Free Republic

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--U.S. wind power developers installed more than 1,600 megawatts of wind-turbine generators in the third quarter, up from the same quarter a year ago, a wind industry group said Tuesday. The American Wind Energy Association said more than 5,800 megawatts of new wind-power capacity has been added this year, and that construction on 1,700 megawatts of new wind projects has started since July, representing about $6.5 billion in new investment.

Has Affordable, Efficient Rooftop Wind Power Arrived? Of the 10,500 small wind turbines installed last year, 99 percent were attached to giant constructed towers in rural areas. Rooftop wind turbines—constituting 1 percent of the market—have a huge potential in urban and suburban areas. But the products, which are heavy, noisy and require permanently attaching wind-catching blades to homes, have not yet caught on. One inventor thinks his unique turbine is just what the market is looking for. Are rooftop turbines set to take off?

Climate: As alternate-energy champ Spain's green economy slides into recession, a German professor says if American "climate illiterates" don't follow, the Copenhagen climate conference will fail. And the bad news is? King Canute, the Viking king of England, Norway and Denmark, was the legendary king whose sycophantic followers praised his power and wisdom. As the story goes, he once stood on the shore and commanded the waves to halt. Rather than exercising his ego, he in fact was giving his followers a lesson in reality — the power of man over nature is finite and inconsequential. In December, the world's...

The Enercon E-126 is purported to be the world's largest wind turbine. Wind-power advocates say it's rated at 6 megawatts, but most likely will produce 7, or enough to power 1,776 — that's the spirit! — American homes. The E-126 also is a NIMBYs nightmare. Now under development in Europe, the E-126 stands an imposing 650 feet — the tallest building in New England, Boston's John Hancock Tower, is 790 — and has three, 413-foot blades. Each E-126 goes for $15.5 million, installed, and comes with an engineered base that is 100 feet across and 13 feet thick to keep...

After nearly a six-month lull, Wall Street is getting back into the business of financing new wind farms. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. have invested $100 million each to finance separate wind farms this month, taking advantage of a brand-new federal program that is paying substantial cash grants to help cover the cost of renewable energy investments. Bankers say this is the beginning of an active pipeline of new wind-farm financing, as well as investment in large solar installations and geothermal facilities. Project developers and Wall Street appear to be viewing the federal cash grant program as such a good...

Texas has repeatedly been lauded as a leader in wind power development. Some of that attention is deserved. In 2008, the state installed nearly 2,700 megawatts of new wind capacity. If Texas were an independent country, it would rank 6th in the world in terms of total wind power production capacity. The state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, has been among the state's most ardent wind power boosters, declaring a few years ago that "No state is more committed to developing renewable sources of energy." He went on, saying that by "harnessing the energy potential of wind, we can provide Texans...

Gone With The Wind By: Tait Trussell FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, July 30, 2009   The statuesque and towering windmill represents one of Barack Obama’s grandiose hopes for renewable energy in our future. But windmills also have a troubling feature: They can be bad for your health. Dr. Nina Pierpont has conducted substantial research on what she calls “wind turbine syndrome,” the clinical name she has given to the “constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines.” These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression;...

Ok, I am a history guy not a science guy so if this is a stupid question I am sure you all will let me know :0 We hear a lot about wind energy. Using all these large wind turbines to produce energy. Now I remember in my biology class a little law of energy that states "Energy can not be created or destroyed but can only change form." Now if this is true and we are taking energy out of the wind then the wind will have less energy. Has anyone stopped to think what effect large turbine farms...

The landscape of West Texas is changing. Standing hundreds of feet tall, like alien structures on the featureless plains, fields of shining white towers have sprung up seemingly overnight to harness formidable winds known all too well by those who have made the land home. Call it what you will - alternative energy, a green solution, renewable resources - one thing is certain: like the oil booms of yesteryear, wind harnessing is sweeping across the Plains with the promise of a new tomorrow for the U.S. energy market. Similar to transformations brought by oil and agricultural industries in past decades,...

Palin Vs. Kerry (And MoveOn.org) By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM The political death of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated. In a devastating op-ed in the Washington Post, Alaska's governor exposes the cap-and-tax fraud that has nothing to do with earth's temperature and everything to do with government control of the economy. She also exposes the stealth socialism ambitions of the Democratic left and once again points out the availability of abundant "shovel-ready" resources under America's soil, off America's shores and even in America's rocks. Judging from the reaction from Sen. Kerry and...

