Langston: Don't forget about the untapped resource of rioting

Is that what "heart" is?

Imagine all that toxic waste generated by refining the rare earth ores to construct the dynamos for each turbine :

Periodic Disorder:

Imagine all that toxic waste generated by refining the rare earth ores to construct the dynamos for each turbine :

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by feeding coal and fracking for gas plants (which keeps going for the lifetime of the plant.)

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by refining and worse yet, reprocessing nuclear fuel.

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by building extra plants of *whatever* sort to supply that 5% of the state of California's power.

Ok, I'm imagining it. Sounds pretty good in comparison.

We get it. It sounds like devil's power and you hate it on ideological grounds. You'll get over it.

If they could harness the power of smoking pot, they'd light up the entire galactic quadrant.

maxheck: Periodic Disorder:

Imagine all that toxic waste generated by refining the rare earth ores to construct the dynamos for each turbine :

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by feeding coal and fracking for gas plants (which keeps going for the lifetime of the plant.)

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by refining and worse yet, reprocessing nuclear fuel.

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by building extra plants of *whatever* sort to supply that 5% of the state of California's power.

Ok, I'm imagining it. Sounds pretty good in comparison.

We get it. It sounds like devil's power and you hate it on ideological grounds. You'll get over it.

I'm more surprised that they allowed it. Pretty much all of the green projects in CA are protested to death or near death by the ultra-leftists who think we should run on hamster power and biatch about it on the internet on their iPads

If only they could harness the power of sucky movies.

Wonder what would happen if you hooked a turn style or revolving door and the Border up to a generator. Jigawatts?

Oh I'm sure they'll find a way to screw it up.

I was expecting a Captain Planet reference...and I'm leaving disappointed...

hicksfa2: I was expecting a Captain Planet reference...and I'm leaving disappointed...

Maybe you missed the third post?

That's a lot of dead Raptors.

Why not harness the wind energy already copiously produced by savvy lawmakers?

Just a little more and I can finally retire my army of hamsters on wheels that are currently powering my compound.

coldones: Just a little more and I can finally retire my army of hamsters on wheels that are currently powering my compound.

It's a living.

5%? That's it? Iowa gets 20% of its electricity from wind.
We also allow gay marriage. Keep up California.

cj1319: 5%? That's it? Iowa gets 20% of its electricity from wind.
We also allow gay marriage. Keep up California.

We do, too. It's just called domestic partnership.

FTFA: To keep the wind at their backs, industry proponents are stumping in Congress for an extension of federal production tax credits to keep the turbines coming. Those credits expire at the end of this year. The industry's pitch: Wind is clean and abundant, reduces U.S. dependence on foreign oil and creates American jobs.

I wonder how much oil consumption wind energy actually reduces. My guess is it's probably pretty close to zero. Nothing wrong with displacing coal but I guess reducing our dependence on american coal doesn't sound as good.

maxheck: Periodic Disorder:

Imagine all that toxic waste generated by refining the rare earth ores to construct the dynamos for each turbine :

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by feeding coal and fracking for gas plants (which keeps going for the lifetime of the plant.)

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by refining and worse yet, reprocessing nuclear fuel.

As opposed to the toxic waste generated by building extra plants of *whatever* sort to supply that 5% of the state of California's power.

Ok, I'm imagining it. Sounds pretty good in comparison.

We get it. It sounds like devil's power and you hate it on ideological grounds. You'll get over it.

How much reprocessing of nuclear fuel do you figure occurs in the U.S.?

Actually I think complaining about waste generated from rare earth mining totally misses the point. More important is China's near monopoly in mining rare earth metals. Their total lack of environmental laws and cheap labor has allowed Chinese mining companies to undercut foreign competitors and nearly corner the rare earth market (new window). Their rare earth monopoly is then used to force high tech companies to move their production to China by imposing strict export quotas. Once production has been moved to China it is much easier for Chinese companies to steal their technology. It's a pretty good scam.

bhcompy: I'm more surprised that they allowed it. Pretty much all of the green projects in CA are protested to death or near death by the ultra-leftists who think we should run on hamster power and biatch about it on the internet on their iPads

A majority of their new capacity has come from the Tehachapi Pass area, which has thousands of old, smaller turbines (the ones that spin really fast, and love blending up birds and bats). Since technology has come a long ways in the past 20-30 years, they're able to remove some 6-8 small turbines and replace them with one larger, taller (further away from the birds), more efficient turbine. The power companies love this, because it increases output, and decreases maintenance costs - and the environmentalists love it because it gets rid of the lower, faster turbines that are much more likely to chop up birds.

Crosshair: Yea Yea, that's rated capacity, what do they actually put out? Turbines on average only have a capacity factor of about 30% because the wind doesn't always blow or blows too hard.

Also, what are they building to use as spinning reserve for when the wind suddenly stops blowing? Or are they gonna go with rolling blackouts and pretend to be a 3rd world country?

Their spinning reserve is called Washington State's hydro dams. They ramp up quickly and easily most of the year, and generate 3x's what WA State demands on even the highest demand day. At the moment, about 50% of our area's generation is getting shipped down there. Link (new window)

Although CA's grid prices aren't high enough to support it yet, an 8-turbine/battery project is going into Maui right now. It'll be operational in the fall, provide some 25% of the island's total need. The capacity factor of the project is 60% (their wind resource is the best yet measured), and that doesn't include the 12 semi-trucks worth of A123 batteries (11MW) they're installing to level off their production. Link (new window)

MrSteve007: bhcompy: I'm more surprised that they allowed it. Pretty much all of the green projects in CA are protested to death or near death by the ultra-leftists who think we should run on hamster power and biatch about it on the internet on their iPads

A majority of their new capacity has come from the Tehachapi Pass area, which has thousands of old, smaller turbines (the ones that spin really fast, and love blending up birds and bats). Since technology has come a long ways in the past 20-30 years, they're able to remove some 6-8 small turbines and replace them with one larger, taller (further away from the birds), more efficient turbine. The power companies love this, because it increases output, and decreases maintenance costs - and the environmentalists love it because it gets rid of the lower, faster turbines that are much more likely to chop up birds.

Crosshair: Yea Yea, that's rated capacity, what do they actually put out? Turbines on average only have a capacity factor of about 30% because the wind doesn't always blow or blows too hard.

Also, what are they building to use as spinning reserve for when the wind suddenly stops blowing? Or are they gonna go with rolling blackouts and pretend to be a 3rd world country?

Their spinning reserve is called Washington State's hydro dams. They ramp up quickly and easily most of the year, and generate 3x's what WA State demands on even the highest demand day. At the moment, about 50% of our area's generation is getting shipped down there. Link (new window)

Although CA's grid prices aren't high enough to support it yet, an 8-turbine/battery project is going into Maui right now. It'll be operational in the fall, provide some 25% of the island's total need. The capacity factor of the project is 60% (their wind resource is the best yet measured), and that doesn't include the 12 semi-trucks worth of A123 batteries (11MW) they're installing to level off their production. Link (new window)

Hah, high five. British Columbia sends them some of our hydro-electric power as well.