[ale] [OT] Windmills seem to be a poor choice for now

[arxaaron]

Greg:

Would you PLEASE appropriately mark these side tracks as [OT]!

Much Thanks!
peace
aaron


On 2010/02/25, at 17:37 , Greg Freemyer wrote:

> Saw a couple references to wind power in the other thread.
>
> At least for now wind is proving a really poor choice.  The Danish get
> about 20% of their energy from wind, but claim it is not reducing CO2
> production.  The German's feel the same.
>
> As I understand it, the issue is you have to have a backup power plant
> to handle days the wind doesn't blow.  And because the wind can come
> and go in a second, those backup plants have to be in standby all the
> time.  Apparently a plant in standby still generates a huge amount of
> CO2, so no net CO2 reduction.
>
> For some quotes along those lines see
> <http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/04/08/wind-power-is-a-complete-disaster.aspx#ixzz0gaZtIoXI 
> >
>
> One interesting quote is:
>
> "The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in 2008, on a
> dollar per MWh basis, the U.S. government subsidizes wind at $23.34 —
> compared to reliable energy sources: natural gas at 25¢; coal at 44¢;
> hydro at 67¢; and nuclear at $1.59, leading to what some U.S.
> commentators call “a huge corporate welfare feeding frenzy.” The Wall
> Street Journal advises that “wind generation is the prime example of
> what can go wrong when the government decides to pick winners.”
>
> Of course it still is being pushed pretty hard at least in the US.  Is
> our Texas oilman still big on wind?  I haven't heard from him in the
> last year+ that I recall.
>
> If you don't want C02, hydro and nuclear seem the 2 winners.
>
> fyi: The $1.59 above is per MWh, so that's way under a penny per KWh
> which is what we see on our home power bills.
>
> Greg
>
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