Wind turbine marketers are full of hot air

Globe and Mail Update ^ | July 11, 2008 | Neil Reynolds

[twistedwrench]

Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain travelled to Oregon in mid-May to deliver the definitive climate change speech of his campaign. He spoke in Portland, at the U.S. headquarters of Vestas Wind Systems AS, a Danish company that markets wind turbines around the world. He started on a self-deprecating note. “Today is a kind of test run for this company,” he said. “They've got wind technicians here, wind studies and all these wind turbines. But there's no wind. So now I know why they asked me to come and give a speech.”

It was perhaps his most perceptive statement of the day. Five sentences later, Mr. McCain made perhaps his least perceptive. “Wind,” he said, “is a predictable source of energy.”

[twistedwrench]

“Not a single conventional power plant has been closed in the period that Danish wind farms have been developed,” he says. “Because of the intermittency and variability of the wind, conventional power plants have had to be kept running at full capacity to meet the actual demand for electricity and to provide backup.”

[M1Tanker]

It also needs to be noted that Germany is moving away from wind power as it is the LEAST predictable source.

Good for backing up back-up power systems, but little else.

[omega4179]

Mccain has to quit the self depracation and stop pandering to the obama voters green fantasies.

[J Aguilar]

True. The last AWEA -the wind lobby- conference was held in Houston. Windenergy and most photovoltaic had to be constantly backed up, and the only power stations that can vary their production so rapidly are gas powered ones.

Behind wind and electric solar you have the same oil and gas companies that you find behind the pump at your gas station.

[STONEWALLS]

...we recently fought off corporate wind farms here in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina...those eyesore towers stand 38 stories tall and make a noise like somebody swinging a rope over your head....the wind enthusiasts will keep on trying though....the tax credit money is simply too lucrative....that’s why before it’s demise, Enron was the largest wind farm company in the US.

[stevio]

If we learn to curb our electrically needs to when the winds blows we’d be fine. Ain’t gonna happen. Power plants produce energy whether it’s used or not.

[STONEWALLS]

” Windenergy and most photovoltaic had to be constantly backed up, and the only power stations that can vary their production so rapidly are gas powered ones.”
...which may be why Boone Pickens is jumping into windfarms....I hear he’s a big investor in gas.

[STONEWALLS]

“If we learn to curb our electrically needs to when the winds blows we’d be fine. Ain’t gonna happen.”

yep...here in the South, peak demand occurs during the hottest part of the day...and that’s often when the wind quits blowing.

[RightWhale]

Mccain has to quit the self depracation and stop pandering to the obama voters green fantasies.

He should be more pompous like Kerry, Algore, O'Bama.

[Pontiac]

Power plants produce energy whether it’s used or not.

Not true.

Every electric power producer has large power plants that run almost all of the time called Base Load plants.

Then they have medium sized plants that increase or decrease power production to meet rising or falling demand called Load Following plants.

Then there are plants that are started up only when demand is at its greatest called Peaking Plants. Some of these are gas turbine plants that are fully automated and can be started remotely from a Systems Operation Center.

It would be economically wasteful to generate power that was not used and it would cause destructive imbalances in the distribution system.

[bubbacluck]

Our Congressman, Jerry McNerney(D), is a wind generation expert. He might have a lot to do with those eyesore turbines over the Altamont Pass here in California.

We're hoping the winds of change blow him right out of office this November. We have a good conservative candidate with name recognition running against him by the name of Dean Andal(R).

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Wind (and solar) power can be stored, to better match supply and demand — at a cost.

Aye, there’s the rub. For in that dream of renewable energy, what costs may come? When we have shuffled off oil, must give us pause .... And makes us rather bear those energy sources we have than fly to others that we know not of?

[cousair]

I live in Washington state on the Columbia River and they are putting wind turbines everywhere the wind blows. Fine and dandy, but it is nothing but a show of a little and not enough. McCain needs to visit the Alaska feilds, Anwar, and the drilling oil rigs and let Americans KNOW he will do everything and’s all to stop foreign dependence on oil. The President’s announcement the other day let the Middle East know their cash cow was about the play out....the numbers on oil a barrell are still dropping....$123.33 as we speak. The MSM calls this drop due to the economy, stupid! Nothing political about them is there?????

[BallyBill]

This blows.

[stevio]

Someone should tell the Danes this then.

[109ACS]

Instead of tying the wind generators into the grid, wouldn’t it be feasible to use the energy to produce hydrogen (and oxygen) through hydrolysis? Then you wouldn’t care so much about the intermittent wind. You would also not need the sophisticated electronics to synchronize the wind generators with the grid.

Just a thought.

[Rummenigge]

hydrogen Society will come - question is not if - but when.

[HardStarboard]

Gee - I guess this dashes the hopes of all those Obamaiacs that hoped he would appoint Boone Pickens as Energy Secretary.

Damn shame, Boone needs the money....[/sarc]

[mad_as_he$$]

Last week I went to the opening of the newest power plant in the West. It is a dual cycle natural gas turbine combined with steam boiler technology. It is a 600 Megawatt plant. It is now the base load plant for our area. It is taking over from four steam natural gas/oil plants that date back to the late 60’s and forward. The new plant is 50% efficient, the old plants are 32% efficient - catch is they are ONLY that efficient in a narrow operating range. Either side of that range and they become very inefficient - as if 32% was not bad enough. So they replaced 32% efficient with 50% and it is now the base load. Not a bad deal in my book.

Incidentally we in Northern Nevada have very good wind conditions, one of my neighbors has four wind turbines to run his house. They are backed up by batteries and solar with emergency tap to the gird. He has to go one the grid about twice a month during the winter and once a month in the Summer.

[jpsb]

I think a wind generator is fine for a homeowner, small business etc, to try and save a few bucks on thier electric bill. However wind at best will be a very small contributer to any major USA grid. I'd say dido solar but solar has potential so maybe solar will someday be a big contributor.

I like nukes, but I've heard that it costs more to decommission a nuke plant then it cost to build and operate it. Not sure if this is true, but if it is then nukes might not be all that great of an idea either. Maybe coal with really good environmental controls is our best option.