Posted on 11/10/2007 2:57:29 AM PST by alnitak
As I understand it, as long as oil remains above roughly $50/bbl, wind turbines are a viable energy alternative. Out here in WA, our Ports on the Columbia River are doing land office business importing these turbine assemblies. Each unit has three mast sections, a hub, generator assembley, and three blades that all have to be moved individually from the port of arrival to the erection site by truck. Lots of jobs are involved, and the parts are quite a site when they roll down the freeway.
Why don’t they put them around DC? Lots of useless wind there.
Is this what you mean by "down for maintenance"? Thats a 50 ton generator housing about the size of a small house on fire up there. It'll be down shortly. (:^*)
“I have nothing against wind power. I oppose subsidizing it with tax dollars, whether they be federal, state or local.”
Why aren’t you concerned about the government subsidizing the oil companies aka; Iraq? The taxpayer is footing the bill for the war.
Both Kissinger and Greenspan broke rank recently and agreed the Iraq war is about oil...not WMD, not spreading democracy...but about oil.
If our government “subsidized” nuclear power plants and wind farms to the tune of what they’re spending on the war... we’d be energy independent in less than 5 years.
At what cost?
They’re the biggest money losing investment going. If it wasn’t for subsidies, they’d be a dead issue. It takes 20 to 25 years to pay themselves off. We have close to 150 in our county, on any given day, at least 30% of them are shut down due to mecanical failures.
The average is 30%.
Interesting....
I began to see wind farms in Colorado and as I traveled through Wyoming and Idaho, counted the number of units in the farm and the number of inoperative units. It varied between 10 to 12% inoperative.
This means that the cost of investment rises by say 10% resulting from unreliable generators.
If it is as high as 30%, it’s worse than I thought.
The 30% number is the result of a study of tens of thousands of windmills around the world. I think it was 30,000 winmills.
The production of on land windmills, IIR correctly was 29%, and those over ocean was something like 32%.
That acounted for everything, no wind, mechanical problems, maintance, etc.
I’m sure everyone knows that going in, and yet they still build them, so there’s money to be made. I’m just not sure how much of the money comes from subsidies, and how much from sales of electricity.
I don’t consider a tax break a subsidy, as taxes are nothing more than a punishment for financial success.
Exactly which oil company's are we subsidizing in Iraq? "Both Kissinger and Greenspan broke rank recently and agreed the Iraq war is about oil...not WMD, not spreading democracy...but about oil. " So how much have we got?
” So how much have we got?”
Very little oil so far....in return for wasted American lives and money.
Congressman Pelosi....is that you?
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