Fields of Amber Whoosh
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:45 am
Having worked for an electric company for nearly 47 years, I should be able to tell you where electricity comes from. In fact, I don’t have a clue. Ok, I do know that we make electricity at generating stations and that in one way or the other we convert water to steam to turn turbines that in some magical way makes electricity. It has always fascinated me that even though you cannot store electricity and must use it the instant it is generated we somehow are able to do just that with a maze of wires, substations, transformers and who know what else.
You probably know all this too, but I bet you don’t know where these generating stations are located, or do you care for that matter. They are near rivers or oceans (lost of water you know), they are either out in the middle of nowhere or they are buried in old industrial areas (and occasionally within large dams).
But be prepared, in the future you will know where electricity is generated as the landscape and perhaps your neighbors backyard become doted with giant wind generators. Think I’m kidding, you can buy your own wind turbine for about $3,000 and all you need is 26 mph of wind and you are good to go, whoosh, whoosh, and whoosh! But if you want to be serious, you need the real thing and that are 328 feet tall and larger in diameter than a Boeing 747.
T. Boone Pickens the Texas billionaire just order 667 of these monsters for a wind farm in Texas, so much for the wide open plains of Texas. Heck if we are really serious about this, let’s line the rim of the Grand Canyon with these things. Of course anyone putting down a few billion on wind turbines is betting that the U.S. government will provide incentives or subsidizes and why not, it is farming after all and we are good at giving millionaire farmers subsidies.
Yeah, I know pollution and all that, coal burning generating plants hurt the environment and heaven forbid we embrace nuclear power. But in the years ahead I suspect someone may ask, how the heck did we create such ugly landscapes with these thousands of noisy turbines across our deserts, off our beaches, in our backyards, over our mountains and on our farmlands…my God they are everywhere! Couldn’t we have improved the technology for generating stations and accomplished the same result and not even dependent on Mother Nature?
The problem you see is that this rush to wind is politically correct and who better to generate interest in an excess amount of hot air than the people in Washington?
“What’s the matter Ralph?” “I can’t sleep.” “Is it the neighbor’s dog barking?” “I wish!”
WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH
When the fields of amber grain are covered with 10,000 acres of solar panels interspersed with wind monsters, remember…you really needed that electric toothbrush. :p
You probably know all this too, but I bet you don’t know where these generating stations are located, or do you care for that matter. They are near rivers or oceans (lost of water you know), they are either out in the middle of nowhere or they are buried in old industrial areas (and occasionally within large dams).
But be prepared, in the future you will know where electricity is generated as the landscape and perhaps your neighbors backyard become doted with giant wind generators. Think I’m kidding, you can buy your own wind turbine for about $3,000 and all you need is 26 mph of wind and you are good to go, whoosh, whoosh, and whoosh! But if you want to be serious, you need the real thing and that are 328 feet tall and larger in diameter than a Boeing 747.
T. Boone Pickens the Texas billionaire just order 667 of these monsters for a wind farm in Texas, so much for the wide open plains of Texas. Heck if we are really serious about this, let’s line the rim of the Grand Canyon with these things. Of course anyone putting down a few billion on wind turbines is betting that the U.S. government will provide incentives or subsidizes and why not, it is farming after all and we are good at giving millionaire farmers subsidies.
Yeah, I know pollution and all that, coal burning generating plants hurt the environment and heaven forbid we embrace nuclear power. But in the years ahead I suspect someone may ask, how the heck did we create such ugly landscapes with these thousands of noisy turbines across our deserts, off our beaches, in our backyards, over our mountains and on our farmlands…my God they are everywhere! Couldn’t we have improved the technology for generating stations and accomplished the same result and not even dependent on Mother Nature?
The problem you see is that this rush to wind is politically correct and who better to generate interest in an excess amount of hot air than the people in Washington?
“What’s the matter Ralph?” “I can’t sleep.” “Is it the neighbor’s dog barking?” “I wish!”
WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH
When the fields of amber grain are covered with 10,000 acres of solar panels interspersed with wind monsters, remember…you really needed that electric toothbrush. :p
