Third world country?

Transformers arcing
Image via Wikimedia CommonsWe are without electric power. A bad series of storms roared through W Michigan on Wednesday afternoon, knocking power out for about 200, 000 customers. As of this writing we've been on generator for 36 hours... we might get power back today, might not. Consumers Energy isn't very clear on that point.

Now, we are fortunate. We have a portable generator. It doesn't meet all our needs, when the well comes on other things flicker and so forth, but it's better than nothing. Others do not have generators ( Others also are not dropping 80 USD a day to run their generators, or getting smelly gas all over everything when they refill them every 4 hours, so maybe they're ahead. :) )

I am not complaining but given that this is our 5th power outage this year, it does make one wonder if this is just bad luck, or something else. I'm inclined to think that yes, storms are getting worse, that Global Warming is for real... that, coupled with the heavy regulation of the power industry (which leads to disinvestment and a grid that can handle only small outages, (local, regional and national) means that we are more susceptible to upset.

I am not complaining but it does make one feel like one is living in a third world country.

OK maybe I am complaining :)

Bauer Power

Solar cells, Image
from Wikimedia Commons
Previously I wrote about SolarCity and Sungevity, two California based companies. I've been searching hard to see if there was anyone local, because I would rather give less money to the power company if at all possible.

I have found an outfit called Bauer Power (hey, rhymes with flower power!) local to me, in Wayland... They also offer the turn key solution I crave but time will tell whether it's what I want. Unlike the two Cali companies I profiled, Bauer charges you for the initial design. This may be to keep people serious. But it's worth it to me to find out if I'm right that our house would be ideal, and to see what they propose. So I've scheduled them to come out in mid May and evaluate things.

I'm not totally clear on what our utility, Consumers Energy, actually provides for customers that want to be bidirectional. Their net metering page is a big vague (and hard to find), but this PDF brochure gives a bit more information. Time will tell.

How easy or hard is it to use renemable energy where you live?