Posted on 05/19/2008 8:14:18 PM PDT by old-and-old
snip-
Pickens: Well, that's the first step to a 4,000-megawatt wind farm. This is 1,000 megawatts.
We start receiving those turbines in mid 2010. We will have the total 4,000 megawatts finished by the end of 2015. That power will go into a transmission line that will tie into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas system in the state of Texas, and it will be transmitted downstate. Video Watch why Pickens is willing to spend billions on wind »
Velshi: What's your view of wind power? It's one of several things that we should be looking at in terms of powering our homes, electrical power? We get most of it from coal and natural gas, and some from nuclear. Are you thinking it's one of the formats of power we should be thinking about, or is this going to be bigger than we all thought?
Pickens: The Department of Energy came out with a study in April of '07 that said we could generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind. And the wind power is -- you know, it's clean, it's renewable. It's -- you know, it's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy.
It will be located in [the] central part of the United States, which will be the best from a safety standpoint to be located. You have a wind corridor that goes from Pampa, Texas, to the Canadian border. And it has -- the wind, it's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind. Look at Germany and Spain. They have developed their wind way beyond what we have, and they don't have as much wind as we do. It's not unlike the French have done with their nuclear. They're 80 percent power generated off of nuclear, we're 20 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
he’s a straight-up guy.
i wrote him a letter commending him for his support of the u.s. military
almost 20 years ago,
and he sent me a handwritten reply.
if he pays him, what’s the problem? Capitalism at its best.
If the price is right, I’ll put 2 in!
Wind power is fine, for what it is, but it is not a constant source of power, so a backup power plant is needed when there is insufficient wind to generate power.
The more wind power that goes on line the more of a problem it could be when the wind gives out. Texas has already had a minor crisis when the wind died a few months ago, they had to cut power to a number of interruptible customers.
He is looking for mandates and subsidies to make his wind dream a reality. Harnessing large-scale wind energy is extremely costly because of transmission capacity and unreliability in peak demand. Texas currently has the most wind generating capacity but it is plagued by high cost of transmission capacity ($3 to $9 billion) and lack of wind on hot summer afternoons. I have heard about grand schemes to build wind farms across large parts of the country but costs are never fully disclosed. Investors will not undertake large scale wind farms without substantial mandates and subsidies.
Wind power fits into the rats global warming plans. The rats want to force reductions in consumption. Reliance on large-scale wind farms will substantially increase energy prices during peak usage periods. The rats will be more than happy to impose energy rationing during peak energy periods. You should be ready live with AC set to 85 degrees. Many businesses will relocate rather than pay the high energy prices.
Tonight on ABC evening news, the first/only reporting (brief story at the end) I’ve seen so far (after almost 2 months), of my mom’s hometown, Rock Port, MO (about 30 miles from my own) - as the FIRST totally wind-powered town in the entire U.S.!!! (They had a local ceremony over a month ago-with no major media in sight). Their windfarms produce not only enough to entirely power that town, but enough left over to provide electricity to some other communities as well!!! Just another example of how “fly-over” middle America gets overlooked.
If this had been a town (of whatever size) on either coast (California?? OMG), the media would’ve been ALL over it.
There was talk about them putting one of these “wind farms” on a huge mesa just off to the east of me in NE Arizona. After seeing those eyesores in west Texas, I’m sure glad that it was only talk.
blowhard
I admired him at one time. Then he stiffed Mesa Oil shareholders. He came out fine but shareholders ended up with nothing. Strip away the false facade and you have a greedy man who put his own well being ahead of the people he was supposed to serve.
Wind power is one of those ideas that sounds like something everyone can get behind. Unfortunately I've never seen either an analysis of how much power existing wind turbines provide or one of how many it would take to provide sufficient energy to replace gas or oil. And could they keep them running without loss of power when numbers of them break down.
If they put windmills on trucks they could move them to where the wind as as needed. Of course they would have to put the transmission lines on reels but those are just engineering details.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.