Nations Largest Windfarm Planned for Texas

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-windfarm12may12,1,5859481.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true



As much as I like this idea, why do I get the feeling that this is only going to enrich the already rich oil industry.

Why can't they build something like this in places like Nebraska, Kansas, or the Dakotas? There is plenty of wind energy there, just waiting to be harvested.

That's what I can't figure out. Of all the windy places in this country to put these, why do they keep choosing tourist areas? I'm starting to smell a rat.

And why don't we have a program to put solar shingles on houses too? There's even a type that work well in cloudy England. Why not here??

http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=uri:2006-04-26T221735Z_01_N26260444_RTRIDST_0_UTILITIES-SOLAR-NEWMEXICO.XML


LOS ANGELES, April 26 (Reuters) - Two start-up companies and New Mexico plan a $1.6 billion solar power farm that would be 30 times the size of the world's biggest one now, with enough power for 240,000 homes.

They also plan a factory to make photovoltaic panels for the farm, near the Mexican border in New Mexico, developers said on Wednesday.

Once the panels are spread out over 3,200 acres near Deming, New Mexico, they will be able to generate about 300 megawatts of electricity while the sun shines, said lead developer Ed Balch of New Solar Ventures, a private company.

New Solar Ventures and another start-up company, Solar Torx, both based in Phoenix, will operate the joint venture.

more ...

dp

Very impressive sight.

Alas, I read later that they are in the flight path of migratory birds, who slam into them at night.

I'm for wind, solar, hydrogen, corn oil -- anything that will work. But we seem to have a way to go yet in figuring out how to make genuinely ecofriendly fuels.

I'd love to be able to afford an off-the-grid lifestyle. Unfortunately, unless you plan to go back to living by candlelight, it costs quite a bit of money to get set up...

Hekate

and off the grid would be ideal if it were not so hard to set up.

for solar power...

for solar energy.

I find it hard to believe that new wind farms are being situated in the path of migratory birds anymore. After the slaughter at Altamont, wind energy providers have been very careful in their placement. In addition, with the lower tip speeds of wind turbines, it's even more unlikely that birds are getting slammed. Especially at night, when most birds are not flying.

And actually a wind turbine for the home, around 3Kw, doesn't cost that much, around 12 thousand dollars. It will pay for itself within 15 years, possibly sooner, and has a lifespan of aprox. forty years. I'm looking into setting up a wind turbine this summer. I recommend that you go with either a Danish or German country of manufacture, those are the wind innovators these days.

Thats what they said about the Wind turbines just north of me. So far, of the 48 installed, only 6 have survived longer than 8 years without mechanical problems and 2 caught fire about 3 years ago, with nothing being done to repair them yet.

And beuracratic mismanagement. I know of several individual turbines and a few wind farms within Missouri that have been functioning well and continuously for fifteen, twenty and longer years. There's a television station just down the road from me that is exclusively powered by wind energy. I've an aquaintance who set up a wind turbine on his property back in the seventies, was grandfathered into St. Charles(MO) and it's still powering his home:shrug:

Sure, like anything else there are going to be break downs and bueracratic screw ups, but by and large, wind is a safe and reliable energy source over the long run.

A local wind farm projected for bettyhill stands to gift the local farmers
lots of money, so some have made sure that no migratory birds can be
found to survey, by hunting them down first, so that no twitcher can
say that there were any birds sighted. Its a strategy, kill the migratory
birds first, and then the wind turbines won't be killing any.

And over here in the US, with abundant space in which to position wind turbines, there is no excuse to put a turbine in the path of a bird route. I understand that Scotland has a lot less land for placement, but wiping out the bird population to place a turbine is just wrong. Sorry to hear that's happening.

from birds of prey, so they shoot all big birds, and when money
is involved, extend the practice. And a lamb fetches 33 pound
at market.. so for 33 quid, they're willing to wipe out
eagles and all sorts of stuff... its really sad.

There are plenty of ways to protect lambs and other young creatures from raptors without having to shoot them down!:grr:

Hell, import some of our bluejays and let them set up their homes in the sheep field, I guarantee you that the jays will keep any raptor away. I've set up a bird feeding station, and whenever a raptor gets too close to the area, up go the bluejays to drive them away.

That's just insane.

I just had a thought of a way to encourage this. Allow home buyers to convert to a wind turbine for the home, and tack it onto the mortgage at an additional low interest, or even zero ineterest, loan. If they get a 30 year mortgage, then the costs for the low interest, or zero interest, loan for the wind turbine would actually be lower than the cost of a normal electric bill.

Possibly, even more than one, if memory serves. I am not sure how badly these wind farms affect birds in general. It is a question worth finding out before we get too many of these going and THEN find out they kill lots of birds.

I prefer windmills to oil rigs, though.

