A proponent of the wind turbine shown at left writes:
I commented this 6 year’s ago . It is so simple even if you put in small stream 1 000 000 small turbines like this one, you will have more power. It’s the same for the wind , we don’t need this big huge wind Parks we need small efficient and most important easy for fixing and easy for installation. Not forgetting we can make smaller things with eco friendly materials.
Me:
There are a few reasons that claims like this are bullshit. The main one is that the power extracted from the wind is proportional to the square of the radius of the blades. We recall from our childhoods the formula: Area (of a circle) = pi r-squared. This is why real (not fictional) wind turbines are so large (and getting larger all the time).
Also, as I mention frequently, today’s wind turbines capture about 90% of the theoretically available kinetic energy from moving wind; given the laws of physics, there is no room for any significant increase in efficiency/output.
Even if neither of these were true, which would you rather cover the cost of maintaining: one large turbine or a million little ones?
Renewable Energy
What Can Trump Destroy?
In other posts, we’ve looked at the prospects of a massive refusal on the part of America’s top military to follow a manifestly illegal order, like invading Canada.
What about a less dramatic case? What if I were the chief White House superintendent and Trump told me to bulldoze the East Wing? I’d say, “Sorry, I resign as of this minute. You may find someone who will destroy a national treasure, but it’s sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”
Renewable Energy
Is the System Rigged?
If I were writing the piece at left, I wouldn’t say, “the system is rigged,” because that implies some clandestine.
I would saw the system is designed to make rich people richer, and to ignore the needs of the masses. It’s working exactly as it’s designed to.
Now it’s true that all this is more obvious now than it was 50 years ago when the average American came out of college and got an office job that enabled him to earn a living wage.
Renewable Energy
Germany and the U.S. — a Key Difference
As I mentioned in my recent post on Germany, we have a president in the United States who’s doing everything in his power to destroy the entire renewable energy industry, and, thus, is creating a real problem for those concerned about jobs. Currently, there are 569,000 solar in renewable energy generation, and over 3 million in the related industries, e.g., battery storage.
Here’s a question worth asking: What do the Germans have that Americans don’t? Answer: A population of voters that values honesty and sanity.
What they don’t have is a criminal sociopath running their country.
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