Never knew that.

Im always surprised that solar isn't more popular in the southern US. It's marginal here, it can be made to work but we are further north than Vancouver.

In the same way im surprised that we don't take more advantage of tidal.

And tidal would be pretty worthless on the gulf coast, as 2 feet total change is pretty normal

Gulf of Mexico, that is.

I think Texas leads in wind farms too....I think I read somewhere over 15,000 wind turbines. I know if you drive out west, there are some areas where you can see them for miles. They are huge.

Funny thing in Wyoming just north of Dougls on I-25 there is the big Dave Johnston coal fired power plant and right behin it a bigass wind farm.

Solar, IMO, will beat all of them in the end. Either way, it's the future. Time & tech wait for nobody.

quote:

Originally posted by ANTELOPEDUNDEE:
Funny thing in Wyoming just north of Douglas on I-25 there is the big Dave Johnston coal fired power plant and right behind it a bigass wind farm.

Windmills on I-80 east of Green River are as big as any I've ever seen. Wyoming exports energy.
There are some pretty big wind farm in Utah too, off in the desert.

Wyoming was producing a lot of coal the last time I looked.

What’s really hilarious is that Texas oil apologists refer to wind and solar power production as energy terrorism. Not kidding.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
What’s really hilarious is that Texas oil apologists refer to wind and solar power production as energy terrorism. Not kidding.

First time I have ever read that phrase used in that way. I HAVE heard it terms of OT cyber hackers though.

quote:

Originally posted by wymple:
Solar, IMO, will beat all of them in the end. Either way, it's the future. Time & tech wait for nobody.

Just seems to me that it occupies too much space for the amount of electricity that it produces. How many acres of solar panels would it take to equal the daily output of one win turbine? Or supply say a town like Atlantic, IA, [pop about 13,000] with its daily need for electricity?

The Chinese are putting monstrous fields in the desert on pretty much otherwise unusable land. And they generate a huge amount of electricity. Solar panels just keep getting more efficient & I don't expect that to stop either. I believe India has another monstrous field in play. We will play catch up, as has been the norm for some time now. Like I said, the world moves on.

Hey, close enough
Here's a couple basic electrical terms you should be aware of, in regards to solar(DC power)
Transmission loss
Dielectric loss

And just for you
Hysteresis loss


Oh, yeah, other problems with solar
Storage and efficiency decay