The next wave in wind power (supersized offshore turbines)

[jpak]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=459168

NISKAYUNA -- General Electric Co. and the U.S. Department of Energy plan to spend $27 million over the next four years to develop the next generation of offshore wind turbines.

The project, which would develop a turbine that could generate between five and seven megawatts of electricity -- enough to power nearly 3,000 homes -- is seen as a major boost to the nation's drive to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal.

<snip>

Lyons said the company hopes to build a 10-megawatt prototype, which he said could be completed by 2013. GE entered the wind energy business in 2002. In 2005, the company's revenue from its wind business was $2 billion; this year it is expected to top $3.5 billion.

<snip>

Stan Calvert, acting program manager for wind and hydro technology for the Department of Energy, said the development of offshore wind turbines is key to the United States' renewable energy policy because many of the nation's highly populated areas don't have the available land that large wind farms require. He estimates there are 1,000 gigawatts of wind energy potential within 50 miles of the nation's coasts. He says that Europe has already invested heavily in the technology.

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[RC]

1. And what happens when they discover that

the wind quits blowing if enough of these wind turbines are put up that they suck all the energy out of the wind? :P

[megatherium]

4. Environmental crisis of the future: wind depletion. nt

[Javaman]

8. I'm waiting to see who puts the first ownership on wind. nt

[BlueJazz]

2. Well..Shoot..All we need to do is place a few Wind Turbines..

..on the floor of the Republican Congress and we'd have enough wind power to
light up half of the USA... :)

[phantom power]

3. One advantage to larger turbines is...

decreased deployment-time per megawatt. At least, I assume that it doesn't take twice as long to install a 7 megawatt turbine as it does a 3 megawatt turbine.

[Wheres The Beef]

5. And we don't get any help from the home team

http://www.capecodtoday.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=340

Bunch of NIMBY'S! Maybe everybody's ox needs a little GOREing. How do the elites get away with this crap?

[JohnWxy]

6. Wouldn't these be practical in the higher wind potential states like

the Dokatas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana and Colorado?

[JohnWxy]

7. MUch better return on investment than Nuclear. the proponents of

Nuclear consistently use wildly optimistic estimates of costs of decommissioning plants (which exceeds the cost to build them!) and cost of containment of radioactive sludge (a task that will continue virtually in perpetuity - how do you estimate the costs of that!).