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To: Libloather
Has any FReeper experimented with decentralized wind power? ("Decentralized" means you, not the power utility or the state, having small wind turbines to reduce your needs from the grid.) That's the only reason I can see wind power making sense: the word "decentralized" moving power (pardon the pun) back into the hands of free American citizens by reducing your dependency on the over-regulated energy market.

But I don't live in an area that gets enough wind for it to be feasible, the last time I researched it.

3 posted on 07/01/2025 1:55:43 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Tell It Right

Years ago a local newspaper in my area tried that - they set up a system at one of their remote sites to much fanfare and hoopla. Some years later after many thousands of dollars were spent keeping the thing going - the thing was quietly taken down. A friend who was an editor asked me how much money I thought it was ‘saving’ them on their monthly power bill. I guessed several hundred. He said ‘eleven cents’...

The reason people aren’t using wind power in some version or other is because it costs MORE to produce the energy than to buy it. You have to be a brain dead liberal to buy into the idea.


5 posted on 07/01/2025 2:41:08 AM PDT by GOPJ (Democrats judge themselves by thier 'intentins' NOT by the result of their ideas. )
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To: Tell It Right

I’ve looked into wind and solar, and it’s just not cost efficient at all. The most obvious issue is having enough wind and sun to meet your needs. That can be countered by having a larger windmill and more solar panels. Then to meet the needs of night time use, windless days and cloudy days. That means batteries, hordes of them. It’s not just expensive to set up but there is maintenance and replacement costs of the batteries.

There will be times when you will need a backup, such as a gas engine driven generator. It’s just not worth it.

Our travel trailer is rigged with solar. On a sunny day it meets all needs. We have three expensive batteries that keeps things going at night. We also have two Honda generators for cloudy days. This is OK for a travel trailer, but not for a home.


10 posted on 07/01/2025 3:48:44 AM PDT by redfreedom (Happiness is shopping at Walmart and not hearing Spanish once!)
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To: Tell It Right

Cruising sailboats that can anchor away from land and the power grid for weeks or months at a time use both wind and solar. The economics seem to work compared to fuel and maintenance for a generator. I only have solar now, but considering a small windmill for when I retire and sail off into the sunset. Much of the literature discusses similar off-grid uses, like a remote hunting cabin where grid power unavailable.


18 posted on 07/01/2025 4:49:16 AM PDT by IowaJason
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To: Tell It Right

Large scale wind power has the benefit of the economy of scale but nevertheless requires subsidies to be competitive. Small scale distributed wind power lacks the economy of scale and is even worse.


26 posted on 07/01/2025 5:19:16 AM PDT by coloradan (They're not the mainstream media, they're the gaslight media. It's what they do. )
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