Comments on: Understanding the Limits of Wind Power: Key Industry Terms

By: d dutton

d dutton — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 08:43:37 +0000

to have wind & solar power is immaterial, as neither are necessary. It is well established by the “real” experts, CO2 has little influence on the climate. Water vapour, 70% Greenhouse gas) controls our temperature, CO2 less than .5%. To date there has been no evidence of global warming anywhere on earth. All IPCC claims collapsed under scrutiny. One taken from a popular magazine supposition. What genuine cause needs death threats ?

By: d dutton

d dutton — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:07:33 +0000

Denmark is doing something bizarre. Protesters are having to stop the clearing of carbon absorbing forests, to make way for non carbon reducing wind farms. Like the global warming hoax. The once almighty dollar

By: d dutton

d dutton — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:04:21 +0000

My comment on nuclear multi stage desalination should have read, multi stage distillation. When will wind or solar power trains and electric furnaces, foundry’s, huge Open Pit mining equipment. With wind & solar, every hospital, industries,public services, etc would need diesel generators. Homes candles.

By: d dutton

d dutton — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:56:54 +0000

There is no way to avoid nuclear eventually. It is also a very efficient means of desalination, by multi stage Greatly superior to reverse osmosis, which requires fresjh water backwash peridically.

By: d dutton

d dutton — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:51:51 +0000

All claims for wind power are about how many homes it will power. Domestic power use is only about 12% of power used. British wind farms get hundreds of milions of pounds a year in subsidies. American ones get tax incentives. The public pays .

By: Consumer Energy Alliance

Consumer Energy Alliance — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:37:24 +0000

4. Inspite of some limitations with the wind power generation, there is still huge potential in this sector. It was a record year in 2009 as wind capacity in the United States saw substantial growth. As of December 31, 2009, wind capacity has grown to nearly 35,000 MW. That’s the equivalent of more than 9.7 million homes. The U.S. wind industry currently directly employs more than 2,000 people. Further development of wind resources as spelled out in the DOE’s plan for future wind capacity that will account for at least 20% electricity generation in the United States by the year 2030. In the beginning of 2010, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released an update of wind energy potential in the United States listed at approximately 10.5 million MW of wind power, or almost nine times larger than current U.S. electricity consumption.
Want to learn more about balanced energy for America? Visit http://www.consumerenergyalliance.org to get involved, discover CEA’s mission and sign up for our informative newsletter.

By: Tim W.

Tim W. — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:47:14 +0000

I’d just like to say thank you, Glenn. In the Midwest, wind energy startups rise and fall at the drop of a hat. Scrambling to buy up land in the desired wind corridor with the expectation that another bigger fish will have to come along and deal with them at a premium. This whole wind farm idea doesn’t amount to much more than a Ponzi scheme where the uninformed taxpayer foots the bill for a federal boondoggle. I keep asking these farmers how does this huge eyesore make money when the wind doesn’t blow and all I ever get is the tired, “Well it has to make money otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it.” Ugh. Anything “makes” money as long as taxpayers subsidize it people.

By: Pierre Desrochers

Pierre Desrochers — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:15:02 +0000

But I’ve learned from Daniel Kammen that these problems magically disappear as you scale things up and that Germany proves that you industry types are prisoners of your old electrical engineer paradigm

By: Joe Heater

Joe Heater — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:04:26 +0000

Glenn,

Let me point to a phrase that is often used in the media to describe wind power generating capacity that is very misleading ; “a wind farm has the capacity or ability to power X number of homes.” For example, in todays Chicago Tribune in an article titled, Wind trubines stir up ill will, the writer opines that, “Today 126 turbines dot the county, with another 19 just over the border in Lee County. They have been making enough electricity since December to power 55,000 homes, roughly twice the needs of Oak Park.”
See the entire articile here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0314-wind-energy–20100314,0,3413539.story

Over the last several weeks there have been a number of days that wind velocity has been less than 7 mph so I rather doubt that the wind farm was powering Oak Park or any other community.

The number of homes definition of a wind farms capacity or generation capability needs to be challanged every time it’s used. You might want to consider adding the X homes phrase to your list. The proper definition might read something like this; The Blow Hard Wind farm can provide power for up to x amount of homes 25% of the time on an random basis.

Joe Heater
Palatine, IL