On Mar 31, 2015, at 11:15 AM, Michael Ross via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote:
> So called small wind energy is a money pit with no > real payback - you need an exceptional location for a small turbine to be > worth the effort. Wind and hydro are just diluted forms of solar. On a planetary scale, they can't even begin to compete with solar photovoltaics. However, there are certain microclimates where the landscape concentrates either wind or hydro in such a way that either can be a superlative local source of energy -- especially if the Sun tends to hide in those same climates. Both are, ultimately, niche players...but they can be potentially indispensable in their relative niches. Again however...the hydro niches are long since already developed, and the wind niches are mostly certain coastal regions and high mountain passes. Another interesting potential good use of wind is cropland...a single individual turbine won't necessarily have impressive generating capacities, but really big numbers of them can be put in in a way that doesn't interfere with growing crops and, in so doing, significantly increase the economic productivity of the land for the farmers. Residential wind power makes sense for a few people, but only a very few people. (And it really does make all kinds of sense for certain people...just not for most.) Rooftop solar, on the other hand, is economically viable basically everywhere, including the Pacific Northwest. It's more profitable in some places than others, but it's profitable everywhere (with a few footnotes, of course). b& _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
