Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 331 posts

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#161

Post by shouldbworking »

noonespecial wrote: post #42
jMyles wrote: post #6

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?

>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've always marveled at watching something so huge move at great speeds in near silence. I have a large wind farm nearby and I've gone out a few times on windy evenings to watch the turbines for a bit.

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#162

Post by jimmaswell »

mambodog wrote: post #128
jimmaswell wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you mean 'on average, nuclear is safer than rooftop solar'. How about nuclear vs. large scale solar? Large scale solar + wind? These are more realistic equivalents to nuclear.

This still seems to just mention rooftop but it's still telling how far US nuclear is below its next runner up, Hydro - .1 to 5 deaths/trillion kWh

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#163

Post by jimmaswell »

rawrRAWR wrote: post #156
jimmaswell wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This can quickly change, when one terrorist attack happens on a single nuclear plant. Not so much with wind or solar, though ;)

From what I'm seeing in this PDF, it's not that much of a concern. http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Publ...

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#164

Post by weaksauce »

foofoo55 wrote: post #101
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I also find them an eyesore, audibly irritating[1], and the documented bird deaths are awful[2]. But, I'll take them over coal any day. [1] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... [2] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-many-birds-do-w...

I mean outdoor cats kill 1.4-3.7 billion per year [1] so 10-600k is not really in the same ballpark.

> Some say just 10,000 birds a year meet their end at the hands (blades) of the wind industry. Others ramp that number up to 600,000

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/outdo...

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#165

Post by amenghra »

notadoc wrote: post #94

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?

Look at https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3772801,-120.0623295,12136m/...

Keep zooming in until you see cars and buildings. Then you'll realize how big this plant is (it's not even the largest such project, just the first one I could pinpoint on a map).

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#166

Post by randomdata »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #126
8ytecoder wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you check the linked BLS statistics page from the article? Median is $25/hr

For reference, the median US hourly wage is $22/hr. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages

Are you sure that is not the mean wage?

1. The link says average, which usually implies mean.

2. The mean yearly income for an individual in the US is ~$45,000[1], which, assuming 2080 working hours per year is ~$22/hr. That seems almost a little too coincidental.

3. The median yearly income is ~$30,000[1]. If the median wage is truly $22/hr. it must be for part-time work, which still comes up about $20,000 per year short compared to the numbers from the article.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#167

Post by morphle »

titojankowski wrote: post #85

From a programming/hardware hacker perspective, are there any opportunities in wind generation worth exploring? Perhaps mini-turbines, or a turbine array with wind positioning?

There are tremendous opportunities in renewable generation from a programming/hardware hacker perspective. Turbine and solar controllers and software, for example. We build a completely overlooked set of software and hardware devices that I think will revolutionise the field [1]. We also make secure smart meters that do accurate measurements, as none seem to exist yet that are correct and secure. There is an large number of websites and apps needed in this field.

I would say we are in a similar position as the 1980's, everyone is active in this huge growth market of making proprietary networking software and hardware, almost nobody sees it will all be obsolete in a few years when the internet arrives. Our startup will be ready with the tools needed when this transition happens (in renewables). If you are interested to work on this, email merik at fiberhood.nl

[1] https://metamorphresearch.org/images/FiberhoodWhitePaper0.9....

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#168

Post by anigbrowl »

jMyles wrote: post #6

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?

I live in a school bus, traveling the country

I'd love if you could share a couple of lines on the economics of that, like what your setup and ongoing expenses are like, and what's the biggest headache it involves. If you prefer, my gmail address is the same as my username. Thanks.

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#169

Post by anigbrowl »

AReallyGoodName wrote: post #145
MagnumOpus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh about [2] - house cats and glass&steel skyscrapers kill an awful lot more birds than that. There is absolutely no outcry against either; that's how we know the outrage against windmills killing birds is planted and artificially kept alive.

Transport too. I suspect that's the biggest bird killer. Which really just goes to show how good wind is. The worst complaints aren't actually a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

People who complain about a statistic without mentioning its severity in context are often only using it as rhetorical currency rather than actually caring about the issue itself. If they're accepting of the same outcome in other contexts you can safely ignore them.

Re: The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100K people

#170

Post by anigbrowl »

noonespecial wrote: post #157
coin wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Compared to ripping the tops of mountains Or consider nuclear, which is much cleaner, safer and lower coast than all other energy sources

If you laid Tolkien's world on ours, Orcs would mine coal with dynamite, Men would use nat-gas and oil, and Elves would use wind and solar. Nuclear? Dwarves all the way. "Clean, safe, and low cost" until you delve too deep and awaken nameless evil!

I want to reject your analogy but it's too damn good :-)
Post reply on HN