[Michael Barnes]

I have been driving by a rather large wind turbine almost everyday for four years and have only observed it actually running (collecting?) only a handful of times. Three days ago it was doing it's thing, first time in maybe 18 months.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people like me that like this technology but we don't want it forced on us. Let the private sector figure it out. If it is truly viable, it will catch on and the entry price point will drop the more people voluntarily begin to use it.

[mazda77]

Agreed. Every technology has its sweet spot and the smaller units have lots of promise for providing power in remote and mobile applications like sailboats.

The same applies for solar. Solar panels have a shelf life and again, the cost of replacing those panels in the large acreage panel farms will suffer the same result.

One of my projects was to take an outdoor vending device and redesign it so it used a solar panel to recharge the internal battery that actually was the power storage for the system so it could be installed anywhere like golf courses, boat docks, beaches, lakes and water parks. This is where solar shines but large scale AC power generation over a long period of time is not economically feasible when the shelf life of the panels is just under the ability to pay for them from the savings over fossil fuels.

[Smokin' Joe]

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people like me that like this technology but we don't want it forced on us. Let the private sector figure it out. If it is truly viable, it will catch on and the entry price point will drop the more people voluntarily begin to use it.

It isn't a case of not liking the technology. I think it is a great idea...Idea.

The problem comes in when the idea has to work, and that is the R&D aspect which should have been done long before going to production level implementation.

Like electric cars, the research isn't done yet, at least not for something which can compete in any but niche markets, and until it is, trying to take the idea to mass production will be an expensive lesson in premature implementation.

Sadly, those expenses were not left to the private sector, but are fuelled by our tax dollars, present, past, and future. Had the private sector been wholly responsible there may have been far greater accountability and far, far, less waste.

[hinckley buzzard]

The market will be the most rational arbiter. When windmills can compete on their own merits, without gubmint subsidies, they will appear in volume and in the right places, at no cost to the taxpayer. It is the perversion and corruption of the economy that outrages sensible people, and dooms these crap-farms to extinction.

[Baynative]

I used to frequently pass two of the large California "wind farms". I always wondered why, even on windy days only about ten percent of the propellers were moving.