Interesting you should post this… last week I went on a tour of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden. The facility in Golden is focused on solar energy. They have a new building there that achieved LEED platinum.
Also visited their wind laboratory in Boulder. Got to see them testing a 45m wind turbine blade in their high bay. Pretty cool. Heard a short lecture by a researcher who has been working on wind energy for 30 years. I wish I had a copy of his power point presentation to send to you. I don’t remember the details, but it wasn’t as encouraging as I had hoped regarding the potential.
Don’t quote me on this, but I think there is a goal in place to have 20% of the U.S. energy come from wind. The land area required for this was pretty substantial. Lots of turbines. If I find more info I’ll let you know.
I was told recently that the panhandle of Texas alone (not all of the land area, either) could power some amazing amount of states, I don’t remember how many. At any rate, there are odd effects of the turbines like the ’strobe effect’ of the blades blocking/not-blocking the sun, and the downwind turbulence that might possibly change migratory bird patterns. It’s not a perfect energy source, but I do hope we begin to see it used more. That’s cool that you got to see all that. Any information you can get me would be interesting to see.
It’s interesting to look at the formula for how much power is in the wind. Power = Density of air x turbine blade diameter^2 x velocity of wind^3 x Constant. Interesting how the length of the blade affects power substantially… this is the reason for the push to get larger and larger turbines. I saw a diagram of the project turbine blade sizes… in the next 10-20 years they want to have turbines as tall as the Space Needle in Seattle. But the kicker to the formula is wind speed is to the third power. Seems rather simple, to state the obvious… less wind equals less energy. Which is a bummer to having substantial local energy, like a small turbine at your house. Very site specific to function well.
Yeah, I was looking at renewable sources of energy for this area (BCS) and, unfortunately, this isn’t a great area for solar power (too much cloud cover) and isn’t good for wind either (just not enough). To borrow a phrase from software development (Fred Brooks) there is ‘no silver bullet’. Hopefully, the places that can do it will do it.
Man, that is a gigantic turbine. A couple of months or so ago, I’d see turbine blades getting trucked north on HWY 6 all the time. I don’t know where they were going, but there were certainly a bunch of them.
I remember seeing those blades being shipped as well, but the ones I saw were from a couple years back. I also remember hearing that you guys like Ron Paul. Both of these memories make me happy.
D.O. – we do indeed support Ron Paul for the Republican Presidential Nomination, and you should too! Check him out at RonPaul2008.com and be sure to watch his videos on YouTube.
that,
was,
incredible.
I must agree with D.O., absolutely fantastic.
Interesting you should post this… last week I went on a tour of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden. The facility in Golden is focused on solar energy. They have a new building there that achieved LEED platinum.
Also visited their wind laboratory in Boulder. Got to see them testing a 45m wind turbine blade in their high bay. Pretty cool. Heard a short lecture by a researcher who has been working on wind energy for 30 years. I wish I had a copy of his power point presentation to send to you. I don’t remember the details, but it wasn’t as encouraging as I had hoped regarding the potential.
Don’t quote me on this, but I think there is a goal in place to have 20% of the U.S. energy come from wind. The land area required for this was pretty substantial. Lots of turbines. If I find more info I’ll let you know.
http://www.nrel.gov
Jeremy,
I was told recently that the panhandle of Texas alone (not all of the land area, either) could power some amazing amount of states, I don’t remember how many. At any rate, there are odd effects of the turbines like the ’strobe effect’ of the blades blocking/not-blocking the sun, and the downwind turbulence that might possibly change migratory bird patterns. It’s not a perfect energy source, but I do hope we begin to see it used more. That’s cool that you got to see all that. Any information you can get me would be interesting to see.
It’s interesting to look at the formula for how much power is in the wind. Power = Density of air x turbine blade diameter^2 x velocity of wind^3 x Constant. Interesting how the length of the blade affects power substantially… this is the reason for the push to get larger and larger turbines. I saw a diagram of the project turbine blade sizes… in the next 10-20 years they want to have turbines as tall as the Space Needle in Seattle. But the kicker to the formula is wind speed is to the third power. Seems rather simple, to state the obvious… less wind equals less energy. Which is a bummer to having substantial local energy, like a small turbine at your house. Very site specific to function well.
Yeah, I was looking at renewable sources of energy for this area (BCS) and, unfortunately, this isn’t a great area for solar power (too much cloud cover) and isn’t good for wind either (just not enough). To borrow a phrase from software development (Fred Brooks) there is ‘no silver bullet’. Hopefully, the places that can do it will do it.
Man, that is a gigantic turbine. A couple of months or so ago, I’d see turbine blades getting trucked north on HWY 6 all the time. I don’t know where they were going, but there were certainly a bunch of them.
I remember seeing those blades being shipped as well, but the ones I saw were from a couple years back. I also remember hearing that you guys like Ron Paul. Both of these memories make me happy.
D.O. – we do indeed support Ron Paul for the Republican Presidential Nomination, and you should too! Check him out at RonPaul2008.com and be sure to watch his videos on YouTube.