Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Wind Power: No Wind, No Electricity

Link here to the Las Vegas Sun.
In a startling example, the city of Reno’s wind turbines — for which the city received more than $150,000 in rate-payer funded rebates — produced dramatically less electricity than the manufacturers of its turbines promised.

As first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal, one turbine that cost the city $21,000 to install saved the city $4 on its energy bill. Overall, $416,000 worth of turbines have netted the city $2,800 in energy savings.

Not all of the city’s turbines performed so poorly. But on average, the small wind turbines installed statewide through NV Energy’s program have yielded disappointing results.
And so it goes.

Lesson learned, as noted in the article:
“A generator can claim to put out 100 kilowatt hours, but that’s based on an assumption that there’s a certain amount of wind. If you don’t have the wind, you won’t have the output.”
Don't even get me started.

2 comments:

  1. coal generates a megawatt for ten dollars, a megawatt generated by a wind turbine costs forty dollars, subsidised by taxpayer dollars.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. Well said. This blog is not very sophisticated; I've never been good with details. That's why I round numbers a lot, and the numbers you've provided make it very easy to remember. Thank you.

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