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Highly depends on their size.Wind generators take about 5 years longer than they last to break even.
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Go ahead, just understand that I'm not saying solar or wind are the "be-all, end-all" solution. They're also not ideal in many situations, I acknowledge that.
But they're also, in many cases, on par or better than fossil fuels. And they're getting dramatically better, while coal is about as good as is thermodynamically possible.
Per the study, lets just talk wind vs coal(simply for length of discussion in this thread).
Thank you for providing a well researched and reasoned rebuttal.Per the study, lets just talk wind vs coal(simply for length of discussion in this thread).
Let my start by saying "this study is inconclusive due to many other factors not considered and these numbers can be easily manipulated in either(s) favor."
Wind farms that are payed for/off CAN beat coals price. But things to consider:
1)Anytime a wind farm puts its power on the market it has to buy back up "spin" power which can double the price, as we know the wind can stop blowing as fast as it started.
2)On Lazard sheet 3 (k), "Does not include cost of transportation(power lines)." On average this is around $4.50 per MWh added cost.
3)Lazard fails to consider wind farms under 80MW that fall under the PURPA 1978 Act which basically allows them to force their power on the grid at whatever high cost to produce(payed by u&me), power price can be double the studys price.
I can go on but lets keep it short.
Coal:
1)Lazard sheet 3 , "Based on advanced supercritical pulverised coal. High end incorporates 90% carbon capture and compression." This is an expensive method used and if Lazard wanted to make coal look expensive this is how. Look at the Kemper Project, still the biggest fail in coal carbon capture, insanely expensive and still not operational.
2)Lazard sheet 2 says coal "levelized cost" $65-150/MWh. In MT a coal plants incremental costs average around $25-28/MWh, which beats wind. Where the cost can be misconstrued is when the power is bought at $25/MWh and sold to the consumer(u&me) for .12 cents/KWh, $.12*1000=$120MWh. This is an example of why you should pay attention to your electric bill and what your Public Service Comission does as well as who is holding office.
I wouldn't say wind is competitive to coal, coal can meet on demand requirements 100% of the time while you might get 15-25% output of a wind generator and lets not forget the cost of reserve spin power having to back wind up everytime.Thank you for providing a well researched and reasoned rebuttal.
In my opinion, you've merely reinforced that wind is competitive, unsubsidized, in certain places.
I acknowledged that it's not better everywhere.
In my opinion, wind is also not the future. Solar is. Costs coming down drastically, fast. We do need better storage, but that will come.
Coal is going to die, of that I have very little doubt. The only question is how long it will take.
BLITZKRIEG said:1)Lazard sheet 3 , "Based on advanced supercritical pulverised coal. High end incorporates 90% carbon capture and compression." This is an expensive method used and if Lazard wanted to make coal look expensive this is how. Look at the Kemper Project, still the biggest fail in coal carbon capture, insanely expensive and still not operational.
I wouldn't say wind is competitive to coal, coal can meet on demand requirements 100% of the time while you might get 15-25% output of a wind generator and lets not forget the cost of reserve spin power having to back wind up everytime.
Solar is not the answer, they have made impressive improvements but nowhere near enough to be "the future."
Besides solar is by far the biggest money pit we have, Ivanpah & Solyndra come to mind.
Wind & solar are non-flexible and non-dispatchable generating resources that contribute nothing to the inertia of the electric system and require the system to constantly offset their production in order to maintain load & generation balance.
We should all hope that we still have coal generation for when wind & solar cant produce, lives are at stake during extreme weather(cold/hot) and during black outs. To stay competitive on the global market we have to have it.
There is another hidden cost to burning coal. Acid rain. Those of us that live here in MN are all to familiar with it. Plain and simple. If we don't have an abundant supply of clean water we are all doomed. Can't put a price tag on that.
We do have a name....it's the "United States".....of America.
Not sure why other countries only refer our citizens as Americans, when they don't refer to anyone else from S. America or N. America as "Americans". Because you're right, we're ALL Americans. Just like All Europeans are all from Europe, but we can still call them Spaniards, French, German or English....
It's all weird.
They wouldn't be able to call us United Statesians, so it's just Americans.
Canada isn't called Canada of America. LOL Although, you are pretty must affectionately called the 51st State. LOL.
...The high end includes carbon capture. The low end doesn't. The high end of wind competes with the low end of coal on that scale. Once more, I'm not saying it's better in all respects. I'm saying it's competitive, unsubsidized, in many areas.
