

Wind turbines scalability limited by roads and underpasses - silvio
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/business/energy-environment/23turbine.html?_r=1

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mnemonicsloth
The technical problems themselves would be interesting to work on, and I'm
glad I know about them now.

But sadly, the article itself is exactly what you'd expect from an
undereducated journalist writing on a subject that sits at the intersection of
two disciplines (engineering and economics) that lay audiences are all but
incapable of understanding separately. You can tell, for example, that even
for the author the notion of "opportunity cost" just didn't penetrate, if he
was exposed to it at all. One of many bizarre moments of hilarity: the knee-
jerk impulse to inform us that the death toll from transporting turbine parts
has risen as high as one.

There is no discussion whatsoever of the real costs of large-scale deployment
of wind power systems. At best (i.e., if the rollout of wind generation
continues to accelerate), we _might_ be able to get 4-5% of our power from
wind after another 20 years of effort, with the help of generous federal
subsidies and at the cost of greatly increased instability in the power grid.

EDIT: One more thing. I'm skeptical that this new information will prompt
environmental groups to stop arguing that we should ignore nuclear power
options because the build-out phase would put too much stress on existing
infrastructure.

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JshWright
This seems like it would be decent application for the modern cargo dirigibles
that have had so many false starts recently.

e.g. [http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/11/boeings-skyhook-
jhl-40-bl...](http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/11/boeings-skyhook-jhl-40-blimp-
gives-us-hope-for-yesterdays-futu/)

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ph0rque
Or making them onsite...

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baselineshift
Agree with Grandmaster Birt -

That NYT writer has become a real renewable energy Concern troll: always
whining about some so-called unsolvable problem for renewable energy at the
NYT Green Inc blog - it should be called Brown Inc.

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Semiapies
It's kind of impressive how the NYT is regarded as The Enemy's Propaganda
Organ for people of so many disparate political alignments.

Really, people - noting a genuine technical problem with effects on peoples'
lives is some attempt at sabotaging renewable energy? That attitude's right up
there with the warbloggers from a few years back who'd squeal in outrage if
anyone in the media dared question the president.

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grinich
Airship?

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GrandMasterBirt
This is one of the worst piece of journalism I've seen.

The "omfg" stories were horrible. They are claiming that wind power sucks
because we have bad drivers on the road slamming into overpasses.

~~~
silvio
I think that the logistics involved with the deployment of wind turbines is
really a limiting factor. As such, this is an excellent opportunity for
hackers to work on. The question is, given the constraints that current wind
power generation faces, what could we do to overcome them?

