Wind power makes headway in Vt. - Major project wins town’s OK

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2010/03/08/wind_power_makes_headway_in_vt/

Wind power makes headway in Vt.

Major project wins town’s OK

By John Curran
Associated Press / March 8, 2010

LOWELL, Vt. - Last month, about 40 people from this northern Vermont town piled into a coach bus for a daylong trip to Lempster, N.H.

It wasn’t a tourism outing. The trip was arranged so people here could get a first-hand look at the windmills of the Lempster Wind Power Project before they voted on whether to endorse plans for a wind project in their town.

“We had people in doubt who came back feeling supportive because of what they saw and what they heard,’’ said Andy Tetreault, 67, of Lowell, a former dairy farmer who helped arrange the outing on behalf of the developers of Kingdom Community Wind. “They were actually converted by the trip.’’

And then some.

...

[Statistical]

1. Every little bit helps but...

They are shutting down a 620 MW reactor with 90% capacity factor.
The town approved a goal to eventually build a dozen windturbines with total output of 63MW and I am being generous 40% capacity factor.

Vermont Yankee = 4.8 billion kWh annually
63 MW of wind turbines = 0.2 billion kWh annually.

VY goes offline in about 2 years.
They need projects 20x - 30x as large to avoid increasing fossil fuel usage.

Also if the photo is indicative of what the residents were shown then I feel sorry for the bait and switch they are walking into.
That turbine is tiny like 500 - 800 KW. Not the hulking 2.5 MW 400 foot monsters the town's leadership is going to allow to be installed.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. It wasn't long ago that a few wind farms were errected on the New York side of Lake Champlain

Coincidentally, their combined output was about equal to that of Vermont Yankee.

Vermont has been quite slow to install wind farms, but I expect we'll see that change in short order.

[Statistical]

3. You sure about that? Peak power does not eqaul generation (energy).

What matters is annual kWh.

Given on shore wind has capacity factor of 30% to 40% it would take roughly 2000 MW of installed capacity to output the same amount of power.

Not saying it is impossible just more likely that it is a article confusing peak power with the more meaningful statistic kWh generated (energy)

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Yes, I'm aware of the difference

I only know that area press coverage at the time made the linkage. (Vermont Yankee isn't all that popular on the New York side of the lake either...)

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was peak. (Popular press and all...)

[Statistical]

5. Yeah scientific principles and mainstream media tend not to mix well.

[kestrel91316]

6. And THIS is why conservation and energy efficiency are every bit as important

as finding renewable energy substitutes for the status quo.

But Unka Dickwad said conservation was only personal virtue and wouldn't solve any problems, so what do I know?