[at-l] OT Windmills

[jbryankramer at msn.com (J Bryan Kramer)]

What Balderdash! A windmill operating at full load, in a stiff breeze in
other words, generates about 1 MWe. It would take a couple thousand
windmills to replace a nuke plant, 3-500 to replace a fossil plant. I think
the total energy use in the US approaches a terawatt, that would take a
million windmills. Also I don't know anywhere where the wind blows all the
time, day and night, 365 days a year. So plan on multiplying that number by
some fudge factor to make sure you have enough in operation to supply all
the power needed. And then you'd have to move the power from where the wind
blows to where it doesn't. That means more high voltage power lines, OH OH
the Horror of that!!

Also the Sierra Club is now whining that these windmills are killing birds,
especially raptors. One farm out in California kills hundreds of falcons and
such a year, or so says the Sierra Club.

So millions of windmills, millions of miles of new power lines and truck
loads of sushied birds, great thinking there. Oh yes all this costs 2-5
times more than fossil or nuke power so expect $300 power bills too.

Just build more nuke plants. Pebble bed types look very promising.

Bryan

"Si vis pacem para bellum"


>
> At 12:57 PM 11/26/2003 -0800, Sloetoe wrote:
> >...clip...it will be better for the future if we
> >demonstrate the efficiency, durability, and ultimately the
> >economic viability, of windmills and other forms of
> >inexhaustible or "renewable" generation that are less polluting
> >than the thermal units which provide 94% of US electricity.
>
> There was an interesting discussion on NPR last week revolving around the
> Congressional debate on the Energy Bill. There was one fellow (I was
> working in the next room and didn't catch his name) who was complaining
> about the relatively small amount in the Bill for 'alternative' power
> generation. He claimed that windmills could be located on ships off shore
> that could generate sufficient power for the entire country,
> replacing all
> the fossil fuel and nuclear power plants currently in operation.
> According
> to him, if there was money and the political support for it, it could be
> achieved in two years. He went further and claimed that hydrogen could be
> generated from the sea in the process that would be adequate to fuel all
> our cars which could be converted to burn hydrogen by replacing the fuel
> injection systems with hydrogen injection systems. Fuel sells were not
> necessary, he claimed and all the technology is available now.
>
> He didn't mention cost of the energy VS cost of the current
> technology and
> the host didn't press him on that but He did mention that 10 million
> windmills would be required. He claimed they could be built by the same
> production technology that builds our cars (in much greater numbers). I
> have to admit that it sounded like a desirable goal. Did any one
> else hear
> that? I like the idea of putting them on ships better than
> putting them all
> over the landscape.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> at-l mailing list
> at-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/at-l
>