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For the First Time, Wind on the Plains Supplied More Than Half Region’s Power

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday February 15 2017, @01:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-exactly-peak-time dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind:

Wind turbines across the Great Plains states produced, for the first time, more than half the region's electricity Sunday.

The power grid that supplies a corridor stretching from Montana to the Texas Panhandle was getting 52.1 percent of its power from wind at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, Little Rock, Arkansas-based Southwest Power Pool Inc. said in a statement Monday.

As more and more turbines are installed across the country, Southwest Power has become the first North American grid operator to get a majority of its supply from wind. That beats the grid's prior record of 49.2 percent and the 48 percent that a Texas grid operator reached in March, Derek Wingfield, a spokesman, said in an e-mail.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @01:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @01:22PM (#467364)
    I'm hoping that the strict economics take over. According to Google, the average (onshore) wind turbine generates 6M kWh/year in electricity. Or, roughly, $720K/year (at 12 cents/kWh). They seem to cost $3-4M. So if you have ~5-10 acres, a friendly local policy, and a buyer (or grid-tie system), the barrier to entry for wind farming is fairly low. You can use the 5-10 acres of land as bank collateral on the loan for a wind turbine (talk to a real banker, present them your business plan, it is fairly low risk, proven in multiple markets, etc.). 5-6 year loan payback isn't too bad (more like 10 when deducting living expenses).