Move Over, Oil, There’s Money in Texas Wind

[zzzz]

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[EuroHorn]

Pretty cool. Now we need to build large electric fans to turn the windmills during the hotter months when the wind doesn't blow.

 

[Ralphie]

a small piece to the puzzle. Doesn't come close to providing the power we need.

 

[ScoPro]

Surround the Capitol building with a few of those then we could tell Chavez to go screw himself.

 

[Macanudo]

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[MaduroUTMB]

Texas is a ****** place to build turbines because there is no wind. We get turbines because we are deregulated.

 

[ousuxndallas]

Actually, studies have been performed by the private sector on wind throughout the U.S. The best areas include West Texas up through the midwest to Canada.

The biggest question isn't generation, it's storage and transmission. A bulk of the wind corridor is currently outside of ERCOT transmission lines, so it will take $$ to put in new transmission lines, or new technology to store the energy onsite before moving it.

For the ranchers in West Texas, it's all upside. You have mineral rights, which have long been packaged and sold. Then you have recurring revenue from hunting. Now, they'll get recurring revenue from wind generators, or package and sell it like they did with minerals.

 

[EuroHorn]

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[rice97ut02]

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[Texas Wahoo]

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[Napoleon]

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[EuroHorn]

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[Truck's Son]

There's a lot of potential down by the coast as well, particularly near the King Ranch area south of Corpus.

 

[MaduroUTMB]

Look at the amount of time the turbines that are already out there spend putting power into the grid. It's pretty underwhelming.

 

[Ag with kids]

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[EuroHorn]

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[Ag with kids]

I was hoping so...

Battery check noted...I'm going to the charger to get a new set and to put the old ones in to charge...

I gonna assume the charger will use wind power to do this...

 

[Fievel121]

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[judgroybeanbag]

It's also 3% that provides good income to landowners. I've considered buying a couple hundred acres in west Texas for this precise reason. Just 10 of them would provide you income of $5,000 per month.

 

[EuroHorn]

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[ShinerChE]

Totally agree it is a piece of the energy pie that doesn't go to foreign governments that may or may not be friendly. If West Texas generated 7-10% of the states energy from wind and solar that is a very good thing. There is currently a lot of research on storage methods that would make it even better. No one said wind and solar would replace fossil fuels and in my opinion nothing will completely do the job for another 50 years or more but diversifying energy sources is a good thing.

 

[judgroybeanbag]

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[MirrOlure]

........what about "sight pollution?"

I realize it is inevitable, but a large part of me just hates the landscape being polluted with these things.

Offshore is fine. Heck, they even provide structure for offshore fishing.

 

[LonghornLawyer]

I actually think there's something oddly attractive about them.

In any event, nobody's saying wind would ever generate all or even most of our power needs. But I think it's conceivable that it could generate 15% to 20% of our needs. And if it does, then that's pretty groovy with me--that's 20K megawatts that aren't being powered by coal or oil.