last updated on 02/18/2012 06:55:05 AM
The North Dakota Bakken Oil Fields
At the end of 2010, the rate of oil production from the shale formation had increased to 458,000 barrels per day, which put a serious load on the local infrastructure’s ability to even ship the oil out of the region. The unemployment rate is the lowest in the entire country. The city of Williston which lies near the Western end of North Dakota near Montana and on the Missouri River has just recently approved a new industrial area in the northern section of town with 650 acres dedicated as the Bakken Industrial Park and another area to include new homes within 110 acres named Chandler Field. The boom is on at least somewhere in the USA.
All good liberal policies must come to an end
Having a heart for the working man and all around good American, Wal Mart has for a long time had a very liberal policy in allowing overnight camping on it's parking lots everywhere. They rarely ever kick anyone who needs to stay overnight out. This changed when the boom town of Williston saw an overwhelming number of campers parked there due to the oil industry drawing in thousands of job seekers and employing many. Take a look, there's like no where to park!
http://www.bakkenoil.org/walmart-kicks-campers-williston-parking-lot
Spark plug wire guides made cheap and easy
Take a look at this great idea using tie wraps, be sure to open the image to see up close.
http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/electrical/wireguide/
Electric vehicle study says they are worse for the planet
A study of pollution in 34 Chinese cities has found that the electricity generated by power stations to drive electric vehicles leads to more fine particle emissions than petrol-powered transport. "For electric vehicles, combustion emissions occur where electricity is generated rather than where the vehicle is used." This fact would explain why there are required offsets for the pollution generated by power plants like the one that's been approved for Desert Hot Springs. Millions of dollars are required to be set aside for projects that would "offset pollution" made by the plant. Of all things, what the city is considering is an electric golf cart vehicle path that connects cities as far as 25 miles away, at get this, a cost of over 50 million dollars!
Creepy red light windmills
On Sunday February 13, 2012 traffic on Interstate 10 leaving Palm Springs was stopped for miles due to some road repairs. Talk about how to waste energy, there's one right there, purposely snarl traffic. You would think that they would schedule this for a time where visitors were not on their way back home from a fun filled weekend, only to get back in frustration, as it took them 5 hours to get home! As I was reading about it and looking at pictures of the traffic stopped for 30 miles, one thing stood out, a visitor's comment about windmills.
Make your own ultrasonic engine parts cleaner
2013 Ford Mustang pony projection light
When you open the door a light projects an image of the Ford Mustang pony on the pavement.
http://www.stangnet.com/2012/01/11/2013-ford-mustang-pony-projector-light/
Battery dead!
Ener1, battery maker for electric cars, goes bankrupt after receiving $118 million dollar stimulus grant. This is the third company so far that has declared bankruptcy which received generous grants from taxpayers at the direction of the energy department.
Trillions of planets are out there
As if we haven't gotten enough to warp our minds with billions of porn images readily available on line, or news sources from every speck of our planet, and under every particle of matter, now, according to one scientist, "We are starting to see a whole new type of planetary system, which is unlike anything in our own solar system," said William Welsh, an astronomer at San Diego State University, who presented the Kepler findings Wednesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
Scientists are saying they discovered billions of planets. Of course this is an estimation, and one that most certainly cannot calculate it properly, as part of all of those calculations is using pi which is infinite, and never comes to a full finite conclusion of an end to a means. What I find piticularly interesting is that in reading the story about it, I immediately see some strong illogic. He says it's a new planetary system unlike ours. If that's true, why is he calling it planetary? Planetary IS our system. It makes no sense. It's like saying we have discovered a new engine unlike anything in our own cars. What the hell is it then? A grapefruit?
It's still an engine if you are going to call it an engine, or a planetary system, and thus, it IS like what we have.
Window washer jobs may be coming to Desert Hot Springs
I learned today January 12, 2012 that the city has approved a solar panel project on 14 acres in the city limits. The company name is Aloha Solar. Looking up online I came across a website by that name and noticed they offer solar panel cleaning. You never hear about this. These things need to be cleaned. I am studying the details of the project and will report on it later or sooner.
I am wondering if these "jobs" that are provided are merely ones that "illegals" can do, in which case, if we are going to be getting more of these solar projects in, I would have to be for amnesty as none of the locals are going to want a job washing solar panels.
The press
release provided by city manager Rick Daniels did not give a website
address for us to look at so I had to hunt for it myself. It wasn't easy.
I first found this http://www.alohasolar.net/projects.html and
some others which seem to be different companies.
Eventually I located the correct company here http://www.alohasys.com/services.htm
There is a good document they provided there that explains the whole project, with map of exact location, which if I read it correct, is still trying to find funding.
http://www.alohasys.com/solar.pdf
At this point in my research I would have voted no on this project. I wonder if anyone on the planning commission has done any research on this more than what was merely presented by those trying to sell the city on it. Have they considered other uses for that land that in the long term would be better suited for a busy intersection at Little Morongo and Dillon?
I'm also VERY concerned about a similarity I see between this project and a failed music festival which was submitted to the city by an individual who named his business Tresed Ventures. Tresed is "desert spelled backward" and it ended up being a joke on the city as they handed over a cool 1/4 million bucks and got nothing back. Here we have Aloha which means both "hello" and "goodbye". Are they going to be saying hello and goodbye as quick as I can say aloha?
Power plant build in Desert Hot Springs
Sentinel Competitive Power Ventures is building a 2 billion dollar "clean energy" plant in a remote area just north of Palm Springs. In reading press reports about the new venture, it stated "To offset air pollution emissions, the plant owners will be paying $53,000,000.00 which may go toward building golf cart parkways and bike paths throughout the Coachella Valley".
If the energy is clean electricity made by the burning of natural gas, why is there an offset for air pollution emissions? That's a direct contradiction.
Is eco friendly safe for human inhabitation?
A fire broke out in a Rancho Mirage restaurant during the night in January 2012. No people were inside. 3 firefighters were hurt in battling the blaze. The building was considered a 2.5 million dollar loss. It was designed with saving energy in mind. Most of it was "buried" in dirt walls with small windows above to let light in while using the earth as an insulator, especially protecting it from the brutal heat of desert summers which can reach almost 120 degrees outside. It was strong, solid, and energy efficient. When firefighters arrived it was said that "Heavy timbers in the building's roof made it difficult for crews to reach the fire as it spread through the attic, and landscaping soil pushed up to window lines left only the building's doorways as access points for firefighters." This makes me wonder if this fire had happened during the day when people were inside, if they would have been able to escape being that there were only doorways for exits.
Who is buying those energy efficient vehicles?
According to the chief executive officer of GM the average annual income of buyers of the Chevy Volt is $170,000. This means, tax subsidy dollars are going to help those rich with plenty of green.