~I disagree, until you can control when & how much the wind blows and not need a power source to back it up its not even a contender.
That's what "The Future" means. It's not the best option yet, but based on the cost and efficiency trajectory, and provided we develop good storage capability, it will be, IN THE FUTURE. That means it's an investment now, for payoff later.
~We've seen how our investments in the solar facilities Ivanpah & Solyndra have payed off.
Even given the need for backup sources, coal isn't the best option. Natural gas is. That's what's really killing coal in this country. Natural gas is cheaper to produce, burns more efficiently, emits less radiation, and is able to respond to changes in grid demand faster than coal is.
~Coal/Nuclear are the best options because it provides our base loading, NGas is only a midrange provider. Obamas clean power plan(that is being blocked luckily) wants to get rid of the 70gigawatts of coal power and replace it with natural gas power among other resources, natural gas will then no longer be readily available or cheap, supply and demand.
This NERC video explains base loads with energy source mixtures.
https://vimeopro.com/nerclearning/erstf-1/video/140180921
Some other good educational videos
https://vimeopro.com/nerclearning/erstf-1
Conservatives aren't swayed by health arguments. Beat them on monetary cost, or they don't care.
~Conseravtives are concerned with the fact that enviro-nazis/obamas clean power plan's "health gains" are minimal next to nothing while it drives the coal industry into the ground.
I disagree, until you can control when & how much the wind blows and not need a power source to back it up its not even a contender.
~Coal/Nuclear are the best options because it provides our base loading, NGas is only a midrange provider. Obamas clean power plan(that is being blocked luckily) wants to get rid of the 70gigawatts of coal power and replace it with natural gas power among other resources, natural gas will then no longer be readily available or cheap, supply and demand.
~Conseravtives are concerned with the fact that enviro-nazis/obamas clean power plan's "health gains" are minimal next to nothing while it drives the coal industry into the ground.
What a mouthpiece! You'll whine for the next four years about any and everything trump does or says. Is it cuz you didn't get your liberal in the White House of a country you don't call home? Tell me how the last eight years improved life for the average American? Do we need to be more like Canada? Do we need your health care, gun laws, govt.... maybe a coupon for ten Syrian refugees on the back of a box of cornflakes would do it??? You'll hate just to hate! Since you agree with nothing that NOT your president does then maybe you should load up a lil' "hope and change" cuz you know we're "stronger together" and have a "future to believe in" and drive your ars back to the USA and help out! The current issues this country has are in no way entirely the dem's fault but they ate a piece of the pie! What we've had is not as has not improved a darn thing other then enable lazy to get lazier and the working to work harder for less. Time for something new! Maybe it works or maybe it doesn't but sitting up north and bitching isn't gonna change anything!
That was really hard to understand.... I feel dumber after reading that.
...and thenGlad you know more than the utilities installing it.
~The only thing they know is how to jump on the gov subsidy money train to build them for an agenda, I just see it.
Gas does just fine in many areas. There are big gas plants and small gas plants, just like coal.
~Not many gas plants are in the gigawatt range needed for base load, and again supply and demand once more gas plants are built gas will no longer be cheap.
Gas and automation are driving coal into the ground. Regulation is helping a bit, but it's mostly automation.
~Regulation IS running the show, at least until the don stepped in.
Believe it or not, I'm actually pretty familiar with the power industry. I've only worked in it for 10 years. I do power plant performance, and reliability monitoring. I work with Nukes, fossil plants of all sorts, wind, and gas, both simple cycle and combined cycle. I'm familiar with which plants are more efficient.
~I'm pretty familiar with the power industry too, I work at burger king, been there 2 years, i'd like to quit but i'm fawking the fry girl, sure she might be retarded but those titties aint retarded! (Dont freak out its just a JOKE meant to lighten this thread up, shes not retarted just slow).
Big improvements in storage, and the ability to use that storage to perform the peaking function, are necessary to allow inconsistent sources (wind/solar) to replace all baseload generation. I agree with you there. Solyndra and SunEdison were failures, yes. There have been many other successful investments. Enough that they wipe out the losses from the failures. (I can get you a source on that if you can't find one.)
~Im trying to respond proper but i cant shake the thaught of an awesome south park character "aging hippie liberal douche."
I'm not trying to demonize coal. But there are big downsides to it, and I'm not going to ignore them.
~Huge downsides like an abundance of power for the next several hundred years!.