Wind power: A reality check

[XemaSab]

High-profile personalities have been telling the nation to ditch that dirty fossil fuel and turn to renewable energy.

T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oilman, has been hitting the airwaves, pitching a plan to use wind to replace all the natural gas that's used to produce electricity, then using that saved natural gas to fuel cars.

In addition to weaning the nation from foreign oil, Pickens' plan is not entirely altruistic. He's investing hundreds of millions of dollars on a giant wind farm in the Texas panhandle, and his hedge fund, BP Capital, is said to own stakes in several companies that equip cars to run on natural gas. If his energy efforts pan out, he could get even richer in the process.

Then there's Al Gore. The former U.S. vice president and Nobel Prize winner said last week that electricity generation should be completely fossil-fuel free in 10 years.

The question is, are these plans realistic or just dreams?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/22/news/economy/pickens_wind/?postversion=2008072215

[Kazak]

1. I'm no fan of Pickens,...

(OU fan here, and if you're from Oklahoma you (probably) know what I mean), but are we really going to be able to put any plan forward without first investing in it? :shrug: And, if our investments DO pay off, and consequently those who've done the investing become fabulously rich off they're investments, is that necessarily wrong? Just asking....

[global1]

2. Come On - Didn't We Put A Man On The Moon - Wasn't The Pope Polish........

sure we can do it - we just have to get the oil people out of office before we can start.

[Andy823]

3. Not just dreams.

This is posted further down the board:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x163486

It is going to happen, and if the government would encourage it, and help with research, there can be more than just a few companies owning it all. I think big oil and other industries, are going to invest in renewable energy. I remember back when there was a lot of small oil companies and the competition drove down prices. The actually had "gas wars" where one station would try and cut prices lower than the others. As a teenager in Tucson Arizona, I can remember getting gas for 18 cents a gallon during those price wars! We need competition in the energy markets so we don't have what we have now with just a hand full of big companies owning it all, and manipulating the prices. The future will be renewable energy!

[tech3149]

4. solar power should not be a single technology power source

The power of the sun can be captured through wind, PV, and solar/thermal Any realistic approach will incorporate all three. Fossil fuels are just concentrated solar energy. We may not be able to generate the energy density to equal fossil fuels, but with improved efficiency and intelligent use, we probably won't need it.

[ladjf]

5. We would only need to replace about 25% to 30% of the oil demand

with alternate energies to break the oil monopoly. That would lower the price of oil to a manageable level.