Texas To Build $4.93B Wind-Power Project

Hugh Pickens points out a story in the NYTimes about Texas' $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project. One of the major goals of the project is to improve electrical throughput to the population centers. Current transmission lines are unable to handle all of the power generated by Texas' wind fields. State citizens will be paying slightly more to help cover the cost, though the project is expected to eventually lower the cost to consumers. Quoting: "The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running. 'The project will ease a bottleneck that has become a major obstacle to development of the wind-rich Texas Panhandle and other areas suitable for wind generation. The lack of transmission has been a fundamental issue in Texas, and it's becoming more and more of an issue elsewhere,' said Vanessa Kellogg, the Southwest regional development director for Horizon Wind Energy, which operates the Lone Star Wind Farm in West Texas and has more wind generation under development. 'This is a great step in the right direction.'"

Comments

Re:Something to keep in mind

[Anonymous Coward]

This is precisely why "wind power" is as big a scam as "biofuels".

Wind power doesn't work in a grid system. The inclusion of "wind farms" in the grid translates to the increased use of fossil fuels (investigate "spinning reserve" to understand why). The only reason anyone is attempting this is to get (steal?) U.S. tax dollars. The first person to jump on "wind farms" was... Ken Lay, of Enron fame.

Re:Because nights are dark...

[4D6963]

You didn't even read the Wikipedia article I linked, did you? If you did you wouldn't claim that "you CANNOT store electricity", either that or you're a moron.

I mean seriously, you could probably get more power on a full moon night with those than with all the solar panels you could put up into space.

Quoting yourself: "Wow OK that's stupid". Google "moon albedo" to start with and then do some math.

What goddamn fucking math, fool?! Do you know how much solar panels you could put in American desert vs. how much in space, the efficiency of the transmission of energy from space, the efficiency of energy transmission on the ground from the middle of the desert, how much the atmosphere impacts the performance of solar panels, and whatever other variable you'd have to take in consideration to make any such maths? No, so STFU, sucker. Besides, that was a fucking hyperbole to begin with, or some shit like that.

Oh, is that so? Then why don't you just invade some more oil-producing countries?

And WTF does it have to do with anything? Other countries don't necessarily have the same concerns, the same resources or the same problems to begin with, so yeah we're better off sticking to the USA cause that's what really matters here anyways. Not like you'll find a one-size fits-all solution for the whole world. As you pointed out Europe for example doesn't have quite the deserted space the USA have, so yeah you realised that while it could be a solution in the US it couldn't be the case for a heap load of other countries. Which closes the discussion about other countries, unless you're going to insist that because it's not a solution for every country it can't be a solution for one.

Yes, right, why read books when you can read Slashdot instead?

"Oh look at me, I read books, I'm such an intellectual. Reading books makes me a better person, good for me!!!1 ^_^". Yeah right, but if you've only read one fucking book about the topic at hand then shut up, cause you can't pretend to have an unbiased and balanced opinion, you can only repeat what you've read with a minor twist.