[ExI] cool wind map graphic

Tue Jul 12 17:52:43 UTC 2022

…> On Behalf Of Will Steinberg via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] cool wind map graphic

>…Curious how this is recorded--is it at a specific height or an average of all wind speeds in a column reaching from the ground to the sky?

Excellent and highly relevant question Will.

What we need are equivalent maps at heights of 20 meters, 30, 40, by tens up to 90 meters.  We could then do economic analyses for the cost/kWatt of towers with hubs at each of these heights.

If you look at that map, up in central CA you see a small yellow strip in the north bay.  It forms a kind of wind tunnel thru there where the wind comes off the sea and funnels thru a narrow strip of land.  I go thru there on the freeway going north/south about 4 to 8 times a year.  The wind just never stops there, right down to ground level.  I haul my camper, always need to pay attention when we get out from behind that wind block, whoooosh.  I have never seen it calm there.  If some cruel demon sentenced me to live there, I would just ask someone to slay my ass and get it over with.  On the other hand… there are profitable wind turbines there, and they never stop spinning.

I fly over the country east/west and see clusters of wind farms out there.  The sight that has haunted me for years is that most of the time, most of the wind turbines are not turning.  There is wind: out of 100 turbines, often two or three are spinning.  Apparently there just isn’t a ready market for the power at that time, and they cost money to let them run (maintenance costs.)

I can imagine we eventually figure out we need to couple wind power with fertilizer production.  Wind power is an unwelcome contributor to the grid from the power company’s perspective, analogous to the manager’s view of the low-cost but highly unreliable employee.

spike 

On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 12:42 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

I wasn’t aware that the wind blows so much out over the sea:

https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Mapped-Average-Wind-Speed-Across-the-U.S.-Full.jpg?itok=pqBQHkSU

We need to figure out how to put the wind turbines out there rather than on land.

spike

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