I drove from Santa Barbara to Twenty-nine Palms for a meeting -- it was an experience, but since I don't care for the desert I was never there before and have not returned. I have no idea where exactly the wind farm was, only that it was a fascinating sight. Thank you for letting me know this problem was worked out.

Hekate

on the way to 29 Palms. It's near the junction of the 10 freeway and Highway 62--for some reason I can never remember which road it's on, but I believe it's actually on the 10 freeway. My SO has some property in Wonder Valley east of 29 Palms, so we go out that way quite often.

It's on the south side of interstate 10 maybe a mile or even less west of the exit for 29 Palms.

please forgive my not having the info, but I read that problem had been dealt with.

Can another DU'er help?

"Do wind turbines harm birds?

Some early wind farms increased avian deaths, particularly raptors. Newer wind farms are sited to avoid avian migration routes. New generation wind turbines are designed with tubular towers to eliminate perching and nesting sites for birds and blades that turn slower to make them easier for birds to see."

http://fcgov.com/utilities/wind-faq.php#13

Or if you don't trust the gov's word on it, there's this:

"MIGRATING birds seldom dice with death among the spinning blades of wind turbines. Instead, they give them a wide berth, according to a study of a Danish offshore wind farm.

Desholm and Kahlert found that the birds flew almost exclusively down the corridors between the turbines, with less than 1 per cent getting close enough to risk collision. The birds gave the turbines an even wider berth at night, sticking more closely to the middle of the corridors. Many also avoided the wind farm altogether."

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18625045.500&feedId=earth_rss20

Blue Canyon Wind Farm has 129 windmills working now, with plans to add more in the future.




http://www.horizonwind.com/projects/whatweredoing/bluecanyon.aspx

Our country has sat too long on this type of energy reform.

They don't really want the blade business. Its carbon fibre winding and
bascially aircraft wing manufacture. There is a limit on how large those
turbines can be due to the stress on the rotors. Vertical turbine designs
where the blades swing *around* the support allow for balanced weighting,
and if they were really intrested in wind innovation, would be doing
more along that line engineering wise.

Once the blades become longer than the trucks that transport them there is going to be problems. At some point it becomes impossible to turn the truck without wiping out structures on the outside of the turn.

The problem is the stresses on the blade through a vertical rotation,
involve extension, flexion and compression, forces that change
with the size of the blade, and like with dinosaurs, determine the
ultimate size of the machine by physical force means.

With a vertical spindle, none of these factors plays (as well as
the wear on the rotor of the vertical loading, where at every instant
the loading is stressing the central member/gearbox intensely.)

There is soooo much potential that is yet untapped, fabrics
and so many engineering creations have yet to be applied to
innovative designs.

I hope they make a run for innovation, i love being impressed by engineers
who take their trade serously.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams describes Texas as “the Saudi Arabia of coal.” With 13 billion tons underground, the state is home to 3 percent of total U.S. coal reserves. To Williams’ mind, that represents the future of Texas’ energy production. What’s that you say—coal power is too dirty, a major producer of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming? Not so, says Williams. This is “clean” coal. Williams recently spoke at the University of Texas at Austin, touting Texas’ chance at winning a $1 billion federal grant to build the world’s first “zero emissions” coal plant—part of several efforts in Texas to re-imagine coal as a modern, efficient energy source....

For some environmentalists, that all sounds well and good, except they don’t see anything “clean” about Texas’ use of coal in the near future. Texas coal plants already lead the nation in carbon dioxide and mercury emissions. Karen Hadden, the executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, describes the FutureGen plant as a “one-time show piece.” Hadden also says there are contradictions in the FutureGen project. Dallas-based TXU Energy, for instance, is a FutureGen affiliate, but the company has plans to build 11 decidedly unclean coal-fired power plants in Texas by 2010. “They want to build a generation of dirty plants when the technology is here to make them cleaner,” Hadden said.

Commissioner Williams, meanwhile, said in his speech at UT that he is “not sold yet” on renewable energy because of its high cost. He said that providing cheap and clean coal is his priority. But clean coal may not be as affordable as Williams makes it out to be. One new clean-coal plant will cost roughly $975 million to build—compared with, say, the estimated $300 million bill for the planned wind-power farm in the Gulf of Mexico. And storing the carbon waste produced by the clean coal plant may also prove expensive and environmentally risky. “ sounds real good on paper,” Hadden said, “but it seems to me to be the wrong place to put our energy efforts.”

From the Texas Observer ("Sharp Reporting & Commentary from the Strangest State in the Union")

http://texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2196

there's enough hot air whistling through the "Ivory Towers" to power the entire country.

nothing good or beautiful is allowed, is it? it's just too freakin much

i vacationed there a few years ago and saw the migration of the many birds of prey through the area, including the tundra peregrine falcon

a shame to think of their pathway being destroyed for the greedy few to line their pockets