http://ecolocalizer.com/2010/03/11/us-could-produce-12-times-its-energy-needs-with-wind-power/ News & commentary on sustainability, activism, urban planning, politics, and our world. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:32:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://ecolocalizer.com/2010/03/11/us-could-produce-12-times-its-energy-needs-with-wind-power/comment-page-1/#comment-83424 U.S. Could Produce 12 Times its Energy Needs with Wind Power « SemiBeta Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:20:41 +0000 http://ecolocalizer.com/?p=7111#comment-83424 [...] A recent study from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) suggests that the continental U.S. has the potential to produce 37 million gigawatt-hours of electricity from wind power each year. That’s a huge leap from the 52,026 gigawatt-hours we used in 2008. (more…) [...] [...] A recent study from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) suggests that the continental U.S. has the potential to produce 37 million gigawatt-hours of electricity from wind power each year. That’s a huge leap from the 52,026 gigawatt-hours we used in 2008. (more…) [...]

]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2010/03/11/us-could-produce-12-times-its-energy-needs-with-wind-power/comment-page-1/#comment-83350 Gerard Vaughan Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:24:27 +0000 http://ecolocalizer.com/?p=7111#comment-83350 Whether they are right about the "Gigawatt-hrs available" or not is a total irrelevance at present. Why ? - because in order to catch these Joules you need to make a system. To make any system system requires - you got it - Joules. kW-hrs - Investment. If the system is of such quality that in a given site it returns only a fraction of one percent p.a. of its cost, then it is doomed to DIE !! And this appears to be the case with "modern windfarms - (without all the energy supplies they purport to replace being available to replace them periodically, that is). Just as "my one little car doesn't make any difference" it is equally untrue that "just my few little w-TADs don't make any difference" What kind of a difference is made is all down to the percent of cost returned p.a. !! Btw, a w-TAD is a wind Turbine-Alternator Device. wTADs have an unusual "economy of size" - the cost per m^2 of weather faced, is necklace-shaped function of diameter of any given design. The lowest region of this curve occurs for sizes where the T costs about the same as the A, which is, very happily, about 1m diameter. A little under this and the need for a gearbox dissappears ! This fact, plus a couple of others, account for the disparity in % of cost returned p.a., between current (80m high) "technology", and what is achieveable with a good design. bertdotwindon@gmaildotcom Whether they are right about the “Gigawatt-hrs available” or not is a total irrelevance at present. Why ? – because in order to catch these Joules you need to make a system. To make any system system requires – you got it – Joules. kW-hrs – Investment.
If the system is of such quality that in a given site it returns only a fraction of one percent p.a. of its cost, then it is doomed to DIE !! And this appears to be the case with “modern windfarms – (without all the energy supplies they purport to replace being available to replace them periodically, that is).
Just as “my one little car doesn’t make any difference” it is equally untrue that “just my few little w-TADs don’t make any difference”
What kind of a difference is made is all down to the percent of cost returned p.a. !!
Btw, a w-TAD is a wind Turbine-Alternator Device.
wTADs have an unusual “economy of size” – the cost per m^2 of weather faced, is necklace-shaped function of diameter of any given design. The lowest region of this curve occurs for sizes where the T costs about the same as the A, which is, very happily, about 1m diameter. A little under this and the need for a gearbox dissappears !
This fact, plus a couple of others, account for the disparity in % of cost returned p.a., between current (80m high) “technology”, and what is achieveable with a good design. bertdotwindon@gmaildotcom

]]>