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How much would it cost to buy the equiivalent of 25% of Alaska and then build 2.6 million huge turbines? From the pictures, these turbines look like they use a

How much would it cost to buy the equiivalent of 25% of Alaska and then build 2.6 million huge turbines? From the pictures, these turbines look like they use a lot more material than current turbines because of the huge ring around them, so they're probably a lot more expensive. Add to this the costs of reworking the power grid to distribute power from the new turbines across the country, and decommissioning all of the existing power generating facilities. I doubt the turbines could ever recover their costs before they get worn out and need replacement.

mjallday 15y ago
i'd love to see cost breakdowns, especially once you include external costs such as environmental disasters
damoncali 15y ago
I think a friend of mine in the business told me a while back that a 1MW turbine was about $1M (if someone could verify this, that would be helpful). That's just the turbine. He also said that one of the biggest problems in getting a wind farm up and running was the procurement of those turbines, which are in short supply due to the uncertain financial future of wind power. Nobody wants to invest in the manufacturing infrastructure only to have the government yank the profitability of the industry by canceling the tax incentives. Keep in mind that people are building farms on the order of 300MW - way, way smaller than the millions mentioned in the article. You also need the right kind of wind patterns. It's not as easy as buying 1/4 of Alaska. You need to look at the wind speed distributions over time and pick a certain set of conditions to make it work.
Symmetry 15y ago
Alaska is pretty darn far away, so much so that I'd expect that with conventional distribution systems you'd be losing over 90% of the energy.
alttag 15y ago
I think those not familiar with the size of Alaska (particularly from the "lower-48") might conceptually think of it as about the size of Texas. 'Tis not so. 20% of the size of Alaska is roughly the size of two or three full Midwest states. 20% of AK is about 132K sq miles, equivalent to about 80% the size of California (total ~164K sq miles). http://www.google.com/search?q=alaska%20size%20compared%20to%20us&tbm=isch http://www.google.com/search?q=alaska%20size%20compared%20to... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_area_compared_to_conterminous_US.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_area_compared_to_co... One of the insights from the video (and not mentioned in the article) is the option of using ocean area for wind collection, rather than doing it on land.

mjallday 15y ago

i'd love to see cost breakdowns, especially once you include external costs such as environmental disasters

damoncali 15y ago

I think a friend of mine in the business told me a while back that a 1MW turbine was about $1M (if someone could verify this, that would be helpful). That's just the turbine. He also said that one of the biggest problems in getting a wind farm up and running was the procurement of those turbines, which are in short supply due to the uncertain financial future of wind power. Nobody wants to invest in the manufacturing infrastructure only to have the government yank the profitability of the industry by canceling the tax incentives. Keep in mind that people are building farms on the order of 300MW - way, way smaller than the millions mentioned in the article. You also need the right kind of wind patterns. It's not as easy as buying 1/4 of Alaska. You need to look at the wind speed distributions over time and pick a certain set of conditions to make it work.

Symmetry 15y ago

Alaska is pretty darn far away, so much so that I'd expect that with conventional distribution systems you'd be losing over 90% of the energy.

alttag 15y ago

I think those not familiar with the size of Alaska (particularly from the "lower-48") might conceptually think of it as about the size of Texas. 'Tis not so. 20% of the size of Alaska is roughly the size of two or three full Midwest states. 20% of AK is about 132K sq miles, equivalent to about 80% the size of California (total ~164K sq miles). http://www.google.com/search?q=alaska%20size%20compared%20to%20us&tbm=isch http://www.google.com/search?q=alaska%20size%20compared%20to... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_area_compared_to_conterminous_US.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_area_compared_to_co... One of the insights from the video (and not mentioned in the article) is the option of using ocean area for wind collection, rather than doing it on land.