Posted on 07/25/2008 8:23:14 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
its well known that lightening strikes on transmission towers add around 2% to the electricity supply, as long as the strike is in the right direction.
The Seneca installation is very interesting & I can see the advantages of having so much extra head. However, it wouldn’t always be necessary to have a separate storage “lake” at a higher elevation; when you already have a large reservoir and power station.
The wind-generated electricity could simply be used to pump water back up to the reservoir; where it would be available for the hydro-powered generators to use. You would essentially be creating an additional supply of water for the hydro generators. Given that hydro plants are limited only by the head and quantity of water available; this approach would allow additional hydro-powered generating capacity to be installed.
LOL!!!
is it the fact that the storage lake is a lot higher than the lake behind the dam what makes it work?
Very interesting!
Could something like that be done on a much smaller scale for a single residential property that has the required slope?
Yes but I doubt the economics for the electrical and mechanical equipment would be cost effective.
The difference in head (elevation) provides significant energy storage with less volume as compared to a lower storage unit.
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