"Yet experts say that without a solution to the grid problem, effective use of wind power on a wide scale is likely to remain a dream.
The power grid is balkanized, with about 200,000 miles of power lines divided among 500 owners. Big transmission upgrades often involve multiple companies, many state governments and numerous permits. Every addition to the grid provokes fights with property owners."
Reality will always dampen the dreams and rhetoric of rabid wind advocates. This is not a new problem. Those advocating enormous amounts of renewable electricity from wind should know that the task is not as easy as the politicians and others make it appear. Can it be done? Sure, but not cheaply or quickly.
Here in Vermont we only need to look at the VELCO transmission line upgrade project and the huge costs and extended time for permitting when the NIMBYs and environmental zealots mobilized. The same problem exists here with siting the huge turbine towers that are essential for large scale wind production.
The wind advocates will always bump against the hard reality of towers and transmission line placement.
Al Gore and Gaye Symington, are you paying attention?
4 comments:
Are you for or against wind energy? You have called at least some wind advocates "rabid" and at least some of their opponents "zealots."
Which one are you?
I try to be a realist. The promise of wind and solar to generate any meaningful percentage of U.S. electricity needs is decades away. They both have a place, but will not keep up with demand. The political rhetoric on the subject is high minded, attractive and alluring, but generally out of touch with reality.
The alluring political rhetoric that says we can drill our way out of this problem is more out of touch with reality than the rhetoric that supports wind and solar.
We can drill like maniacs, but it won't help. Oil and gas are finite and the low hanging fruit has been had. The stuff that remains will be harder and harder to get. The law of diminishing returns will eventually make drilling useless.
If meaningful wind and solar are decades away, then we'd better get started. You can stand on the sidelines with your arms folded calling yourself a realist, but it doesn't do any good.
See my post with the link to the Popular Mechanics article. More drilling is necessary because the time line for "energy independence" from "renewable alternatives" is much longer than people believe.
The fact is, like it or not, we live in a petroleum/hydrocarbon economy and that will not change quickly.
Wind energy will certainly be part of the mix of energy sources, but politicians who raise expectations beyond reality hinder rather than help the rational development of wind resources. They are not credible.
T. Boone Pickens, seeking to make another buck, has a better plan than any rhetoric bubbling from Al Gore, who would eliminate coal as a source of U.S. electricity in 10 years.
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