Driving is good for the planet
Just when we thought we knew it was safe to promote green and rainbow flavored energies, we learn this, that all this extra use of fuel this past century may well be keeping us from a bigger problem, a lethal ice age!
Warrantless GPS tracking OK gives good reason to go back to horses
Ultimately the Supreme Court of the United States will decide whether or not it's legal for government to place tracking devices on a suspects car and until then, the lower courts have given them the go ahead. Since it would take some difficult searching under your car every time you went anywhere in order to make sure you were not being tracked, it most certainly makes a case for using tried and true horsepower to get around anymore.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/warrantless-gps-monitoring/
Honda owner goes to small claims over 50 mpg promise
"As her 2006 vehicle's battery deteriorated over time, it barely got 30 mpg" was quoted in the article on BusinessWeek.com. The article also included this "Neil Schmidt, a technical expert for Honda, called Peters' $10,000 claim excessive for her 2006 Civic Hybrid. He said the federal government had required Honda to post the highest mileage the car could get, but said the mileage varies depending on how the car is driven -- for instance, if it gets stuck often in stop-and-go traffic."
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9S1QQTO0.htm
Vitamix 2 Horsepower Blender Slow Motion Vortex 1500 fps Video
Solar Paint
Researchers at a university say they have discovered a way to combine power conducting nanoparticles called quantum dots with house paint so that your house can create solar energy. I would bet that the amount created is about as much as using a 10 lb sack of potatoes to generate electricity. Kids have done these experiments generating electricity with potatoes in science class.
The researchers refer to these as "semiconducting particles". What I want to know first and foremost is where are the macroconducting particles? Are those found in reliable energy sources like oil?
It's stated that the efficiency of this new solar paint is 1%, compared to standard solar cells which have an efficiency of 10-15%.
HUH?? Solar only has an efficiency of that? I wonder what the efficiency is of oil. This number of "efficiency" concerns me. All these technologies are supposed to be more efficient from what I keep hearing when the term "green" comes up. Maybe I misunderstand. At first glance here it seems that solar is between 1% and 15% as efficient as oil. If this is true, another way of looking at this is that solar paint is 100 times less efficient than oil and solar panels are 8 times less efficient than oil. I wonder how that could be considered "green" when the burning of natural fuels releases the very thing that green plants thrive on.
And what's the efficiency of white potatoes? Would that be called "white" energy?
http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/60357-paint-on-solar-cells-could-power-homes
That Cool
I am reading that the company named Facebook will be setting up it's massive "green data center" in the Arctic Circle due to it's access to renewable energy from Sweden and the ample supply of cold climate that is crucial to help cool the huge server buildings which generate much heat.
First thing I notice is that it's a "green" data center that's in a "white" climate.
From my understanding then, the company is using the Arctic climate, which is always changing, and which is been subject to much controversy over global warming melting the icebergs, stranding poor defenseless polar bears who know how to swim as some pictures claim, in order to keep their massive array of social networking computer servers cool, which in effect continues the effect of melting the icebergs, as there is definitely a heat exchange.
How cool is that?
Environmental groups are liking solar along I-10
In reading the article which mentioned that there are a number of areas in the California desert that are now designated solar zones, I noticed this comment, which I thought was funny:
"Where are they going to put the million hamsters running wheels producing electricity zone?"
Are counties making it a crime to live independently?
Some people in remote areas are being harassed by government. I wonder what George Washington would say to the lawmakers who are driving people off their land.
http://offgridsurvival.com/livingoffthegridcrime/
Off The Grid
It new store near Palm Springs California provides supplies so people can live well during a an emergency such as a power outage, civil unrest, or earthquake. It is named "Off The Grid Survival Supply Store". It appears to be fully connected to the grid.
Solar's Sandy Soil Supports Studs So Seamen's Stannite Sign Saying Seamen Sail Shorelines Successfully Spurns Spunky Sputtering Syllables Spruced Sporadically So Spectrum Science Sells
It all seems so nice, the whole idea that solar is free and clean, but when I lived in a place that had a solar water heater that had been installed in the 1970's I found out things can be much worse than any so called savings can provide. This "energy saver" stopped working properly in the 1980's and stayed that way into the new millennium as it was too costly to repair. It had so many extra valves, switches, pumps, and pipe sections and fittings, that when there was a freeze one night many years after it had been just left to be out of service. In the 2000's a pipe burst. It took about $400 to repair and the repair did not fix the solar water heater system so that it would "save energy", that big plumbing bill was for cutting off the burst pipes, welding in a bypass, so that it wouldn't happen any more. It was much too costly to repair it fully so that it would "save energy".
Restoring the water heating system it to it's previous simple state, whereas there was only the standard gas powered water heater, and no longer any connections to the solar water heater, saved energy immediately and down the road. There were no more service calls that waste gasoline and the green stayed in the walled.
I am afraid this is what we will all learn someday about solar farmland which is now wrecking California desert and even Indian ceremonial culture fests that occurred there on some of the lands for thousands of years, until the corporations came in yet again to save us.
In the meantime, all the county boards of supervisors that vote for these destructive projects, and the big corporations that create them, and the investors that live high off the tax hog, will all be saving your taxed dollar energy which is now coming in from all the subsidies they get, placing it into storage farms, also known as a nice big fat bank account.
My House Hates Me Now
After installing my solar system on my home, the infrastructure, comprised of many a solar cell and supporting stud, said it didn't like taking that many loads.
Way To Go Roof
“Rooftops are the way to go, we need another energy policy; we won't get there by destroying public land.” - stated by a Joshua Tree resident who is against the destruction of pristine desert. She commented about one of the first of about 7 more projects that are going to wreck the natural beauty of desert areas of Southern California. I would take issue with this claim that rooftops are the "way to go". Who has determined how much energy is used to build these solar rooftops? Do homes have the ability to carry the weight? When the roof leaks and needs to be redone, then what? How much energy is used to install and remove and disconnect all these solar panels and their wiring and then reinstall them? How many holes are made in the roof to fasten all these panels down and are they ever going to leak? How much energy is used to build, transport, install, remove, and install new batteries? How now green cow?
The wind turbine was spinning so fast it caught fire
Arctic trucks 6x6
Sparks starting to fly over safety of electric buggys
Electric cars are being reported to have some problems with batteries catching fire in crashes. Deemed one of the many necessary answers to the world's need to create independence from foreign oil (and other non-sensical save the world concepts) these cars are quiet and quite efficient, and with their few moving parts, are more reliable in many ways.
