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World’s Largest Wind Farm Planned In Oregon
cleantechnica.com — The Portland Business Journal reports that Oregon has just been given the go-ahead by The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council to build a 909 MW wind farm in the north-central part of the state. That's enough energy to power 200,000 homes.
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- cougar618, on 07/30/2008, -1/+44Texas will not stand for this.
- falstaff, on 07/30/2008, -0/+7Would be best if they had something to compete for. Say the Federal government puts up an X-Prize style competition: the state with the highest percentage of homes powered by non-fossil-fuel sources each year gets a check for 10% of its state budget.
For now, it wouldn't cost the feds more than around 10-15 billion dollars (a small drop in the bucket) even if CA won it, much less for other states, but it spurs renewable energy growth across the country.- scamper22, on 07/30/2008, -1/+2why?
I doubt I will ever understand people like yourself.
The states are doing things on their own without and X-prize as evidenced by Texas, Oregon...
Why would you want to waste billions of tax payer dollar creating an incentive for something that is already working?
- scamper22, on 07/30/2008, -1/+2why?
- gn0stik, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Texas is behind this, actually. It's a pickens project.
- falstaff, on 07/30/2008, -0/+7Would be best if they had something to compete for. Say the Federal government puts up an X-Prize style competition: the state with the highest percentage of homes powered by non-fossil-fuel sources each year gets a check for 10% of its state budget.
- westbay1, on 07/30/2008, -0/+22I just added something to my favorites about alternative energy financing... I'm glad to see that banks and lenders are putting investment dollars to good use, rather than funding fraudulent sub-prime mortgages. DUGG for going green!
- akpwnz, on 07/30/2008, -4/+17Go green!
- serif69, on 07/30/2008, -0/+6Sick of the "green" movement. How about "Go technology!"?
- PabloMac, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2Go Sustainability!
- serif69, on 07/30/2008, -0/+6Sick of the "green" movement. How about "Go technology!"?
- silencer01, on 07/30/2008, -2/+10Renewable and green energy!
Look forward more countries can build wind farm!- kinerry, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1unless it's not windy, in which case everyone goes without power
- MacBookForMe, on 07/30/2008, -0/+4It was also here http://digg.com/tech_news/Oregon_to_Approve_Larges ...
- hiPpymIck, on 07/30/2008, -2/+3hope they followed this flow chart..
http://www.wwindea.org/technology/ch02/imgs/2_1_im ...- diggydougie, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2For crying out loud. They are just windmills. They make power and cost nearly nothing to operate. Most of your chart is bureaucratic *****.
- hiPpymIck, on 07/30/2008, -0/+4i was just trying to give a picture of what a business would have to do to open a wind farm
...ie follow ***** bureaucratic procedures
/i just like flowcharts
- hiPpymIck, on 07/30/2008, -0/+4i was just trying to give a picture of what a business would have to do to open a wind farm
- 2oonhed, on 07/31/2008, -0/+0I always fully realize my erection commissions & feed-in agreements.
- diggydougie, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2For crying out loud. They are just windmills. They make power and cost nearly nothing to operate. Most of your chart is bureaucratic *****.
- tufftugg, on 07/30/2008, -13/+5 Sorry birds and bats :-(
- nblsavage, on 07/30/2008, -1/+4http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/ms_bats_0302.html
- nwkeeley, on 07/30/2008, -1/+4Wind farms do not harm birds and bats, those blades are spinning slow enough so that flying creatures can avoid them.
- Optiks, on 07/30/2008, -2/+2Wrong. The speeds on the larger ones can reach up to 200 mph at the tips.
- BillE3, on 07/30/2008, -1/+7Tell that to the environmentalists that shut down the wind farm at Altamont Pass between Livermore and San Jose. The birds of prey moved in to nest in the towers and hunt below them. The high number of dead birds brought a suit against the operators, and the windmills sit idle. Environmentalists pushed for the windmills then pushed to stop them.
