Riding the wind

This text is replaced by the Flash movie. It's always windy in Bingham Lake - "There's never a good hair day," 35-year-old Patty Espenson sighed - but last week the wind was kicking up a storm.

[Tybalt]

a community nuclear power plant would make me so so much happier...

[Ranger47]

What a blight on the skyline. Cut these things down!!

[Old White Guy]

Some day in the not too distant future, a small home nuclear power generator will be available. Safe and affordable. About the size of a home air conditioner. Also most vehicles will be electric powered and charged at the corner nuc station.

[One Old Gopher]

The type of nuclear generator that could work in as small of space as a refrigerator needs a higher grade of uranium that is close to weapons grade. Having that in anybody's backyard invites more than simple interest by outside interests. It is the dumbest idea on nuclear energy that I have ever heard. I know you can have a fusion generator on a table top work, but the closest working models to nuclear energy that is practical are like the nuc engines on a submarine. Not practical for home use and rather scary for what they need to run.

Wind energy with piston solar makes a great deal of sense in Minnesota. The next wave of green energy are going to solar power plants of micro scale. One 40 foot wide parabolic array could power a neighborhood. Because they drive a piston, the power plant could store the energy until demanded. Supposed to work extremely well in very cold climates. Set those next to the turbines and you would have a very reliable system of green energy. Nuclear energy is a waste of time and money in comparison.

[Dr Frank Lippenheimer]

I'm sorry, but this is so INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING I must speak up. So, bottom line, although Minnesota is an amazingly WINDY state, the amount of energy Minnsesota contributes to the overall American power grid is what?-- 0.000035 percent?

Meanwhile, gas prices are ticking up up up.

But Obama and the Cool Cat Democrats don't want to drill for oil. No no. Oil is bad. They want to continue to EXPOUND upon what our theoretical options are in the unspecified future.

How long is this self-deceiving Zeitgeist going to hold sway. It is so positively idiotic.

China cannot WAIT to eat our cake on this basis. Especially seeing as the hold the chit on Obama's spending spree.

[RES]

This is a great approach to the energy needs of MN or any other state. Granted, it will be decades before the storage capacity is available but, it is a start. My most frequently used analogy is growing up on the Mississippi in southern MN. For years the beaches had to be closed due to excessive polution. EPA changed the rules, most cities, especially Minneapolis/St Paul ramped up their waste treatment facilities and now, the river is much cleaner! So, you have to start somewhere!

[Suburban white boy]

This is another fiasco, just like ethanol from corn production, that could not make it without hugh tax breaks. Our midwestern politicians push this B. S. so they can claim the benefit and get re-elected. Sadly it is the rest of us slobs that have to pony up to the bar and pay for it through higher taxation. Wind power, will never replace fossil fuel or nuclear as a major source of energy generation. No one is talkiing about the massive costs of building out the electrical grid to make this power available around the country. This giant blow job would put Monica Lewinsky to shame!

[Fact Jacks]

for every green job created two are destroyed...

more change we can believe in

[GDP]

"Second, they are hugely expensive. Developers say a wind project costs $2.5 million per megawatt of energy it is expected to produce, all of it paid up front."

Translates to 4x's the cost per kilowatt hour as coal fired or nuclear plant. Pioneer Press - No stats on the the efficiency or ROI. The short version is, the US taxpayer is on the hook for BILLIONS in subsidies to support this boondoggle AND increased utility costs because the utility is going to pass along their increased operating costs to us.

[Incredible]

I'm glad my taxes can be given to the poor poor farmers who only have 20%(rather than the 50% everyone else needs for such an business investment, in order to get bank financing for the rest) of the massive expense to put up a turbine or 4. We'd hate for any of these 'green' boondoggles to actually pay for themselves without riding on the backs of the 95% that can see through their fallacy.

Whatever happened to having to invent something BETTER than what we have to be successful? I'd be more than happy to pay more for an electric car, if it gave me more performance, not less. I'd be happy to support wind energy if it gave us CHEAPER electricity, but it doesn't. Simple as that folks...give us a BETTER product, and everyone will be lined up to jump on the bandwagon, but you can't push us backwards and expect it to be adopted just because it is claimed to be 'green'.

[Russ Doty]

Bravo for Dan Juhl and the Community Wind folks. Let farmers and communitites get a piece of the clean energy boom too. You nuke lovers already have 2 in your back yard--where is that radioactive waste being stored? The cost of wind even with the tax credit in Montana is now very close to the cost of power from existing (read partially paid for) fossil fuel plants. Over the short term wind will soon be cheaper becasue there is no fuel or polution control cost in the wind. I would imagine the same thing is happening in Minnesota. Check out Amory Lovins' research on the fact that nuclear costs more than wind--even with the subsidies for nuclear. www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/Energy/E09-01_NuclPwr...