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2011/11/gm_battery_fires_arent_just_a.html
Dutch end love affair with wind mills
No not those pretty ones on small rural farms from days yonder, the monster 450 footers. "The Dutch government says offshore wind power is too expensive." Basically, if something is too expensive it is inefficient and all vanes are pointing to these things becoming scrap metal in my opinion. Odd as this country has had wind energy for hundreds of years, but what it was used for was to simply grind grain and mill wind. These new turbine generators are extremely complex and must be connected to constant sources of power to drive the motors each day to keep the systems from freezing up, which is another waste of energy. Grinding grain is a much more simple process and yields tremendous savings in manpower, horsepower, and time.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/16/us-dutch-wind-idUSTRE7AF1JM20111116
How to clean rust from a gas tank
or use aquarium gravel (do not add fish) or have your quad do it for you
Bicycle Harvest in Nevada
I'm not quite sure why this happens nor it seems is anyone else, but it happens, thousands of bikes are harvested at the end of a liberal ritual called "Burning Man". The bicycles become abandoned or lost. They end up giving them to charity as most owners cannot be located. It's rather quite the oxymoron as the event touts itself as being this bastion of self regulating free from governing bodies harmonious event, yet the only way they would be able to return these bikes to their owners is by regulating, adding license tags to each bike, getting phone numbers, etc., things that government does that the playa visitors are sometimes totally against. Maybe it's the medical marijuana.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6188/6134486040_406c007144_z.jpg
Indians stop wind farm
So far in Shidler Oklahoma it's the prairie grass and cows that win out and the vast open expanses of natural beauty that are dominating over yet another wind energy project that would destroy viewscapes and a more natural way of life. Others see it differently, prioritizing schools which seem by all appearances to be doing just fine.
Solar energy blocks the ground from receiving sunlight
by daviddelosangeles
Mr. Knapp,
There is no such thing as “Green Energy”. All energy sources have adverse environmental
impacts, including geothermal. Fossil fuels like coal of course release Green House Gases (GHGs) as well as all sorts of toxic substances (mercury) and particulates and these are bad. Wind energy, while releasing not GHGs does kill birds (mostly raptors) and bats. Solar energy blocks the ground from receiving sunlight, altering the delicate (is there some other kind?) ecosystems beneath.
Geothermal is no different. First, if it is not a hot spring, substantial amounts of water have to be injected. When the water comes back up, it is full of all sorts of hazardous materials, most metals (arsenic, antimony, chromium, silver &c) and radioactive substances (radon, uranium, radium &c.). Since these materials will deposit on the heat exchangers and scale up the system, they have to be removed. As a result, there is a substantial waste stream of fairly hazardous materials. Additionally, aesthetically challenging power lines need to be run from where the geothermal resources are to where the power is needed.
None of this is to argue against geothermal power but rather to suggest that it, like all other alternative energy sources, has non-inconsequential environmental impacts.
found on article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/10/26/google-funded-project-confirms-vast-potential-for-geothermal-energy/
Solar powered glare
I am looking at a photo of the solar farm in Hidden Hills made by Bright Source energy which shows a view looking down at solar panels that point to a tower where the concentrated light focused on the tower causes it to heat and produce steam. Does anyone else see a problem here?
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/images/uploads/media_center_images/_MG_7467_render.jpg
Some things to think about:
Is there a purpose for light to not be reflected back up in the scheme of nature.
How much Windex has to be manufactured and delivered using traditional sources of fuel?
This one reminds me of Burning Man.
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/images/uploads/media_center_images/_MG_7607_render.jpg
The whole study on this is quite fascinating. The following image is from Ivanpah.
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/images/uploads/media_center_images/1285.jpg
Solar power with technologies as seen here may very well have a pointed place in our future. I encourage anyone like me who is very skeptical to study it more and get involved in the process of civic discourse surrounding these farms.
Green jobs head into fall
The non-profit National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, which received $200 million in USA stimulus grants, announced a plan to lay off roughly 10 percent of its staff through a voluntary buy-out plan.
While green energy might be pretty at certain times of the year, much like the changing colors that paint a canvas of spectacular beauty over landscapes throughout America in October as they change into reds, yellows, and golden browns, green energy is not grounded like oil, natural gas, and coal.
Between this change in the green energy laboratory in Colorado, and the massive changes that occured with Solyndra and it's bankruptcy, it's beginning to look like green energy is acting more like climate change, a bit unpredictable, and a bit weathered.
Environ Mental
They call them selves environmentalists, they use the worlds natural resources extracted from the earth which are processed into fuel, paper, computers, copper wire, automobiles, phones, and internet connections, and many other things made by the industrialized world, to fight against the mining of coal, copper, oil, trees, and other things they use in order to make the world an interesting place.
Lake Erie wind project plug pulled
New York Power Authority formally ended the project to install windmills on the lake off Buffalo New York's and Canada's Erie shores.
"NYPA officials said it wasn’t “fiscally prudent” because even a 150-megawatt project – on the small side of the agency’s guidelines–would require subsidies of $60 million to $100 million a year. That was two to four times the subsidy a similarly sized land-based wind farm would require to be economically feasible."
http://www.buffalonews.com/business/business-columns/david-robinson/article578917.ece
Canada oil pipeline in the works
Gobal warming enthusiasts are against it. They don't understand the need. America has a wonderful and vibrant opportunity here. If it's not approved, to supply the US, the oil will undoubtedly be sent to China and other countries.
TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline project
Privacy rights may be trumping personal safety
After a change in policy prompted by inquiry about privacy concerns by US Senator Charles Schumer, OnStar decided it would not track vehicles that have the OnStar system in their vehicles after the customer cancels service.
This has been hailed as a victory for privacy rights by many, yet some say not so fast.
It's worth considering a driver or occupant of a vehicle that cancels the service, and gets into an accident in a remote area or even in a populated city who then has no access to help. They might they have been able to press the OnStar button and their account be reinstated INSTANTLY at such a critical time.
Dead air next to dead bird tests positive for North Nile Virus
I am making this up, but who isn't making things up these days? Scientists name things as they please.
Turns out Greenland isn't melting
Maybe the "Wicked Witch of the East Melting Pot Project" would be worthwhile study, but when it comes to yet another round of governments and publicists getting duped thus deceiving the masses, we now find that Greenland is not melting.
World renowned HarperCollins has forced to apologize for publishing maps showing 15% less ice. New publications will show the correct representation of Greenland, as it was, with no melting.
Woe the global warming pushers, hail the flat Earth society.
Yes, the Earth is flat. Look our your window. Flat. It's the mind that's round.
People think in circles all the time. All a matter of perspective and measuring distance.
In this case of extreme accuracy - scientists and mediaticians actually measured the distance of the ice.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/times-atlas-reviews-greenland-map
MSNBC hardly covers Solyndra bankruptcy
My guess is that it would kinda make them look bad if they featured this failure as they touted solar as being so healthy, necessary, important, and most of all, efficient.
