, they still use timber poles instead of concrete ones, even now changing over the rotten ones with new timber. Class actions over pole-top caused bush fires have now forced the power suppliers to be much more vigilant and massive change-overs of poles are happening. We still have a potato board in WA as the swinging Legislative seat of Warren is in the Manjimup area, a potato growing area. It also contains saw mills. Surely a concrete plant can employ the same amount of people than the timber mills? A wind mill was planned for Denmark and was rejected on visual ground, but the proposed location already contains a lime stone quarry complete with scar! Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up. Winston Churchill |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Dom et al Community work and cooperation on power problems is probably the solution to a lot of power problems in distribution that the commercial entities put in the to hard basket due to not being able to exploit profit from the situation, some of the systems using power and storage systems sharing in a community along with smaller wind turbines can and does work if the commercial greed factors are removed. We designed a autonomous community project like this in mid north QLD but the powers that be vetoed it due to commercial pressure over electricity distribution as they required a power contribution which was not needed as the community provided all it's own power including internal transportation for the 1200 homes in the subdivision. So much for government helping with pollution control thats a fairy story. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873 |
Bob, In the mountains of Austria a lot of farmers had their own hydro systems. Gov. then decided to extend the mains and one must ask why and then forced the farmers to connect at great cost to them. Heavy industry in Germany always had a lot of spare energy to put back into the grid but the gov. decided to only pay peanuts for it, so industry forgot about that scheme. Renault, e.g., ran in the brand new engine by generating electricity. They no longer have to do this as fabrication methods have improved, so the owner runs them in. The attitude may have changed in Europe by now and they may have become more enlightened. Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up. Winston Churchill |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Dom The same thing happened in Victoria forty years ago when the farm electricity scheme was implemented , all the farmers where required to pull down and dispose of their alternate power systems, most went to scrap, but some where saved and are being restored now as the power is becoming too expensive, the solar initiative is helping to so we still may see some rationality in the future. I live in hope, some of the new wind turbines like the one Phill is doing open the way for a better combined system. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
This is something I can't stand and I will never do: someone with a gun, forcing me to something I don't need, to be in his advantage, paying him. What law in the universe can protect me against those with the power? Hydro it was always the best solution and we have our "mountain peasants" taking advantage of it... probably until Europe finds out... S**t! I have my own fountain of water... I heard that in Texas now local authorities install a counter? for the water you extract from your fountain so they can charge you... It was a time when we paid taxes for the smoke our stoves produced. But this is my character build up in the hard times of communism (a community style which I never want to happen again). Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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