Great IBD Editorial Regarding My "Cap and Tax" Article Yesterday at 7:20pm The political death of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated. In a devastating op-ed in the Washington Post, Alaska's governor exposes the cap-and-tax fraud that has nothing to do with earth's temperature and everything to do with government control of the economy. She also exposes the stealth socialism ambitions of the Democratic left and once again points out the availability of abundant "shovel-ready" resources under America's soil, off America's shores and even in America's rocks. Judging from the reaction from Sen. Kerry and the political arm of George...

Politics: John Kerry, replying to an op-ed Sarah Palin wrote on cap-and-trade, suggests the Alaska governor "check the view from her front porch." What she sees from there, senator, is energy wealth going to waste.The political death of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated. In a devastating op-ed in the Washington Post, Alaska's governor exposes the cap-and-tax fraud that has nothing to do with earth's temperature and everything to do with government control of the economy. She also exposes the stealth socialism ambitions of the Democratic left and once again points out the availability of abundant "shovel-ready" resources under America's...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines. Pickens has already ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings. AP Boone Pickens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace." Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric [GE 11.01 -0.47 (-4.09%)] (parent company of CNBC)—a $2 billion...

The idea of wind generated electric energy is being sold by environmentalists as an overlooked opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses. Global warming advocates claim that this discounted treasure could be a major part of an effort to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and eliminate the need for some of our nuclear power plants. Is it true that we are passing up on a gold mine of renewable energy in favor of unnecessary and harmful fossil and nuclear fuels? Let's start by looking at what we use to generate the power we use today. Renewables, such as wind, solar, biomass,...

The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent — more than double the European Union average — partly because of spending on such jobs? Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report that, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it. Calzada says Spain's torrential spending — no other nation has so aggressively supported production...

The Cape Cod Commission has submitted an appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, claiming the state Energy Facilities Siting Board overstepped its authority when it overruled the commission and gave Cape Wind all the local and regional permits it needs to move forward; Gov. Deval Patrick sent some folks to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to hear people's thoughts on placing wind turbines on public lands; the first floating wind turbine has been installed; and a new survey finds that a goodly portion of Massachusetts residents are concerned that NIMBYism has impeded the Cape Wind project. We'll get to all...

For decades, most of the nation’s renewable power has come from dams, which supplied cheap electricity without requiring fossil fuels. But the federal agencies running the dams often compiled woeful track records on other environmental issues. Now, with the focus in Washington on clean power, some dam agencies are starting to go green, embracing wind power and energy conservation. The most aggressive is the Bonneville Power Administration, whose power lines carry much of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest. The agency also provides a third of the region’s power supply, drawn mostly from generators inside big dams. The amount of...

A wind power company in southwestern Minnesota has announced it will eliminate 70 jobs this summer with another 90 layoffs possible by the end of September. According to a letter sent to city officials, Suzlon will make the first round of layoffs at the Pipestone turbine blade plant by Aug. 2. Another 90 job losses will likely be added to that tally. Pipestone Mayor Laurie Ness say

President Barack Obama has praised Spain as a global leader in renewable electricity generation and has lauded its success at creating so-called "green jobs." However, a recent Spanish university study concluded that Spain’s mad rush to meet overly aggressive renewable standards has destroyed jobs and driven up the real cost of electricity, without cutting carbon emissions. Dig a Little Deeper While visiting an Ohio company that provides parts for wind turbines in mid-January, President Obama presented his vision of a nation that is more energy efficient and more reliant on renewable energy. "Think of what’s happening in countries like Spain,...

Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn't always shine and that the wind doesn't always blow. That means that solar cells and wind energy systems don't always provide electric power. Nevertheless, solar and wind energy seem to have captured the public's support as potentially being the primary or total answer to our electric power needs. Solar cells and wind turbines are appealing because they are "renewables" with promising implications and because they emit no carbon dioxide during operation, which is certainly a plus. But because both are intermittent electric power generators, they cannot produce...

