This seems like a candidate for the FAIL blog, hence my caption.
Here’s the story:
“We can’t control the weather,” Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas. “We’re looking to see if we can cope with it more effectively, through the testing of a couple of techniques.”
She says the conditions in northern New Brunswick have wreaked havoc on the wind farm this winter.
“For us, cold and dry weather is good and that’s what’s typical in the region. Cold and wet weather can be a problem without any warmer days to prompt thawing, which has been the case this year.
“This weather pattern has been particularly challenging.”
Full article here
h/t to a whole bunch of WUWT readers, “TomRude” being the first.
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I fail to see how wind and solar power have a smaller carbon print/cost than other forms of power. And I include initial construction as well as continued maintenance and long term reliability in my thinking. If you were to include hydro dammed water, you get a bigger footprint at first glance, but the area under the dammed water continues to be productive, thus reducing its out-of-production footprint. Plus the energy produced is far more efficient per household than solar or wind. Furthermore, the large tracts of land under solar and wind that is needed to equal hydro ceases to be productive.
Coal powered plants are another issue. In terms of the total carbon print/cost of energy production, the extraction of coal adds quite a bit to its carbon print.
Strong tides are another potential energy source but initial installation will be huge. And if an earthquake takes it out, you lose big time.
So I seem to be cycling back to hydro and nuclear-type energy generation. I prefer small scale/high numbers over large scale/small number but am not entirely convinced about that issue.
As for fuel to power road vehicles, train, and air travel, I really don’t have a favorite.
Now if push comes to shove and some hamper headed country bottles up the energy it exports, then all bets are off and we dig. This country is filled with able bodied men and women who will sign up to dig for our own energy. That activity is as good as putting a gun in our hands and shipping us over to hamper head country to free up energy supplies.
Oliver Ramsay says:
February 19, 2011 at 12:45 pm
“You must be a pedant of British extraction …”
Quite right, Oliver. Thankyou for your corrections.
Pamela:
The problem with wind and solar power is one of electrical storage. Batteries is not a good solution. Where the boat was/is missed is the execution of such power generation.
If such power generation was used for electrolysis of water into H2 and O2, this problem would be essentially solved. Each windmill and solar panel could become a fueling center for trucks and cars.
In fact, all our generation should run flat out… ALL THE TIME. Grid load supply could then be regulated by diverting power into/out of H2 production. This solution is so obvious, I must conclude, that there is an ideological agenda, somewhere, preventing such practical solution. There is not a power station that does not wish for flat out generation. The wear and tear of large generators load cycling is terrible and expensive. Proper grid design and operation is all that is needed. GK
G.K.;
Uh-huh. And then you deal with hydrogen. The tiniest of all atoms, able to slip through materials and seams like nobody’s business. Dangerously explosive, and burns with a hot, nearly-invisible flame. Huge volumes required for each mass-unit transferred or stored. (It’s actually more concentrated hanging onto a carbon in methane than in liquid or solid form.) Etc.
Hydrogen is tough for even elaborate space launch sites, with huge bucks dedicated to it, to handle. It is hopeless for commercial and consumer use.
Sorry Brian H, I missed your reply. These threads here pass quickly.
Yes H2 handling is somewhat difficult. However, you might be surprised to learn, that all of our large generators are actually cooled by copious quantities of pure hydrogen gas. This H2 is delivered by tractor trailers of long bundles of gas cylinders, using our current public highways. Hydrogen in it’s pure state is a non-flammable, non-explosive gas. It is only when mixed with O2 that it becomes dangerous, like propane and dozens of other gases.
Leakage is a problem, but I hardly would regard it as insurmountable. We are transporting and storing it extensively already. Still, your highlight is important information. Thx GK
“Watts up with that,” is cleaver, but here’s a better one, “SHINE some LIGHT on that!”
: )
Lindsay;
I know that a cleaver cleaves (meat), but are you clever enough to tell us what a clever cleves?
Maybe not …