RI_TDI said:
We completely agree on support of PHEV and Wind and I am not responding just to be argumentative, but I have two issues with this statement:
- I understand that PHEV will (unfortunately) not be in widespread use for the better part of a decade. Yet upgrades to transmission capacity are no faster, and in some cases slower. The article is evidence - surely the commitment to build wind turbines in question was made something like five years ago the transmission capacity to take advantage of this wonderful source isn't there.
- Technically, the fuel is Free and Clean - but that is not the full story. In order to take advantage of that fuel, large investments in infrastructure and footprints on the environment must be sustained - the turbines have to be manufactured, erected, connected and maintained. And the transmission upgrades have similar associated costs, too. All of this ends up in someone's view, are audible from your yard, crosses your land or displaces something.
I say these investments and footprints are utterly worthwhile, but if they are not acknowledged we simply leave ourselves open to attack by the carbon cartel (petro-coal) and shame on us if a wind, solar, tidal or biofuel project is rejected because of it.
What you say is quite true.
Just like if we find a huge new source of natural gas, we'd need to build a pipeline to that area to bring it to market. The great thing about wind and solar (let's say the strong wind corridor that goes up through the mid-west from Texas to the Dakotas plus the great sunshine resource of solar in the SouthWest), is that the fuel is free and will not likely go away in thousands of years (unlike a natural gas field that can play out in a relatively short time).
So... once we build our "pipeline" to bring the energy to market, we only need to maintain it, not build new constantly every decade as new "fields" are discovered. Once the rights of way are established, the towers built, the wires strung, etc., that electricity pipeline will serve us energy for hundreds or thousands of years.
We do need to acknowledge the costs of new infrastructure just like a new gas pipeline or new Gulf oil drilling rig or Alaskan pipeline or railway constructed to deliver coal or... whatever. Remember, there was a time when none of that existed. Oil and gas doesn't just start magically flowing from way out in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico without some pipeline work. When fossil fuel advocates talk about new sources (like drilling off-shore), is a large part of our conversation all about the new rigs, pipelines, etc. to make it happen?
Not so much. Why not? Because we are used to it. It is what we know.
When the Alaskan pipeline was constructed, did we ask "Is this worth it?", heck it is clear that it has a finite, useful life as oil begins to play out in that field. Yet, we did it. I presume that clean, plentiful electricity from wind and solar that come from the regions best placed to harvest it will be just like that.
Here's the good part. The solar resource of the Southwest is not likely to "play out" and neither is the wind corridor from Texas to the Dakotas.
Seems like a pretty good deal for our society to me. We build it once, we keep it maintained, and it delivers abundant, clean electricity for a very, very long time.
RI_TDI said:
I say these investments and footprints are utterly worthwhile, but if they are not acknowledged we simply leave ourselves open to attack by the carbon cartel (petro-coal) and shame on us if a wind, solar, tidal or biofuel project is rejected because of it.
So... next time you see someone post about high-sulfur coal being using in an FT process for liquid fuel, ask them if they are acknowledging the cost of building new rail lines to get the coal to a processing plant and the new pipelines to get the fuel into our national pipeline.
And, BTW... I don't take your points to be argumentative at all. These are important issues to consider, plan and
make sure our government is thinking about to really get this done. We will have to shift away from fossil fuels. No Choice. Inevitable. Only a question of when... not if.