Re: Offshore Wind:"It's the right time for South Carolina to start talking about this stuff."..."

On 26 Feb, 09:05, dave.walt...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Feb 26, 12:37 am, Mike Swift <tomsw...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



In article <1172230170.064450.133...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

xnich...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
By Kyle Stock
The (Charleston) Post and Courier
Fri, Feb. 23, 2007 (extract)

"CHARLESTON - Scientists, lawmakers and utility executives from three
states will gather in Charleston next week to debate the merits of
offshore wind turbines, a technology that is revolutionizing the
energy industry in Europe but running into resistance in the United
States.

A lot of breezes could be harnessed and put to use as an alternative
power source if generators between 98 and nearly 500 feet tall were
placed 8 to 10 nautical miles off the coast, said Nicholas Rigas,
director of S.C. Institute for Energy Studies, a state-chartered
research group based in Clemson.

"It is very encouraging and the political winds are right," Rigas
said. "It's the right time for South Carolina to start talking about
this stuff."..."

"....As talk of global warming and volatile oil prices heats up, a
rash of offshore turbines is spreading off the coasts of European
nations. Most notably, Ireland plans to get 80 percent of its power
from water-sweeping winds by 2020.

The turbines have not turned so smoothly, however, in the United
States. A number of projects have been stalled by opposition from
coastal landowners and tourism promoters. Opponents have argued that
turbines are unsightly, kill birds and interfere with aviation radar,
though all of those assertions have been contested."

Full article:-
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/business/16764...

You must remember that the main function of wind machines is to reduce
the fuel costs of base load power plants. each kW of wind machine
requires between .8 to .9 kW of coal, nuclear, gas, or hydro to back it
up.

--
Mike

Some say we must tax corporations more. What they do not understand is that
corporations do not pay taxes. One of our governments conditions for their
existence is they collect the taxes from their customers and pass them to
the government.
Mike Swift- Hide quoted text -

Actually it requires a 1 to 1 ration since every MW of wind has to
have a MW of fossil/nuclear when that wind doesn't blow. Also, one
shouldn't be mislead by the MW out put. If a 1,000 MW wind plant is
build, it's average output is only 250 MWs based on the 25% capacity
factor. So...perhaps on can say that only 250 MWs of on damand power
is need(!)...since it can only replace 250, not 1000 MWs of that on
demand.

David- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Look at any of the Wind Energy Association sites and they dispute the
above figures.
For one thing, we're talking about Wind power on the grid, not poxy
little projects on the village green.
The wider the spread of the wind farms, the less the problem of "wind
not blowing" becomes, particularly where HVDC lines are used to convey
the power to the areas where it's being consumed.

It's also pointed out that even with conventional electricity
generation sources, there is a percentage of "non-spinning"
turbines, due to a whole variety of mechanical failure in the sytem.
So these are definitely not 100% reliable sources.
Nuclear power, for example, reacts very slowly to surges in
electricity demand.

As I'm sure you know, New England relies on the Quebec Hydro sources
like Lake Manicougan to meet demand when people switch on their air-
conditioners in heatwaves.
In Britain power surges are covered by Dinorwig and other pumped
storage resevoirs. This doesn't necessarily require damning rivers
since the resevoir is recessed in a mountaintop and the water drop is
via tunnels, so the often used argument that says there is nowhere
else to put hydro power doesn't hold up.

With off-shore wind projects, there are higher average wind speeds, so
by locating them at a wide variety of coastal sites (which is
applicable to the UK)
the problem of "intermittency" is reduced. By the way, the Wind power
proponents reject this term in favour of "variability"

It does seem to me that since windturbines main problem with
variability is due to **high wind speeds* forcing them to shut down to
prevent damage, something needs to be done to improve on the design!

I know you are trying to sell base-load nuclear power as the only
answer to the energy crisis, but I'm not prepared to buy it.

I think far more needs to be done on the renewable energy front and if
anything, this country should expand coal production since it's a very
minor proportion of the global problem. That's the position of the
NUM (with due deference to the environmental arguments) and that's
mine too.

Given the private companies behind wind power are often multinationals
involved in coal, oil and nuclear energy, I don't expect that they
will take decisions that harm their rate of profit.

I would of course, favour nationalisation of electric power
generation, re-nationalisation of the coal industry, oil and gas.
Under workers control

.

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