Hi-risk leads to being in dependence
All the talk about freeing ourselves from foreign oil made me wonder about the solution, solar power, and Solyndra's high risk borrowing. They have been hemorraging millions every year since inception in 2007. It's no wonder the government wouldn't give them any more and they are bankrupt. But what' really something to think about, is the energy wasted on these high risk ventures that all too often do not pay back returns, instead, losing money. I risked $10,000 once in the stock market. I lost it all. I had to work 10 hours a week extra for a whole year in a part time job on Saturdays in order to make that money back. I used a lot of gas as I had to drive 37 miles each way.
Flash job
A Florida driver's lawsuit challenging police who ticket motorists for flashing their headlights to warn of speed traps is having a rippling effect across the state. The Orange County sheriff's office will no longer write such tickets after its lawyer says it is not against the law to warn of when and where a speed enforcement area may be set up.
Justice is served!
Solyndra scamdal
A worker that was involved in the construction of the Solyndra solar plant built with 1/2 a billion of your dollars, said that they knew it would fail. After all, everyone knew that China has a product that was much cheaper, thus the company would never be able to compete. The plant was even going to close sooner but because of the attention that Obama brought to the plant, as part of his green energy package, it took a while before it finally had to declare bankruptcy. Why does this surprise anyone? Obama ran on the promise to shift the wealth around. Your hard earned green energy is at work!
http://www.breitbart.tv/ex-solyndra-employee-everyone-knew-the-plant-wouldnt-work/
At least four other companies have received stimulus funding only to later file for bankruptcy, and two of those were working on alternative energy.
They too said they couldn't compete with China. So what's next? The chant going from becoming independent from foreign oil to one about becoming independent from foreign solar? Maybe we should all first start with becoming independent from foreign anything or, just trade effectively as cultures have done for thousands of years.
There goes more of our hard earned green energy
Solyndra, a San Francisco based solar panel company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government has declared bankruptcy. Last year President Obama touted the company as “leading the way” in the green jobs future he envisions. You would think since the sun is plentiful there would be no problem with drilling for sun. How could this happen?
This makes me think of the game of dominos, once you start one falling......well, it can be fun to watch!
How many "big bad oil" companies are shutting their doors and failing?
BBO continues to provide plentiful constant supplies of fuel which makes the entire world run, thus providing food supplies for the world in abundance, fuel for transporting food and people and animals, and supplies, and what has solar done lately? Provided a few watts here and there.
How much energy is solar going to provide to handle the bankruptcy proceedings I wonder?
Alienpower.bet
A NASA affiliated scientist claims that aliens might destroy the human race as a way to protect the rest of the universe due to mans destruction of Earth and concerns about how global warming could interfere with the galaxy.
"Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilization growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain."
Is this person getting paid with our tax dollars for this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations
How anyone can compare climate change to racism is beyond compare
The man with the inconvenient movie has compared people (who have concluded that the world isn't ending due to man) with racists. How anyone can make such a comparison is pretty amazing to me. He seems to have mentioned how society had marginalized racists over time and that "climate change skeptics must be defeated in the same manner".
It would be a fine argument if for only the sake to argue, but clouds, rain, weather, solar cycles, heat, cold, and every force that dictates the planets ever changing climate is a whole different bag of toys to compare with looking at things as black and white without entering into the formula the infinite shades of gray and color.
Comparing "climate change skepticism" to racism is like comparing of determining the exact number of Pi, to more simple calculations like when shiny beads were used to buy Manhattan or 1+1-2=0
Note that ground breaking transaction in the purchase of "Manhattan", after all discussions were complete, it was a delight to both parties, which seems to be the direction the movie man wants to go with his idea that the climate change skeptics need to be defeated.
I don't believe they need to be defeated, nor do those who believe in climate change. In my reality, the process of calculating and defeating the effects of climate change skepticism is no where as simple as that of calculating and defeating racism and it really isn't necessary if the climate change models actually all add up as are claimed.
From where I sit, I see the task of calculating climate change and man's "effects" in the equation, as being like calculating the exact size of the universe along with the exact ever changing temperatures of the sun without using any mathematical formulas or lunar powered calculators, and then taking those results, and giving them to the politicians (who seem as though they all struggled in school with those mathematical word problems) so they can dictate new policy, that they don't even read, of which always seems to somehow pad their portfolios.
They killed the electric car then raised it from the dead
I have been quite fascinated with this resurrection phenomena of the electric car which has a history going back to the 1800's. Electric cars are not new, and they never really took off because they are not efficient.
The current state of batteries and the paucity of some materials needed to replace gas-powered cars with "green" electric vehicles worldwide an impractical pipe dream at best.
Basically, the most fundamental reason is that most alternative energy and electric drive technologies can’t be implemented without large quantities of scarce metals. Mining these metals requires massive amounts of petroleum based resources and the energy use to return ration is feeble. Hybrids have more potential than 100% electric.
When batteries are used to recover and reuse braking energy that would otherwise be wasted, a single kWh of capacity can save up to 107 gallons of fuel per year. When batteries replace a fuel tank completely a single kWh of capacity can only save 19 gallons of fuel per year. That savings can be diminished by increased fuel consumption in power plants.
Then there's the cost of the earth metals used in electric cars. Consider that Chinese wind turbine producers are reeling from skyrocketing rare earth metal prices that are scuttling wind power deployment plans.
This concept is the easiest thing for anyone to understand, just take a look at gold prices over the last decade. Earth metals are the foundation of 100% electric cars, without them they won't drive you anywhere. The push for electric cars comes from the other fantasy, freeing ourselves from foreign oil. Yet freeing ourselves from foreign oil, an impossibility at best, creates an even bigger dependence on foreign metals.
NASA scientist thinks green house gas could attract aliens
In the paper, written by Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa's Planetary Science Division and Pennsylvania State University academics it's stated, "one of its scientists has collaborated on a report suggesting that the Earth's rising levels of greenhouse gases could provoke an alien attack. These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets," the authors write. "A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand." In the paper [pdf really] it states "as far as humanity is concerned, invisible extraterrestrials could be no different than non-existent extraterrestrials.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.4462
First Solar job fair in Desert Center and Blythe today
On August 17, 2011 the job fair is at the Spotlight 29 Casino in Indio. Thursday August 18, 2011 the job fair is in Blythe. I went to their website http://firstsolar.com and noticed one of the images that shows how America's plains will start to look with solar projects. Note the GREEN in the background and the GREY in the foreground. I think the green energy is found in the grass.
Solar chooses disturbed lands over sacred
Santa Monica-based Solar Reserve chose a 2 square mile solar site about 45 miles north of Blythe, California which is an abandoned World War II era airfield. Located in eastern Riverside County at the Arizona border near the Colorado River, the company is moving forward without the environmental controversy faced by other projects.