- Optiks, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2@ BillE3 -
Don't those towers use small-ratio turbines, with lattice-type towers though?
After many studies, that was one several reasons for moving towards larger, taller towers with relatively slower, long-ratio blades.
- Rewebbed, on 07/30/2008, -0/+3Its in Oregon so I think you mean ducks.
- nblsavage, on 07/30/2008, -1/+4http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/ms_bats_0302.html
- Rewebbed, on 07/30/2008, -1/+2"Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council tobuild a 909 MW wind farm"
"The Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm will contain 303 wind turbines"
Which means they must get 3 MW per Wind Mill. So...
"T. Boone Pickens’ 4000 MW Texas wind farm"
must contain about 1,333 Wind Mills.
I knew I seen this on a test before.- serif69, on 07/30/2008, -1/+5You SAW it on a test before. Nails on a chalkboard...
- jthale, on 07/30/2008, -2/+6Where are all these wind turbines coming from?? Can they be made fast enough, cause I'm betting with all these new giant wind farms popping up that there will be a shortage of turbines and every project will end up finishing late.
- sauce4u, on 07/30/2008, -14/+5Waste of money. Wind energy is not even comparable to Nuclear energy.
- lik3n, on 07/30/2008, -1/+6/sigh
- treehugger87, on 07/30/2008, -1/+9Not even close to true. The Pickens wind farm in Texas is going to produce 18000MW at the cost of $4.9 billion by the time it is done. A nuclear power plant cost $11 billion or more, and produces less than 2000MW.
Add to that the long term costs of running a nuclear power plant and disposing of the (harmful) waste vs. the long term costs of running a wind farm and wind beats the crap out of nuclear.- sauce4u, on 07/30/2008, -2/+1so sad
- zacharytelschow, on 07/30/2008, -3/+1"The Pickens wind farm in Texas is going to produce..."
Wind isn't even close cost-wise. Going to is all good and well, but write me when it DOES.
- Shadow120, on 07/30/2008, -21/+1*****
- Rudigity, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2Tourette's?
- 9966, on 07/30/2008, -6/+20I planned to set up a wind farm in Oregon, but I caught dissentary and died.
- atact88, on 07/30/2008, -11/+3wonder how long it'll take to offset the pollution caused by digging, bulldozers, trucks, manufacturing, etc.
- diggydougie, on 07/30/2008, -2/+8I'm all for this. But the population of Portland is 568,380 so they need to build nearly 3 farms to power just that one city. The awesome thing about this is just how much is needed just to replace the existing power structure. I think that building windmills and solar panels could be the next huge industry for this country.
- freebird09, on 07/30/2008, -0/+4You're banking on the fact that every1 in Portland has their own house. My guess is that there is an average of above 2 for each household. Regardless, you do make a good point.
- diggydougie, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2The real answer would be to look at the current capacity of the existing power plants (+ room for growth). Then things like how many per house are meaningless. Also you need to factor in the industrial needs. That's probably double the residential need.
- Buelldozer, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2Interesting point but you couldn't do it all with Wind power anyway.
Hit Wikipedia for information on "base load"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant- diggydougie, on 07/31/2008, -0/+1That's why I think that intermittent sources such as wind and solar should be applied to hydrogen production. You could set up gigantic plants way off in the deserts or wilderness and truck or pipe the hydrogen to the metro areas. This way you are in the "always on" category and have no (minimal) transmission losses. If you need more power you build more generators. But if your windmill supplier raises prices you can go to another vendor.
- docCdav, on 07/30/2008, -0/+3Portland proper, yeah. But the Portland metro area has an estimated 2 million people. Wind couldn't begin to do it all.
Chances are pretty good a lot of that power will be rerouted down to California like the hydroelectric power already being split from the Columbia River. - robbiedo, on 07/31/2008, -1/+1What Portland needs is some way to harness all the smug in the metro area to power the city.
- freebird09, on 07/30/2008, -0/+4You're banking on the fact that every1 in Portland has their own house. My guess is that there is an average of above 2 for each household. Regardless, you do make a good point.
