Wind power couldn’t keep the lights on in Texas

More on the Texas event

Rob Gramlich is correct. It’s also important to note that when the wind stops blowing and wind farm electricity generation drops, the process usually takes hours. By contrast, other power plants may go out of service instantaneously when a problem occurs. Wind forecasting can and is being used by utility system operators to manage wind on their systems, and will become standard practice as the use of this clean, renewable energy source continues to grow. — Tom Gray, American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org

Wind power couldn’t keep the lights on in Texas

This story is incorrect. No communities were without power. Some industrial customers as part of a voluntary “interruptible load” program were interrupted. Please check your facts.

Is prob’ly Exxon misinformation.
:eek:

cold weather?

Its amazing that this story with its point of view has to come from Seoul. Seems almost intentional mis-information.

whats cold for Texas is likely cool weather for most everywhere else.

Gonna keep the lights on in Arizona...
;)
Navajos to go into wind business
March 28, 2008 — The Navajo Nation could play host to hundreds of windmills on its Arizona reservation near Flagstaff under a renewable energy plan.

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The Arizona Republic reported that the windmills, standing 400 feet tall, would be erected as part of an agreement between the Navajo Nation and Citizens Energy, a Boston company. The Dine Wind Project would be the first commercial wind farm in the Grand Canyon State, the newspaper said.

The agreement resulted from negotiations among Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., other key tribal officials and Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph Kennedy II, a former member of Congress.

Shirley said in a statement that the wind farm will “bring prosperity for the Navajo people and build our energy independence while providing jobs and other benefits for the Navajo Nation."

Navajos will have “a significant ownership stake” in developments, reaping $60 million to $100 million over the project’s lifetime, the tribal statement said. The operation is planned in the Gray Mountain area, about 50 miles north of Flagstaff.

[url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/28/navajos_to_go_into_wind_business/8115/:
Source[/url]

Texas goin' the way o' wind...
;)
Texas wind power could stall gas-fired projects
Thu Apr 24, 2008 - Rapid growth in the Texas wind power sector could lead several energy companies to reconsider plans to build or expand natural gas-fired plants to fill a looming electric crunch.

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Texas will have nearly 5,000 megawatts of installed wind generation this summer, up from less than 3,000 a year ago. Regulators are mulling paths for new power lines that could move 5,000 to 18,000 MW of additional wind power from rural areas in western Texas to cities in the north.

New wind power could clash with more than a dozen gas-fired projects on the books of Calpine Corp., Exelon Corp, and FPL Group and others, that together exceed 12,000 MW, experts said. Companies that have proposed new gas plants “are concerned about the uncertainty of the future level of wind generation and the impact of the nodal market," said John Moore, a director of Navigant Consulting in Austin.

FPL Energy, which has filed an application to add 300 MW at a Lamar County gas plant, said it has not yet committed to build. “The expansion is something we are looking at, but no decision has been made," said FPL spokesman Steve Stengel. “A lot depends on economics."

Among other active developers, LS Power Group seeks to build 1,400-MW gas plants in Navarro and Montgomery counties; and Topaz Power Group wants to repower two existing gas-plant sites in South Texas with 700 MW each.

More [url:
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN2445449120080424[/url]

Guess we would be independent of foreign wind power...
:cool:
DOE Report: Wind Could Power 20 Percent of US Grid by 2030
May 12, 2008 | A new report from the Department of Energy claims that wind turbines could generate 300 gigawatts by 2030, which would power about 20 percent of the US electrical grid.

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The forecasting scenario would require tremendous growth in the wind industry, which currently produces about 17 gigawatts of electricity, or a little over one percent of total capacity. All by itself, such a change could reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation (think: coal and natural gas plants) by 25 percent and drop water consumption by four trillion gallons. These benefits could be achieved at a cost of about six bucks per person a year, say the report’s authors. “To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale will be necessary, and will require us to take a comprehensive approach to scaling renewable wind power," said Andy Karsner, the DOE’s assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy in a release.

Currently, fossil fuels generate 85 percent of American energy, and about 70 percent of our electricity. Renewables (outside hydroelectric dams) are only responsible for a couple percent of our current electricity capacity. However, wind power has been expanding rapidly, growing 45 percent in 2007, as its cost has become competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources. Major business players from General Electric to oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens have gotten behind its deployment. Pickens, for example, is planning a $10 billion, 4-gigawatt peak production wind farm. A major driver of these investments is the price of oil, which is sitting over $120 a barrel, with long-term futures contracts also over $100 a barrel. The cost of natural gas is pegged to the price of oil, so rising oil costs make alternative energy investments more attractive. At the same time, scaling wind technologies is bringing their price down.

But there are major questions about the actual electricity production that wind farms put out. As many wind critics point out, four gigawatts of wind power isn’t the same as four gigawatts of coal because the wind isn’t always blowing, reducing their average watt ouput. Many grid engineers also think wind is a nightmare because it is so inconsistent, a problem that mass deployment of wind will make more and more apparent. It’s worth noting that while the Department of Energy paid for the 248-page report, it did use information from a Black and Veatch consulting report commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association. The full report is available at 20percentwind.org. Yet among the current renewable options, wind and solar thermal appear to be the only technologies that could produce power at the utility-scale. Traditional solar photovoltaics have long payback times and are even trickier for the dumb electric grid to handle than wind.

More [url:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/doe-report-wind.html[/url]

Uncle Ferd says they oughta set up a windmill in front of all these blowhards runnin' for office...

... would provide enough power till the next election.
:p
Maverick Oilman Bets $2B on Wind Power
May 15, 2008 - Maverick oilman T. Boone Pickens places $2 billion bet on wind power in massive Texas project

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Maverick oilman T. Boone Pickens' plan for a mammoth wind farm in the Texas Panhandle is a $2 billion bet that Congress will extend a tax credit critical to the environmentally friendly industry. Pickens' company, Mesa Power, is purchasing hundreds of wind turbines from General Electric Co. to create the Pampa Wind Project, which will eventually cover 400,000 acres and generate enough power for more than 1.3 million homes.

“We are making Pampa the wind capital of the world," Pickens said. “It’s clear that landowners and local officials understand the economic benefits that this renewable energy can bring not only to landowners who are involved with the project, but also in revitalizing an area that has struggled in recent years."

Pickens said the total cost of the deal will grow to between $10 billion and $12 billion after the initial $2 billion investment in GE’s turbine technology. The entire four-phase project is forecast for completion in 2014. It will eventually have 4,000 megawatts of capacity.

More [url:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/wireStory?id=4861324[/url]