Choosing disturbed lands seems to be the best way to avoid protests by environmentalists. The airfield is owned privately and parts of it contained the Rice Army Air Field and Camp Rice which was used by General George S. Patton during World War II to train American soldiers in harsh desert conditions before they went to war with Hitler's army.
Since the site does have some solid history behind it, might this bring out historical and architectural preservationists out to battle instead of environmentalists? There always seems to be a war of some kind with these projects.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_solarairfield15.3c2519a.html
Desert Sunlight Solar project
Located in Desert HOT Springs this project is described as follows:
(First Solar) proposes to construct and operate a 550-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant project known as the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm (DSSF or Project). The DSSF would include three main components 1) the Solar Farm site, 2) a transmission line, and 3) a Southern California Edison (SCE) owned and operated substation, Red Bluff Substation.
The Solar Farm site is on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) six miles north of the rural community of Desert Center, which is adjacent to the I-10 freeway in eastern Riverside County, California.
The Project includes a 230-kV transmission line that would extend south from the Solar Farm site and interconnect to the planned Red Bluff substation near I-10. The Red Bluff Substation would interconnect with the existing SCE Devers-Palo Verde 1 transmission line. The three main project components will require a total of about 4,410 acres – 4,090 acres for the Solar Farm, 230 acres for the transmission corridor, and 90 acres for the substation.
Comments on this project are welcome at anytime during the environmental review process. However, to ensure that comments will be addressed in the Final EIS/SA, the BLM must receive written comments on the Draft EIS/SA and Plan Amendment within 90 days following the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its Notice of Availability (NOA) in the Federal Register.
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/palmsprings/Solar_Projects/Desert_Sunlight.html
Destroy the industrial complex to be green?
There is now a small but threatening "green" movement sprouting up. It says “We need a culture that is self-consciously oppositional to things like corporate power, capitalism, industrialization and ultimately civilization, because that is the arrangement of power on this planet right now.” They want to use the industrial complex to destroy the industrial complex by using extreme measures that would employ tanks, machine guns, and other tools of war in order to take down the world's industrial and financial systems, and send everyone back to using horses, cows, donkeys, and whatever asses are left, in order to be "green". The paradox of this radical approach is that it's these very tools that in theory would save people from such saviors who care more about their fantastic unfounded ideas of how man could destroy Earth, than reality, are needed by them to destroy the very thing that created the industrial complex, which they call the enemy, and such destruction would leave an even bigger pollution problem. It's like calling in Hitler's army to fight against Hitler and his army. Thus, and thus again, the more these extremist groups keep up their attempts at doing this kind of thing, the more damage they cause, as at minimum, it employs more and more of the industrial complex to report about and push back against them.
$1 trillion added to national economy
Some call it "big bad oil" but the facts are the facts and this really cannot be disputed, the oil industry is one of the most stable sources of jobs there is anywhere in any economy. Such stability is impossible with alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, and geo-thermal. http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2011/05/22/a-1-trillion-contribution-to-the-national-economy/
Polar bear kills tourists due to global warming
This is the spin some will put on this article about a polar bear that mauled a group of tourists visiting the Arctic Circle 400 miles north of Norway as this happened during the summer where the ice is melting like it always does. They will claim the reason that the bear attacked is due to the fewer pads of ice they can sit on, their hunt for diminishing food supplies (no proof of this as the oceans up there are massively plentiful with fish) as they try to get people into that warm and fuzzy feeling about "their plight" which they know little about, thus scientists go up there to study. Rather than point out that there are no roads up there and it is clear to just your ordinary bear that people up there are all a threat, the spin is inevitable by these groups. This is made perfectly clear as the bear was shot at by the "tourists". What "tourists" carry shot guns? This was not just a group of tourists, it was a group connected with the British Schools Exploring Society which I know little about at this time. Quick Google search solved that really fast, it provides a chance for 18-25 year olds to basically go on fantastic field trips and was founded in 1932, by an original member of Captain Scott's final Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13.
I personally, as a caring parent, would take issue with any organization sending young adults in harms way.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/polar-bear-mauls-british-death
Natural gas power plant pops up amongst wind farm!
Ground was broken today July 29, 2011 for Competitive Power Ventures' Sentinel natural gas power plant at the city outskirts of Desert Hot Springs. Along with GE Energy Financial Services and Diamond Generating Corporation (DGC) their co-owned 800MW CPV Sentinel Energy Center in California, is located in Riverside County in the great United States of America, the country that is striving for some reason to be "energy independent". The $900,000,000.00 natural gas fired power plant will be equipped with eight units of the GE LMS100 gas turbine and is expected to begin operation in 2013.
Seems that plant will be adding a lot more heat to an already hot desert. How is that green? Why are these energy companies adding more power plants? All these green energy people have been consistently saying that installing wind farms would supplement those plants already there, so no new ones would need to be built. Now they are saying they need to build more power generating plants to supplement wind. Do they really think that we are going to be free from buying oil from foreign lands, ever? Who exactly do these green advocates think owns these energy companies? Only US citizens? It's quite the joke on them if they do.
Walking through a windfarm
I thought this clip is good to look at for the perspective of what it's like on the ground on a wind farm.
The wind farmers often say how many homes these monsters will power, making it sound like they are the best things since sliced butter, but whenever I see these, and I have up close, I can't help but think how many smaller family farms or small ranches or even just tract homes with decent sized lots could have been established instead. Has anyone come up with the number yet as to how many farms will have to be established for complete independence from foreign oil? Wind only compromises about 1% of the power in the grid now. If enough of these were built to be free, I am afraid the landscape would look like this almost everywhere. Where will the purple mountains be majestic anymore? In Desert Hot Springs / Palm Springs these things tower up 450 feet and block what once was a most pristine view of the mountains. I don't like 'em.
