Who here supports T. Boone Pickens' Energy Plan?

[dallas]

rocketpig said:

NJ5 said:

rocketpig said:

NJ5 said:

@HappySqurriel: There are several countries sustainably using wind power. Denmark has about 20% of its electricity coming from wind. There are many studies which prove it's economically viable.

It's certainly not a silver bullet, and of course you can't put wind turbines everywhere. It still has great potential for many countries though.

That doesn't really negate what Happy was saying, though... Wind works well in areas that meet its specific needs... The problem is that those areas don't appear to be that widely available.

 

According to wikipedia:

U.S. Department of Energy studies have concluded wind harvested in the Great Plains states of Texas, Kansas, and North Dakota could provide enough electricity to power the entire nation, and that offshore wind farms could do the same job.^[61][62] In addition, the wind resource over and around the Great Lakes, recoverable with currently available technology, could by itself provide 80% as much power as the U.S. and Canada currently generate from non-renewable resources.^[63]

This would require the power grid to be upgraded, but nothing comes for free.

I would like to see that study... How much would it cost and how much of the current infrastructure would have to be relocated or removed to make it work?

Not to mention that almost every wind project meets up with stiff opposition from the locals... They're considered an eyesore by most people.

 

 

 Wind power will probably never really get above 20-25% of the USA's power supply, b/c the wind comes and goes.  Granted, using things like industrial batteries to give power have been looked at but we are a far way from implementing ( b/c there really isn't a need with wind being mabey 2% of america's electricity) yet.  

 

We would have to get more transmission lines, with wind power possibly even use superconductors for transmission b/c the economics is a lot better that way.  We would also have to get the intelligent grid much more available to give the utility companies more up to date info so basically, in order to get to the 20% level, we would have to radically upgrade the grid which might be over-reaching.  Google the "intelligent grid", its a new technology just starting to be implemented that basically puts the internet through power lines that will help utilities save labor costs, reduce outage times, reduce power production needs and give completely up to date data on the grid where we really don't have this to nearly the same degree currently.  Cool stuff.  -Dallas