Comments tomgray has made

Dependent Wind, Part 2

Stepping back for a moment, the truth is that to date, policy intervention of some sort has been needed wherever in the world wind power has developed.  I suspect the reason for this has less to do with its economics than the fact that it is variable (and new) and utilities, in general, have preferred to hope that it would just go away.  This attitude is changing--Xcel Energy is now a strong proponent of wind, and there are others--but it takes time.

It's interesting to note that while changes to the utility system will be needed to accommodate large amounts of variable wind, similar changes were required with the advent of nuclear power ...

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org
On Subsidies for wind power pale beside subsidies for nuclear posted 1 year, 6 months ago 23 Responses

All That Electricity

The point is that nuclear energy is actually producing a lot of electricity for all those incentives. The U.S. is not getting the same returns from wind and solar.

As another commenter notes, this is disingenuous.  While wind enjoyed a brief but very small boom in the early 1980s, its steady growth did not begin until late 1998--we're comparing wind after one decade with nuclear after five.  My guess would be that in 1970, the per-kilowatt-hour returns on nuclear subsidies would have looked pretty puny too.

The American Wind Energy Association has prepared a more detailed response to the EIA report.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org
On Subsidies for wind power pale beside subsidies for nuclear posted 1 year, 6 months ago 23 Responses

Yes, we've thought

The first wind farm in Pennsylvania was built on abandoned strip mine land, and there have been a few others.  However, there are a number of other factors that go into siting: average wind speed (of critical importance to delivering electricity that is affordable); access to transmission; ability to use heavy equipment at the site to install turbines; etc.  Using abandoned mining land is certainly a plus if possible, but it's just one part of the site selection process.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.powerofwind.org
www.awea.org
On Clean-tech and wind power both soaring posted 1 year, 10 months ago 11 Responses

20% by 2020

Here's a graph that gives a feel for how rapidly wind is growing.  We reached 4,000 megawatts (MW) cumulative installed at the end of 2001, 8,000 MW at the end of 2004, and 16,000 MW at the end of 2007 ...

Regards,
TomOn Clean-tech and wind power both soaring posted 1 year, 10 months ago 11 Responses

Domenici Amendment Defeated

The Domenici amendment was defeated moments ago, 56-39.  There is still time to support the Bingaman Renewable Energy Standard.  If you support this first meaningful step to fight global warming, call your Senator's office through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
risingwind.blogspot.com
On Make your opinion heard posted 2 years, 5 months ago 5 Responses

Wind and Storage

Wind power is cost effective if we don't count the costs of energy storage.

This is not quite correct.  Utilities already have to cope with fluctuating demand for electricity throughout the day and year.  The variability of wind adds only modestly to overall system variability.  It's appropriate to charge wind for the cost of dealing with that extra variability, but not for 100% storage of all wind generation.  Here is some language from a draft fact sheet we have on this issue:

On the cost side, at wind penetrations of up to 20% of system peak demand, system operating cost increases arising from wind variability and uncertainty amounted to about 10% or less of the wholesale value of the wind energy. These conclusions will need to be reexamined as results of higher-wind-penetration studies -- in the range of 25% to 30% of peak balancing-area load--become available. However, achieving such penetrations is likely to require one or two decades. During that time, other significant changes are likely to occur in both the makeup and the operating strategies of the nation's power systems.

More good info on this available from the Utility Wind Integration Group.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
risingwind.blogspot.com
On An insider's view of the wind industry posted 2 years, 6 months ago 6 Responses

Not a donation

I agree, seems like it, but it isn't.  Why?

If it were really a donation, then there would be no limit to what you could donate.  Renewable energy credits are limited by the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity that are produced.  No kWh, no credit.

There is a credit tracking and certification organization, Green-e, that certifies credits sold to consumers.  Check their site for a list of qualifying sellers.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.orgOn Are the wind credit cards deceptive? posted 3 years ago 20 Responses

Dave's original thesis

Good point, jdhlax.  Dave's original thesis is, no sense in talking doom and gloom, because it doesn't do any good.  But, it doesn't really do any good to show people "a path to where everything will be OK," as he suggests, either.  EVERY pronouncement on climate change has included that info from Day 1.

Let's look on the "bright" side, Dave: talking doom and gloom can't hurt, and maybe it will add the sense of urgency that cannot be obtained by pretending that global warming is just a minor problem.On Gaia theorist says we're all doomed posted 3 years, 10 months ago 34 Responses

And still we dismiss it . . .

It's great that YOU know that global warming is serious, David.  Yet even today, nearly 20 steadily warmer years after the alarm was sounded in 1988 by James Hansen, the disinformation effort continues:

• Paid skeptics contend that it will just mean a greener Earth;

• The Bush Administration decries the loss of jobs that would result from reining in global warming pollution;

• There is still talk of simply adapting to an Earth that is a few degrees warmer, as if it were an unusually warm day;

• A best-selling novel chalks the whole thing up to a sinister green conspiracy, including pages of bogus references;

• Most scientists hedge their words with great care, lest they become targets of the paid disinformation lobby.

All that disturbance . . .

"The Clipper turbine will disturb and compact 10 acres . . . "  Well, sort of: actually, 8.5 acres will be temporarily disturbed (as in construction) and 1.25 will be permanently disturbed.  The Environmental Assessment (EA) also concludes with a finding of "no significant impact."  Of the disturbance specifically, it says it "would likely cause negligible impacts because of the limited amount of area that would be affected . . . "

As for the sound of the turbine, yes, it's estimated at 105 decibels at 415 feet.  The EA also says that it "would not likely be highly noticeable more than 1,000 feet away . . . " (p. 50)

The displacement of elk, deer, etc., as noted, is DURING CONSTRUCTION.

Regarding disturbance to raptors, the EA says, " . . . the Proposed Action [construction and operation of the turbine] would not have any significant impacts on raptors."

I agree, useful reading, but it does little to suggest that wind energy is not a significant improvement over other energy options.

Tom Gray, American Wind Energy AssociationOn Umbra on wind farms ... again posted 4 years, 3 months ago 56 Responses