Slashdot Mirror
Oil Billionaire Building World's Largest Wind Farm
gadzook33 writes "CNN is reporting that oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is planning to invest billions of dollars in what will probably be the world's largest wind farm. It will eventually generate 4 gigawatts, enough to power 1.3 million homes. The first 600 GE wind turbines are scheduled for delivery in 2010. Pickens says that each turbine will generate about $20,000 in income annually for the landowner who hosts it."
just playing devils advocate as from a environmental point of view how could this be a bad thing. First off the US needs to do something like Germany and give economic incentives, ie a fixed price on energy. This way your not competing dollar for dollar with oil and coal.
This is a capitalist country after all, nothing happens unless there is a profit to be made. My only other concern is the amount of land that these wind farms gobble up. With the growth in population especially in energy craving areas like southern california land is at a premium, which makes dedicating hundreds of acres to a wind farm also cost prohibitive. Considering no only likes high tension lines running through their neighborhood it is reasonable to think that systems like wind and solar will have to think seriously about competing with local land needs.
just a thought
Not really.
Very few new power plants are going to built that burn oil. The majority of new plants now are coal, followed by natural gas, and soon I hope Nuclear.
Wind farms will replace the Coal fired plants first so it really is a win for the oil companies to expand their revenue base.
Same reason that BP makes solar cells.
The Oil companies would like nothing more than to make more money selling wind power at the expense of coal. Which will make coal cheaper so the oil companies can use cheap coal to make expensive gas and diesel fuel to sell us to run our cars and trucks.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
If we accept that the actions of human beings can impact the climate, and we accept the first law of thermodynamics, what impact will wind farms have on the environment? Imagine if every home and factory in the U.S. were powered by wind farms. How much energy would these farms be pulling out of the wind? How would that impact weather patterns? Something I've always wondered about. As we jump off fossil fuels and move on to other sources of energy I sure hope someone thinks ahead this time.
Be Safe! Sleep with a Marine. Semper Fi!
Apparently the combination of tall buildings, glass, and bright light is pretty deadly for birds. The bright lights on the tall buildings (like those over 40 stories) can really confuse the birds when they are migrating. The birds are used to using visual cues from the stars and moon to navigate, and according to the article can end up crashing into the building at night since they are attracted by the light, or get confused into circling the building until they are exhausted. Then in the morning, when they try to leave the city, the glass of the building reflects the sky and the birds fly into the glass.
Most of the birds are small songbirds, which are easily swept up by custodial staff, and it happens at many buildings, so it's not so noticeable for pedestrians, but it's a big enough problem that the buildings (according to the article) have started dimming their lights to avoid killing more birds.
So if you want to argue against windmills on the bird issue, then you should be prepared to argue against skyscrapers as well.
The largest nuclear power plant in the united states is Palo Verde which provides a maximum of 3.8GW.
The largest plant in the world is the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan which has a peak theoretical output of 8.2GW, but is currently offline because of damage caused by an earthquake.
So 4GW of power would be significant.
We have the best government that money can buy.
Where I live, on the edge of a city of 1.5million, it takes me 18 minutes by electric bike, 40 by regular bike and 40 by car average commute. I don't have to pay for parking for it, and it costs 5 cents to charge it at todays electricity costs. I've got studs on my e-bike for the winter and have reduced my driving to only a day or two a month to get to work. The bike cost me 1000.00 for the batteries (harvested Dewalt drill batteries made by a123systems), 300 for the hub motor and 200 for the controller. The bike itself is a piece of crap low end mountain bike, about 600 bucks new. With parking at 20-30 bucks a day, I've already more than paid for it. Plus I can still pedal the thing and get exercise when I want to. So yeah, bring on the wind farms so that my total carbon foot print for commuting goes down even further!
You wouldn't happen to have documented that build project would you? Even a full parts list would go a long way.
There were several examples of blades (I would guess the blades were ~70ft long, each, three blades per turbine) sheared off due to excessive winds. Splintered fiberglass across the desert. Never got to see one go in person, though. That would have been cool.
I thought they were immensely cool, from a geek standpoint. Obviously modern technology juxtaposed with the harsh, ageless desert. Pictures of Guadalupe National Park available at the park center had the windmills photoshopped out. I found this a bit odd, but people's aesthetics differ. [shrug]
You know what the kicker was? I was there to perform geologic mapping for the development of oil reservoir models. Turns out the geology of the place is some of the finest examples of an exhumed turbidite (underwater landslide) complex in the world, and these turbidites make mighty fine oil...
sig sig sig siggy sig
Boone Pickens is probably best known as a prominent peak oil nut that the doomers like to cite -- he's probably mentioned more than anyone else except for Matthew "Fuzzy Logic" Simmons. Perhaps his best claim to fame is repeatedly predicting wrong dates for peak oil and then shifting them back when they pass by without notice. Of course, his support of the Swift Boat Vets has to rank a close second.
As an aside, the farm that's currently being built is going to be starting out at 1GW. So is the London Array, whose largest investor is Shell. Ultimately, this one will get bigger, though.
"She was out of her depth in a shallow pool." -- Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin
Illegal too, at least in NC.
If it's all twisty roads on hills, sure. 5 mph on a steep uphill for an unfit person is not unreasonable, and if the downhill side is sufficiently twisty, you won't be able to get any kind of speed. Throw in some time to rest (again, unfit person), and some stoplights, and you're there.
I love biking, and I commuted to work via bike for two years (almost entirely uphill to work, and coasting downhill on the way home). My workplace had showers and the ride was along pleasant 35 mph roads. Then I got a different job, and my choices were biking 7 miles over some steep hills on a 45 mph road that everyone went 70 mph on, or drive. I drove.
Neither, I telecommute now, and just bike around the neighborhood for fun.