Saturday, February 23, 2013

Watt the....

The wind industry is one of the most heavily subsidized sectors in U.S. history. But in spite of this massive and crony infusion of billions and billions of dollars, the total amount of megawatt hours that we secure from wind energy is but a paltry 120,000,000 a year, an amount that is STILL less than 3% of our total electricity consumption of 4,138,000,000 megawatt hours. I mean, what are we going to do here, people, cover the entire country side with these 480 foot behemoths?................................................................................Oh, and then there's solar, yet another highly subsidized sector. You want to know how much electricity that we get from this sucker? Try 1,800,000 megawatt hours a year, a paltry .04% of our total electricity consumption. I mean, it would be hilarious if it wasn't so damned expensive...................................................................................P.S. And, no, this doesn't even take into account all of the massive horsepower that we're going to be needing for transport. Like Governor Romney said (albeit quite awkwardly), you can't really strap a windmill on your auto.

9 comments:

dmarks said...

I favor leaving this technology entirely up to the free market. And I know very well that could lead to there being a mere 8 windmills in the entire nation. Or none. Which is fine with me; if that is how the constraints of economic reality end up.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Maybe I'm wrong but I think that this wind thing has a decent chance to be an even bigger scam than ethanol. And I obviously agree with you on the free-market point.

Rusty Shackelford said...



Come on now,you guys sound like flat earthers.What do you think people said when Tesla first proposed A.C.?

Cant you just see a windmill in each backyard? A small windmill on each automobile? Airplanes with windmills on their wings? Hell,people wearing hats with little propellers on them charging their i-pads? The benefits of wind power are endless.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Russ, if Romney had you writing his script (instead of whoever the stiff was who did), the dude might have won.......As for wind power, I think that 2010 was the year that it finally eclipsed wood (and, yes, it still trails water).

dmarks said...

Wind power gives Al Gore wood.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And that's the ONLY type of density that wind (a truly anti-science form of energy) provides.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And wd, not knowing a damn thing on the issue (as it pertains to such things as scale, power density, etc.), can only respond by impugning other people's motivation. Watt (to continue the pun here) a total sad-sack.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And this whole idiotic notion that only fossil fuels benefit big corporations is ludicrous. G.E. is making a killing (and not paying any taxes on it) on wind turbines and energy efficient light-bulbs and frigging Exxon is making some decent Benjamins on selling oil lubricants to the wind industry.......And I'm still waiting to hear what the green alternative to jet fuel, diesel fuel, and gasoline is. Never mind the fact that the developing world is going to be needing truckloads of affordable energy so that they can have some of the prosperity that we have. It's like, what, we're going to start mandating that they put solar panels on their huts?

dmarks said...

Again, Will, I refer you to the Africentric racial supremacists. They claim ancient Egypt had airliners. Likely not powered by fossil fuels. Perhaps instead by melanin.