Hurricane Isaac Has a Wind Power Message for Mitt Romney

It is not economically viable to provide electricity to entire cities through windmill farms.

It is not economically viable in any situation if there is not enough reoccurring winds.

I already explained that their reason I have not done it is because the electric company does not want to accommodate this in our area.

But we have regular winds out here that is not seen in a lot of places. If the electric company would make just a little bit of accommodation I would do it in a heart beat.

But it is being done in some households around America.

 

Then set up your windmill and power your own house and reduce your electric bill by 100%

Why do you need an accommodation from your local electric company?

Do you expect the local grocery store to buy your excess vegetables before planting your garden too?

If windmills could produce electricity at a lower cost than what your local electric company is paying currently then they would be doing it themselves.

They don't because wind generated electricity is more costly than other production methods. Plain and simple.

 

You don't know what your talking about. It is not more costly in all settings. It is on a large scale but not individually.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-much-power-will-a-residential-wind-turbine-produce.html?page=1

 

If it is not more costly to you to buy and operate your own wind generating system instead of buying your electricity from the local power company...

Why don't you just do it?

Why do you need an "accomodation" from the power company?

Why do you need tax credits?

 

I did not say anything about tax credits.

A home windmill system can be made for around $2000.00 if you connect it to the grid. If you stay off the grid completely and house your own battery bank then the costs run up to about $20,000.00.

So again, if you connect to the meter on your house (local power grid) then when the turbine is generating power it feeds that power back into the grid. This power that is fed back into the grid is then recorded by the electric company and you are financially credited for that feed. When they measure what you used for your house and compare that to what you fed into the system then you are credited the feed against your use.

On another note, one of my deacons who owns a section of land (A section is 1 mile square) on which he raises Coriander Cattle (for rodeo roping). The Power company wanted $55,000.00 to hook up power on his property. He insted spent $35,000.00 and set up his own Solar grid with his own battery bank. He is off the grid completely. And it was cheaper.


So let's not rage against alternative forms of energy as always being more expensive. This is just not always the case.

 

So what is stopping you is that your local electric company that makes money generating and selling electricity doesn't want to let you put electricity into their power lines and give you money for it.

As I asked before, do you expect your local grocery store to give you credit at retail prices for the excess of produce from your garden?

If not - why do you expect the electric company to give you credit at retail prices for your excess electricity?

 

There is a federal tax credit of 30% of the cost of installation, with no upper limit on cost. So your cost would now be down to $1.400.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index

I don't know if your locations needs a lot of air conditioning to stay comfortable, but if it does I would think citizens could pressure the state to make it mandatory that your utility company provide buy-backs for residents with alternative energy production sources.

I'm wondering--does your utility company provide buybacks for solar energy?

 

Why should taxpayer be forced to pay for inefficient electrical generation technology?

Why should power companies be forced to buy back electricity from customers?

I don't know what line of business you are in but would you want the government forcing you to buy your product from your customer base at retail cost so that you can then resell it at the same cost? After accruing all of the overhead at a loss?

 

Didn't say I agreed with it, but if there are federal and state programs on the books but because RevMitchell's particular utility company does not participate, he can't take advantage of it seems kind of silly.

Because the government says so, and the government regulates utilities.

Sporting goods.

Of course not but it's not a fair comparison. I'm not required to provide my products to all citizens, whereas the power company is required. And I'm not sure the electricity is being sold back at retail. For El Paso Electric for wind turbines of less than 10 kW, the buy back rate is $.05 per kWh. For wind turbines of 10-100 kW, the buy back rate is $.022 per kWh.

http://www.find-solar.org/?page=solar-incentives&state=NM

Looks like the rate for residential electricity provided by El Paso electric is $.118 per kWh

http://www.fmtn.org/city_government/electric_utility/rate_information_sheet.html

So the buy back rate is less than half the going rate. So yeah, if I could sell someone my product for $10, buy it back at $5, and re-sell it to someone else for $10, I'd do it 24/7/365!

 

He could have got a generator much cheaper!

 

Unless you can buy your product wholesale for $3 :laugh:

Seriously though, we need the government out of this so that the market can develop energy sources that can stand alone on their own merits.

Government subsidized solutions are no solution at all.

 

I agree with you in principle, but sometimes incentives have to be offered to get the ball rolling. The alternative would be for electricity costs to skyrocket and then a market solution would be quickly found.

 

I don't know. We are in the high desert here 7200+ above sea level. Folks do not use A/C out here. We use swamp coolers and fans. It does get warm but not hot like a lot of areas and the humidity is 20 to 30 % most days.

 

He has one but then you have to constantly pay for gas. He uses it when there has been little sun.

 

Rmitch wouldn't answer the question so I will provide a little info:

http://www.smallwindtips.com/2010/01/advantages-of-connecting-wind-power-to-the-grid/

The solution to these problems is not likely to be a trivial cost!

 

I did not see the question. Neither do I know the answer. Those things are built into the cost when you hire a certified electrician to do the work.

 

$2000 might pay the electrician!

 

Actually of the cost I gave 1200 was the electrician cost.

 

The mayor of New Orleans is a Democrat. Maybe you're not getting the message. :laugh:

 

This thread kind of but you in the back side.