While I'm an advocate of alternative energy there are a lot of misconceptions. Maine has a lot of wind generation and probably 75% of the power to the grid is being sent to Canada. We should be bringing the pipeline (nat gas) into the more rural parts of the state to make the paper mills more cost effective, and clean power producers. For every MW of generation made from a renewable, there needs to be enough rolling reserve (from base loaded plants i.e. combined cycle, coal fired, or nuclear) to cover the power made. No way there is going to be enough wind mills put up to cover our growing demand, we need more nuclear, gas, and coal (IGCC) plants, wind just doesn't have the power density needed.
For all you guys that like numbers, a wind farm with 30 windmills will produce about 45-60 MW PEAK while a single GE Frame 7FA with an attached HRSG will produce about 300 MW BASE...
The unfortunate catch 22 with nuclear is that while it's a great clean source of power, the naysayers are going to be fighting every step of the way now that they have the Japan incident to use against it. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the nuke plants that are already underway in the U.S. by companies like Progress (now Duke).
We have an abundance of coal and nat gas and we should be using it.
And to get back on topic, I don't mind paying high prices for gas, it's nice to have the creature comforts of a truck and the power too. I'll support the oil field guys any day rather than drive a Prius.
Last edited by bartjo06; 04-01-2011 at 06:59 PM.
2001 GMC Sierra SL ECSB - Project
2012 Honda Civic Si - DD
2009 GMC Sierra SLT ECSB - Sold