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Gas Wants To Kill the Wind
RABarnes writes "Scientific American has posted an article about the political efforts of natural gas and electric utilities to limit the growth of wind-generated electricity. Although several of the points raised by the utilities and carbon-based generators are valid, the basic driver behind their efforts is that wind-generation has now successfully penetrated the wholesale electricity market. Wind was okay until it became a meaningful competitor to the carbon dioxide-producing entities. Among the valid points raised by the carbon-based generators are concerns about how the cost of electricity transmission are allocated and how power quality can be improved (wind generation — from individual sites — is hopelessly variable). But there are fixes for all of the concerns raised by the carbon-based entities and in almost all cases they have been on the other side of the question in the past."
I don't belive we'll ever be able to get back a US where there isn't government subsidies in everything.
Nor would we want to. That caused the Great Depression. Regulation of the free markets is a necessary activity. Any economist will tell you there needs to be ways of moderating the natural boom-bust cycle of capitalism. Of course, nobody agrees on how to do this... Subsidies are one answer. If you want to suggest another one, present your argument, but don't just wish for it to go away without a valid replacement.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
proposed to deny federal clean energy grants to wind developers that buy blades, turbines and other components from abroad.
Hey, if you want money from Uncle Sam, you gotta play the game the way it's played. You're always welcome to secure private financing and build it any way you please.
too bad we outsourced most of our manufacturing years ago
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
What's a redneck's idea of foreplay? "Hey, sis. You awake?"
Similar to the upcoming US election results
The gas companies have nothing to worry about. Turns out wind energy is a wash. To efficiently produce wind energy, they have to have very accurate wind forecasts which involves running highly parallel computer models on lots of CPUs. Turns out that the energy consumed by all those computers exactly offsets the energy produced by the wind farms they're forecasting for, so wind should have no net effect on the energy markets.