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I've never seen the big controversy. Man has used wind power since the beginnings of civilization.
There is a fairly new array of wind turbines in the mouth of a local canyon. They are huge! I find them very intriguing--engineering marvels for sure. Plus, they are just cool looking. I'd rather see that than a bunch of big smokstacks--nothing much interesting about that.
There are a lot of hurdles with wind power right now. My farm has had a wind study done, and it can support (3) 1.5 megawatt wind turbines so I know a bit about this stuff. In addition my uncle has a small residential 5.5 kw windmill at his place and here is the deal with all that.
First, the wind study is replete with bureaucracy. The application is over 400 pages long, requires 3 estimates from wind turbine companies and has a very short time line when that can be done. I am one of few farms that actually went through the entire process, but it was intimidating and daunting...only to have the town say no windmills can be put up. Why, because people here "do not want to look up and see windmills on "their" hills even though my family has paid taxes on these hills for the last 252 years!
As for the residential windmills...its not a viable option. There are no rooftop mounts that I know of, because the vibration from the turbine would rattle a roof apart. My uncles has a pole located just away from the house. It also has a really high pitched whistle to it in gusts of wind. That is annoying! But the worst part is the cost. It cost him 17K and it reduces his 100 buck electric bill by 45%. Now do the math on that, the return on investment is over 17 years away and that is assuming it runs without an issue for 17 years consecutively...a stretch at best.
There is a silver lining. Because of the way the dual meter on his house works, when he is making power, it subtracts the wattage used per month. There is no cash that changes hands...or ever would be. Even if he used no power, and his windmill powered the grid...he would just continue to pile on credits. But since this never occurs, he is actually selling his power back to the power company for retail prices...not wholesale prices! That's a good deal...but still cannot overcome the 17 pay back period.
So as you can see, windmills have a lot of issues to overcome.
The thing is, other countries have a far better alternative. The technology is proven, the waste is 90% less then it was 30 years ago, and while no plants have been made lately, technology in this country has moved forward...
That technology is nuclear power.
Power plants today would produce less then 10% of what the currently operated plants produce in nuclear waste, and even for environmentalists, the worst nuclear catastrophe in history (Chernobyl) was not as bad as anyone thought. In 20 years things have improved immensely because nature has recovered.
In my opinion, building a few more of these plants makes much more sense then anything else. You could simply build some on the sites of old powerplants that were decomissioned like Yankee Rowe and Maine Yankee. I know the towns there would love the rebirth!
This just makes sense, but windpower is more popular and "green", but its got too many kinks. Nclear power is the way to go.
They can blame the economy all they want.. It doesn't pay, bottom line. Note how
"The wind industry hopes the U.S. Senate will pass strong mandates for utilities to generate a certain amount of their power from renewable sources like wind and solar power in the climate bill."
When you have to hold a gun to people heads to buy a product something is wrong with said product...
That said, the more they put up the more money/job security I get so bring it on!!!!
well thats not necessarily true, we consume vast amounts of macdonalds and that stuff will kill you.
now it can be said McD does what its supposed to, but its a flawed unhealthy product. wind is a valid thing, its just so alien it will take time to be accepted
well thats not necessarily true, we consume vast amounts of macdonalds and that stuff will kill you.
now it can be said McD does what its supposed to, but its a flawed unhealthy product. wind is a valid thing, its just so alien it will take time to be accepted
Apples to Oranges.. NO one FORCES you to eat McDonalds (although the fries are a bit addicting) I don't think wind is bad for you from a health standpoint it is merly still cost prohibitive. It will not pay for itself without the goverment forceing people to install the technology regardless of the cost......
All of our energy supply systems benefit in one way or another from government services like subsidized fuel transportation or just being a regulated monopoly to encourage investment.
All of our energy supply systems benefit in one way or another from government services like subsidized fuel transportation or just being a regulated monopoly to encourage investment.
Right.
We also need to keep in mind that government subsidizing is usually necessary to get a monumental undertaking started.
Take Rural Electrification Act of 1936, for example. No one single company would have been big enough, or wealthy enough, to pull that off.
I think that the development of wind generated electricity is a bit like that. It's too big an undertaking to run without subsidies.
The tricky part is how long to continue subsidizing something like this.
IMHO - Because electrical utilities are a "natural monopoly" to avoid duplicating the transmission and distribution lines I think they should all be owned by some level of government. For instance the base load plants could be federally owned along with the high voltage transmission lines. States could own the rural distribution systems and local municipalities the in town systems. Individuals would be allowed to generate their own power and feed any excess into this grid. The development of huge government authorities such as the TVA, Power Authority of NY and Bonneville Power Authority provided the electricity for the Rural Electrification Agency which, by building the uneconomical from a business standpoint, distribution lines, did much to eliminate rural poverty in our country.
I say this because privately owned utilities are primarily used as “safe” investments and tie up vast amounts of private capital that should be running around the private capital markets funding breakthrough industries with very high growth potential. I fundamentally believe there should not be any way to shield capital from risk except a minimal amount of government bonding for long term capital projects such as power plants, transport systems and basic research.
We should be building wind farms but not be doing it with private investment but as part of a government owned energy agency.
I disagree. I have never seen the government do anything they did not royally screw up. When you get politics involved, common sense heads out the window. The subsidy idea does fair better because it is a way of applying public funding and control, without total dominance.
Other than Nuking thousands of acres of land Wind farms are a Total and Complete Environmental Disaster whether they are sea wind farms or land based wind farms they are totally inefficient, not cost effective and destroy habitats and implode the land they consume.
Now if you would say why not put one up on your chimney or your garage to augment your current e source that makes sense!
Another practical way to appease the air heads maybe would be to place wind turbines on electrical tower easements throughout the country. Here we already have the easement and this way we would not be messing up any more land and the environment with this crazy eco madness.
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Not only an EyeSore but a Complete disregard for Mother Earth
