Why Not Ohio? Renewable Energy and Economic Potential

[Towntalk]

Don't be smart, I just asked a serious question, not to be cute, but in order to understand if wind or solar could power these businesses that place high demands to the electrical grids.

[irishbobcat]

you tell me.....

[Towntalk]

Dennis:

I'll try again.

How much energy does V&M consume per day.

How much energy per hour is consumed per hour on electric blast furnaces?

How much energy does GM Lordstown consume per day?

[irishbobcat]

why couldn't GM build the same type of parking cover that is currently helps power New Jersey?

please read below:


Huge Parking-Lot Solar Array Powers NJ Grid With Over a Million Annual Kilowatt-hours

Written by Susan Kraemer

Published on January 14th, 2010
1 CommentPosted in solar energy

Alpha Energy, a Bellingham, Washington-based photovoltaic power systems provider, has installed one of the largest parking structure solar arrays in the US; a 1 MW system on the parking lot of an auto auction facility in New Jersey.

The solar panels will supply the New Jersey grid with more than a million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

This much clean electricity will replace 1.9 million pounds of carbon dioxide that would have been emitted by the provision of an equivalent number of kilowatt-hours produced by polluting electricity from coal, gas or oil.

Like an equivalent sized building would; the construction of the parking structure required 550,000 pounds of steel and 240 cubic yards of concrete. Unlike a traditional parking structure, it also required 54,000 feet of wiring to add the solar power.

The 1 MW structure, comprising over 5,000 individual 171 Watt panels, is connected via 11 inverters to a meter connecting it to the grid, and spans a total area of 104,000 square feet.

The visitors to the Manheim NJ National Auto Dealers Exchange  auction facility in Bordentown, NJ will be able to plug in their electric cars under the parking structure, and all the parking lot lighting will be powered by the solar array. But the New Jersey grid is the big beneficiary of this much power.

Alpha Energy designed, installed, commissioned, tested, and will provide ongoing monitoring of the system.

[iwasthere]

IT IS ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO LEAVITE THE DESIRE FOR OIL IN THIS COUNTRY. IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR OIL BUT THINK OF IT AS AN ADDITIVE TO INCREASE THE MILEAGE THAT YOU CAN RECIEVE BY USING THIS METHOD.

[Towntalk]

I wasn't being negative ... just asking.

Steel mills and auto plants consume huge amounts of electricity and run 24/7.

How could wind mills supply all the electricity needed, and what happens when the wind mill can't furnish the needed supply?

The mills and auto plant would have to have dedicated wind mill farms or solar farms, so where would they go?

Where would the wind mills be placed to supply V&M Steel for example?

Rather than bash people, set aside theory and deal in specifics, and convince us that GM and V&M would even consider dedicating land to wind mills or solar panels.

[iwasthere]

dan and towntalk can you ever think outside of the box with alternative energies without going negative or going the defeatest paths that you both share?

[Towntalk]

I don't usually agree with Dan, but on this he is spot on.

Does Dennis seriously think that a windmill farm could supply all the power that is required for Lordstown GM and V&M Steel?

Even if it were used to supplement other sources, the size of the farm would be huge.

And if there was also a solar farm, that farm would be huge in order to provide the required energy these two companies use 24/7/365.

Then there are the two steel mills that are slated to reopen in Warren.

I'm sure Rick could enlighten us to the energy requirements that mills use on a daily basis.

[Dan Moadus]

I am going to try once more to get through that thick noggin of Dennis's. Dennis, you have to understand that the technology of wind power is not yet to the stage where it can provide power anywhere near the cost of fossil fuel generated power. I'm sure that it may be some day, and I support the government helping in its research. But at it's present state it can't. All of the plans you are suggesting are predicated on forcing,  its use through legislation.

Either you do not understand, or do not care, that forcing wind power's use would dramatically increase the costs to Americans and American industry, and it would do tremendous economic harm costing at least five times more jobs than it would create.

Dennis, please answer these questions. Do you understand how much more costly wind power is? And, can you see that it would burden American industry and cost jobs?

[joly1584]

I have lived in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas and the wind in Ohio is nothing compared to those states. 

The website www.awea.org (American Wind Energy Association) lists the above states in the top ten for wind energy potential.  Ohio is not even in the top 20.  Wind energy is good for the future, but it should first be built in the areas of the country that have the wind to support it.

The wind is one of the things I miss from Nebraska.

[irishbobcat]

Why is Ohio not doing more to bring wind energy to rural parts of the Buckeye State? The Center for Rural Affairs released an analysis on the economic potential of wind energy development entitled, Renewable Energy and Economic Potential in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. The report examines economic impact, job creation and wind resources in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.


Expanding production of renewable electricity to 20% of the nation's electrical generation has the potential to create a large number of new jobs in the rural Midwest and Great Plains, according to unpublished analyses from the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The analysis projects that Kansas would gain nearly 3,100 long-term jobs in operations and maintenance of wind farms, Nebraska over 3,500 jobs, South Dakota over 3,900 jobs and Iowa over 9,000 jobs. An even higher number of medium-term jobs, averaging one year in duration, would be created - jobs related to manufacturing, site preparation and turbine construction.

Nationally, the analysis projects that reaching 20% of electrical generation from wind would result in 1.75 million full-time jobs during wind turbine construction and 1.6 million new, permanent operational (post-construction) jobs created.

Why isn't wind power on the forefront of Ted Strickland's re-election platform? Is it because he still wants Ohio to supply 75% of it's power from dirty coal and nuke plants? Is it because he is the puppet to dirty coal and nuke lobbyists? Only The Governor can answer these questions, and his actions, supporting the nuclear site in Piketon, supporting the Coal plant in Meigs County,  speak louder than his words.