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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.
In the form of Noise Pollution. Ever been close to a big windmill? Those suckers are loud!
At least a nuclear plant only makes its presence known to the locals when something goes wrong...
It's probably better to focus on using stored energy more efficiently. There's a lot of waste in coal or oil that could be cut back.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
This might be real proof that wind power changes the climate. There is no _proof_ that CO2 changes the large scale climate of the planet, and there's no proof that it doesn't. We just don't know yet. But the system of life can and will adjust, and compensate for extra carbon. Life can't compensate for a windmill slowing down the wind.
-- Checking emails and kicking cheats `till the day I die.
There's an easier solution. Take all the people that voted for Bush in 2000 and all the people that didn't vote in 2000 and burn them.... the American Holocaust. That should reduce the number of people living in the u.s to about, what,... 1 million ? Sounds about right and would benefit the world ecosystem.
Skype Me! username: john_allen_mohammed
Isn't one of the drawbacks of using wind power that it kills birds and other flying wildlife that cross the turbines' path?
"when we run out of oil we will convert coal to synthetic fuel."
We won't ran out of oil, just like we didn't run out of coal. Before we could dig all coal out of the earth, a better energy source came along (oil) and today medium yield coal mines sit unexploited.
Same with oil, 100 years into the future the combination of wind, solar and nuclear energy plus ultra-efficient combustion engines and advanced fuel cells will make low yield oil uneconomical and they will sit unexploited too.
Says your NUTS....
I mean come on man... phisics in high school teaches you this.
Pumpng water produces heat, loss of energy
A water turbine also produces heat, loss of energy
All in all, i doubt you can get 30% of the potential energy with this method. Im pretty shure a row of triple A batteries will give you more.
NO SIG
Oh sure, and the government has NEVER lied to the public about oil before... We can all just sit back and relax in our new gasguzzling SUV's. They've got it under control.
toresbe
Did you know that flouride is related to florine, and that it isn't an accident that "florine" sounds like the poison "chlorine"? There is a reason why you aren't supposed to swallow the flouride at the dentist's. Floride is toxic. Too much of it causes severe bone trouble, and even brain damage.
"People who live in areas with high levels of naturally-occurring fluoride in the water should use alternative sources of dinking water, such as bottled water."(atsdr.cdc.gov)
There are 50 reasons here.OK, I am speaking from a UK centric point of view, nevertheless a lot of this will apply wherever you are.
BTW, that Bush asslicker Blair yesterday got on the global warming bandwagon and tree hugging energy.
1/ There are only two forms of NATURAL energy that work 24/7, they are geothermal, such as they use in Iceland, and hydro, such as Niagara, Kariba, etc. NO OTHER NATURAL METHOD WILL WORK CONTINUOUSLY AT FULL OUTPUT.
2/ wind power, wave power, solar power etc, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, simply will not work 24/7 at any meaningful continuous power rating.
So, even if wind power alone could generate 1000% of todays needs, you'd still need a VAST power storage system somewhere for those regular times when output was less than demand... the financial cost and the enviornmental impact of such energy storage systems will utterly blow away the entire wind farm installations impact and cost.
Next point.
99.99999% of people claiming they are experts in alternative energy etc etc etc have absolutely ZERO experience in one vital area, actual power generation and distribution.
You fuckers have absolutely no idea how wildly (and "wildly" really is not too strong a word) consumer power demand varies minute by minute on a daily basis... in the UK for example power guys watching meters can tell when there is a commercial break and everyone goes to the bathroom and turns the light on for a piss, or goes to the kitchen and turns the kettle on for a tea or coffee... these are really huge spikes in demand, and they may last for only a few minutes.
You also have to understand that YOU are not worthwhile data to base any assumptions about national usage or consumption upon.
Just over three years ago here in the UK there was a fucking massive spike in power use, and I mean fucking massive, not double or treble, or quadruple, when the world trade centre came tumpling down and everyone picked up a fucking telephone.... or do telephone and data networks not matter to you wind power types?
Another one you're going to have to deal with is industry, basically you're going to have to shut it down completely and send it offshore to other countries, complete with all the jobs and revenue, because you aren't going to run shit like bauxite smelting or electro-plating or indeed crack oil into petrol and diesel etc, without fucking massive amounts of power, I hope you all look forwards to driving around in your new for 2006 paper (and I mean literally paper) cars, or do you think the trabants were made because these countries had a surplus of power and resources.
Megacorp doesn't give a fuck, they'll go wherever there are terawatts available 24/7, like china, certainly not some tree hugging shithole with rolling brownouts.
Here in the UK by way of example, the FACTS as they are today.
The government has PLANNED green energy accounting for 20% of national output in 20 years time, it can never be higher than that proportion for the reasons stated above about fluctuating demand, and yet this 20%, IF IT HAPPENS, will be entirely used up as our remaining nuke plants die of old age, because there will only be ONE left working in 2025, these are hard fucking facts, and this is to maintain TODAYS output.
As it is TODAY the UK is terribly dependent on a SINGLE huge natural gas pipeline that runs from russia through the low countries across the channel to the UK, we NEED it for domestic heating and power generation, it doesn't even take a terrosist incident, just an accident, to create what will amount to a state of national emergency.
The under channel power cables from france, importing french nuclear generated electricity, are already maxed out.
The mothballed coal stations have been systematically stripped for spares for years now, they are scrap.
We simply DO NOT HAVE ANY POSSIBILTY of increasing generating capacity in any short to medium term.
Even if we started spending 1 billion pounds per day, which is approxim
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