South Australia powerless as wind generators don't work.

http://www.news.com.au/national/sou...e/news-story/13394f19db1ee94a59f4036fccdc1ba7

renewable energy isnt the problem

 

[video=youtube;Ld6fAO4idaI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld6fAO4idaI[/video]

 

I reckon wind turbines are a big confidence trick, and that by the time construction/maintenance(especially to the off-shore units)/replacement costs are taken into account, the overall power generated will have been negated.

 

You forgot to add in the costs of exploring and drilling for wind and the ever rising cost of wind refining and government wind taxes and then there are the pipelines to deliver the wind to where it is needed.

Oh, and did I mention that those offshore wind drilling platforms are a major source of pollution and destroy coastlines, fisheries and the view from your Incompetent-in-Chief's golf courses?

 

That's a strangely recondite way of getting around to the subject of my admiration for President Trump. Scarcely worth the time it took you to type it. Still, if it made you feel good . . .

 

Yes, there's no wind outside today and I'm very frightened it could be a portent of things to come and more wind outages...

 

So the sarcasm was wasted?

Sad!

 

Never mind, it was a good try! Don't beat yourself up over it.

 

So the plan is to keep an entire power plant on standby until it's needed? Does it stay manned 24x7? Sounds like a colossal waste of money to me.

 

No birds in cattle country? How about bats? http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/...-kill-more-600000-bats-year-what-should-we-do
Hopefully people are far enough away from the wind farm to prevent health problems. http://www.independent.co.uk/enviro...identifies-wind-turbine-syndrome-1766254.html

 

Quick! Emergency!! EAT MORE CABBAGE


Oh! Not THAT kind of wind - lols!!

- - - Updated - - -

More birds die from flying into windows and as for the "health risk" - puhleeese!!!

[The three main pollutants from coal-fired power stations are sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and invisible particulate matter (known as PM10 or PM2.5).

Collectively, they act as irritants and cause inflammation in the lungs leading to asthma, chronic lung disease, and restricted lung growth in children. The small particles (PM2.5 and smaller) are associated with lung cancer and are also absorbed through the lungs into the blood stream to cause angina, heart attacks and strokes.

Research estimates that 24 people die for every terawatt hours (TWh) of coal burnt. Children are at particular risk from air pollution because they breathe more for their body weight than adults.

http://theconversation.com/why-coal-fired-power-stations-need-to-shut-on-health-grounds-68809

Admittedly that is not the best source but if you want it I will post full on research

 

No

Plan is to replace it with micro grids smart grids and battery back up

 

Tesla Power Walls are starting to be eyed off by some as another source of back up power. Setting it up so they can feed back into the grid when required - and the best bit - you are not spending mega millions building big batteries

 

I gather that you don't know anything at all about a natural gas powered generator. You can literally start them up just like a diesel generator as and when needed. They can even be set to start up automatically in the event of power failures.

So no, you don't need to man anything 24*7.

 

People and animals have been living and working around electricity for about a century now. There were silly scares that power pylons caused cancer but that was exposed as utterly bogus.

Most wind turbines are on farms or mountainsides or out at sea. There is no "epidemic" of "health problems" associated with wind turbines.

As far as your article on bats goes it can best be summed up as saying that wind turbines cause far less harm than the pollutants from fossil fuel plants. That would apply to both animals and people.

 

Ultimately it makes far more sense to have micro grids and Tesla walls. If each house, office, building was "energy neutral" in that it was capable of generating and/or storing it's own energy needs then they could be used as emergency power sources when the necessary.

In a country like the US with 4 time zones peak electrical usage drops off around 6-7 pm on the east coast so the stored power could be used to supplement states to the west rather than having to keep expensive fossil fuel plants running. Then the wind power farms could recharge the house, office, building storage overnight and have it available again for the next morning.

The concept makes sense. The implementation will take a little longer.

 

Once individuals can store their own electricity, they won't need a grid. Electric companies would shut down and many people wouldn't be able to provide electricity for themselves. You would have the "haves" and the "have nots". I know I wouldn't want to be on the grid. Self storage would allow me to build more remotely instead of only building where the grid is available.

It would be good for many, but a mess.

 

Don't be.......

You will always need power generation for mines and manufactuing

 

There are many more uses of electricity than merely for homes. Street lights, factories, trains and trams, etc, etc.

The benefit of the grid is networked support. If your local street lights and traffic lights source goes down then the power can be supplied from just across town or all the way across the country.

 

It's not the power but the low freq noise that I've read that can cause health issues. I read at least one story where the wind farm was pretty close to a residential area and caused problems.

So, much like a huge whole house backup generator. Interesting.

 

I agree, but my point is that with fewer people needing the grid, the cost of the grid will be shifted to fewer users and will be harder to sustain without making the grid a totally public industry and tax everybody to support it on top of their individual expense to get away from the grid. That's the mess part. As people are encouraged to store power and not need the grid, they will have to be taxed to support the "slackers" and taxes will increase because the grid will become more expensive for cities to use. I'm not saying it's not doable, just that there would be severe growing pains.

 

Yes, there are anecdotal stories out there but so far nothing substantive that would warrant concern.

Yes, similar to that indeed but on a larger scale. Apparently there are some that use jet turbines to run the generators that more efficient at burning the natural gas.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/424098/ge-announces-jet-engine-inspired-power-plant/

There are even some jet turbines that capture the exhaust gases to create steam and can reach efficiency ratios of up to 80% which is quite staggering for fossil fuel technology. It is worth noting that jet turbines can also run on naturally grown biofuels which are a renewable source.

https://energy.gov/fe/how-gas-turbine-power-plants-work

 

As with any change there are always disruptions of one kind of another. The current profit driven model of delivering electricity might no longer be feasible and it will become just another line item on your property tax bill like roads, snow removal, schools, etc.

 

I would assume your high coal prices are because you don't have much of it or because of government imposed cost on it otherwise coal power is cheap.

 

Tell us how Texas leads the nation in wind energy....