Comments on: Denise Bode has high hopes for American windpower

By: Benjamin Napier

Benjamin Napier — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:16:22 +0000

Wind power costs more than gas or coal. Purely and simply. The only thing that makes it viable at all is subisidies consisting of money stolen from taxpayers. And, when it is hot and high pressure dominates, there is little to no wind. Add to that, the wind farms are built in remote areas causing high costs to transport the electricity back to high population density areas. Wind power is not a viable alternative to conventional power sources. Nuclear power is. But we are not allowed to build nukes here. Make no mistake about it. If we continue with government subisidized wind and solar power developement and don\’t start building useful power plants, we will be experiencing brown outs and black outs all over.

By: Hank

Hank — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:01:07 +0000

I agree with Bode’s observations regarding the surge in wind power. My comments aren’t intended to detract from her thoughtful points but to balance them in the bigger picture.

Wind power is one facet of a many faceted approach that we need to undertake to develop sustainable energy for the future. The most optimistic studies show renewable energy (wind, geothermal, hydro, and solar) will, at best provide no more than 15% – 20% of our grid needs based on predicted technology advances into 2050. Of course, 20% is a significant enough of a number to warrant ongoing development and deployment of these renewables.

Long term, it is important that we loose our dependency on oil. To accomplish this we need more than a 20% solution. Nuclear is not a renewable energy source but it is sustainable and is a zero CO2 emission energy source. We have sufficient raw uranium resources to last several centuries. Over that time, technologies to re-process spent fuel and extract it from seawater will come on line. Fusion remains a wild card. It might be played – it might not. Advances in solar power generation technologies may make solar a more decided player towards the end of the century – too late to meet 2050 energy goals currently proposed.

Transitioning from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources needs to be done intelligently and using realistic and flexible goals. Nuclear power needs to be kept on the table – actually in the forefront of a multifaceted set of sustainable energy solutions.

By: Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:38:19 +0000

Hi Jessie, I’m from Texas, and if you drive out one of the main interstate highways here – Interstate 10 from San Antonio to El Paso – you pass a whole slew of wind turbines like the ones shown in the image above. You can see huge powerlines leading from them heading back toward the city of Austin. It’s Austin Energy that created them, I’m pretty sure. Austin has a really progressive energy department: http://www.austinenergy.com/

By: Jessie Bombay

Jessie Bombay — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:25:22 +0000

I like it that the impetus for wind power is coming from that guy in Texas that you think of as an oil state