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Outlaw'd coal
If you think that concerns about the burning of coal and excessive government regulation is new, think again, in the 1300's King Edward the 1st banned the burning of sea coal in London. Punishment for those caught was torture or hanging. In today's day and age, at least we don't have that kind of punishment, but if it was outlawed as some environ-mentalists would like to see.......people would freeze to death. http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/07/0718britain-royal-commission-air-pollution
20,000 boreholes measure global temperatures
44 terawatts of heat are continually emanating from the Momma Earth's bosom, flowing out into space. Why isn't anyone talking about the effects of space and entire universe warming caused by the inconvenient hucksters of the world who use 10x more energy than average? Will there be twisty light bulbs on Mars to free Martians from dependence on foreign oil? My studies indicate that space temps are constant and cool enough to always keep the Earth's temperatures in check, no matter how many cars we drive or TV and computer monitors we view. Gasses in the atmosphere just don't have the blanket ability as do blankets you buy at Wal-Mart. To prove this point, do your own scientific experiment study next winter, try cuddling up at night with a greenhouse gas to stay warm. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Carmageddon left Los Angeles with all the bad cars
The well publicized shutdown a portion of the 405 freeway to remove a bridge was supposed to be apocalyptic. The normally well traveled thoroughfare was deserted. People stayed home or even booked trips to be out of town to avoid the impending traffic disaster that never happened. Religious groups pointed out that as they predicted, Carmageddon would come and Henry God Ford would take all the good cars to heaven. Thank Henry! Bad cars returned on the 405 by Sunday morning and traffic is back to it's horrible crawl. You know, all these years I was so afraid of Carmageddon which has been predicted by the prophets for centuries. I figured like most people that living with only bad cars would be Hell on Earth. Actually, it's nice not seeing Prius' any more. Funny how that was the only good car that left Earth. Kinda makes you wonder, if God so loved the world, why would he leave all the bad cars? Oh wait, I stand corrected, Carmageddon is not the rapture. On Sunday the bad cars returned.
No more Hybrid carpool perks for CA drivers
The state officials decided to no longer allow the 85,000 hybrid vehicle owners to drive in the car pool lane when there's only one person in the vehicle. They say they reached their goal of getting people to switch to the energy efficient vehicles. This sets a bad precedent. People are not going to trust anything any of these agencies promise as incentives anymore. I don't. I had been looking at hybrids recently. I have since stopped.
Horse power could have saved the forest from fired up trees
I don't think we had this problem of massive wildfires long ago when we were dependent on horses instead of our current modes of being dependent on oil, simply because the old homesteading life took care of keeping these forests cleared.
Modern man, environmental protection and government bureaucracy changed everything for the worse.
The Wallow fire in Arizona is massive, burning hundreds of thousands of acres. It is said, and has been said in the past, that regular maintenance, that is, the thinning of the forest growth, prevents wildfires like this. That is exactly what homesteaders used to do.
Environmental protection of the last 20 years has, through misinformation campaigns, and heavy handed legal cases, have one by one cleared out forestry companies that used to keep these forests manageable, provided wood for the consumer, and had provided jobs in rural communities.
If we homesteaded and used horses like we did in the past, we would have likely never seen this kind of destruction.
Heat trappers and the faux fur trade
The inconvenient politician is writing fiction again, this time, ironically, it's about hucksters! His story in Rolling Stone magazine online somehow compares how he was at one time duped into believing professional wrestling was real, and comparing this to wrestling with the public, on what is all so real to him, global warming. The man seems to at least be consistent in failing to understand global cooling, at minimum, but simply put, the Earth is not a green house. There is no layer of glass up there in the atmosphere. Really, I am not kidding, there is no glass ceiling up there.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/climate-of-denial-20110622
Here's my favorite suggestion from a commenter there on how to handle the whole thing:
"I would like to see a nation registry put on record those who think that global warming is occurring, and those who do not. You can fill out your card and send it in so you can then be on record about how sure you are that you are correct. Then, in 20 years, if the oceans level raises, and there is no room for us all, we can throw the doubters in the sea. If there is no change, then we throw the fear mongers in. Either way, those of us with reason win."
Fair enough!
Wind farming spoof
Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit
Strange, there actually may be some fact to this fiction.
Carbon Monoxide (CO, not CO2) detector laws being adopted in States everywhere
The latest is California, requiring these units to be installed by 2012. I see some inconsistencies that will undoubtedly lead to problems. What happens when people smoke cigarettes, cigars, or medical marijuanna in the home? Will it set these units off only to have home dwellers remove the batteries to silence them? Is this a ploy by states to "get into the home" to ban smoking around children? Why is it that so many of these units have to be installed in each home (compare 2 fire detectors to 8 CO detectors) and why is there conflicting statements between manufacturers and government bodies on the quantity required to effectively monitor CO?
Brian K Says:
February 9th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
This law was undoubtedly written by trial lawyers. The installation requirements of the code are in conflict with the recommendations of the manufacturers for almost all CO detectors. Even those manufacturer recommendations that are not in direct conflict with the insatallation provisions could be easily construed as such by a bleeding heart court looking to scapegoat another landlord. Therefore, it is basically impossible to comply with this law. A standard recommendation of the manufacturers is that the detectors shoud NOT be placed in the same room as or near a fuel burning appliance. Yet the code says you must do exactly this. I already spoke with State Dept of Commerce and City of Milwaukee about this conflict. Neither one cares.
http://justalandlord.com/2010/03/09/wisconsins-new-carbon-monoxide-detector-law/
Wildfires increasingly caused by windmills
Official information on the number and severity of turbine-induced forest fires remains largely secret and unavailable. In Hawaii, 95 acres were burned. Australia lost 80,000 acres of forests located mostly in a national park. Spain lost nearly 200 acres from one fire. A comment on a German fire mentioned that “burning debris” from a turbine had traveled several hundred meters from the site. In Holland, three burning blades from a mere 270-foot tower cast a 50-foot flaming shard 220 feet from the site. In California, one such fire burned 68 acres, another 220 acres, and in Palm Springs several “spot fires” had been generated in surrounding areas. The "spot fires" were small because Palm Springs windmills are virtually 100% surrounded by non-combustible sand and extremely little brush, so the overall threat of moving fires is small there, but in many other areas the risk is high and the data is there to prove these assertions.
Visual impact
A simulated image was presented to the press to demonstrate "there will be little visual impact" when the project's solar panels are installed. Basically, the photo shows nothing but desert and mountains.
This is the kind of misleading presentations I have often seen presented regarding solar projects.
185 square miles of solar farms that are planned in Riverside County, are going to have a visual impact far greater than simulated images can show unless those images are from groups that are truthful in their presentations. Their view may be shown from one perspective, like if they were in a hole, and there was a sand dune infront of them, but when we consider 185 square miles is about 14 miles x 14 miles, just imagine driving, or better yet walking or riding your horse with your dogs following close behind you, across 14 miles of pristine gorgeous desertscape, seeing nothing but unsightly solar panels, instead of wildflowers, and a canvas of brush and mountains with their majestic purple haze. Some of California's projects in the solar ring are hardly having to put up a fight.
The Riverside County board of supervisors often approve these projects that YOU pay for with heavy tax subsidies. They include First Solar, Solar Millennium for the communities of Blythe and Palen, and Next Era.
Energy independence
This July 4th we might want to consider who said what in regards to claims about what causes and cures energy independence/dependence. Take for example this fact as quoted in the NY Times, "we sent 397 million gallons of ethanol overseas last year". If the US is striving for independence while at the same time celebrating independence it "already has" while shipping off exactly the fuels that are supposed to make us independent, then something is completely whacked with everything we are being told about independence. Is energy independence a complete lie? How can any country become energy independent and maintain the lifestyle/wealth that America does? It's not possible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/opinion/25Rattner.html
State recommends ban on horses
Yep you read it right, in a beach community called Bradenton, Florida tourists come from all over the world to experience riding horses on the beach, and in the water, thus the term "horse surfing", yet get this, the nit-picky council has recommended "based on State recommendation" that the horses be banned due to their poop saying it's a public safety issue. They also have voiced concerns that a child could get hurt by those big horses. Someone's really full of something similar to that poop. Instead, how about banning city council members from holding office? Don't council members realize they need to ban cars first if they are so concerned about safety? More children are killed by cars than horses.
http://bradenton.patch.com/articles/possible-horse-surfing-ban-threatens-local-business
Free Country plans to ban light bulbs
Edison gets an idea....don't even bother inventing the bulb! By not inventing it, it saves time and energy. It's a plan that liberals are really big on, but there's no proof that the 21st century idea of banning light bulbs of the incandescent variety would save the world any more than banning government itself would save us from charlatans.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/republicans_flicker_on_light_bulb_ban_repeal.html
The Blythe Millennium solar
project
"We came from various towns in the desert and cities, ready to learn and support the effort to stop this dreadful mis-use of public lands"
The Blythe Solar Project will destroy ancient Indian trails and geoglyphs of the sun near the Colorado River in California all under the guise of saving the planet, providing jobs, and creating virtually endless supplys of energy, after all, we all keep hearing reports about these claims on TV so it must be true! Geoglyphs are a part of ancient Indian religion and the creation of man. Governor Gerry Brown was there at the groundbreaking, "we will have wealth if we have discipline". Where's the discipline here one has to wonder, it seems it's more business as usual where industrialization of harnessing and using the sun is now the thing that will save us, yet it's destroying the California desert which is full of life, history, and culture. Take a look for yourself at what's going on the following link. This land is your land, this land is my land.....from California to the New York island, this land was made for you and me, not bulldozers.
http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/Blythe.html#groundbreaking http://www.powwows.com/?tag=la-cuna-de-aztlan
Another big concern at Blythe was the spread of weeds along the new "linears," the transmission lines needed to tie the giant solar thermal project to the grid. Berry was emphatic that Sahara mustard spread must be taken much more seriously. Transmission lines act as superhighways for its expansion into desert habitat.
Demand for power slows
High energy costs, job market bad, economy off drugs, there are many factors that have curbed the use of power. Where does that put alternate energy?
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/utilities-turn-to-mergers-as-demand-for-power-wanes/
WindMade consumer label debuts (pronounced "debuse" not "debuts")
WindMade is the first global consumer label for companies using wind energy, and has proposed its technical standard to the US marketplace to coincide with Global Wind Day.
Anchorage Alaska getting windy
Chugach Electric Association backs a project that would be Anchorage's first UTILITY SCALE wind power project featuring 11 turbines. more...
Enough fossil fuels for millenniums to come
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/31/linbd_fossil_fuels
Money = Energy
I'm listening to a story about the use of methane gas created from deep within a landfill, where they claim they are turning it into an "energy production facility" in Livermore, California. The state has the toughest most complicated framework of environmental laws anywhere. The bottom line is that the methane produced costs a lot more than other sources, thus using more green. Yes it's green energy, it uses more money to make it. Where does money come from? It doesn't come from land fills, it comes from production processes which all use energy. Bottom line, the more money needed, the more energy is used to create this extra money. So when these projects say they are green, you might think of them as being energy wasteful! 6/4/11
Easy way to create new jobs all across America
If
anyone in state,
county, or local government is serious about creating jobs, they will make
it illegal for gas stations to make customers pump their own gas.
Oregon has a fine on the books, they take it so seriously as a safety
issue, that customers that pump their own could be fined $1000. It is
mandatory that stations pump the gas for their customers.
I would love to see a study that would show exactly how many jobs would be
created by a similar law instituted in California and see politicians make
this both a public safety issue as well as jobs, as compared to taking on
plastic grocery bags.
Come wind or high water
Bonneville Power Administration may shut down
Northwest wind farms due to high water levels in the hyroelectric power
generating system and the phenomena called "overgeneration".
http://sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2011/05/bpa-decision-may-prompt-wind-shutdown.html
New construction
RMT, Inc. is constructing a 10.5-megawatt wind-and-solar Western Wind Energy Wind Farm on Route 66 a few miles southwest of Kingman, is set to be completed in July 2011.
Tamping down wind energy
A wind farm in the Columbia Gorge near Arlington shows how America is quickly becoming "America the once beautiful now massive white wind mill/scape". So many regions have become dotted with the monstrosities that are promised to make the world energy independent. Looking back at how history circles the sun one might find this promise written repeatedly for many things. Remember the paperless office? Someone let me know when that paper independent office comes around. Same thing with energy, the promise of independence is a fantasy..
In this case, the wind farm story tellers now exclaim about how important it will be that they tamp down energy production when there's too much produced, where it would actually threaten the entire grid (a grid that is already smart) overwhelming the complex systems already in place for energy management.
Didn't OPEC say this too?
One might ask "is wind simply just not efficient, wasting countless amounts of energy that would be required to efficiently manage these obscene scourges on purple mountains once majesty or is it just that energy independence is just a mirage?"
Paradise Valley School says it's getting FREE solar panels
May 12, 2011 - Scottsdale, Arizona
As stated on the Paradise Valley School District website:
"Through a Solar Service Agreement with business partners Green Choice Solar and SOLON Corporation, locations throughout the district have added solar panels to capture and use this energy. The locations, chosen based on their high-energy usage, include the District Administrative Center, Community Resource Center, Support Services Center and Pinnacle, Shadow Mountain, Paradise Valley, Horizon and North Canyon high schools. Through this beneficial partnership, the solar companies have provided and installed the photovoltaic solar panels and support structures (where needed due to lack of useable roof space) at no cost to the district. The support structures allow for parking beneath, doubling as shade structures. The district agrees to purchase the solar power generated from these panels at a cost that is less than the rate currently charged by APS."
First it's "nocost" thenits "atacost".
I think it's a bit misleading to be telling the public that it's no cost when in all actuality there is an agreement to buy the energy much like buying it from the electric company which provides reliable efficient energy. After all the district is entering into a long term binding contract to buy the electricity from this company that provides the panels. Buying energy is a lot different than free energy.
Taxpayers might want to look at the actual contract and all the fine print to see if there are any other so called free things that the district has to pay for.
Another interesting statement found on the website is this "PVschools solar projects have been approved by the City of Phoenix, APS and the Arizona Corporation Commission, which has recently decided that this service does not need to be regulated as a public service corporation."
