James Chaggaris wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Wind farms have made my business very happy happy! That said, they are very
> inefficient and not cost effective when compared to coal fired or nuclear
> power plants.
We have a number of them in Lower Michigan. Even with the cost of
maintenance they are able to produce and sell electricity at the same
price as the local 10 cents per KWh and still make a profit. They are
getting ready to build one of roughly 32 square miles in the Gratiot
County area (center of the state)
> Wind power comprises about 1% of the total generation in the
> U.S and wind farms typically only operate 30-40% of the time. If the wind
> is blowing too hard, or too light, the operators won't operate the wind
> turbines and will leave them in locked position.
With variable pitch props on the new ones the wind has to blow really
hard for them to shut down. The problem is a rotating propeller has far
more wind resistance than one that is stopped. So stopping them reduces
the stress on the pole and those things are BIG! <:-))
> One last problem is that
> North America does not have enough transmission infrastructure in place to
> support the current and future wind farm projects.
The lack of grid is a major impact on all forms of generation, but the
larger the power plant the more the impact.
Actually this is one of the reasons for going with many wind farms, or
distributed generation which requires less in the way of transmission
lines. The idea being to generate the power near the user. I believe
it was the state of Wisconsin that got caught with the inability to
distribute the power from a large farm. They had agreed to purchase all
the unused power which ended up costing them many millions of dollars.
> This has to be built
> before more wind farm projects dot the landscape. Also, If the U.S.
> Government ever stops offering tax credits to wind farm developers, the wind
> farms will eventually cease to exist and you could get a deal on a tower hi
> hi.
>
The tax credits aren't all that much over here and for the individual
the state caved in to the electrical monopolies giving them full control
over the system. Used to be the value was the same whether you used it
or generated it. Now you pay retail and get a discounted wholesale. The
Governor makes a lot of noise about renewable energy, but gave control
pretty much to the utilities which are a monopoly.
I had planned on putting in a large system, but as an end user, unlike
California we receive no credits or subsidies which in California can
amount to 50% of the system cost.
Ah, well, at least my farm is leased and I've already been paid<:-))
73
Roger (K8RI)
> 73,
>
> Jim N9WW
>
>
> James E. Chaggaris
> President
> PowerOne Corp./PowerOne Environmental
> 1020 Cedar Ave.
> Suite 203
> St. Charles, IL 60174
> Phn:(630) 443-6500
> Fax:(630) 443-6505
> Cell:(630) 669-2241
> Web: www.pwrone.com
>
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of bill rubin
> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 9:38 AM
> To: Tom Haavisto
> Cc: towertalk@contesting.com; jtml@vla.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] wind farms in west Texas and eastern New Mexico
>
> I support wind farms ! Once they are outdated or found non cost effective,
> they will make excellent support for our wire antennas :)
>
> 73 Bill N1HWC
>
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 9:11 AM, Tom Haavisto <kamham69@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Demand for electricity can vary minute to minute throughout the day.
>> As such, not all units will be running all the time. During times to
>> peak demand, they can have all units running, but during periods of
>> less demand, they will take some units off-line to balance load and
>> demand. They also try to balance things out so that each unit has
>> roughly the same number of hours. They also try to vary things so
>> that not all units will require maintenance at the same time. Its a
>> huge juggling act. Basically, they want to make sure power is
>> available when needed, allowing time for routine maintenance as well
>> as unscheduled down time.
>>
>> Tom - VE3CX
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 1:10 AM, John Lyles <jtml@losalamos.com> wrote:
>>
>>> They are sprouting like weeds. Huge things. Today I passed several
>>>
> miles-long wind generation farms along I-40. I noted that about every 10th
> propeller was not spinning. And it was a windy day, constant out of the SW.
> Do these things have reliability problems, or are they just being installed
> and not working yet? Anyone have a clue?
>
>>> 73
>>> John
>>> K5PRO
>>>
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