Back in July T. Boone Pickens announced a quartering of his mega-wind farm project. The project has essentially been scrapped due to continuing issues with access to transmission lines, as Mr. Pickens downplays wind in his wind+natural gas “plan.” The remaining order with GE has been halved to three hundred odd turbines, whose future home is expected to be relocated from the Texas panhandle to Canada or Montana. Continue reading
Remember T. Boone Pickens and his famous plan? There’s been much buzz today (for example) about an announcement of the downward revision of his original plans to one quarter the original scale. The change has been attributed to lower fossil fuel prices than when the plan was first put forth, as well as the credit crunch. However, Pickens is already on the hook for nearly 700 turbines, and he plans to make several smaller wind farms rather than the megafarm previously proposed. Most people seem to see this as an unfortunate turn of events, but a handful of smaller installations are a more sound strategy from most vantage points e.g; redundancy, minimizing impacts, etc. As for the diminished capacity, initial delivery is not due until 2011, so it there’s probably still time for things to pick back up.
(Update)
P.S. There seems to be a new wind installation in Harvard Square next to The Garage at Dunster & Mount Auburn. Give it a gander next time you’re in the area, and if you forget but it’s gusty out, you might just look up to figure out where that gentle whirr is coming from. (Click the image at right for a better view)
Massachusetts Governor and Presidential pal Deval Patrick has very quietly become one of wind power’s biggest boosters over the last year or so. And he looks absolutely nothing like, or thinks nothing like wind power’s biggest booster, T Boone Pickens. Which goes to show you the search for clean renewable energy, just like politics, can make for strange bedfellows.
Patrick-2,000 megawatts of wind power on the grid before 2020
Patrick, who called for an increase in Massachusett’s solar capacity from the current 4MW to 250 MW soon after he was elected in 2006, had this to say about the state’s (soon to be) booming wind power industry.
“With the growing interest in wind turbines we see in communities across the Commonwealth and the abundant wind resource we have off our coast, wind power is going to be a centerpiece of the clean energy economy we are creating for Massachusetts,”
Massachusetts has also been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for one of just two Wind Technology Testing Centers in the country (Texas also was selected), poising the Commonwealth to become a national center for wind power research and development-and thereby offering the potential economic rewards of technology development, entrepreneurship and jobs.
The folks at Renewable Energy World have the rest of the story.
Not since Ross Perot’s quirky 1992 presidential bid have we been as impressed by an elderly Texan billionaire writing on a whiteboard. This video is worth watching for the illustration of the US wind corridor. (For a different map of potential wind resources click here.)
Picken’s company Mesa Power LLP has put it’s money where his mouth is, making the world’s largest order for wind turbines with GE in 2007, scheduled for delivery in 2010 or 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQa-ibNOKM
Energy independence or bird killing eyesore?
When the Bush administration ignored T. Boone Pickens ambitious Pickens Plan Oil mogul and corporate raider decided he’d just have build support for the massive undertaking himself.
In the video accompanying the PickensPlan.com Web site, Pickens said that getting 20 percent of the U.S.’ electricity from wind and diverting natural gas to transportation could be done in 10 years “if there is the right leadership.”
“I am calling on the next President and Congress to take immediate action in the first 100 days of the new Administration to do whatever is necessary to make this plan a reality. We are asking the American public to get behind this plan and to help us reduce our dangerous dependency on foreign oil. This has to be the number one priority in the country starting today and that’s what this campaign is all about. I am also calling for a monthly report on the reduction in foreign oil imports and a monthly report on progress in the development of natural gas vehicles in this country.”
Picken’s even has a Facebook page for the plan.
Not everyone is overjoyed at some of the specifics of Boone’s proposals. Environmentalists worry that Pickens “Wind Corridor” could be disruptive to migrating birds, many communities in the US have fought wind turbine proposals, referring to the giant towers as eyesores.