Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Still Waiting For The Magical Future Of Free Wind Power
Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 26 Jun, 2023 | Francis Menton

Posted on 06/27/2023 5:41:32 AM PDT by MtnClimber

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last
To: marktwain
You might be able to do a bit better than 40% efficiency with fuel cells, which are not bound by the Carnot cycle limits.

Brings back memories of my college engineering thermodynamics class and working with steam tables.

21 posted on 06/27/2023 7:15:46 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: alloysteel

True. And has everyone seen the pictures of the vast fields of discarded and unrecyclable wind turbine blades that have to be buried?


22 posted on 06/27/2023 7:15:58 AM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

In junior high school we used to say:

“The wind blows free, how much do you charge?”


23 posted on 06/27/2023 7:20:05 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Chad C. Mulligan

Knowing would just make me more depressed.

So, just for you😊

Grab a pinwheel with your right hand, bring it up to you face, purse your lips and blow. MAGIC. Happiness of wind power.


24 posted on 06/27/2023 7:33:53 AM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

In southwestern Minnesota there is a virtual forest of wind turbines along a supposedly very windy ridge. The wind turbines extend virtually from horizon to horizon. I frequently drove by this wind turbine forest and often observed times when not one of these scores of wind turbines were moving. Only rarely were all moving presumably producing electricity, but it was common even on windy days to see at least some of these turbines sitting idle producing not a single watt of electricity. To depend on such a fickle source of electric power is pure folly.


25 posted on 06/27/2023 7:50:26 AM PDT by The Great RJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
"the only thing to be said for hydrogen as the means of backup for a decarbonized economy is that it is less stupid than using batteries as the backup."

I was originally going to comment that I disagree with this statement until I realized that this would be like arguing that a rock is dumber than a hammer. Both are so stupid that such an argument is just as stupid. The fact that bureaucrats are advocating either method of energy storage places them at the same intelligence level of both rocks and hammers.

26 posted on 06/27/2023 8:01:39 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (The power of the press is not in what it includes, rather, it's in that which is omitted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

I have even read that the wind turbines contribute directly to global warming. Since they capture the wind energy, the wind speed is slower and areas downwind get warmer!


27 posted on 06/27/2023 8:15:55 AM PDT by AZJeep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9422WMR

A customer of a company for which I once worked manufactured solar panels. Given that they could source them for actual cost, care to hazard a guess how much of their manufacturing energy came from solar?

If you said ZERO, you are a winner.


28 posted on 06/27/2023 8:17:31 AM PDT by cyclotic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

It must further be noted that the cost of oil, gas, and coal is no more or less than the cost of wind and solar. No one gets an invoice from mother earth for any of them. The price comes from harvesting each of them and getting them to the consumer in the form they are needed and at the time they are needed. In that, wind and solar are infinitely expensive since much of the time they can’t get there at all.


29 posted on 06/27/2023 8:19:27 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (The power of the press is not in what it includes, rather, it's in that which is omitted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

They think it’s free

Bahahahaha


30 posted on 06/27/2023 8:33:27 AM PDT by NWFree (Sigma male 🤪)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

But the little cute cartoon AOC voiced showed two or three windmills powerring an entire city. She knows how to work a national power grid...

And never a concern for what those windmills do to the surrounding climate / environments.


31 posted on 06/27/2023 8:40:07 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

A definitive article from 13 years ago condemning the folly of wind power AND STILL it goes on.

In the words of a sond, “when will they ever learn?”

Oh my, you can’t fix stupid or an agenda of control, power and money. Or whatever reason this insanity goes on.


32 posted on 06/27/2023 12:42:36 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

A definitive article from 13 years ago condemning the folly of wind power AND STILL it goes on.

In the words of a sond, “when will they ever learn?”

Oh my, you can’t fix stupid or an agenda of control, power and money. Or whatever reason this insanity goes on.


33 posted on 06/27/2023 12:42:40 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

A definitive article from 13 years ago condemning the folly of wind power AND STILL it goes on.

In the words of a sond, “when will they ever learn?”

Oh my, you can’t fix stupid or an agenda of control, power and money. Or whatever reason this insanity goes on.


34 posted on 06/27/2023 12:43:23 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 9422WMR

Wind for when it’s windy
Solar panels for when the sun shines
Batteries for when it is dark and windless
Gas and coal for backup
Lots and lots of great big power lines to link all this mess
What could possibly be wrong?


35 posted on 06/27/2023 12:50:37 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

Why in the living hell is all this insanity going on?


36 posted on 06/27/2023 12:52:07 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: norwaypinesavage

You are correct. To debate one alternative over the other is to betray good sense, good engineering and to endorse folly.


37 posted on 06/27/2023 12:59:52 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

Sorry for repost. Internet connection being goofy


38 posted on 06/27/2023 1:01:37 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: alloysteel; GOPJ; V K Lee; rlmorel; qaz123; Candor7; Alberta's Child; SunkenCiv; HarleyLady27; ...
Wind is free.  Harnessing it is expensive as hell, the means now being used are unreliable, and the collateral costs (having backup natural-gas fired or coal-burning powered generation plants) are simply duplication of effort that should have been put to use WITHOUT the primarily ornamental windmill towers.

As a virtue signal, they are a monstrous display of extravagance and yes, WASTE.  They have limited lifetime, and are impossible to deal with as an eyesore that may stand for decades if not centuries.

* * *

Touché!  A succinct, informed, and artful comment on the idiocy of windpower.  Just love the phrase "the primarily ornamental windmill towers.  Yeah, as "ornamental" as a withered Christmas tree in August.

Keep up the great commentary, FReeper.

39 posted on 06/27/2023 3:16:38 PM PDT by poconopundit (Kayleigh the Shillelagh, I'm disappointed in you....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: The Great RJ

If the wind is too high, they lock them down so they don’t turn.


40 posted on 06/27/2023 7:08:09 PM PDT by Mean Daddy (Every time Hillary lies, a demon gets its wings. - Windflier)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-40 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson