re: California is now home to the largest solar power plant in the world (pictures)

I know. We own some of them. But to say a blanket statement like "wind is more economical" is short sighted.

And again, those farms often get curtailed and become useless on the days where so much wattage is on the grid and you have KV issues.

Completely agreed, when I was writing that post, I couldn't think of any other wind farms besides the one in the panhandles.

There are lots of farms. We just bought a company that was in bankruptcy because have of their max MW came from wind in the Midwest. They still own the regular gas and coal, but they overbought on wind that never generated any money.

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I don't want to follow that piece of shite state in about 85% of what they do.

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oh no, CP3LSU doesn't like us, what should we do

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I did read the rest of your comment. But you can't say it's economical then make points that support it not being economical.

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I just meant that the cost to produce wind power is more in line with fossil fuels than solar. It still has major limitations, but it's a hell of a lot better than solar. I mean, hydroelectric is the best, but we've pretty much tapped out the best locations for it. We could do some retrofitting to existing dams to squeeze out some additional power, but it's not going to be a huge amount.

The "geographical limitations and intermittency" pertains exactly to what you said btw.

For the record, I'm pretty sure I'm in agreement with you.

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There are lots of farms.

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Yup...Iowa, Texas, California have a ton of wind farms. Arizona, Utah, the Pacific Northwest, Illinois and Upstate New York have quite a few wind farms as well. I worked for a company that was involved with wind farm construction a few years ago and I had the western territory. All sorts of wind farms were going up/re-powered in Mojave, Tehachapi, Burney CA, Milford UT etc at that time. Louisiana actually has a test wind turbine on the Mandeville side of the Causeway right by the toll plaza that Cleco is involved with.



Also just read this for the first possible Louisiana wind farm

If only there was a board around here designed for dick-bags to spout off their poorly thought out political views...........

That would be something.

$2.2 Billion dollars worth of mirrors....wow!

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I mean, hydroelectric is the best, but we've pretty much tapped out the best locations for it.

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A few years ago this company, Free Flow Power, was looking at numerous sites in the Mississippi River in LA but it looks like that fell through. They were based in Nola and were hot to trot for a few years.

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Free Flow Power project development director Jon Guidroz says the projects have become economically unviable. He says the focus is on natural gas since prices are down. Also, federal tax credits many hydropower companies rely on will expire.

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They put a test turbine in the water connected to the Dow Plaquemine dock then.

LINK

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When you look at this outside the graphs you read on the HuffPo, and dig a bit, it's not nearly as clear cut as you think it is.

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True, but it still doesnt justify the uniformed stupidity you often see here any time the word "California" is mentio ed. That state co tributes tremendously to the vitality of this country. I cant really understand people bashing this plant. They have tons of sun. They are harnessing it to make energy. Seems lime a smart idea to me, even if the technology is not as efficient as another.