wind energy

We could be looking at a bumper crop of wind turbines:

A utility based in Chicago is proposing an 80-megawatt wind farm in eastern North Carolina. The company Invenergy sent an application to state officials last week for a facility with 49 turbines at a site in Beaufort County. Jay Lucas is an engineer with the state Utilities Commission. He says an 80-megawatt farm could power 20,000 homes, depending on wind capacity.

Wind energy could end up being Eastern North Carolina's economic savior, and the NCUC should fast-track these applications as much as humanly possible.

In America, today, there are three kinds of drivers: those who look at the other gas pumps down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much that guy’s spending on gas”, those who look at their own pump down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much I’m spending on gas” – and those who are doing both at the same time.

And a huge amount of potential wind energy hangs in the balance:

The group, the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy, founded in January, is trying to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from approving a series of major transmission paths from wind-rich areas in the middle of the continent to load centers all over and then spreading the cost of the new lines around the whole country.

“It is fundamentally about fairness,’’ said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday with Senator Robert Corker, Republican of Tennessee, to denounce such a plan.

Today the LA Times reported that Virginia could become the first state on the Eastern Seaboard to open it's coast to offshore drilling. Republican Governor Robert McDonnell and a bipartisan coalition in the state legislature hopes that the Obama administration will permit the sale of drilling leases at the end of the year. Its time to face one fact though, the projected amount of oil off the coast is around 130 million barrels. In the U.S. alone, we consume 20 million barrels each day so if we do the math, the oil off the coast could supply us for only 7 days! That's just not a logical investment.

Progress Energy has announced that it plans to close coal fired plants in eastern NC. These plants were built in 1952, 1951, and 1962.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/5819496/

I am glad that they are doing this now and I hope that the cleaner energy produced when they build a newer natural gas fueled plant (with less CO2 emissions) in eastern NC, will help keep wind turbines away from the coast. I wonder how many wind turbines, and what size, operating at 30% capacity factor, would be required to have the same 550 Megawatts generating capacity increase that is planned with this new plant.

I will work on that figure....you might be amazed.

This project is pending regulatory permissions. This is a step in the right direction in my opinion.

Another blogger posted all the items covered in the wind permitting section of senate bill 1068.

And yes, there are two words "federal permits" but the issue of wind farms, wind turbines and their affect on radar capabilities, flight patterns, military operations, and weather information would not affect us on a federal level, it would affect us on a state level, as well. The aspect of navigation of coastal water is covered.....but airspace is not. The effect on air space is not mentioned. I find that interesting and concerning.

The Air Force is very strict with navigable air space and the federal permits should be pointed out clearly.

I have flown for several years, and I would hate to think I was flying into "wind turbine clutter" and end up in turbulence. I would hate to see a medical flight team diverted from helping a trauma victim because of "weather" when it is wind turbine clutter.

So, could the AIR FORCE save the 1983 NC Mountain Ridge Protection Act?

Another post covered the important issue of wind power recently, but now the deal is done. Martin Nesbitt and Joe Sam Queen, two Democratic Senators from the mountains, apparently don't have the sense god gave a box of animal crackers.

At the urging of some mountain senators, the state Senate Finance Committee added the restrictions to a bill moving through the General Assembly that will shape where windmills are allowed to be built statewide. Wind-energy advocates say the change will cripple efforts to harness the power of gusts along peaks.

“It's horrible. They just banned wind,” as a source of energy in the mountains, said Crystal Simmons, a Newland resident and Appalachian State University student who manages a project that has erected a 150-foot windmill on campus.

I've confirmed a small Raleigh N&O note on this link's lower left side

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/1606480.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted&qwxq=71492#Comments_Container

that the NC Senate finance Committee will be debating a ban on mountain located wind energy today at 1pm.

SENATE BILL 1068 which enacts a preemptive BAN on wind energy in the mountains would effectivley shut out all discussion on the subject and 180 our the wrong way to go w/the aggressive programs and federal monies Obama (in addition to 4 related federal agencies-I looked it up) are aiming at states like Ohio (on board to receive $448 MILLION).

Locate your senator here and call them!! http://www.ncleg.net/Senate/Senate.html

Also listen in LIVE today at: www.ncleg.net.

Last Week, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar made a bold proclamation about wind energy.

"The idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility...It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now."

Wow, that is good to hear. But if you read Vincent Carroll of the Denver Post, you'd think Ken Salazar is just some country bumpkin whose ideas on wind energy are a prescription for the middle ages. Really? Hmmm ... It seems he gets his conclusion by 1) attacking Al Gore and 2) by cherry picking his information from Energy officials, and citing no renewable energy experts. Way to do your work Mr. Carroll. Shill work.

I think Pickens, having reached the point in life where he and all of his heirs most likely can live out their lives in luxury, has simply decided it’s time to do the right thing, to get the country he loves headed in the right direction before he dies.