Wind power has let us down.

[Kiwi cop]

We are in the middle of winter here in Kiwiland. Over the weekend a big storm hit. In Auckland the main highways system was shut down in places due to wind and elsewhere there were travel warnings in place. Snow closed the main highway through the central North Island yesterday, our mail could not be delivered and the ski field operators were happy with the resulting dump of snow.

Yesterday afternoon the storm broke. It was still, calm and sunny, but.... when the sun went down so did the temperature. Then about 8 pm (on one of the coldest nights of the year) our electricity lines company put out the word, Generation was down, energy retailers had to institute rolling power outages of 4 hours duration.

The storm had stirred up weed in one of the big hydro lakes. The weed was clogging the water intakes to the generators. Add to this that the wind farm near us, less than 2 years old but supplying a significant amount of power to the grid, could not produce electricity because there was no wind!

One of the bigger power stations in the North Island is gas and coal fired and they had one of their generators offline to reduce the generating companies carbon footprint and avoid paying carbon tax!

So much for green energy. (Okay I know that in Texas this last February the wind generators froze so this is nothing new).

Thankfully we were not effected this time (a power outage during a storm last month resulted two TV's, 3 blu-ray/DVD players and a whole lot of other items including Karen's treadmill blowing and the house almost catching fire. Tomorrow the heat circulation people come to see just show damaged the unit is. My insurance company loves me this year (not....)

I wonder just how long it is going to take for people to realise that fossil fuel generation is a failsafe, not a liability.

 

[Breakaway500]

When the wind dont blow and the Sun dont shine the greenies plan B is..nuclear. Makes good ole all natural crude oil look pretty sweet.

 

[HardToHandle]

My local utility in the US is 83.6% renewable last year…
But we have environmental groups suing to eliminate the thin coal backup capacity maintained just for the situation that Kiwi Cop described. Wind generation is great until the wind doesn’t blow.

Balance and moderation in all things.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

For 33 years my primary heat source was a wood stove. Good exercise, renewable, generally affordable. But 8 to 12 cords a year make a lot of ash to dispose of. And the fine ash circulates around the house.

If your life is going to have artificial light and heat, there is no free lunch!

However a modern lifestyle can be maintained with an affordable "Plan B", but "B" plans cost time, money, & maintenance (3 things modern lifestyle strives to keep away from you!).

My wife read an article 20+ years ago that stated Americans averaged 500 calories a day of overweight. If everybody just walked a couple miles a day to work, fetched their drinking water from the river, and cooked and heated with wood they chopped. We would be a nation of thin people, it's that easy! We would also have Colora, brown skies, and our towns would smell of waste! In this country (and many others) You can choose to be Amish, but not a very large percentage choose that lifestyle!

Ivan

 

[Greyman50]

Look up wind power in Boone N.C., LOL….

 

[Old_Cop]

I wonder how the grid will handle the additional electric vehicles in 2030?

 

[Glashaus]

I feel for you. I am in Texas and went through the power outage last Winter. I am in the business of manufacturing and supplying electrical power distribution equipment, 480V - 34kV , both NEC and IEC , to the US and international. We sell to oil/gas/chemical, power distribution providers. “Green” energy is not the answer and never will be. We are entering a new world for power supply and consumption. Prepare for more rolling blackouts and have a backup plan.

 

[6518John]

Giant Fans—problem solved!

Here you go Kiwi Cop:

 

[bigwheelzip]

It's too bad about your power loss, but we've all been through it, and always will, as long as we are dependent on grid power, regardless of the generation source.
Best to heed the advice of member Glashaus, and have a backup plan.

 

[s&wchad]

I wonder how the grid will handle the additional electric vehicles in 2030?

Details, details…. There you go again, letting logic and reason get in the way of “feel good” technological change.

One of the bigger power stations in the North Island is gas and coal fired and they had one of their generators offline to reduce the generating companies carbon footprint and avoid paying carbon tax!

No way I can buy into carbon taxes. A stupidity tax on policy makers sounds like a better idea!

People in developed countries should demand reliable power. Solar panels don’t work when it’s overcast or dark and windmills don’t spin when it’s calm. Technology hasn’t come up with a viable way to store energy, so traditional back-up systems are necessary and shouldn’t be penalized when they’re needed. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

Ludington Michigan has an interesting but terribly inefficient way to generate power when “green” methods are useless. They pump water out of lakes or reservoirs and into water towers during the day using solar or wind energy. At night, they allow gravity to pull the water through turbines which generates electricity. Laws of physics dictates that it will always take substantially more energy to pump the water up then they can generate on the way down, so there’s a huge net loss.

