151–160 of 331 posts
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As someone who is working with global powerplant data I can say that the US is the global leader. It is not perfect, but it is miles ahead of 170 other countries.
Bollocks. The UK has a live feed of the makeup of the power plants that is updated on this website every 15 minutes. http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
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>I think wind turbines are absolutely beautiful They are. Like living sculptures. There's just something extremely dignified about them. Like finally growing up after the childishness of strip-mining. The adults are here.
I couldn't disagree more. They popped up as I was growing up - littering the coastline and countryside. They can be seen from great distances and serve to make the place seem an awful lot smaller. I for one can't wait until we develop a way to live without them - the only condolence is that they move us away from the coal and gas industries. I do hope that solar leaves them in its wake and we can be done with the mon…
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> The towers are just lots and lots of steel. And a lot of engineering is involved to optimize that design, to build the towers as strong as is necessary to survive high wind loads while using as little material as possible so as to minimize cost. You're trivializing something that has a lot of thought put into it just because you don't really understand it well. I can guarantee you that more thought, simulation, and…
And from a material standpoint they are still just lots and lots of steel. If it helps, I'm not a software engineer and have an unused degree in mechanical engineering.
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Isn't the AP-1000 reactor he is citing about to cause the downfall of Westinghouse and Toshiba due to extreme cost overruns? Upfront cost, liability and waste disposable with nuclear cannot be overlooked. He also noted: > A reactor has a 60-year service life. Fukushima suggests otherwise. Holding on to old reactor designs has resulted in catastrophic failures.
From what I've heard, these cost overruns are due to political causes. Waste disposal is a non issue, and Fukashima was due to terrible planning. It wouldn't be solar's fault if someone put too many solar panels on a weak roof and they fell through.
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Humans have shown time and time again we cannot be trusted to consistently do things right, so the likely outcomes of some realistic percentage of 'terrible planning', as you put it, should be part of any comparison of power generation techniques. The analogy you make to solar ignores that the failure modes of nuclear are much worse than solar.
From the page I found, "more Americans have died from installing rooftop solar than have ever died from the construction or use of American nuclear power plants". On average, nuclear is safer. The likelihood of another Fukashima is even lower now that it's happened and been documented.
Not so much with wind or solar, though ;)
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Compared to ripping the tops of mountains in West Virginia and states nearby and filling in the beautiful valleys to strip mine coal, a huge win.
> Compared to ripping the tops of mountains Or consider nuclear, which is much cleaner, safer and lower coast than all other energy sources
I live in a school bus, traveling the country. I think wind turbines are absolutely beautiful; I always marvel at them when we drive by. Does anybody here know how to break into this industry, working on a mobile, on-site basis? Maybe with embedded tech?
Wind Farms are built by people living in RVs already, so you've got that figured out. Three months here 6 months there. Embedded software is extremely hard to do mobile, and anyways all of the electronics tech is designed in Germany. Getting a entry level job in wind is about being nearby and willing to work. If you have a college degree you can always be a field Engineer. I'm an Electrical Engineer in the wind indus…
I'm curious about this kind of work, could you share more of your experience? What exactly did you do, how hard was it to find job, was it with one company, how often did you move from farm to farm?
I live in a school bus, traveling the country. I think wind turbines are absolutely beautiful; I always marvel at them when we drive by. Does anybody here know how to break into this industry, working on a mobile, on-site basis? Maybe with embedded tech?
Except when you live nearby them.... I am 100% in support of renewables. However, I also know several home owners near wind-rich areas. And, the noise pollution from the turbines is awful. Unfortunately, my friends are poor (as typical) and have little say in the matter.
I expect it is a particular manufacturer or unit, and quite possibly one built a long time ago, that is causing the trouble that some experience. But I haven't been able to track down which one. Sadly, it seems most just see 'tall white things with blades' and think they are all identical, which makes getting reliable information fairly difficult.
I recall some years ago T Boone Pickens had a plan for a large scale wind project throughout the midwest, but it fell through for various reasons. At what point will solar efficient enough to lay out massive solar grids in Texas, Arizona, and SE California?
It had EU funding, I'm not sure if you are wondering when something similar would be profitable without subsidy. (But could any big project be constructed in Morocco without government subsidy?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouarzazate_Solar_Power_Station
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161129-the-colossal-africa...