Posted on 08/12/2017 6:56:44 AM PDT by rktman
Whatever the reason, far too many people have a pitiful grasp of reality: natural climate fluctuations throughout Earth history; the intricate, often fragile sources of things we take for granted; and what life would really be like in the utopian fossil-fuel-free future they dream of. Let’s take a short journey into that idyllic realm.
Suppose we generate just the 25 billion megawatt-hours of today’s total global electricity consumption using wind turbines. (That’s not total energy consumption, and it doesn’t include what we’d need to charge a billion electric vehicles.) We’d need more than 830 million gigantic 3-megawatt turbines!
Spacing them at just 15 acres per turbine would require 12.5 billion acres! That’s twice the land area of North America! All those whirling blades would virtually exterminate raptors, other birds and bats. Rodent and insect populations would soar. Add in transmission lines, solar panels and biofuel plantations to meet the rest of the world’s energy demands – and the mostly illegal tree cutting for firewood to heat poor families’ homes – and huge swaths of our remaining forest and grassland habitats would disappear.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Don’t know the purpose of your posting of the towers but those are hyperbolic cooling towers which emit nothing but water vapor and air. The towers are empty except for the bottom 10 feet of fill. The rest creates a natural draft to move the air through the media in the bottom. They consume zero energy.
“I double-checked the math myself, and got an answer I don’t trust, but it may be correct if all 830 million wind turbines run at full power non-stop.”
Please check my math!
I verified that his number (25 billion mwhs) would be for a year. That is 25x10^9 mwhs.
One turbine at ‘max’ for a year:
3 x 24 x 365 = 13,000 mwhs.
At 20% efficiency = 2,600 mwhs.
For 830x10^6 turbines:
2.6x10^3 x 830x10^6 = 2,158 x 10^9 = 21 x 10^11 mwhs.
and all that destruction and inconvenience and garbage just to go from 0.00136% CO2 in atmosphere (due directly to man) to oh i dunno- 0.00135%
Gee- what a whopping change that will bring forth on planet erff
Folks, there is NO WAY 0.00136% of the atmosphere is controlling our climate— no way no how- impossible-
“I double-checked the math. I think they are way off.”
You’re absolutely right, Gator.
He’s off by a factor of at least 200.
830 million 3mw turbines have a capacity of about 22000 billion mwh per year. (I’m assuming his usage are for a year).
They would have to have a generation rate of only about 0.1% to generate 25 billion mwh.
Inefficient as they are, due to the wind not blowing all the time, I’m sure they could muster 20% generation rate, which would mean he’s off by a factor of 200 minimum.
So instead of 14 million square miles, it would only require 70 thousand square miles, still a lot, but not ridiculous like his number.
It is disappointing that “our” side is just as guilty of spouting nonsense at times as the other side. So eager to defend what are some of our entranched but not very tenable positions that we often make fools of ourselves, as in this case.
Personally I’m agnostic when it comes to energy - whatever works is fine with me, and having multiple sources I think is good.
“It is disappointing that “our” side is just as guilty of spouting nonsense at times as the other side. “
Yes. He should have stated that his consumption number was for a year and provided assumptions.
Goes without saying he should have double-checked his math.
And....CO2 is PLANT FOOD! SMH at the Libs!!
Well, my family went to Guam when I was a mere infant in 1947 and the 4 of us didn’t tip the island over. We also(my folks) didn’t know there were still some Japs in the higher elevations. Now we have kim jong dung threatening to tip Guam over by using tidal waves. Who knew?
Great idea!~ For food we can eat the birds killed by the windmills as long as they last.
They forgot to mention that it takes more energy to produce a windmill than it will return in it’s lifetime.
“They forgot to mention that it takes more energy to produce a windmill than it will return in it’s lifetime.”
Do you have a link to support your ‘fact’?
Sorry, . . . We all live in Bed Rock, We haven’t got an Orbital City yet, to move to.
We’re kinda busy over here in Fossilvania. ;-)
HRHRHRH I take you liked the use of a Flintstone and Jetson name. HEHEHEHEH
LOL! WILLLMAAAAAA. JAANNE!
“Seems to me that life in fossil-fuel free utopia might closely resemble life in 13th Century Europe utopia....back during the golden ages of human civilization. “
They didn’t worry about ‘racism’ then. When people invaded their territory they killed them.
Brains & gunpowder.
during ww2 you could not get anything with petrolum in it not even fly spray.
Slightly before my time, however, my folks told me of the rationing during the war. Mom grew up on a farm, so it wasn’t so bad as they didn’t have anything to begin with.
” and huge swaths of our remaining forest and grassland habitats would disappear”
That would have to happen to make up for all the wasted cropland taken up by wind and solar farms
One turbine running at 100% for the full year would produce 3 x 24 x 7 MWH per year: 26280 MWH.
Divide that into 25 billion MWH: 951000 wind turbines running full-time full power.
Divide that 951000 by whatever efficiency you want to get the number of turbines necessary to produce the 25 billion MWH at that efficiency.
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