From: Gary Miller (garymiller@starband.net)
Date: Thu Jan 23 2003 - 06:53:39 MST
EvMick said:
>> The cost of a kilowatt-hour of "wind generated" electricity has
declined from
>> $.32 about ten years ago to about $.03 currently....and it's
continuing to drop.
>> Right now only natural gas is cheaper.
Yes and natural gas in increasing in price rapidly.
>> Some are not.....for the oddest reasons too. (birds run into
them...theyre ugly...
>> they only work when the wind blows....they interrupt the peace and
tranquility
>> of the desert scorpion...)
Wouldn't these work best in the desert far away from towns and such.
It would seen that
the land in the desert in not good for much else anyway. While it's
true that the ecology
would be destroyed somewhat, there's a lot of desert available and the
land should be cheap.
How many people are required to maintain a large wind power installation
if the site is remote?
Could the wind turbines be combined with solar technology to yield a
higher kilowatt-hour per
acre?
What can we do as normal citizens to force the power companies to adopt
wind turbines at a higher rate?
Would the cost go down further if the turbines were manufactured in the
United States
instead of Denmark?
How much do you predict prices will be able to drop over the next 10
years?
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-extropians@extropy.org [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]
On Behalf Of EvMick@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 10:53 PM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Wind Power
The cost of a kilowatt-hour of "wind generated" electricity has declined
from $.32 about ten years ago to about $.03 currently....and it's
continuing to drop. Right now only natural gas is cheaper.
So far I've been involved in several projects. One in Oregon, One in
Kansas, One in Iowa, One in Texas and one in California. By way of
example the texas one was at King Mountain near Macamey Tx. and was
about 250 megawatts. Right now texas is second to california with over
a thousand megawatts of wind turbines....california has just shy of
twice that.
For calender year 2003 I've heard that about another thousand is to be
installed nation wide. About 250 in eastern New Mexico which I intend
to be involved.
There are a number of web sites for anyone interested. For example the
American Wind Energy Association.
By the way....Denmark is the world leader in wind turbine manufacture.
That texas project i was on was entirely Danish....we hauled the whole
she-bang from Houston. Several hundred truckloads. (One complete
Turbine requires half a dozen or more trucks each......BIG trucks....I
was grossing over 100K lbs with a overall length in excess of 120 ft.)
Naturally I'm in favor of Wind Turbines. I'm making money off 'em.
Some are not.....for the oddest reasons too. (birds run into
them...theyre ugly...they only work when the wind blows....they
interrupt the peace and tranquility of the desert scorpion...)
I figure everything has advantages and disadvantages. If a wind farm
only produces 18 hours a day in West Texas (or 12....or 10...while the
wind is blowing)....then that means a coal fired plant down the road
(with coal imported by train from wyoming)....can be run at a lower
capacity and pollute less. (and the locomotives....NOT using low sulphur
diesel....will also pollute less)
I'll sacrafice a few burds for that.....
EvMick
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