[Pistol Pete]

Russ Doty wrote:

Bravo for Dan Juhl and the Community Wind folks. Let farmers and communitites get a piece of the clean energy boom too. You nuke lovers already have 2 in your back yard--where is that radioactive waste being stored? The cost of wind even with the tax credit in Montana is now very close to the cost of power from existing (read partially paid for) fossil fuel plants. Over the short term wind will soon be cheaper becasue there is no fuel or polution control cost in the wind. I would imagine the same thing is happening in Minnesota. Check out Amory Lovins' research on the fact that nuclear costs more than wind--even with the subsidies for nuclear. www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/Energy/E09-01_NuclPwr...

Only thrue with silly cap and trade......windmills and solar will be the only option because of penalties and taxes. GE will make a mint.

But the economy will tank even further when we hit ourselves with self imposed restrictions on cheap energy.

and the poor and middle class will get hit with huge energy fees

[Ranger47]

One Old Gopher wrote:

The type of nuclear generator that could work in as small of space as a refrigerator needs a higher grade of uranium that is close to weapons grade. Having that in anybody's backyard invites more than simple interest by outside interests. It is the dumbest idea on nuclear energy that I have ever heard. I know you can have a fusion generator on a table top work, but the closest working models to nuclear energy that is practical are like the nuc engines on a submarine. Not practical for home use and rather scary for what they need to run.
Wind energy with piston solar makes a great deal of sense in Minnesota. The next wave of green energy are going to solar power plants of micro scale. One 40 foot wide parabolic array could power a neighborhood. Because they drive a piston, the power plant could store the energy until demanded. Supposed to work extremely well in very cold climates. Set those next to the turbines and you would have a very reliable system of green energy. Nuclear energy is a waste of time and money in comparison.

I imagine you imagining they're free....or someone have someone else but you pay for 'em. Nuclear all the way...

[Ranger47]

Oh...how's those windmills working out up on the Iron Range?

[Russ Doty]

Pistol Pete shooting from the hip: The poor and middle class in Germany are doing quite well with feed-in tariffs that promoted renewable energy. And their industry will be at a competitive advantage to ours because they will have less fuel cost in the production cost of German goods. So stop with the ignoring of the long term benefit of renewables and opposing the involvement our farmers and rural communities in the clean energy boom. Read the story--10 times the local economic benefit from community wind.

[Its all Obselete]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60m...

The problem with the energy industry in the world is the big utilities and big oil. The only way to fix our problem is to take them out of the picture. Do not use their power lines, their meters, any of it. Go off grid, remove yourself from the corrupt and self serving grid/petrolium industries, and sit back to watch them die a slow death from a thousand cuts.

http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/

[Jake the snake]

Russ Doty wrote:

Pistol Pete shooting from the hip: The poor and middle class in Germany are doing quite well with feed-in tariffs that promoted renewable energy. And their industry will be at a competitive advantage to ours because they will have less fuel cost in the production cost of German goods. So stop with the ignoring of the long term benefit of renewables and opposing the involvement our farmers and rural communities in the clean energy boom. Read the story--10 times the local economic benefit from community wind.

geez-

Just what we need more taxes on the rich, poor and middle class to pay for renewable energy. Then we can have a socialist society with an economy in the toilet like Germany

Brilliant

[Jake the snake]

Its such a good deal the government has to pay for it:

In effect, the government is writing checks to cover early development costs, said Gregory Jenner, an energy tax specialist with Stoel Rives in Minneapolis.

The U.S. Treasury Department is still hammering out the regulations for the investment tax credits approval, and that should be completed this summer, said Jenner, a former assistant secretary for tax policy in Treasury.

[Me O My]

The lefties gave us mercury laden swirly compact lightbulb mandates.....they sure then will have no problem generating huge taxes on our energy to pay for silly windmills

[pinetree-Montana]

We Americans have enjoyed the comforts and fun of cheap oil and electricity for so long now that it all seems like a fact of nature...like the sun coming up every morning. There's still coal, gas and oil left, for a while, and we're using it. Nothing new here. What puzzles me is all this "nuclear can solve it all" stuff as if no one had tried it out yet! Check out RMI or AERO of Montana for various costs, construction times etc. for all flavors of generators. Nuclear takes many years to build and on average cost more than twice what they were supposed to. They require huge government subsidies and loan guarantees....even then, look at how few investors are interested now. It all has nothing to do with my opinion.