Posted on 07/07/2009 3:35:26 PM PDT by Kozman
The man backing part of the Global Climate scare can't even calculate how to place his windmills correctly, never mind his hot air about the much more complex subject, the climate.
Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, Pickens said today. He's now looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines that he has already ordered. The windmills stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings.
"When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the oligarch said. "They've got to go someplace."...
(Excerpt) Read more at economicpolicyjournal.com ...
Speaking as a Texan, I say, “YEA.”
Sure he's got room in his garage ~ or maybe he'd be better off using the Loop in Chicago to park 'em.
I know one place he can stick ‘em.
Texas has LOTS of coastline, and the coastlines are known for very constant COASTAL BREEZES. These windmills don’t need, nor want, a high speed wind - putting them along a beach a mile or so inland should just what is needed.
Then we have valleys in the mountain states, these valleys are natural wind funnels, lots of room there. Then the Great Planes - if the Texas panhandle is out - there are gazillions of other places to stick’em.
Maybe I should put myself on a 7 figure salary and offer to help the poor man out?
Better than fiction...LOL!
But when he stood to make billions from it, he sure was out pushing for it then! Americans are waking up slowly to the hoaxes being pulled on them. Let us not forget T. Boone Pickens and Nancy Pelosi are in on it together, and Pelosi’s husband? Yep a wall streeter !
Checklist:
1) Is lib? Or finance idiot?
If yes, forget all they say when they try to talk science.
2) Is education major?
If yes, forget everything they say.
3) Is politician?
If yes, put on disease mask, and walk slowly to the door...and lock after leaving.
Is this the one that Pelosi invested heavily in?
If you allow the cell phone company to put a tower on your land, you get free cell phone usage and about ~$1,000/month for each tower.
Now, if a similar deal were offered to you - free power and ~1,000/month to have a wind tower sitting on your land - would you do it?
I certainly would fill as many windmills as would fit on my parcel, let Mr. Pickens pay off my mortgage for me, give me free power and I’ll put up with having those money-makers blocking my view.
“”They’ve got to go someplace.”...
Shove them up your Obama.
Note to self: Before spending millions on a wind turbine farm, check to see if it can be connected to transmission lines.
NIMBY. Ain't gonna spoil my mountains with those thangs.
Bend over Mr. Pickens. I'll show you where to put them.
Here are a couple of his commercials. Note in the first that he invokes the “next president”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bOug1d20c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_3RV5SLS-I&feature=channel
He'd hoped to build his own transmission lines but he said there were technical problems.
His "technical problems" were that he lost the ability to use eminent domain to build the transmission lines. That's because the real reason he wanted to build the transmission lines is so that he could put a water pipeline under them.
Pickens wanted to pump water out of the Ogalla aquifer and ship it to the D/FW area.
But they gotta' be real quiet!
AND, no dead birds.
I’m originally from Amarillo, and ran into Tbone from time to time when his Mesa Energy Partners was there. He always had several bodyguards when he was out. Very unfriendly. Stole Amarillo’s gas field (used his money to vote in his commissioners and mayor, who voted to sell him the field for pennies on the dollar). When the people were p.o.’ed, he called Amarillo the “world’s biggest truck stop” and moved his business to Dallas. He’s a creep and a snake oil salesman. Remember, he made millions as a corporate raider. I now live on the coast (near Corpus Christi) and the last few mornings have been dead calm. The wind generators already in place weren’t turning. Ask the guys in the power plants (I train a lot of them). If the plant isn’t running, it typically takes 24 hours to warm the steam turbines with steam and get them online. You are either generating steam or you aren’t. Ask the people in central Texas who were relying on wind when the wind died and they suffered a brownout because the powerplant wasn’t online.
I expected this to be a failure last year when Pickens was all over CNBC promoting his “plan”. Any investor could see it was doomed to fail.
Pickens tries to portray himself as some savvy oilman that has seen the “green” way. But no one reports on how he has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this speculative gamble, that if it paid off, would enrich him many times over. This guy is nothing but a speculator, much more like a lobbyist than an oilman.
The only thing in his energy plan that makes any sense is his push to use more nat gas. That is smart given the US reserves of nat gas and the ability to actually convert cars, trucks, trains and ships to nat gas, as well as building electrical plants that run on nat gas. That is the only thing that will reduce dependence on foreign oil. Oh, and of course drilling here and drilling now!
Wind power will never be anything other than an expensive supplement to the power supply, because as you point out you have to have an alternate source of power when the wind isn’t blowing. Ain’t no batteries on the grid to store that power.
