Comments on: Top energy and climate stories for April 8

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:26:26 +0000

What Salazar says is consistent with what Jacobson and his group at Stanford are finding. Their data shows that roughly 35% of the power produced by connected wind farms is 100%, 24/365, baseload reliable.

With some load shifting and storage a lot of the other 65% can be used to replace coal baseload. The portion that is still too undependable for baseload use can be used to charge electric vehicles.

If we wanted to do a 100% replacement of coal with wind we might have to build 2x as much wind production. But that extra power wouldn’t be wasted.

By: SecularAnimist

SecularAnimist — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:41:31 +0000

I posted a comment linking to this article earlier today, but now it is gone. Was there something wrong with it?

Interior secretary: Wind could replace coal power
by Erik Palm
CNet News
04/08/2009

Excerpt:

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is optimistic about the potential of wind power to help wean the U.S. from dependence on foreign oil.

“The idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility,” he said. “It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now,” Salazar said, according to an AP report, at a meeting in Atlantic City, N.J., Monday.

Salazar is hosting four regional public meetings in April to discuss the future of offshore energy development on the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf on the East Coast.

At the Atlantic City forum, he presented estimates from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that said wind has a gross resource of 463 gigawatts of power in the mid-Atlantic area alone. The current U.S. total production of electricity from coal is 366 gigawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration.

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:27:52 +0000

Folks:

If you’ve got a link that you think valuable to others, please take a few moments and write a couple of summary sentences. Give people the basic info so that they can decide if they want more detail.

Practice good journalism….

By: paul morrison

paul morrison — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:07:06 +0000

http://www.independent.co.uk/ environment/ climate-change/ mayor-unveils-plan-to-turn-london-into-electric-car-capital-of-europe-1666129.html

By: Dano

Dano — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:04:18 +0000

Good addition Joe. Desdemona Despair is also a good resource. Thank you also for the ‘preview’ button.

Best,

By: RunawayRose

RunawayRose — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:50:08 +0000

I appreciate the new feature; lots of good links in the story and the comments!

By: Dill Weed

Dill Weed — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:35:18 +0000

Looks like I found a one stop shoping for my daily climate change fix. I may trim a few sites from my Favorites.

Dill Weed the Great

[JR: That is what I'm here for!]

By: DrD

DrD — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:55:47 +0000

Sasparilla: Thanks for the link to the article on Australia. I knew it was bad there, but this was a good (bad?) overview. I assume, though, that some people must be making comparisons to the Dust Bowl in the US in the 1930s and pointing out that it was temporary.

By: ecostew

ecostew — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:31:08 +0000

Sasparilla – one would hope the Australian article would catch people’s attention that AGW impacts are not decades away.

By: Cait

Cait — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:22:03 +0000

Joseph, you caught the NASA research about aerosols, yes?

http://tr.im/isqK

Very interesting stuff. Obviously, it’s the followup that’s important.