The Huge Transformer Ship That's Building America's Green Future
Jan 28, 2017 17:18:35 #
Jan 28, 2017 17:53:36 #
Wow, what a behemoth. Two Michigan power companies proposed an offshore wind farm in Lake Michigan just south of Ludington and local resistance was fierce to say the least. They did build one onshore near there though.
Jan 28, 2017 19:07:00 #
BassmanBruce wrote:
Wow, what a behemoth. Two Michigan power companies proposed an offshore wind farm in Lake Michigan just south of Ludington and local resistance was fierce to say the least. They did build one onshore near there though.
Jan 28, 2017 19:31:27 #
Very interesting. Here the sad part.
European Union has made a commitment to supply 20 percent of its electricity with renewable energy by 2020. The U.S. has shown far less enthusiasm.
European Union has made a commitment to supply 20 percent of its electricity with renewable energy by 2020. The U.S. has shown far less enthusiasm.
Jan 28, 2017 20:55:55 #
dirtpusher wrote:
Very interesting. Here the sad part.
European Union has made a commitment to supply 20 percent of its electricity with renewable energy by 2020. The U.S. has shown far less enthusiasm.
European Union has made a commitment to supply 20 percent of its electricity with renewable energy by 2020. The U.S. has shown far less enthusiasm.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the EU crumbles. Britain is out and several other countries are thinking that way! A lot of environmentalists in the US are concerned over bird kills. They are not the most attractive things to see dotting our landscapes. That wind farm in the Tehachipi Pass in California is a real eye sore IMHO. Those acres of solar panels are not much better.
Jan 28, 2017 23:24:56 #
The problem with these resources is that they only work when the wind blows or the sun shines. Power demand is whenever. Thus power companies must still have full capacity. So rates go up...a lot!
Jan 28, 2017 23:27:29 #
MtnMan wrote:
The problem with these resources is that they only work when the wind blows or the sun shines. Power demand is whenever. Thus power companies must still have full capacity. So rates go up...a lot!
Jan 29, 2017 07:07:40 #
bcheary wrote:
It will be interesting to see what happens when the EU crumbles. Britain is out and several other countries are thinking that way! A lot of environmentalists in the US are concerned over bird kills. They are not the most attractive things to see dotting our landscapes. That wind farm in the Tehachipi Pass in California is a real eye sore IMHO. Those acres of solar panels are not much better.
Jan 29, 2017 11:07:18 #
SSam
Loc: Sierra Vista, AZ
MtnMan wrote:
Does it 'sound' any better when you think about 'running out' of oil and gas in the future. These sources (wind & sun) will ever be present.The problem with these resources is that they only work when the wind blows or the sun shines. Power demand is whenever. Thus power companies must still have full capacity. So rates go up...a lot!
Just thinking 'outside of the box' here, but couldn't we use Hydro Electric Dams (or smaller 'storage areas' suitable for small towns or 'neighborhoods') for their constant supply of power. And when the wind and sun are 'working' refill the Dams from the "lake below"? Seems like using the combination of these clean resources will 'work' 24 hours a day.
Jan 29, 2017 11:11:38 #
MtnMan wrote:
The problem with these resources is that they only work when the wind blows or the sun shines. Power demand is whenever. Thus power companies must still have full capacity. So rates go up...a lot!
All true, people will not allow power plants close to urban areas, there ugly. The longer the lines the greater the loss and damage due to wind, ice ect.
Jan 29, 2017 11:28:08 #
So those of you complaining about the aesthetics of wind mills don't mind the ugliness of huge coal fired power plants or their belching smoke, associated disease such as emphysema and other respiratory problems ... not to mention the huge environmental catastrophes coal mines and other fossil fuel extractions present. At one point I spent a lot of recreation time brown water (used to be white water) kayaking in rivers in West Virginia where the rivers had been turned tea brown acid by strip mining runoff. If you accidentally got a drop of water in your mouth you could taste the acid for hours. Of course, no fish or anything else living in their rivers. Those rich enough never drank from municipal water supplies. Made Flint Water look like Perrier.
I used to keep boats in a marina in Salem, Massachusetts next to the Salem Point power station, a huge coal fired generation station and the local electric company as a matter of public relations would come down to the marina every week to wash our boats covered by the plant's emissions of coal ash during the week just passed. I was also a diver and when diving in Salem Sound around the marina I could sort of see through the murk the underwater disaster of all the coal ash washed into the water by the power company created ... and the effects on the town weren't any better.
