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Wind Power Falls Under $0.01/kwh
js7a writes "Colorado State University's Rocky Mountain Collegian reports that, "as of June [the price of wind power] dropped to 1 cent per kWh." Even without further expected improvements in turbine technology, the U.S. would now need to use less than 3% of its farmland to get 95% of its electricity demand satisfied by wind power. Plus, wind power is the only mitigation of global warming, because if the whole world converted to wind power in 15 years, the amount of power being extracted from the atmosphere would be more than the increase in greenhouse gas atmospheric energy forcing since 1600. Don't say goodbye to coal and oil, yet, though; unless cell technology increases substantially, when we run out of oil we will convert coal to synthetic fuel." Update: 09/15 13:40 GMT by T : Note: the "1 cent" figure refers to the premium paid for the power over conventionally supplied electricity, rather than the final per-kWh price.
Also what would the monetary cost of doing this be?
I'm guessing that it's going to cost less than the price of the war in Iraq. 87 Billion and counting would supply plenty of turbines and lots of dandy infrastructure to move the energy around.
And it would have the added benefit of killing significantly fewer people.
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I also thought about this and then toss is out as claptrap. i very much doubt that even if human were to erect a single mountain it would have much effect on wind patterns. Besides no one gives a rat ass about how all the skyscrapers in manhattan changed wind patterns.
In any case as much of the US farmland is in the tornado belt, how does one deal with the inevitable of a tornado cutting a swath across the power production grid? There will likely still need to be some kinda of non-decentralized backup. If we were to go all wind/solar the only reasonable backup would be nuclear as the fossil fuel plants would end up being shut down
As much as we want this wind energy stuff to hit the market, it probably will get delayed for eternity. Why? Cause our society is build to encourage consumers to spend infinitely, not save.
1.) Same reason why no company has build the perfect car that last forever. Could we, absolutely? Will corporate america allow it, hell no!
2.) Same with fluoride and detergent permanently polluting the water. Do we do squat about it, hell no! Cause chemical companies are $$$ing.
3.) I can go on forever.
not as a reliable source of energy. What these people didn't think about is the fact that, um, the wind isn't blowing all the time? HELLO?