Blown Away: Wind Power Makes Electricity Cheaper in Texas

[Rick Rowlands]

I've been told that this area is not a very good area for wind power, so why discuss wind as if it was an option for us? 

Dan's point is well taken though, that even after charging all day, those lawn lamps don't put out as much energy as similar lamps that draw such a miniscule amount of AC power that it barely would make the meter spin.  The technology is developing, but isn't to the point yet of being affordable and capable of providing our power needs.

[Why?Town]

Dan,

You will never get the same light output from those two different lights

The comparison of those lights is like comparing apples to raisins. Gennerally AC lights are wired to 120 volt household current (please correct if I'm wrong in your case) and using standard household bulbs while the solar lights are probably under 10 volts using LEDs or some other low power bulbs. A better comparison for the solar lights in your yard would be with a AAA battery powered flashlight.

Also your bright and warm AC lights would remain bright and warm regardless of how the power is made, coal, hydro, solar, wind...

I'm sure you're aware that wind power and solar power are two different things.

[Dan Moadus]

Well that's real nice Dennis. I'm happy to hear that someone is trying to integrate wind power into our conventional power generation system. I would like to see more of it. But, I strongly oppose legislation such as the Cap and Trade bill which has as it's purpose, raising the costs of carbon based generation in order to drive people into supporting renewable energy.

As I came home tonight I realized that I had, right in my front yard, a little demonstration of the lack of capability of current solar power technology. In front of my house, my wife had those little yard lights installed. Half of them run on AC power, and half are solar powered. The ones that are powered by household current are very bright and have a warm color. The solar ones, which sat all day soaking up the rays, were faintly lit and had a pale blue color. When the day comes that both sets of lights look the same, you can say "solar" has arrived.

[irishbobcat]

Blown Away: Wind Power Makes Electricity Cheaper in Texas
 

  Aug 10, 2009
Wall Street Journal
   
Blown Away: Wind Power Makes Electricity Cheaper in Texas

By Keith Johnson

Tom Benning reports:

Is the rapid growth of wind power in Texas actually making electricity cheaper?

Yes, says Bernstein Research in a recent report, "Will Wind Power Blow Texas Generators Away?," a follow-up to their own prior effort. The idea is that wind power is steadily replacing more expensive forms of power generation, essentially natural gas.

The more wind power there is—and Texas is the sixth-biggest wind power country in the world–the less need there is to turn to gas-fired turbines to cover the last bit of demand. Bernstein figures this trend will only accelerate in the next few years:

[A]t hours of relatively low power demand, it will no longer be necessary to dispatch high cost gas fired generators to meet the prevailing load; rather, the system's wind, nuclear and coal fired power plants will be sufficient to meet demand. As power prices are set by the variable cost of operation of the last unit dispatched, wind can have a material impact on the price of power.

Granted, that's at times of low power demand. Wind power works best when it's not much needed—at night. During the day, when electricity demand is highest, wind power is much less productive. That's doubly true in the summer months, when wind power's output is the lowest.

What's that mean for power production in Texas? For starters, consumption of natural gas will probably fall further, Bernstein says: "The growth of wind power in ERCOT over the next three years will markedly lower the consumption of gas and coal by conventional generators." With a natural-gas supply glut already looming, that would probably push natural-gas prices down even further.

And wind power's growth will hurt certain utilities, Bernstein estimates: Energy Future Holdings (formerly TXU), NRG Energy and PNM Resources are "most at risk" of falling margins in their traditional generation business.


   
   

Wind power can work in the USA!



Dennis Spisak

Mahoning Valley Green Party

Ohio Green Party

www.ohiogreens.org

www.votespisak.org./thinkgreen/