Speaking in Iowa on “Earth Day” this afternoon, Pres. Obama lamented that only 3% of America’s electricity comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar. He held Denmark out as a model, mentioning that the Scandinavian country produces almost 20% of its electricity via wind. He also bragged about the new jobs being created in Iowa and elsewhere in the wind power industry. Does PBO think we don’t read? Does he really expect to pull the windy wool over our eyes? Can he really expect the facts about the failure of the Danish wind power experiment not to be...

Speaking in Iowa on “Earth Day” this afternoon, Pres. Obama decried the fact that only 3% of America’s electricity comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar. He held Denmark out as a model, mentioning that the Scandinavian country produces almost 20% of its electricity via wind. He also bragged about the new jobs being created in Iowa and elsewhere in the wind power industry. Does PBO think we don’t read? Does he really expect to pull the windy wool over our eyes? Can he really expect the facts about the failure of the Danish wind power experiment not...

Like anybody who understands electricity, McCracken [an energy economist at Platts] is both slightly provoked and slightly alarmed by the headlong rush into wind power in Europe and America. "Wind power has its critics and they feel that their reservation have been overridden by policy makers whose imagination have been captured by a green agenda that downplays wind's limitations," says McCracken judiciously. The major limitation, of course, is wind's intermittency -- its lack of "dispatchability." Quite simply, you can never count on it. You can't even predict it from hour to hour with 100 percent accuracy and the windiest sites...

The SunZia transmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona is just the sort of energy project an environmentalist could love -- or hate. And it is just the sort of line the Interior Department has been tasked with promoting -- or guarding against. If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds...

I am really astounded by the public's apparent ignorance about "wind energy".  We all experience sunshine and wind but few of us bother to examine the "quality" of that sunshine and wind.  Obviously wind turbines only spin and generate electricity when the wind is blowing.  Accordingly, solar panels only generate electricity when the sun is shining on them.  In order for these technologies to be economically viable you have to have a lot of wind and/or a lot of sunshine. Wind energy works best in areas with a lot of sustained wind usually blowing from one prevailing direction.  Here in...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazr, the Obama administration's energy architect, apparently thinks the answer to all our energy worries is blowing in the wind. Salazar has slammed the brakes on efforts to develop vast new gas and oil fields offshore and in his home state of Colorado. During the campaign, candidate Obama said he would drill to find oil offshore. But Salazar now says he needs six months to formulate a comprehensive offshore-energy plan and to have "an open and honest conversation" about it with the American people. Increasingly, Salazar sounds like a man bedeviled by the winds. In speeches he...

There is no evidence that industrial wind power is likely to have a significant impact on carbon emissions. The European experience is instructive. Denmark, the world's most wind-intensive nation, with more than 6,000 turbines generating 19% of its electricity, has yet to close a single fossil-fuel plant. It requires 50% more coal-generated electricity to cover wind power's unpredictability, and pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have risen (by 36% in 2006 alone). Flemming Nissen, the head of development at West Danish generating company ELSAM (one of Denmark's largest energy utilities) tells us that "wind turbines do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions."...

[A]s Congress begins debating new rules to restrict carbon dioxide emissions and promote electricity produced from renewable sources, an underlying question is how much more Americans will be willing to pay to harness the wind and the sun. ... [T]he Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit consortium financed by investor- and publicly-owned utilities, predicted in November that even for plants coming on line in 2015, wind energy would cost nearly one-third more than coal and about 14 percent more than natural gas. The cost of solar thermal electricity, made by using the sun’s heat to boil water and spin a...

Many states and the Federal Government are putting a lot of faith in renewable energy sources especially wind and solar as solutions for our energy independence and future cost reduction. However, unlike other energy sources such as natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear, tidal, geothermal and to a large degree hydro, wind and solar are much less reliable and cost effective, requiring heavy subsidization. In fact of the primary energy sources, wind power is the most expensive: Wind = 21.97 cents per kwh Gas and oil = 12.28 cents per kwh Nuclear = 11.06 cents per kwh Hydro = 7.60 cents...

Acciona Windpower plans to cut employment by 58 at its West Branch facility in response to slackening demand for wind turbines. In a statement, Acciona said demand "is uncharacteristically low due primarily to instability in the financing markets." A total of 65 positions are being cut 65. All except seven are at the West Branch facility. Acciona Windpower Vice President and General Manager Adrian LaTrace said the company expects to return to previous production levels and staffing as the economic stimulus package and other factors driving the wind power industry take effect. Employees who want to return to the company...

Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation. Executives at its annual strategy presentation said Shell, already the world's largest buyer and blender of crop-based biofuels, would also invest an unspecified amount in developing a new generat­ion of biofuels which do not use food-based crops and are less harmful to the environment. The company said it would concentrate on developing other cleaner ways of...

The Interior Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, announced today that they would resolve a turf battle over offshore alternative energy that threatened the Obama administration's push for wind farms off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The deal was not specific about how FERC and the Minerals Management Service, or MMS, would handle the permitting and licensing of alternative power stations on the Outer Continental Shelf. Both agencies claim authority to license the projects, and their conflict that stood in the way of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's pledge to issue federal regulations for all offshore alternative energy...

Research by TU Delft proves that Dutch power stations are able to cope at any time in the future with variations in demand for electricity and supply of wind power, as long as use is made of up-to-date wind forecasts. PhD candidate Bart Ummels also demonstrates that there is no need for energy storage facilities. Ummels will receive his PhD on this topic on Thursday 26 February. Wind is variable and can only partially be predicted. The large-scale use of wind power in the electricity system is therefore tricky. PhD candidate Bart Ummels MSc. investigated the consequences of using a...

As the planet heats up, so do disputes between environmentalists LAST December California approved a power line between San Diego and the Imperial Valley—a spot blessed with sun, wind and geothermal energy resources. {snip} Its builders would be banned from harming burrowing owls or rattlesnakes. It is just the sort of green infrastructure project that might be expected to delight environmentalists. Their response? An appeal and a petition to the state Supreme Court. “Environmentalists have never been a well-mannered lot”, says Terry Tamminen, who has advised Arnold Schwarzenegger on climate change. But they seem to be becoming more ornery. A...

For all the hype about the Bush Administration's oil-and-gas energy bias, one of its last official acts was to give the go-ahead to what could be America's first offshore wind farm -- thus enraging more than a few self-deputized environmentalists. Such are the ironies of the wilderness of mirrors known as the Cape Wind project. For the last seven years and counting, the green entrepreneur Jim Gordon has been trying to build a fleet of wind turbines in federal waters near the upscale seascapes of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The site seemed ideal, given the stiff ocean breezes...

Yr humble correspondent recently provided a run-down on the Cape Wind Project, a private initiative to construct a 130-tower windfarm in Nantucket Sound. As it happens, offshore Massachusetts has the combined advantages of being ideally suited to wind power, while being relatively close to population centers. It has the distinct disadvantage of also being relatively close to Nantucket Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and a small but politically-influential compound at Hyannis Port. He-he-he. One of the last official acts of George W. Bush as President was to give the project the go-ahead; the final Environmental Impact Statement was published last week; it...

More turbines are in windy New Mexico's future, making many renewable energy advocates cheer. They note wind energy is far cleaner and almost as cheap as electricity from coal-fired power plants. Wind energy companies tout the revenue and jobs generated for cash-strapped rural counties. But a battle is brewing over where wind energy facilities should be built and the first battleground is in rural villages. "Wind power is a clean, inexhaustible domestic resource," said Michael McDiarmid, of the Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department. "I think it's important for our energy future to have more wind energy." The state ranks...

Illusionist David Copperfield's assistant was rushed to hospital on Wednesday night after suffering horrific injuries during a live show. A technician named Brandon was accidentally pulled into the vortex of an oversized fan on stage of Copperfield's An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Audience members watched in horror as the assistant was sucked into the fan, before another staff member rushed to switch it off. Brandon, who is in his twenties, suffered puncture wounds in his face and broke his arm in several places. He was rushed to University Medical...

Energy Policy: Obama announces his energy team without mentioning a green source of renewable energy that could create jobs, reduce carbon emissions and reinvigorate a vital manufacturing sector — nuclear power.The domestic auto industry isn't the only uncompetitive industry that seems to require life-sustaining transfusions of government cash to stay in business. Alternative energy sources have relied on such subsidies, called "investments," for years. Yet in President-elect Obama's announcement of his energy team, we were told "the foundations of our energy independence" lie in "the power of wind and solar." Except that for these alternative sources there's been a severe...

