Having read up on queen excluder, it seems that the 'pros' don't like them, but take the relatively simple expedient of swapping boxes - IE if the queen starts migrating towards the harvest boxes(intended for honey), you swap the two brood boxes so she's at the bottom again.

Absorption cooling. Uses heat to cool.

a better breakdown.

Or if you want PV panels, you can get an ac system that runs directly off the DC power.

Do you understand what this means:

ibpook's original statement is incorrect for modern panels, and has been for quite some time. Modern solar panels will create more Joules of electricity than the joules it took to make them, their mounts, and yes, even the inverter, in about 4 years. Even if they were initially made by burning coal for energy, they will eventually more than offset that carbon by displacing carbon here in the USA(or Europe, or anywhere). Even if it's displacing natural gas, or in a slightly non-optimal area. Up here in Alaska, it might take 6.

I posited on using 'retired' EV batteries here.

Heck, a solar future where most cars are charged in the daytime(at work?) because it's cheaper would have massive load leveling capabilities simply by playing with the charging amounts for the vehicles.

Still massive numbers of home power batteries depends on numerous factors, including where you put them. Don't forget the fire hazard for LiIon.

We're working on it.

Low average density means we have a lot of room for biomass and such, like in the article you mentioned. Solar isn't so hot in the winter, and the heating demands are, of course, extreme.

Still, there's a lot of projects going forward to use biomass to provide heat & power, even in the dead of winter.

She's substantially bigger than the drones, so something as 'simple' as a gate would work. large enough for drones, too small for the queen.

In addition, I'd imagine that a cell with larva in it wouldn't drain.

While a large consumer of power, server farms aren't 'industrial'. Oddly, their sensitivity to power outages may actually contribute to their ability to use solar power normally.

Why? Because server farms are so sensitive to outages that they need battery and probably generator backup anyways. So you have a battery and generator anyways, you can use solar power without much difficulty.

Industrial, like the mentioned induction heating, are still sensitive to power fluxuations, but not as much. They also consume so much power that storage - battery backup, isn't practical. Not even generators.

Which is why I said that even industry, and yes, even the smelters, can use solar panels. Though I think it'd be neat if they used mirrors instead to provide at least some of the heat.

1. I figure there's exceptions, thus the 'to my knowledge'. That being said, citation please.
2. You always need an inverter unless you're only using DC appliances.
3. Of course, when 'green energy' was only starting they didn't want you feeding back into the grid. The rules hadn't been set up for safety and stability yet. They have enough problems with people backfeeding onto the power lines and endangering workers with generators.
4. Grid usage fee - it's spreading, but most 'customer fees' are more for paying the meter readers and billing system*. Connection charges can vary widely.

Still, some seem to be wanting to avoid the issue entirely - things like charging $60/month specifically for a solar setup(in addition to other static charges), when many people(like me) actually use less than $60 worth of electricity** a month anyways.

Of course, you also run into that many places have used their utilities as a sort of welfare platform. See California's reverse pricing scheme - rather than making electricity cheaper in bulk, like in most goods, and as seen when sold to industrial customers, they make it more expensive the more you use.

So where social reformers have a fair bit of control over pricing, you can see power companies having pricing schemes that cost them money on low-use customers, which those that mount solar panels imitate.

*And by golly they have to have the most inefficient meter readers and gold-plated billing system ever if it costs $20/month just to send me a bill.
**My bill is usually around $100/month due to the surcharges.

Actually, it'll help industry as well, assuming it's cheap enough. While they normally get their electricity cheaper than households, they can often install solar power cheaper due to quantity scaling.

As for the reliability of output - if you have storage it's reliable enough, and induction heating is only one of many industries.

I never said baseload would go away, just that pumped storage isn't a 'free' solution.

My scheme for taking care of the pollution issue is quite different than the EPA's 'cap & grandfather'.

Mine is simple: Rate the pollutants in terms of harm. IE Mercury into the environment costs $10M/ton. Charge any company that emits Mercury ~$11M/ton, and call it a day. Same with other pollutants. CO2 might 'only' be $.10/ton, but it'd add up quickly.

While it'd be a nice racket, I don't think that companies like UPS would get away with charging both the retailer and the purchaser for transport costs.

Buyer pays transport. Seller only gets the base price. For home installs, that means that the homeowner pays base+transport for any electricity he pulls from the grid, but the utility only pays base for any he puts onto the grid.

Indeed, but I think that utility companies are some of the most forward thinking - looking 20 and 40 years ahead. And Hawaii has gotten to the point that some of their switching stations could see more power coming in than going out, so they've been having to modify things.

Hawaii is a special case though, so it's good to examine to help determine how things might go.

Because the size of lines needed increases with more power consumed, indeed, even as you need to buy more generation(for power companies that own their own), most power companies build at least some of their infrastructure cost into the per kwh charge, on the theory that if somebody consumes twice as much energy they should pay for needing, for example, a transformer with 1.5x the capacity that would otherwise be needed, some fraction of the extra power line, running a 72kV power line vs a 60kV, etc...

Keep in mind that people's electric bills can vary vastly on a charge basis. My static charges are only $40 here, and were even less at my last place.

It all depends on how you set your meter(s) up, but net metering on a monthly basis is the 'cheapest', you only need 1 dumb meter.

There are slightly more complex meters that will run different 'in' and 'out' meters depending on electricity flow. So, for your theoretical 1k kwh consuming house with exactly matching solar power production(on an average basis), you might get 300 kwh on both meters because the solar power feeds your house FIRST.

So you earn $24 for selling 300 kwh, pay $36 for buying power, plus the $60 fee, giving you a $72 bill for the month. BTW, is it possible that with such a large fee, especially with a static 'infrastructure' one of that size, that your utility is already 'bracing' for extensive adoptions of solar?

Generally you'll set up the meter(s) depending on the 'best' situation given your area. In some areas that might even mean having 'time of use' capable meters, so you're getting paid spot price. Which works out so long as daytime power averages more than nighttime.

Indeed, it's good. But how do you propose for the power companies to pay the £425 million, in 1984 pounds, when they're facing declining revenues because people aren't buying their power anymore? (BTW, did you mean Dinorwig?)

If it shakes down that people can sell solar electricity for $.10/kwh, but have to buy electricity(solar and other) for $.20, then the power company has the resources to do things like build and operate more pumped storage stations. Don't forget that companies will build pumped storage where it makes the most sense - IE lowest cost for the power/energy, first. So if we need 100 Dinorwigs to meet demand, the last is going to cost a lot more than the first, because it'll require much more earth moving and construction.