Quick thoughts...

[darrelx]

I find it hilarious that "Earth Hour" last week coincided with several power grid failures. I guess activists didn't realize that if the power grid doesn't have somewhere for the power to go to, it has to shut down generators to avoid a meltdown... It melted down. If the people organizing and participating in "Earth Hour" by turning off all their

Comments

Re: power-less.

[barry_short]

Maybe there was more participation in San Diego than around here (actually, I'm fairly certain there was - the only evidence of Earth Hour I saw locally was that Google changed their screen to black, which I guess might have used one or two fewer micro-milli-ergs).

The amount of US participation was so low, AFAICT, that the grid being affected in the US - anywhere - ought to raise some eyebrows. Was there really more than a 1 or 2% dip in demand in any city besides possibly Berkeley? A day that turns out to be 5 degrees warmer or colder than predicted causes more fluctuation than that.

BTW, it wasn't everywhere at once, either - it was (apparently intended to be) a rolling event by time zone. (Not much point in Australia turning out the lights at 4 in the morning.) Much (not all) of the Pacific time zone's power is generated here in the Mountain time zone, so (assuming people who participated did so when they were supposed to) that should also have balanced the effect on the Western grid. The event, though, was poorly enough publicized in the US that my guess is that many of those who participated did so whenever they remembered to do it.