California - A comprehensive research study comparing water depths to air speeds will be presented tomorrow.  The details of that report demonstrate that of the three leading sites capable of supplying significant amounts of off-shore wind energy for California, two are not feasible.  The water depth those two sites inhabit would require that they be created with floating platforms, and those are not yet sufficiently developed, according to one researcher.


One of the biggest possible sites, just off northern California's Cape Mendocino, could sustain a viable off-shore wind energy generation farm which would supply 5% of California's energy needs.  Today, that energy is powered by carbon-generating sources.  According to the breadth of the research, when combined with several other smaller sites, approximately 25% of California's total electrical energy consumption could come from wind power.

A significant stumbling block remains, however.  The power lines capable of transmitting the wind energy's electricity do not exist in Northern California.  According to the report, the bulk of the energy transmission lines capable of such distribution are in Southern California where the wind is not as high.  As a result, Pacific Gas & Electric would be forced to build new ones, raising expenses.  Another concern is over the intermittent nature of wind energy.  It pulses, ramps up and falls off from time to time based on the wind.  One possible solution there is to network the wind farms together.  This would create a condition where any lack of power in one area is supplanted by consistent, strong power in another, thereby producing a more reliable feed into the grid.  Still, there is a lot of research to be done for wind, an unreliable-at-best technology, and yet one capable of supplying up to 25% of California's needs.

This research was carried out by a team at Stanford.  It's being presented tomorrow (Thursday) at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in a poster session entitled, ''California Offshore Wind Energy Potential''.

Ignorance unbelievable

Dec 12, 2007 13:16     

They should look to Denmark where 20% electricity is already from wind. Plenty of other places in Europe is producing lots from wind. [There is geography to consider. There are places where the wind blows more than in other places. The North Sea can be very, very windy, just like Washington D.C. -Rick]
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PG&E Largest poluter and Scam the public with Lyes

Dec 12, 2007 14:39     

PG&E is trying to like the good guy but they are not. Do anyone remembers(1994)Prop. 9 and the movie (2000)Erin Brockovich. PG&E control those wind they want to. I heard that all wind mill in the Altmont 20 miles west from Tracy, Calif we coming down.
Sal report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Wind Energy is Based on the Wind

Dec 12, 2007 14:51     

I like the part where the article says that the wind energy goes up and down based on the wind. That is a little known fact for sure...
G-Man report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Compact Fluorescents are better choice

Dec 12, 2007 15:22     

Compact Fluorescents are better choice. Install them for less money in all the homes in Southern California and the results would be felt today, not in 20 years.
Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re: Ignorance unbelievable

Dec 12, 2007 16:45     

California and Texas are the leaders of wind energy in the United States. One of the problems with wind is the amount of land space that it takes to generate power. "The average windfarm requires 17 acres of land to produce one megawatt of electricity." http://www.energy.ca.gov/wind/overview.html I live not too far from one of our largest wind farms. It takes up a lot of area for the little amount of electricity that it produces. And it is unusually windy in that area do to the geographic location. So I fail to see how it can solve everyones problem. The city of LA has roughly 16 million people in it if I am correct. All of Denmark has about 5 million. The state of California has about 36 million people. 20% of California is 7.2 million people. 20% of Denmark is 1 million people. When you scale things properly, you really see how difficult this problem is for California. The other problem that you have, according to environmentalists, is with the birds getting killed by the wind mills. Personally I think that they are just being obstructionist who want attention, and not realists who want to solve a problem. A few birds can get whacked as far as I am concerned. A lot more species will gain from wind farms. Finally, I fail to see why you call Californians ignorant. You can call them culturally void, shallow and self centered, nutty, and just plain weird. But they are far from ignorant. They have one of the largest economies in the world. One of the best, if not the best college systems in the states. They generate more military and commercial technology than any other state. They got the ball rolling for the rest of the world on automobile emissions. I can't stand them myself. But I do admire their accomplishments.

Popeye report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

finally an effecient way to kill all those seaguls

Dec 12, 2007 17:16     

really people, its a full time job picking up bird corpses from these windmills. The Eco Nazis just cant be happy with themselves on this one. Much better to make solar more cost effective (though cell manufacturing has its own polutants... but at least it's cleaner than anything else)
Caeden Vintori report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

there are good reasons to close Altmont

Dec 12, 2007 19:58     

Sal, things are rarely black and white. The Altmont Pass wind farm has long been criticized for killing large numbers of birds due to its location and old fast spinning turbines. Hopefully any shutdown is just temporary to put in newer turbines. A few articles on bird issues include: http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2005/10/69177 http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/bdes/altamont/altamont.html On the other hand, here in MA the anti-Cape Wind hypocrites are heavily exaggerating any possible danger to birds as they pull out all the stops to keep wind power off their horizon.

Ravi M report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Doubtful

Dec 13, 2007 07:39     

They'd need a wind farm the size of Texas to power half of LA. This seems like propaganda
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Don Quixote would be proud...

Dec 13, 2007 09:27     

Wind farms are like the elevated highways of the 1950s. Demand will soon outstrip capacity, and they blight the landscape/seascape. Plenty of other alternatives on the horizon.
Rich report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

i agree with the compact fluorescants

Dec 13, 2007 10:37     

nearly upgraded all bulbs in the house to these, doesnt feel like a damn heat lamp in my house anymore(lowers HVAC costs as well) and its outputting more light. Get a large amount of people to change to CF lights a significant reduction in consumption can result and its simple. Heck not worrying about stocking and replacing incandascents for the next 5 years is worth it
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Be careful with compact fluorescents

Dec 13, 2007 16:19     

The long cilinder ones are the smart choice. (they are like 3-4 times more efficient than a regular incandescent) Generally (to be clear, there are exceptions), the compact fluorecent make your energy bill goes down, BUT, they still require near as much power as the incadescent (55-80%). For the same lumen power, of course. you will not be cheating, but will not be helping either. Its hard to explain the reason why these happens without getting very techinical, but its related with the home user only beeing charged for the active power they use (industry is also charged for the passive power, thats why they try to correct the power factor PF)

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