Land mass needed for the different energy sources (solar panel, heating, wind turbines)

[vec101]

Some environmental groups who don't want to "give up" their land to windmills.
Question to posters - are you willing to give up the "nature" areas that you enjoy so windmills can be constructed?

the push to go green is in some areas pitting environmentalists against each other. Correspondent Dan Springer reports that while all of them want cleaner energy many are not willing to pay the price." Costly Issue - FOXNews.com

......... replacing fossil fuels green alternatives is facing increasing opposition from an unlikely source some environmentalists have successfully fought a wind farm at the Oregon Washington border they're trying to block a massive solar plants in the Mojave desert. And now you -- accounting or again is considering a ban on wind power in the foothills of the blue mountains. Costly Issue - FOXNews.com

We all want to be as green as we can be good at what cost to take everything from us. Costly Issue - FOXNews.com

[vec101]

Well here is an interesting thought:

But wind energy also carries risks -- if wind farms expanded to cover just 10% of the Earth's land area they could theoretically change air patterns enough to affect global weather patterns and climate. Could too many windmills cause climate change? - Green Daily

[rlchurch]

Renewable energy plants should undergo the same level of tough environmental review as any other large energy project. Being renewable shouldn't give the industry a free ride.

BTW we need far less than 10% of the worlds surface, so I'm not sure we have a problem with slowing the wind.

[GregW]

I wonder how many of these "green" groups are funded by the conventional fossil fuel energy suppliers. They will do anything to protect their existing and potential markets. The benefit to the overall society is less important than their profit.

I agree completely with the suggestion that West Virginia should looking at the 21st century instead of clinging to the aristocratic coal culture of the 18th. IMHO coal is just too damn dirty and dangerous to mine or burn. WV should look to installing the pumped storage capacity to level the supplies of energy from wind and solar because they already have adequate water and tall hills.

If we install “too many” wind turbines in an area the aerodynamics of the situation indicate the overall wind will see the turbines as an increased roughness and simply flow over instead of through the machines. I can only assume, but would not bet on, that the wind energy companies are paying for Computational Fluid Dynamic studies of the effect of the turbines on the overall wind flow field and how the density and layout of the turbines affects the flow patterns. The pressure differences will still be there and the wind will take the lowest friction path. That might not be through the turbines.

I am opposed to the opposition of environmental “green” groups to alternate energy sighting because of aesthetic and recreational reasons. Any degradation to these is far overshadowed by the need for energy from non-combustion sources. That is based on my fundamental belief that work is more important than play and energy collection more important than a zillionaires ocean view.

[vec101]

I don't see where it is a far stretch to understand that environmental groups that want to keep the land natural would object to any type of massive structures being built.

Wish the powers that be would put as much energy into producing energy from garbage as they do into windmills.

I wonder how much the windmill industry has given to environmental groups and/or how much these groups have invested in windmill technology.

Interesting report from Cato from 1997:

Current state and federal efforts to restructure the electricity industry are being politicized to foist a new round of involuntary commitments on ratepayers and taxpayers for politically favored renewables, particularly wind and solar. Yet new government subsidies for favored renewable technologies are likely to create few environmental benefits; increase electricity-generation overcapacity in most regions of the United States; raise electricity rates; and create new "environmental pressures," given the extra land and materials (compared with those needed for traditional technologies) it would take to significantly increase the capacity of wind and solar generation. Renewable Energy: Not Cheap, Not "Green"

[GregW]

I just checked a power plant that is converting landfill gas from a huge covered garbage pile into electricity. This is an old and well established technology.

[vec101]

Have you ever been to a large landfill? It is unbelievable. Bet we could capture a LOT of energy from these. They line the fills, plant grass, etc. but it's not like the land could be used for housing, etc.

I would REALLY like to see garbage used for energy. Would solve several different problems.

[Majordomo]

Do they ever combine power plants? Like having wind turbines over solar panels that sit over a geothermal plant.

[T-310]

New coal fired electricity generation plant being built on the res east of Great Falls.

Last I heard, the res is exempt from all this cap-and-trade hooey.

[rlchurch]

Originally Posted by T-310

New coal fired electricity generation plant being built on the res east of Great Falls.

Last I heard, the res is exempt from all this cap-and-trade hooey.

If you're talking about the Highwood Plant, it's toast. Isn't going to happen. And if you heard that reservations were exempt from EPA regulation, you heard wrong. EPA just force the cancellation of Desert Rock, which was to be built on Navajo land.

Read em and weep coal boys.