Attractive Wind Turbine Has Low Value

There is a reason that wind turbines have long blades: the power they generate is proportional to the area they sweep, and, since the area of a circle is pi times the square of its radius, bigger means much better.

Here’s an Italian company with a very attractive turbine.  The problem?  It’s small.  You go through all the expense of building a tower, and you get 5.4 KW in a stiff breeze out of it. Why bother?

I understand that some people deem wind turbines to be eyesores, but extremely expensive energy is of no value.  Moreover, we site turbines where the wind blows the hardest, which tend to be places no one wants to live.

 

 

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One comment on “Attractive Wind Turbine Has Low Value
  1. marcopolo says:

    Craig,

    Every day, somewhere on our planet, a new clean tech invention or improvement is commercialized.

    It’s the trill and impetus of these amazing new advances that get me up in the morning excited to go to work and be part of such exciting developments.

    I really don’t care how many projects fail or don’t achieve perfection, a certain amount of failure is necessary to achieve success.

    Yes, it’s important to expose fraudulent or daft inventions, but not to the exclusion of ignoring all the useful clean technology being developed,

    Can you remember the last time you published a positive article about a useful new clean(er) technology that would actually benefit peoples lives ?

    Recently, I attended a technology conference/trade show and was introduced to an interesting new product from a company called MAKO.

    MAKO is a small Australian company producing ‘tidal turbines’ suitable for tidal estuaries, rivers, canals and streams.

    The technology is suitable for numerous applications.

    Although specialized and requiring appropriate locations, given the right circumstance, this technology can provide economically justifiable, reliable “base-load” renewable energy directly or to the grid without storage requirements.

    Not earth shaking, but a positive, if humble,technology.

    The point is, it works! It require no government subsidy, no changes in society or ‘revolutionary’ disruption. MAKO’s turbines just quietly produces renewable energy at an economic cost.

    Most problems, including environmental problems, are solved by relatively small incremental improvements, which, when added together change the world for the better.

    Today I read an article published in the NYT entitled, “Offshore Wind Power Is Crushing Carbon Capture Dreams”

    The article essentially praised the 2015 Obama administration decision to cancel “FutureGen” fully integrated coal power plant and carbon capture project nearing completion, for what at the time seemed for purely ideological/political reason.

    We now know that this technology which cost billions of dollars in taxpayer funding, was transferred for free to the Peoples Republic of China, shortly after a trade mission by VP Joe Biden (accompanied by his son Hunter, who was later paid millions by a Chinese coal consortium as a consultant lawyer).

    NYT acknowledged the US IEA reported the project’s oxy-combustion capacity was a proven technology, which when used in combination with carbon storage captured at least 98% of carbon emissions.

    Oxy-combustion refers to burning coal with a mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide, instead of ambient air. The result is a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide, which is a good form for permanent storage.

    For an extra bonus, the system eliminates all other emissions, too.

    The IEA report continued;

    “In addition, oxy-combustion technology creates a near-zero emissions plant by eliminating almost all of the mercury, SOx, NOx, and particulate pollutants from plant emissions.

    The Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory studies have identified oxy-combustion as potentially the least cost approach to clean-up existing coal-fired facilities and capture CO2 for geologic storage”

    Okay, I thought, maybe the “old grey lady” is finally living coming to its senses and reporting fairly!

    But alas, the article then diverted into a long rant about wind power and how effective it was in Europe,(?!) and how fortunate America is to have cheap natural gas, although fracking should be stopped along with pipelines!

    Meanwhile, the PRC has signed 110 orders to build giant new Coal fired power using this technology. The first has started construction in Pakistan.

    Those orders could have employed US companies and US workers and the US could have recovered the cost to the taxpayer.

    Craig, when you read such information, doesn’t it make you at least curious to investigate if there is any truth in these claims, or are so bigoted that you will ignore this mounting evidence and next month parrot the same old anti-coal agenda?

    Has your fear made you so lacking in objectivity, or has your lack of objectivity made you so fearful?