Vikings score wind energy credits for Metrodome

pioneer press ^ | 9-13-12 | Leslie Brooks Suzukamo

[TurboZamboni]

Juhl Wind will provide 520,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy credits over the eight regular season home games, which is equal to conventionally produced coal-fired electricity that results in 507,570 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, Juhl Wind estimated.

The credits offset the electricity used throughout the Metrodome, covering everything from the concession stands to the scoreboards and making the Vikings one of the only National Football League teams to play in a 100 percent green-powered facility during the entire 2012-2013 season, Corey Juhl said.

To be clear: The Vikings are not using wind power to light up the Dome.

Juhl Wind is using the credits it gets from wind generation as a form of currency, in effect buying, or bartering for, the exposure it gets at Vikings games like any another sponsor.

[TurboZamboni]

Algore should buy box seats...

[jdsteel]

Shell game based on a scam and advertised as something real.

[cripplecreek]

making the Vikings one of the only National Football League teams to play in a 100 percent green-powered facility during the entire 2012-2013 season, Corey Juhl said.

To be clear: The Vikings are not using wind power to light up the Dome.

PT Barnum would be so proud.

[chainsaw]

What a hoax. It’s amazing that grownups even consider this stuff.

What I would be in favor of is taxing the garbage coming from politicians mouths. That would pay off the national debt.

[cableguymn]

Won’t matter. They are going to tear down the dome and build a new over priced football field in it’s place.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

With a special seat reserved for Minnesota’s curious blinking governor.

[kidd]

...making the Vikings one of the only National Football League teams to play in a 100 percent green-powered facility...

What a crock.

Air pumps/fans have to run 24/7 to keep the roof inflated for the purpose of 8 games a year. And it's a significant air pressure difference between the inside and outside of the building. When you leave the stadium (revolving doors serve as airlocks) the blast will knock your hat off.

The building is a huge consumer of energy. Oh, but it's kept inflated with little green electrons, not those dirty brown electrons.

[Roccus]

Juhl Wind will provide 520,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy credits over the eight regular season home games, which is equal to conventionally produced coal-fired electricity that results in 507,570 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, Juhl Wind estimated.

"WILL" and "ESTIMATED"......call me when you've already DONE it!

I'll leave the lb. of CO2 per KW ratio to the smarter FReepers.

[TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed]

The Vikings are stupid.

Oh, was that rude?

Well, it was meant to be.

There is nothing wrong with cheap, available, safe, proven, carbon based energy. When carbon fuels burn, they produce (gasp!) carbon dioxide.

Oh, you mean that stuff that plants need to live, grow, produce fruit, make oxygen, make life on earth possible, etc? You mean THAT carbon dioxide?

Carbon dioxide is a trace gas. It has always been a trace gas. It will always be a trace gas. The planet is STARVED for carbon dioxide. We need MORE of it.

Stupid politicians never got past 3rd grade science (and they slept through that!)

[CrazyIvan]

The only time the Vikings utilized wind power was when they were raping and pillaging in sail boats.

[JRios1968]

How long before this happens again?

[cripplecreek]

Minnesota is like Michigan. We're in an all fired hurry to remove all the existing dams that could produce enormous amounts of RELIABLE energy and replace them with windmills that produce energy when conditions are perfect. If there's too much wind they don't work, if there's too little wind they don't work. Midwest dams on the other hand are virtually never without enough water and actually exceed capacity much of the time. Unlike wind, when capacity is exceeded, dams simply dump the excess and the turbines keep right on turning.

These are from an ongoing feasibility study for the purpose of refurbishing two small dams in Ann Arbor for energy production. (There are 4 in Ann Arbor with the Barton and Superior already producing electricity) Note the estimated capacity exceedance.



Here is the actual report. The cost is around $4 million each with $1 million being permits and legal fees making the actual cost of around $3 million each. I'm curious about the cost of erecting a windmill and power distribution infrastructure to support them.

HYDROELECTRIC REDEVELOPMENT ARGO AND GEDDES DAMS FEASIBILITY STUDY (pdf)

BTW there is really nothing cheaper per kwh than hydro which I believe is around 3 cents per.

[TurboZamboni]

actually, his never blinking makes me nervous.

he looks like a deer in the headlights half the time , and
about to cry the other half.

like a half Boehner/half Pelosi creature from trustfund island.

[TurboZamboni]

as a site poster also noted:

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that the act of purchasing these credits changes where the power you use comes from. We also need to remember that the very nature of purchasing these credits as a way to off-set what you actually use is an admission that you're doing something harmful--you don't need to off-set something good. That 507,570 pounds of CO^2 is still there and just as potentially harmful whether or not you purchase 100 or 1,000,000 credits. The credits do not get you off the hook. I liken it to a man who beats his wife but donates enough money to a shelter to rescue 10 abused women.