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To: Ditto
Huh? Are you saying that wind turbine/generators never need maintenance or that they never break or their transformers never blow? (The reality is that they are highly stressed machines exposed to all kinds of elements and are very maintenance intensive.)

Not at all and I don't see where you even got that.

And exactly what complaint are are removing for wind power? Since the national average capacity factor for wind power is 26%, doesn't that mean they require back-up plants 74% of the time? It seems that by your definition, we shouldn't waste our money on wind.

People incorrectly say that wind can never provide a significant percentage of our power because of intermittance and they say that since it is intermittant it needs 100 percent back-up making it too expensive. I'm merely pointing out that nukes shut down also and need back-up as does everything else.

The 26 percent average definitely does not mean what you suggest. That would require that the wind blow 30mph 26 percent of the time and less than 10 mph 74 percent of the time. Wind turbine output varies from 0 to 100 percent through wind speeds of about 10 to 30 mph. I've visited a 52 meter windturbine about 10 times and it has always been turning, making some percentage of it's output power, except for once. That cost you quote is from a paid for 20 year old plant. Not exactly the going rate. The costs I quoted are total Operations, Maintenance and Fuel costs -- i.e., what it costs to generate one kWh of electricity. In the case of nuclear, it also includes payments to an escrow account to cover the costs of spent fuel disposal and eventual plant decomissioning.

I've seen higher numbers. Where did you find that one.

38 posted on 10/10/2006 4:51:35 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (Man defiles a rock when he chips it with a tool. Ex 20:25)
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To: DungeonMaster
I've seen higher numbers. Where did you find that one.

I gave you the link in an eariler post. Or you can go to the DoE EIA site and look it up yourself.

People incorrectly say that wind can never provide a significant percentage of our power because of intermittance and they say that since it is intermittant it needs 100 percent back-up making it too expensive.

I say it because demand is growing faster than we can site and build wind plants. I'm not especially opposed to them, but I am under no illusion that they are a "solution." In fact, for grid operators, they are a nuisance since they can't be effectively scheduled or ramped to meet demand fluctuations forcing them to run fossil plants in unproductive modes while decreasing revenues for those same plants and driving fixed costs per MW generated higher.

If anything, wind makes people feel good but it will never do more than that on the grid. IMHO, they could be of great value in a 'hydrogen' economy if we ever get there. Forget about connecting them to the grid where reliability and predictability are key and use their generation capacity to make hydrogen.

39 posted on 10/10/2006 7:40:27 AM PDT by Ditto
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