US: Wind power prices now lower than the cost of natural gas

Started by rcjordan, August 17, 2019, 07:22:25 PM

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rcjordan

#15
August 29, 2019, 02:47:40 AM
> at risk of becoming optimistic

Brad

#16
August 29, 2019, 09:59:09 AM
Wind and solar power, I say bring it on.  We've been pooping in our own sandbox with coal for too long and natural gas, while it lasts, is better used heating homes.

I keep hearing the objection that wind power turbines are ugly on the landscape but I've driven through West Virginia, with every mountain top, once wooded and green, now a flat and barren moonscape from mountain top removal coal mining and there is no comparison as to which is more ugly and damaged. 

BoL

#17
August 29, 2019, 10:12:50 AM
Wave energy is another source. They've been testing tech in Scottish waters for a while. The bonus with waves is that it's predictable unlike wind and solar - much more so in our climate.

rcjordan

#18
August 29, 2019, 02:51:23 PM
>wind power turbines are ugly on the landscape

It's weird how perceptions can be so different.  Louise & I find them to be elegantly soothing.  (My town is home to the Southeast's largest turbine farm. Goes on for miles out in the crop fields.)

Brad

#19
August 29, 2019, 06:22:33 PM
>soothing

I don't really have a problem with the looks of them either.  They are better looking than high tension wires.

ergophobe

#20
August 29, 2019, 06:29:43 PM
Quote from: Brad on August 29, 2019, 09:59:09 AM
ugly on the landscape

FUD and NIMBYism. FUD often from those with vested interest in stopping wind, so they talk about the large number of bird deaths which 1) is not true with new slower turning turbines and 2) is still small compared to the number of birds killed in the long term due to pollution and other environmental issues caused by other fuels.

NIMBYism... well, there's always that.

rcjordan

#21
August 29, 2019, 09:21:50 PM
I'll add that many of the farm families around here are openly belligerent toward wind and solar panels --particularly the panels.  They see them as a threat to available land.  I can see that with panels, but the turbines really have a pretty small footprint and the ones around here have crops within 100 feet/33 m.

Brad

#22
August 30, 2019, 09:52:19 AM
It's nice additional and diversified income for the owner of the farm land.  One turbine with access lane takes out about 1 acre, but you earn way more on that acre than you would get in rent for crops.

For the person actually farming the land it can be annoying because you have those access lanes interrupting the rows.

Other costs:

Sometimes broken drainage tiles.

Brad

#24
August 30, 2019, 01:39:35 PM
Quote from: Mackin USA on August 30, 2019, 10:28:35 AM
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/green-new-deal-preview-texas-town-environmentalism-chuck-devore

Well it's Fox News.  The thing is there is always a learning curve, pain and mistakes in adopting a new technology but that does not mean we shouldn't try and also learn. 

buckworks

#25
August 30, 2019, 02:13:34 PM
I never see Fox News where I live, nor read it online.

Is it always that bad?

What a stunning disservice to humanity!

Mackin USA

#26
August 30, 2019, 02:26:26 PM
Mr. Mackin

littleman

#27
August 30, 2019, 02:52:17 PM
>Is it always that bad?

It gets much worse.
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