The plant originally cost about half a billon dollars and they’re just wrapping up a massive “upgrade” to the system. If this was a viable and profitable method, private industry would be building these plants right and left. There’s a number of these systems in existence, but they’re of course operated by regulated public utilities, so money is no object!

Too bad they can’t find a way to make energy from pixie dust and specious good intentions!

 

[rockquarry]

Wind farms are not a consistent, reliable source of power. Without federal government incentives, guess how many wind farms you'd see?

 

[Faulkner]

Wind energy does not seem so green when hundreds of non-recyclable fiberglass wind turbine blades are pictured piling up in just one landfill in Wyoming. Indestructible wind turbine blades can't easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. Instead they are hacked into pieces small enough for a flatbed and hauled to landfills. About 8,000 of the blades are decommissioned in the U.S. every year.

 

[rockquarry]

Wind energy does not seem so green when hundreds of non-recyclable fiberglass wind turbine blades are pictured piling up in just one landfill in Wyoming. Indestructible wind turbine blades can't easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. Instead they are hacked into pieces small enough for a flatbed and hauled to landfills. About 8,000 of the blades are decommissioned in the U.S. every year.

There's a lot of required maintenance to the windmills. The worn out blades are only one aspect. I saw a big pile of these next to I-40 between Tucumcari and Amarillo about ten days ago. Indeed a lovely sight...

 

[chief38]

Move to Wash. DC - - plenty of wind there!

 

[SS336]

Wind energy does not seem so green when hundreds of non-recyclable fiberglass wind turbine blades are pictured piling up in just one landfill in Wyoming. Indestructible wind turbine blades can't easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. Instead they are hacked into pieces small enough for a flatbed and hauled to landfills. About 8,000 of the blades are decommissioned in the U.S. every year.

I never thought of that.
Maybe we, as a population, should not be worried of “climate change” and start worrying about being buried alive in our own trash.

 

[TXBryan]

Our county has two wind farm projects. The first, almost 20 years old, consists of 86 turbines. The second, not yet complete, includes 140 larger and more modern turbines. None on our ranch but I can see 13 from my cabin porch and don't quite have enough extension cords to reach the closest one.

When we head to the ranch from town we pass all the original 86 turbines and on the hottest days in mid-afternoon it's common to see 20 or so of them feathered and hence not generating. The custodians of the turbines well me this more than would be down for maintenance or other "issues." So my question is if we don't need the full capacity of the 86 feeding into "the grid" why are we building another 140?

I've asked the managers of the projects about this and they universally reply these decisions are made well above their "pay grade." There may be no better example of answers being down the path of "follow the money" than wind turbines.

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

Wind energy does not seem so green when hundreds of non-recyclable fiberglass wind turbine blades are pictured piling up in just one landfill in Wyoming. Indestructible wind turbine blades can't easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. Instead they are hacked into pieces small enough for a flatbed and hauled to landfills. About 8,000 of the blades are decommissioned in the U.S. every year.

The greenies great idea of plastic instead of paper grocery bags has come back to bite them in the ***; and this "clean" wind energy will too.

 

[rockquarry]

Our county has two wind farm projects. The first, almost 20 years old, consists of 86 turbines. The second, not yet complete, includes 140 larger and more modern turbines. None on our ranch but I can see 13 from my cabin porch and don't quite have enough extension cords to reach the closest one.

When we head to the ranch from town we pass all the original 86 turbines and on the hottest days in mid-afternoon it's common to see 20 or so of them feathered and hence not generating. The custodians of the turbines well me this more than would be down for maintenance or other "issues." So my question is if we don't need the full capacity of the 86 feeding into "the grid" why are we building another 140?

I've asked the managers of the projects about this and they universally reply these decisions are made well above their "pay grade." There may be no better example of answers being down the path of "follow the money" than wind turbines.

Finding the top dog with many such projects like wind farms is like trying to find out the real owner of an adult bookstore. By design, they prefer to be well insulated from contact.

 

[Puller]

Move to Wash. DC - - plenty of wind there!

That's man made and it's mostly hot air.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

Of course we could all depend on companies to supply us a cheap source
of electricity. Enron comes to mind, remember them?