As for power rates going up with the addition of renewable power privately owned power companies which make a guaranteed profit on every barrel of fuel oil or ton of coal or 1000 feet of gas they buy. They hate like hell to lose this rate payer subsidy and so use every excuse they can to raise your rates while arguing preservation of "share-holder value" for resisting conversion to renewables sources like wind and solar.
Finally, here in Hawaii with the highest electric rates in the country we've finally required power companies to add 100% of new energy using renewables by 2050. Power company fights at every turn to keep using fossil even though Hawaii has more natural sources of power production than any other state (sun, wind, geothermal, OTEC, wave) in the disUnion. Still just this week Hawaii Electric started taking in power from a 100 mega watt solar farm at a price of 14 cents a kilowatt, substantially lower than what it had paid for from the equivalent in fossil fuel. From my roof top solar farm I'm producing more power than I consume and that power goes into the grid as a daily gift to the power company which has the nerve to complain about subsidizing me and other net metering customers!
Power company is actually driving customers off the grid as storage technology like Tesla Power Walls become available so the whole model of centralized power generation is changing to decentralized. Just yesterday I took delivery on a Nissan Leaf to soak up some of that excess power I've been giving away to the power company every year. Within a few years those lovely fossil fuel powered generation systems will seem as moribund as steel mills in the rust belt and we'll be looking at the devastation of the environment by strip mines, pipeline and ship spills as examples of "what could they have been thinking?"
I used to keep boats in a marina in Salem, Massachusetts next to the Salem Point power station, a huge coal fired generation station and the local electric company as a matter of public relations would come down to the marina every week to wash our boats covered by the plant's emissions of coal ash during the week just passed. I was also a diver and when diving in Salem Sound around the marina I could sort of see through the murk the underwater disaster of all the coal ash washed into the water by the power company created ... and the effects on the town weren't any better.
As for power rates going up with the addition of renewable power privately owned power companies which make a guaranteed profit on every barrel of fuel oil or ton of coal or 1000 feet of gas they buy. They hate like hell to lose this rate payer subsidy and so use every excuse they can to raise your rates while arguing preservation of "share-holder value" for resisting conversion to renewables sources like wind and solar.
Finally, here in Hawaii with the highest electric rates in the country we've finally required power companies to add 100% of new energy using renewables by 2050. Power company fights at every turn to keep using fossil even though Hawaii has more natural sources of power production than any other state (sun, wind, geothermal, OTEC, wave) in the disUnion. Still just this week Hawaii Electric started taking in power from a 100 mega watt solar farm at a price of 14 cents a kilowatt, substantially lower than what it had paid for from the equivalent in fossil fuel. From my roof top solar farm I'm producing more power than I consume and that power goes into the grid as a daily gift to the power company which has the nerve to complain about subsidizing me and other net metering customers!
Power company is actually driving customers off the grid as storage technology like Tesla Power Walls become available so the whole model of centralized power generation is changing to decentralized. Just yesterday I took delivery on a Nissan Leaf to soak up some of that excess power I've been giving away to the power company every year. Within a few years those lovely fossil fuel powered generation systems will seem as moribund as steel mills in the rust belt and we'll be looking at the devastation of the environment by strip mines, pipeline and ship spills as examples of "what could they have been thinking?"
Jan 29, 2017 20:19:02 #
SSam wrote:
Just thinking 'outside of the box' here, but couldn't we use Hydro Electric Dams (or smaller 'storage areas' suitable for small towns or 'neighborhoods') for their constant supply of power. And when the wind and sun are 'working' refill the Dams from the "lake below"? Seems like using the combination of these clean resources will 'work' 24 hours a day.
Just thinking 'outside of the box' here, but couldn't we use Hydro Electric Dams (or smaller 'storage areas' suitable for small towns or 'neighborhoods') for their constant supply of power. And when the wind and sun are 'working' refill the Dams from the "lake below"? Seems like using the combination of these clean resources will 'work' 24 hours a day.
This has already been tried and it works well in this instance:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power_Plant
Jan 29, 2017 21:50:15 #
BassmanBruce wrote:
This has already been tried and it works well in this instance:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power_Plant
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power_Plant
I had to look that up. I did not realize that there that many around the world. Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pumped-storage_hydroelectric_power_stations
Jan 29, 2017 22:23:25 #
bcheary wrote:
I had to look that up. I did not realize that there that many around the world. Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pumped-storage_hydroelectric_power_stations
Dang, I had no idea. I thought Ludington was special
Jan 29, 2017 23:19:46 #
BassmanBruce wrote:
Dang, I had no idea. I thought Ludington was special
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