Wind power stalls

[Sunsettommy]

Los Angeles Times

July 12, 2009

Editorial

EXCERPT:

A year ago the Oracle of Oil, T. Boone Pickens, reinvented himself as the Wizard of Wind, launching a $58-million ad campaign to boost alternative energy and vowing to spend $10 billion to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle. It was a startling move from a staunch conservative who had made a fortune in the Texas oil fields, raising hopes that both ends of the political spectrum were coming around to the same point of view about weaning the country from its reliance on oil.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-e...9474.story
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A loss of $2 billion proves that he was way overboard for wind power

[Mike Davis]

I read a comment that the lack of transmission lines and the red tape required were the determining factor but who knows! At this point it is all rumors and a lot of wind turbines available. Probaply at a good price.

[mcclane]

Read in our local newspaper that pickens was thinking about setting up a wind farm here in alberta, not sure what what happened though, maybe he realized it cost wayyyy too much money.

[Mike Davis]

When a group receives 150% subsidy for creating a wind farm or they receive funding which includes management bonuses along with government backed loans that they can default on It makes no sense for him to back out of his goals to look green unless green is becoming a false color as the red leaks through the promoters of climate fear.

[Sunsettommy]

[quote author=Mike Davis link=topic=67.msg1693#msg1693 date=1253071296]
When a group receives 150% subsidy for creating a wind farm or they receive funding which includes management bonuses along with government backed loans that they can default on It makes no sense for him to back out of his goals to look green unless green is becoming a false color as the red leaks through the promoters of climate fear.
[/quote]

Then they crash after wards and lose money.

[Mike Davis]

They walk away from the loan with money in every bodies pockets but the taxpayers that pick up the tab.

[Richard111]

I can see a smallish one from my kitchen window. Belongs to an LNG company. Hasn't turned for the last three days. Whoops, just checked, it is turning slowly and facing due West. It's a wonderful indicater for the direction of the local breezes. Can't feel any wind outside the kitchen door and that fan is only about a mile away. Love to get some figures.

[mcclane]

side note here : in our city, they've made use of road signs powered by solar.  These road signs tell drivers of road closures ahead.

Well, on Sunday it was raining and cloudy, and the road sign failed to operate.  Why ?  because it was solar !!  ;D

so much for sustainable energy.

[Richard111]

I've mentioned before I can see a small wind turbine from my kitchen window. Well at about 7am this morning, outside temperature of -2C and not a breath of air moving, the windmill was whizzing around! Also it was facing due EAST! Right into the centre of the high pressure system over the UK! By lunch time, no change in conditions, the windmill was stopped. Only explanation I can think of is the windmill was being DRIVEN by mains electricity to prevent the gearbox freezing up.
So the question is: how many of these wind turbines are consuming our scarce electricity supplies just to keep themselves running during cold periods?

So far this is what I have found:

Britain’s Wind Farms are ‘No Spin Zones’ When Cold Hits
By Peter C Glover
Posted on Jan. 14, 2011

Quote:Why the ‘British wind experience’ matters

Britain’s world lead in wind development is primarily because of two major natural advantages: Britain has the windiest conditions in Europe along with the longest continuous coastline. In short, if wind power can’t work in Britain it cannot work anywhere else. But fail it did yet again this winter. Indeed, as it has for most of the last 12 winters.

Figures released in early January showed that as temperatures plunged to well below freezing and electric power demand soared, electricity production at Britain’s 3,100+ wind turbines fell from an average of 8.6 percent of Britain’s electricity mix to just 1.8 percent. Instead of serving up to 3 million homes, wind farms were serving just 30,000 homes, a mere one-hundredth of normal capacity. On the evening of December 20 Britain’s average temperature fell to minus 5.6 celsius. At 6.30 that evening, the nation’s wind farms, which claim a generating capacity of 5.2 GW of electricity, were actually generating a piffling 40 MW, the equivalent of 20 turbines working at full capacity.