When Windmills Don’t Spin, People Expect Some Answers

NY Times ^ | February 5, 2010 | MONICA DAVEY

[shibumi]

Sic Semper Novus Ordo Fimorum.

[Smokin' Joe]

Just what we all need up here: Another ignition source for a prairie fire.

For the unitiated, those can burn swathes of land off miles wide and long, and have been known (in Minnesota!) to burn an entire town.

[Western Phil]

"Thanks for the insight. Especially the “people running grids” part. I hadn’t considered that part of the equation." Typically the people running the grid and the people owning the turbines are different. Many of the owners seem to be Europeans.

[LS]

There is a massive windmill farm in IN on the way to Chicago. I happen to know one of the money guys who put the deal together, and he tells me it's a colossal failure---that the investors got taken to the cleaners, because it can't produce nearly enough power to generate (no pun intended) a profit.

And, like ANY wind-powered source, it must have another backup (hydroelectric, coal, nuke, whatever) somewhere else.

[bert]

I have traveled considerably in the west and have observed carefully hundreds of wind generators.

Most recently in west Texas I saw hundreds and hundreds. Typically, in any array, at least 10 % are inoperative.

[SunkenCiv]

• "Global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rise every year, and within decades are expected to hit a worrisome atmospheric concentration threshold of 450 parts per million. At that point, there's a high probability that average global temperatures will be at least 2 degrees Celsius higher than they were in 1850 (they're already 1 C higher)." -- Backing down on climate change

Heh. What wankers. Thanks neverdem.

• Walter Russell Mead: Why Climate Science Is On Trial

And thanks Ernest for more pings to more topics.

[Ole Okie]

What the heck is wrong with us anyway??!?

As a people, we give too much credence to the doomsaying 'Sky is Falling' Chicken Littles.

I'm an old man, and in my lifetime, there's always been something that would destroy the world being pushed by someone.

That's one of the reasons I've paid little attention to the end-of-the-world Climate Doomers. One more fly buzzing around proclaiming "The End is Nigh".

[Kozak]

It’s a joke. It’s not reliable. It needs another power plant
to provide back up power. We would be far better off with new nuclear power plants. But the green weinies won’t have it.

[Ole Okie]

What the heck is wrong with us anyway??!?

As a people, we give too much credence to the doomsaying 'Sky is Falling' Chicken Littles.

I'm an old man, and in my lifetime, there's always been something that would cause the end of the world being pushed by someone.

That's one of the reasons I've paid little attention to the end-of-the-world Climate Doomers. One more fly buzzing around proclaiming "The End is Nigh".

[Ole Okie]

Sorry for the double post.

[IncPen]

ping

[Nailbiter]

I thought at first I was seeing one of John Semmens pieces.

Ever been past the windmill farm between Merrillville and Indy, now ther is a bondoogle.
Never see one of those moving even on nice breezy day in summer