- kclyons, on 07/30/2008, -3/+2If T boone's farm had 1337 turbines then they really would be the best wind farm around
- kronzdigg, on 07/30/2008, -3/+3when the wind blows the light goes
- mrsteve0, on 07/30/2008, -0/+5Now we just have to figure out how to drill out enough wind turbines in Alaska's wildlife.
- Pitofdoom, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Are you trying to insinuate that we would use oil to manufacture turbines. I thought the idea was to spin ox and watter mills.
- newbis, on 07/30/2008, -3/+4If you ever watch The History Channel, try to catch Modern Marvels: Green Energy (or something like that). I normally don't get into shows that tell me I'm evil because I'm killing the planet, but it was pretty awesome.
- DrJG, on 07/31/2008, -0/+1Thank you.
- lik3n, on 07/30/2008, -3/+10Now....let's hope we can get enough people to pass the marijuana bill in 2010.
- vbschoten, on 07/30/2008, -0/+3I still think we need to put more offshore....out of sight
- waldo686, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1ted kennedy won't have that, because it will block his view of the water
- zacharytelschow, on 07/30/2008, -1/+2Offshore, out of sight... oil.
- protodon, on 07/30/2008, -0/+5Wow the World's Largest WInd Farm is pretty much planned twice a week. When Rhode Island comes up with a plan I'm really gonna be suspicious.
- dhs100, on 07/30/2008, -0/+3LOL. This is the 6th time recently I've seen the worlds largest wind farm being built, I mean, honestly. Now Australia, the UK, the US and Norway are all building the biggest. It's good though...I just went to visit a farm near to us and stood underneath one of them...they're awesome...I don't get why some people think they're ugly?
- dhs100, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Hmmm...and two more in america, one in China, the Hebrides and another in London are also the largest...
- PolishLogic, on 07/30/2008, -0/+5Now we just need big sails to attach to our cars for phase two.
- YZBot, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2Heading upwind during rush hour would be a nitemare.
- Pitofdoom, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2Car no, skates yes !
- akchrs, on 07/30/2008, -2/+6This is such a good idea. I wonder why Ted Kennedy (Liberal Democrat from Massachusetts's) is against the Cape Wind Project? Why such the hypocrisy from the Liberal Left?
- waldo686, on 07/30/2008, -1/+4it ruins the view from his estate, and you can't have that now can you
- Mudb0y, on 07/30/2008, -1/+4possibly because its a private (for profit) bid to build the wind farm on public land with little compensation, and that it would possibly hurt the biggest local industry, Tourism.
- twinklyJesus, on 07/30/2008, -0/+7Nothing better than fresh-grown wind, straight off the farm.
- Pitofdoom, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Not if is to close 24/7
- omgsideburns, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1How much would the power company pay me if I let them set one of these ***** up in my back yard?
- Pitofdoom, on 07/30/2008, -1/+1The spinning noise will be worse than liberal whining !
- zacharytelschow, on 07/30/2008, -0/+2My grandpa asked his neighbors, and they said they're getting 6k a year for allowing the windmill on their farms (rural Wisconsin). My dad then wondered how many windmills they could stick on his property (we have about 1/3 of an acre in a small city, lol).
- PabloMac, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1They would fight you tooth and nail, along with the NIMBY crowd.
- badnewshotel, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Is this part of Pickens Plan? Because I heard a better plan, Porkens Plan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_YDf43ltqs - jlo1987, on 07/30/2008, -0/+0Mental note for my next buisness venture. Windmill turbine production... maybe I could do personal home windmill farms... And I invested all that money in solar power.... what was I thinking
- madrigaelic, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1It's a big biz for GE now. Major growth segment. Same for the parts suppliers in China.
- Pitofdoom, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1It that energy available 24/7 or just on windy days.
