Wind energy

[DD977GM2]

I work in the utilities industy. I was on a service call near Julesburg today and the local sub-station operator was bullshitting with us and the subject of wind energy came up. He basically said it was a long way from being viable and economically sound. Said it takes $0.85 to produce 1 Kilowatt (KW) of power with the current wind turbine technology.

With a coal plant it takes just $0.03 to produce 1 KW of power. Then he said that there needs to be another power source such as a coal plant to help regulate the fluctuation of voltage and current for the entire time the turbines are producing power or when the wind is not blowing, to allow a supple to the power grid. CO has a plan or idea that would have the entire eastern planes filled with turbines. The idea is that somewhere will always be blowing. This gives the entire grid a 1-3 ratio. Meaning out of 100KW of power for a potential output, only 30-33 KW would actually be made.

Also the turbines will never pay for themselves. Their life expectancy is 10 years (i know some of you will say that the expectancy can be surpassed... I know this and so did the operator) and it takes 12-13 years of service to pay for itself. So basically it is like the VCR......when it can be used affordably, then people will actually buy into it and use it.

Just thought I would share this new tid bit of info that the gov doesnt want us to know about.

[RRD3]

The hole green movement shit is a fraud. Cap and Trade, Global warming and all that crap. Yes there are things we can do to stop pollution and conserve space in the land fills.

It's just funny every time someone tries to pass some bullshit bill they have something to do with the money laundering scam behind it.

Cap and Trade = Al fucking Gore. Al Gore started Generation Investment Management, they sale carbon credits. Go figure.

[Ranger]

You know, these green idiots (hmmm, does that make them Martians...?), won't put an oil rig on a little tiny postage stamp piece of land but they are willing to use up tens of thousands of acres to collect wind power. These guys are nucking futs!

[Elhuero]

if wind energy was an efficient and profitable way to make power it would have been fully developed 40 years ago.

it's an eco pipe dream.

[gnihcraes]

could be, but the wind energy is keeping my family alive at the moment, wife is working directly with Vestas out of Denmark, they are building the "Blades" plant in Windsor, the Towers Plant will be online soon in Pueblo, and the Necell (sp) (generator housing) plant will be built sometime in the future at Brighton... Seems to be a pretty good market in other countries for wind turbines, surpassing 10 years on their usage... Colorado has pumped a bunch of monies and tax discounts to bring Vestas and a lot of jobs to this area, so I hope it all works out... seems viable to me that it produces from the numbers I hear each day from my sources... my 2 cents....

[Irving]

I'd personally like to see wind turbines on top of sky scrapers in the city. Then you wouldn't have to invest so much in a tower because the building is already tall enough. It'd probably be a bit distracting to have a huge blade pass by your windows every few (insert period of time here) though.

[Marlin]

I still wonder how they'd hold up in winds of 300+ mph. (That would be a tornado for you non weather nerds )

[XJ]

The engineering side of wind power is completely viable, the economic side has analysis problems because subsidies and CO2-hysteria ruin the data.

Capital costs (equipment and construction) are distorted by grants and tax incentives, operating costs depend on the wind. An agenda-free comparison between the 20-year present worth of a new coal/gas/nuke plant compared to wind/solar/other is going to be tough to find.

Don't forget that wind turbines make for a good photo-op, and fit dovetail in with what they pretend is science education these days.


What we need are more nuke plants, not a bunch of feel-good bullshit.

[gnihcraes]

after seeing the methods and equipment used to produce the current wind turbine towers, they should stand up to a pretty nasty wind, how much though I'm not sure... we'll find out someday!

[Ridge]