Put them in Neverland.
Da moon; the solar wind blowing the turbines gives you tax breaks and incentives out the gazoo.
Head of lion, body of snake.
Put ‘em in D.C. - plenty of hot air there...
Boone, there’s a HUGE empty field north of Oklahoma State’s stadium where they were gonna put athletic dorms and indoor practice facilities...until the money you “donated” for that disappeared. Maybe they’ll let you put ‘em there, and when the wind is right they might blow your smoke away.
I remember going to the Big Island of Hawaii a few years ago. Now there is one place that you would think could use wind power. I mean an island, thousands of miles in the middle of the ocean, with West-East trade winds blowing all the time.
So I wasn’t surprised when we went into the back country to visit a secluded beach and saw a windmill farm. There were dozens of Mitsubishi turbine windmills. What was surprising was that they were all rusting, not turning and broken down in disrepair.
So I asked some locals about where they get their power. The have a gas fired electrical powerplant on the island and they ship in the gas on big tankers.
So, my point is that if an island with a very small poplulation and no natural resources and a high cost to import natural resources cannot make wind power economical, where can it be economical?
Put those windmills smack dab in the U.S. House and Senate. That’s where the most “wee-und” is generated.
Checkmate, T. Boone.
Courtesy of Texas Pacific Group.
"Have our generation units stopped" payback.
Wind blows pretty well in ANWAR.
Pray for America
Let us not forget T. Boone Pickens and Nancy Pelosi are in on it together
Exactly, pickens was just trying to make another billion off of consumers and taxpayers with the help of congress. He’s just another crook.
Stole Amarillo’s gas field (used his money to vote in his commissioners and mayor, who voted to sell him the field for pennies on the dollar).
I know that there are several here who refer to this kind of thing as capitalism, but it’s really just thuggery.
Is this the view you would want to see in your neighborhood?
Only a few places, IMHO. There is a wind farm up on the Wyoming border near Cheyenne that seems to be turning most of the time. But there are a lot fewer places out on the plains than people think because nobody wants those things near their home.
I wonder what would happen to one of those things in a hurricane?
Nice informative exposing post.............
I don’t know. I suppose the blades might be the first to go and then they’d just become Herculean ninja death stars.
Well, Texas leads the US in wind installations with ~ 6,000 MW’s installed. But....on a good ‘ol HOT Texas summer day, them there wind mills will only produce ~ 2% of their capability = ~ 200 MW.
Conclusion: 6,000 MW’s installed in Texas; Only get ~ 200 MW on a hot day. Why the hell bother?????
Texas demonstrably has the highest potential for wind energy. A lot of space. A lot of wind.
But what is the highest month for energy consumption in Texas?
August. When every A/C in Texas is going full tilt.
And when is the wind energy in the state the least?
August. When the wind doesn't even stir the mimosas...
Fact.
No nukes, because of the radioactive wastes
No damns, because the water reservoirs flood wilderness.
No coal, because of CO2.
No windmills because people like you don't like the view, and possibly some dead birds.
No solar, because that takes up farmland, and is an eyesore.
So, what energy producing method do you think we should create to meet our growing demand? Or do you believe that maybe Obama-clause will give us all a magic box that gives us all the power we need.
My theory is simple - if you don't like electricity and you wanna whine about; then take yourself off the grid. Then when you whine, at least you aren't a hypocrite. If you use the energy, you forfeit the right to protest how that resource is made. It's like a carnivore who opposed killing animals for food.
The most important issue, however, is to meet the daily peaks which occur between 3-6 PM. A Texas peak would be ~ 65,000-70,000 MW. Texas has more wind installation than any other State ~ 6,000 MW. But on a hot summer day, wind energy is at its lowest production (i.e. windmills sits there like a limber D!&@). But at night, when you don't need the juice, Texas wind mills may produce ~ 2,000 MW’s.
So, wind power is like a bad relative -— they show up when you don't want ‘em; and they ain't there when you need ‘e!
This wind farm generates about 10% of the electricity for the island of Maui.
Ole T- bonehead is the best example of the fact that America is such a great country even a horse’s ash can become a billionaire. Trump and Turner do as well.
See this link for how wind farms mess up weather radar.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2287639/posts
I never had a problem with his windmill idea. His plans for natural gas are what really scared me. I can’t afford my heat bills if demand for NG goes up tenfold.
You don't know anything about me but are making a lot of false assumptions.
Wind energy is such a marginal factor in the national energy picture that there is no need to deface mountain valleys with windmills.
If you really want to contribute, help break the logjam stopping nuclear power.
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