What is the time horizon on pay off and maintenance costs ?- Barackalypse, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1For every 10 MW in wind generating power they add to the grid, the utility must add approximately 8 MW of conventional generating capacity (usually natural gas) for times when the wind is lacking. So effectively you're double building capacity when you use wind power, and as far as I can tell nobody bothers to account for that cost when they post these articles.
http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-output.php
- Barackalypse, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1For every 10 MW in wind generating power they add to the grid, the utility must add approximately 8 MW of conventional generating capacity (usually natural gas) for times when the wind is lacking. So effectively you're double building capacity when you use wind power, and as far as I can tell nobody bothers to account for that cost when they post these articles.
- zacharytelschow, on 07/30/2008, -2/+1And again... no mention of the cost feasibility, the comparative cost, how it will be financed, nothing. Just "Yay, green!" mentality.
- pathouston22, on 07/30/2008, -3/+1The whole green movement is a knee-jerk reaction.
Electric cars? Grid can't handle it.
Wind? Not 24/7, need grid to transport it.
Natural Gas cars? KABOOM.
Solar? Not economically feasible at the moment.
Oil? OMG HORRIBLE TERRORISM.
- pathouston22, on 07/30/2008, -3/+1The whole green movement is a knee-jerk reaction.
- PabloMac, on 07/30/2008, -0/+8O R E G O N Rocks!
- Barackalypse, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1Did you know that for every 10 MW of wind power you install the utility has to build roughly 8 MW of conventional backup fopr those times when the wind dies?
"According to Eon Netz, one of the four grid managers in Germany, with 7,050 MW of wind power capacity installed in its area at the end of 2004, the amount of back-up required was over 80%, which was the maximum output observed from all of their wind power facilities together."
http://www.wind-watch.org/faq-output.php - convexvideo, on 07/30/2008, -0/+0clean energy.cleaner sky.
- Kangalanatolian, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1This is a great place for something like this. It is very dry up there in the high desert. It is not a bad place for those cheap solar panels either, since they get 300 plus days of sun yearly.
- beauley, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1With Global Warming on many people's minds, do we have any ideas of the best way to lessen the impact on our future, or maybe a possible relief of its possible ravages or even a possible key to its eventual reversal. Many scientific experts have proposed
http://www.quazen.com/Science/Technology/Solar-Pow ...
Solar Power: Source of Endless Energy - thecoolestguy, on 07/31/2008, -0/+2Oh wow, 200,000 homes. All we need to do is cover half the planet with these giant wind farms to power the remaining 2 billion homes.
- DrJG, on 07/31/2008, -0/+2Seems like a good beginning. But why not go ahead too with furnishing all buildings with solar panels on roofs and windows as well, in addition?
- IconoclastStill, on 07/31/2008, -0/+3
- tkstock, on 07/31/2008, -0/+3We should be doing all of it. Solar and Wind efficiency are below 20%, but the electrical grid is probably the most efficient method to get power to the wheels of the car. The problem is that batteries are not up to the challenge. We need short and mid-term solutions like drilling here and now and nuclear power, and we also need to be pumping money into research for long-term solutions, such as solar. Efficient solar cells will be the answer - even on a cloudy day, solar cells produce power.
I believe in researching long-term solutions, but not at the expense of short-term ones. Obama's plan will kill our economy and drive jobs overseas.
- tkstock, on 07/31/2008, -0/+3We should be doing all of it. Solar and Wind efficiency are below 20%, but the electrical grid is probably the most efficient method to get power to the wheels of the car. The problem is that batteries are not up to the challenge. We need short and mid-term solutions like drilling here and now and nuclear power, and we also need to be pumping money into research for long-term solutions, such as solar. Efficient solar cells will be the answer - even on a cloudy day, solar cells produce power.
- CaliforniadDude, on 07/31/2008, -1/+0Go Green. http://www.imeem.com/bestbeachresorts
- oregonwildman, on 07/31/2008, -0/+0It will be interesting to see how Oregon's past and current reliance on big hydropower is impacted by our emerging wind, biomass and wave energy initiatives. Will we curb hydro to save fish as we put more wind and such on line or will we just start selling to California?
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