TAOS — Living off the grid doesn't necessarily mean you want to live next to a wind farm, even if it is designed to generate electrical power from a renewable energy source. A well-known Taos attorney's proposal to develop a wind farm has angered some residents near the site, including people in the Cielito Lindo subdivision, where homes rely primarily on solar energy. Eliu Romero is scheduled to ask Taos County commissioners Tuesday to approve land-use code variances to allow a 40-turbine wind farm on private land west of Taos owned by his sons. Romero said he and his partner...

This is not what President-elect Barack Obama's energy and climate strategists would want to hear. It would be anathema to Al Gore and other assorted luminaries touting renewable energy sources which in one giant swoop will save the world from the “tyranny” of fossil fuels and mitigate global warming. And as if these were not big enough issues, oilman T. Boone Pickens’ grandiose plan for wind farms from Texas to Canada is supposed to bring about a replacement for the natural gas now used for power generation. That move will then lead to energy independence from foreign oil. Too good...

Wind Energy Reaches 43 Percent Of Spain's Electrical Demand by NAW staff on Tuesday 25 November 2008 At 5 a.m. Central European Time (CET) on Nov. 24, wind power reached a new record of meeting 43% of Spain's electricity demand - with 9,253 MW of wind energy in operation - of the 21,264 MW total demand. The previous record was broken March 22 at 6 p.m. CET, with 40.8% of the demand, or 9,862 MW. At 12:30 p.m. CET on Nov. 24, 10,263 MW were being produced simultaneously. The previous record of 10,880 MW of wind production was reached on...

R.I. sets course to map its waters for wind farms 01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 BY PETER B. LORD Journal Environment Writer As coastal states race to build the country’s first offshore wind farms, it is clear that Rhode Island is following a unique path. The state has recruited a battery of oceanographers, engineers and other experts at the University of Rhode Island in an unprecedented $3.2-million effort to map and zone state and federal coastal waters to determine the best locations for turbines. Nearly 50 people from URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the...

Officials are investigating a fatal accident along Highway 15 and 2nd Street South in St. Cloud Wednesday morning. Police have rerouted traffic while the Minnesota State Patrol is reconstructing the accident that occurred shortly after 11 a.m. According to witnesses, a series of semi trucks carrying wind turbines hit a minivan. Investigators have been mum on details, and the number of vehicles and victims involved has not been released.

“The moment I read that paper,” the wind entrepreneur Peter Mandelstam recalled, “I knew in my gut where my next wind project would be.” I was having lunch with Mandelstam last fall to discuss offshore wind in general and how he and his tiny company, Bluewater Wind, came to focus on Delaware as a likely place for a nascent and beleaguered offshore wind industry to establish itself. Mandelstam had been running late all morning. I knew this because I received a half-dozen messages on my cellphone from members of his staff, who relayed his oncoming approach like air-traffic controllers guiding...

Two new utilities have joined a group of existing Texas transmission owners seeking state approval to build more than $5 billion in new power lines needed to tap the state's abundant wind generation. The group will file a detailed proposal of its construction plan with the Texas Public Utility Commission on Friday, according to a press release. New lines are needed to move electricity from the state's windiest areas in the west to power-hungry cities. The commission wants to see enough new transmission to accommodate about 18,500 megawatts of wind generation by 2012. The existing transmission operator group includes Dallas-based...

SAN FRANCISCO — With the California blackouts of 2001 still a painful memory, Chris Beaudoin wants to generate some of his own electricity. He marveled the other day at how close he is to that goal, gazing at two new wind turbines atop his garage roof. They will soon be hooked to the power grid. “I don’t care about how much it costs,” said Mr. Beaudoin, a flight attendant with United Airlines. That would be $5,000 a turbine, an expense Mr. Beaudoin is unlikely to recoup in electricity savings anytime soon. No matter. After shoring up the roof and installing...

ALBANY — State regulators approved a deal on Wednesday that will allow the construction of hundreds of new wind turbines in New York, doubling the amount of wind power capacity within a few years. The Public Service Commission voted unanimously to allow Iberdrola S.A., a Spanish energy conglomerate, to acquire Energy East, a Maine-based utility with operations in five states. Iberdrola said earlier this summer that it would invest at least $2 billion in wind turbines across upstate New York if the commission allowed it to acquire Energy East, subsidiaries of which supply electricity or natural gas to 1.7 million...