Posted on 09/11/2009 8:27:29 AM PDT by Saije
I thought I had read it did store, but if not, wow.
That is a SERIOUS problem with wind energy!
I understand the people pushing this have an agenda that goes far beyond "saving the planet," I just can't believe anyone listens to their stupidity.
A windmill stores nothing. Battery or capacity technology to do that at the scale needed and at a convenient price point doesn't exist yet.
It does take some wind, and it is truly calm enough. Maybe parts of Kansas are never calm, but in MN/IA there are calm hot sweaty summer days which are also the peak electricity demand days.
And then, wind can be too strong forcing the windmills to stop.
Living our lives by the rhythms of nature, being hot and sweaty in the summer and dark in the windy winter is going backwards.
He looks like he is saying “what, me work”!
They do take energy out of the wind, which slows the wind, so yes they do take the wind itself.
You have implied this in your own argument. If you convert movement to something else, that movement doesn't exist anymore, i.e. the wind slows.
I don't know the efficiency of energy extraction or how much the wind slows, but it's probably enough (>0) to cause some fanatic to get upset about it sometime in the future.
Nationwide, capacity factor for wind generation is in the range of 25-30%. Who in their right mind would invest in an income-generating asset that effectively sits idle about 3/4s of the time? It is a nightmare for grid stability as well. Having a source online that becomes variably and unpredictable depending on the whims of Mother Nature is precisely what you don't want when your job is to serve the load and keep the frequency as constant as possible.
Not storing the energy is a fatal flaw, needless to say. I thought they did.
Even in KS, there can be some calm scorching hot summer days with virtually no wind.
The lights will be too dim to read by.
—
There is always whale oil...
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