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That's a very encouraging graph, but I'm not sure what to make of it other than, assuming credibility, that factors other than "home wind and photovoltaic arrays are competitive with conventional grid power on a net cost basis" are at play and I'm not sure that this isn't dealing with large scale generation, which isn't within the scope of my comment.
And by the way... How does wind look graphed against natural gas in terms of MW added over the same time span? I'm not sure I'm looking at "proliferating like crazy".
Whoa, boy... let's get that misinformation corrected right now. The electricity rates in Texas are below the national average. According to this data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Texas only ranks #25 among the states.
What makes Texas consumers complain about the cost of electricity is that they use so much of it. They rank #7 for energy consumption per capita, and electricity is a large portion of that.
Whoa boy... I should have clarified; Texas is expensive relative to some neighboring states and I often hear people bemoaning deregulation as the reason for it, but Texas was relatively expensive prior to deregulation as well. Texas is very inexpensive relative to, for example, Hawaii or New England states.
Don't get the idea that I'm a deregulation fanboy or a hater, but it's impacts have not really been to the detriment of Texans like some people really seem to want to believe.
Please provide a link to a place I can buy the materials to "make my own" for around .10 a watt. Even the places that sell "damaged" solar cells, the cost seems to come out more than that. At least show me where I can buy the solar cells for .10/watt and I'll be happy.
I probably should have put "MAY" in bold and underlined all caps instead of just all caps. It would require some "Mad Max" salvaging.
That's a very encouraging graph, but I'm not sure what to make of it other than, assuming credibility, that factors other than "home wind and photovoltaic arrays are competitive with conventional grid power on a net cost basis" are at play and I'm not sure that this isn't dealing with large scale generation, which isn't within the scope of my comment.
And by the way... How does wind look graphed against natural gas in terms of MW added over the same time span? I'm not sure I'm looking at "proliferating like crazy".
Sounds like a good project for you to research. Look up the data on the DOE/EIA website and report back to us on your findings.
But wind can be a nice supplement and has been used for centuries on farms so I have no idea why wind turned into a boogeymen for conservatives and got hated by rural people. Used to be windmills were on every farm and used to generate electricity so why did it turn to be a bad thing when people pointed out you could generate non polluting energy using the same tech and make it a lot more efficient?
I own a solar house and vacationed in an off-grid community that BANNED windmills.
In Washington state, industrial wind areas have destroyed almost 200,000 acres of the most endangered landscape in the state the shrub-steppe. They did this with massive Federal and state subsidies.
The power generated is NOT used to any great extent since the dams MUST run full out in the spring to protect ENDANGERED fish migration. However, Federal taxpayers get to pay for electricity generated by windmills by court order!! Yeah, we have the BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY and the Texas energy companies have bought it.
Industrial wind areas are NOT windmills pumping water on a farm. Come out to Washington or California and experience walking through an industrial wind area.
Why are we destroying our natural lands for power we can't use and to transfer taxpayer funds to Texas energy companies??
Then I suggest you take it to the Politics and Other Controversies forum, because this isn't the appropriate place to attack Green living with political arguments.
As we've discussed in previous threads, the claims that land is being DESTROYED by wind farm implementation are hugely overstated. And the issues with infrastructure that lead to wind generation being excess to market needs for part of the year in that region can be fixed.
There's nothing inherently bad about wind farms. They simply need to be managed intelligently.
About personal windmills, I don't know if you'd want to live in a place that has enough wind to make it worth it.
Sorry about the thread hijack, but I wanted to say thank you to all who posted on my negative externalities of wind thread, but it got closed. Thanks anyway though.
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