Post by jeffolie on May 6, 2009 11:06:10 GMT -6
Pickens abandons wind farm
Talking on TV is not cheap and Pickens must have spent a small fortune promoting his wind farms. Added to this costs is the cost to his reputation. Pickens is nothing if he is not a hardcore businessman, he is not a charity. He stated that he was putting $! Billion into his Texas project.
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PICKENS WIND FARM: T. Boone Pickens is planning a 4GW-capacity wind farm in Texas. This farm will have a purchase price of $10 billion and will include 2,700 turbines. To make this a reality, a 250-mile transmission line may also have to be installed. It’s estimated that a 10%-energy buffer will be needed to guarantee a constant flow of energy—that is, to counteract potential blackouts that could occur when there isn’t enough energy in the line. This buffer is not included in the total costs since the system is still dependent on coal and nuclear energy as the baseline of energy—the wind would be secondary.
PICKENS WIND FARM UPDATE: Mr. Pickens recently abandoned his plans due to the drastic drop in the price of oil. This decrease made executing his original plans potentially unfeasible (at least, for the near future). Petroleum-generated energy only accounts for 3% of the net power generated in the U.S. The fluctuation in oil prices does have a secondary effect on coal-fired power plants—coal is more expensive when oil prices rise because the fuel costs for operating mining equipment and transporting coal rise in tandem. Conversely, when oil prices drop, so does the price of coal-generated power.
www.ecoleaf.com/green_energy/windpower.html
Talking on TV is not cheap and Pickens must have spent a small fortune promoting his wind farms. Added to this costs is the cost to his reputation. Pickens is nothing if he is not a hardcore businessman, he is not a charity. He stated that he was putting $! Billion into his Texas project.
=============================================================
PICKENS WIND FARM: T. Boone Pickens is planning a 4GW-capacity wind farm in Texas. This farm will have a purchase price of $10 billion and will include 2,700 turbines. To make this a reality, a 250-mile transmission line may also have to be installed. It’s estimated that a 10%-energy buffer will be needed to guarantee a constant flow of energy—that is, to counteract potential blackouts that could occur when there isn’t enough energy in the line. This buffer is not included in the total costs since the system is still dependent on coal and nuclear energy as the baseline of energy—the wind would be secondary.
PICKENS WIND FARM UPDATE: Mr. Pickens recently abandoned his plans due to the drastic drop in the price of oil. This decrease made executing his original plans potentially unfeasible (at least, for the near future). Petroleum-generated energy only accounts for 3% of the net power generated in the U.S. The fluctuation in oil prices does have a secondary effect on coal-fired power plants—coal is more expensive when oil prices rise because the fuel costs for operating mining equipment and transporting coal rise in tandem. Conversely, when oil prices drop, so does the price of coal-generated power.
www.ecoleaf.com/green_energy/windpower.html