INSTALLED U.S. WIND POWER CAPACITY SURGED 45% IN 2007

American Wind Energy Association ^ | 17 Jan 2008 | Christine Real de Azua (press officer)

[DungeonMaster]

Not so good for electric generation.

It works wonderfully for electric generation. 5-10 gwhr/windturbine/year. Windmills pay for themselves in 6 or 7 years.

[Nuc1]

Yep your capacity factors are just marvelous. Good luck. I’m sure you will do fine once the government forces utilities to build them

[DungeonMaster]

Capacity factors mean nothing, all that matters is cost per kwhr and availability vs demand.

[Nuc1]

Cap factors mean everything. Wind mills are not the panacea they are claimed by many to be. They fall under the load following sector of the grid as their outputs vary considerably. Our last cycle was 18 month breaker to breaker, 97% capacity factor. We are a base load station. Wind mills are not. Their supporters should quit selling them as if they are base load generation.

[DungeonMaster]

Could you turn that thing down if you wanted to?

[Nuc1]

Yup. Indeed we could turn it off if we wanted too. But it wouldn’t make any money that way. :D)

[DungeonMaster]

Yup. Indeed we could turn it off if we wanted too. But it wouldn’t make any money that way. :D)

I've read that nukes are very hard to turn down. That would not really be a good thing. So nukes work best running wide open all the time. The problem is that demand changes all the time.