Not regulated?
Tax Energy
I remember in the late 90's my stock broker saying in a class he taught in Orange Coast College in Orange County, "Windfarms are tax subsidy scams. They make the corporations and investors rich, at the expense of the taxpayer." I had never dreamed that they would start to proliferate as they have, figuring that was going to be the last of those projects. I lived in the desert above Palm Springs where these ugly wind projects first took root in America. Now they are popping up like teenage pimples. Wind energy has so many exaggerated benefits of cleanliness, efficiency, and independence. For one, the turbines are made in other countries! Two, they shut them off when wind is over 40 mph to keep the motors from burning up. They use/waste oil to lubricate the gears, rotors, moving parts, they sit idle at least half the time from no wind and they actually power them on with energy from the grid to make the turbines spin, in order to keep them from freezing up from non use. It's like leaving a car sitting for months, the engine would get gunked up with oil that forms sludge so they have to keep them rotating every day artificially. How is that clean? It uses oil, coal, and nuclear power.
Perquimans and Pasquotank counties
North Carolina may soon get slammed with a crappy view destroying energy wasteful wind farm. First energy they waste is tax dollars - tax dollars that people need to drive back and forth to work every day to create. The second waste of energy is the electricity used by flashing lights on top of these 450 foot high monstrosities which flash all night long for aviation safety, that are powered by the grid. Iberdrola Renewables recently announced they were seeking permits to construct a 300 MW wind farm they have named the Desert Wind Power Project. Since when was the east coast home of any desert? Is this a naming play like Tresed Ventures?
The leading countries in renewable energy
Germany and China are the leaders.
California mandates 33% of its energy be "renewable" by 2020
LOL. What a joke. Politicians clearly cannot SEE clearly yet that petroleum is renewable by definition. Think about it. Maybe they will see this in 2020. To reach this goal, it would take a lot of money. Money is made by going to work every day. This uses a lot of energy.
World's Biggest Battery
Duke Energy Renewables plans to spend $44 million to install a 36-megawatt battery system at its Notrees Wind Project in Texas. How is this green? Batteries are a scourge to the planet.
Proposed wind farm in Olean, New York
EverPower is telling the Allegany Town Planning Board and the Town Board they need to change the local law to allow the project to generate 40 dB(A) anywhere in town.
Impact
Minnesota Department of Health, “Public Health Impacts of Wind Turbines" http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/windturbines.pdf
Wind Energy on my radar
Does ANYONE care that wind power generation can generate false readings on radar? When wind speeds get high enough, the turbines are stopped from rotating for safety concerns. They also mess with the readings for rainfall. The adverse impacts of industrial wind turbines are well research, documented and acknowledged by all parties, including the wind farm developers.
Proposed
There are five proposed sights for future wind energy generators: Trade Winds Palo Alto East, Petronila, Chapman Ranch, Trade Winds Pasol Alto West, and Riviera.
In Europe
AN ACTION group has been set up to oppose plans for a wind farm in Rutland. “In the 1970s Rutland, the smallest county in England, was persuaded to give up over 3,000 acres of its countryside in the wider interest of a reservoir. Now the smallest county is again being asked to give up a substantial chunk of its countryside, this time for one of the biggest on-shore wind." http://www.stop-woolfox-wind-farm.co.uk
Cape Wind
Cape Wind has agreed to sell power to National Grid starting at 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour, and increasing the price 3.5 percent annually.
Shepherds Flat
ARIZONA
In an area of Arizona south of Interstate 40 between Holbrook and Snowflake there is a proposed WIND FARM planned for a huge swath of open land. In looking at the Visual Resource Management report about this project which is being presented by PPM Energy, I noticed that the images "representing" what the landscape would look like with the windmills on the area is rather misleading, mainly because every photo has cloud or haze in the background of these white windmills, thus they tend to "blend in with the scenery". But this is terribly misleading, certainly on purpose, as many days are not cloudy or hazy at all, and there is a stark contrast between the white windmills and blue sky on the horizon, thus, making these monstrosities totally stand out as ugly monoliths.
This smaller image especially illustrates the problem, they tend to blend in with white clouds, but when you see them against the blue sky, they are quite obvious obstructions. Another key problem that is usually not mentioned is that due to FAA regulations, each one has a BRIGHT flashing red light on top. They blink all night long every night, even when the wind is not causing these mills to generate power, thus, they continually DRAW POWER FROM THE GRID EVERY NIGHT ALL NIGHT LONG.
Another interesting tidbit that I have NOT ONCE ever heard reported in the press by anyone, is that these turbines require energy from the grid to POWER THE MOTORS occasionally in order to keep them lubricated and not "freezing up". Thus, during times when there is NO WIND, they will turn on, draw ?watts (mega/kilo) from the grid.
"WOW. I didn't know wind farms actually used energy from the grid."
| Once upon a time, America derived most of its power from a natural, renewable resource that was roughly as efficient as an automobile engine but did not pollute the air with nitrogen dioxide or suspended particulate matter or carcinogenic hydrocarbons. |
Retirement Ranch Planned for Wild Horses
Lithium batteries will free us from foreign oil?
Oh they will? That's the popular opinion these days, a chant almost, actually, it is a chant by the green advocates. They say we need to free ourselves from foreign oil to make us safe from war and terror. Hogwash. Our dependence on Canadian oil is not bringing us terror. They provide us more oil than anyone. And the move to "clean energy" will enslave us into buying lithium from Bolivia. Wars will break out over lithium. History will again repeat itself as has happened with gold, farmland, everything of value, all of which is in limited supply, and becomes controlled by only a few people, governments, corporations. So stop dreaming of a cleaner brighter future and deal with reality, our future is bright the way it is. link
1,100 miles on clean energy
Lance Mackey starts off his dog sled race in the Iditarod. He won for the 3rd year in a row!
http://www.mackeyscomebackkennel.com
Leading the sheep down a slippery slope
About 700 sheep have now been employed by Turin officials to keep the grass verges and lawns in city parks neatly trimmed. Officials in Turin said they were paying too much in gardener fees to cut the grass in just one of the bigger parks. They are saving a bundle. Where will the savings go? Build homes for the homeless? Buy iPods for everyone at city hall? Who knows but it's going to make the German Shepherd business boom!
renewable energy is not cheap and it is not green
see how all those new nuclear powered windmills look at night
going green is so old fashioned
2009
Bureau of Land Mismanagement in Arizona
2008
Kentucky had ice storms that has left people without electricity for a week. An Amish couple helped their modern neighbors to cope. Computers, TV's, and microwaves didn't work. Horses maintained their power throughout the blackout.
Frederiksborg
breed of horse - castle with same name