When the shock of the unfolding nuke disaster in Japan passes it's obvious - Wind Power as fast as

[JohnWxy]

we can build it!

After everybody gets over being aghast at the unfolding tragic catastrophe of too-cheap-to-meter power in Japan, can it be any more obvious? We need to develop wind power as fast as possible. It will be cheaper as well as infinitely safer than nuclear. And of course, there won't be any radioactive waste piling up with NO SAFE PLACE TO PUT IT!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/better-wind-resource-maps/#more-18355#more-18355">America’s Wind Energy Potential Triples in New NREL Estimate - Wired magazine




Current wind technology deployed in nonenvironmentally protected areas could generate 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, according to the new analysis conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and consulting firm AWS Truewind. The last comprehensive estimate came out in 1993, when Pacific Northwest National Laboratory pegged the wind energy potential of the United States at 10,777,000 gigawatt-hours.

Both numbers are greater than the 3,000,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity currently consumed by Americans each year.
(more)

I think the biggest demand for lithium batteries may be for storage of wind power (and solar power too), when we are ready to go beyond 20% of the total power from wind (and solar).

[99th_Monkey]

1. What makes you think Wind Power is safe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nSB1SdVHqQ

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Seriously?

What makes you think parking garages are safe?
http://www.google.com/search?q=parking+garage+collapse

[BrklynLiberal]

3. lol

[99th_Monkey]

10. I never said parking garages were safe, but I'm no longer surprised

when buildings just decide to collapse in on themselves for no good reason, not after watching 911.

[truedelphi]

12. Well for one thing, if you buy a wind turbine for yr home,

it can be installed on your roof, in a container that looks for all intents and purposes like your roof has an attic fan installed.

No big deal - as long as it is done in a de-centralized manner.

[kristopher]

13. Rooftop wind is a scam 99% of the time

There isn't enough wind there and the blades aren't big enough to capture the necessary energy.

Even if operating at full capacity instead of the approx 10% that would be realistic it would be like trying to run you home on the electricity it takes to run a similar sized house fan.

[99th_Monkey]

14. I love wind power actually... I was just joshing the OP. ~nt

[truedelphi]

15. There were some pretty weird videos on that

YouTube suggestion page on column to the right of actual video. (Lungs of bats squished by wind turbines, etc.)

Sort of stuff where you read it and cry, or give up and read it and laugh!

[99th_Monkey]

16. I missed the squished bat lungs. Snap. My vote is for laughing ~nt

[dkf]

4. No low frequency vibrations near me please.

I have a hard time sleeping as it is.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Would you prefer coal smoke?

It makes me choke!


http://www1.eere.energy.gov/library/asset_handler.aspx?src=http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/pdfs/wpa/wpa_factsheet_myths.pdf&id=1302

Wind Energy Myths

Wind Powering America

Fact Sheet Series

…

10 Wind turbines are noisy. Modern wind turbines produce very little noise. The turbine blades produce a whooshing sound as they encounter turbulence in the air, but this noise tends to be masked by the background noise of the blowing wind. An operating modern wind farm at a distance of 750 feet to 1000 feet is no more noisy than a kitchen refrigerator.

[dkf]

6. How's bout solar?

Works for me!

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Actually, I prefer solar in the long run

At this time however, wind power is a good deal less expensive/kWh than most solar.

[DCKit]

8. If they refrain from building them on bedrock or use some kind of isolation insualtion...

it shouldn't be a problem. I know it would drive me out of my mind.

Another alternative is vertical turbines. Though not as powerful/unit, they would be less invasive in all ways - far fewer (if any) bird/bat kills and very little vibration.

That said, wind is not the only alternative, and different areas of the country will require a different mix of wind, solar, hydro/tidal/wave, geothermal and biomass.

[Throckmorton]

9. I have worked in nuclear power my entire adult life.

Last summer I took my family on the epic trip from our home in Connecticut to Yellowstone Park and back. I saw mile after mile of wind farms, both operating and under construction.

When I got back to the office, I told my co-workers, "I have seen the future, and it ain't us".

The current disaster has just sealed our fate.

No, I'm not some luddite that can't "Do Math". I deal with it every day, and I can see the writing on the wall.

Does it mean we go to demand pricing and multi-tier electric rates for retail customers, maybe it does.

I have always said "If any one of my children ever walk in the gate at my plant, I have failed as a parent", and so it goes.

I understand it is the nuclear apple, and the solar orange, but who would take the risk now?

As arguably 30 to 40 Billion dollars of investment lies in ruins, and who knows what the costs will ultimately be, both economic and human, for the clean up, who will want to take the risk now?

I know all about the deaths from coal pollution and its human toll, my first wife died of cancer at 39, maybe as a result of that very air pollution. But, one death at a time does not make headlines, and even if no one is killed as a result of this disaster, the specter of these accidents will haunt my industry for generations.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. My sympathies.

It is never easy to realize one is a Dino.

:hug:

As to people dying, you know this better than most.... The 50 employees at TEPCO and the firefighters working with only turn out gear.

[Fledermaus]

11. Wind and pumped hydro for storage.

[Strelnikov_]

17. Seconded

With pumped hydro, once the reservoir and pen stocks are built, you have a facility with minimal operating cost for decades.

Large up front cost, but once built a facility that can benefit society for decades.

[NickB79]

18. It's just difficult finding enough areas to place pumped hydro

The thing that makes the Great Plains the Saudi Arabia of wind, it's flat topography, also makes it suck for pumped storage. You could send the electricity a thousand miles to the Rockies or Appalachians and dam a crapload of valleys, but then you run into issues of transmission losses and the environmental effects of creating artificial lakes. Of course, even with all that it's still heads and shoulders above coal power.