Wind farm in central alaska

Not a lot of news coverage on it yet, but our "esteemed" moron recently elected to the house mary peltola, has lobbied for and gotten approval for a wind farm to go in not far from fairbanks.

The problem, in the winter the wind dont move in the valley, and GVEA (our power company monopoly) is floating the idea of shutting down a coal power plant once the wind farm is up.

again the wind dont move in the winter unless a front comes through, best I have seen in three winters is 2-3 mph.

If we get rolling brown outs when its -40F, especially after years of the EPA going after the state over wood burning stoves people are going to die, and those that dont will eventually be driven into bankruptcy after their pipes/pumps freeze 2 or 3 times per winter.

This is what idiots who only vote for their "team" get us.



fairbanks

The project, which has been the topic of discussion and some amount of controversy since the idea was first pitched in November, aims to build between 25 and 55 wind turbines about 20 miles northwest of Fairbanks off of Murphy Dome Road. Planners say the construction is slated to begin in 2026 and be in operation by 2027.

Output of 100 to 210 megawatts of power is expected from the Shovel Creek Wind Project.

No competition just 1 company suggested and the city and state said sure what could go wrong.

Insanity

a reply to: Irishhaf

Look at the land destruction, why aren’t the tree huggers up in arms?

You should see the destruction in New Mexico. The land will never be the same for hundreds of thousands of years.

fm.kuac.org...

a reply to: 38181

People are mad but when everything is a monopoly all you can do is yell at the politicians, and unfortunately alaska is on par with louisiana for corruption in politics.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I'm sorry dude, but you have to take one for the team. See, these pinheads aren't just going to "figure it out", they are going to need news coverage of old people frozen to death to blame Republicans for it somehow. (I know, teams) But the reality, is that sane people have told them, it's fine to look at new, better, cleaner ways to get energy, but don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Well, that was a challenge, not a warning. So best you can do, is find the group you are willing to sacrifice, and set up a good photo op. This will take some time, but by 2030, it will all be sorted out.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Come On Man , In Frigid Temperatures the Turbine Blades Will Freeze in Non Motion . WTF are these A Holes Thinking > ?

First Texas , now Alaska?

What idiots.

I’ve always said they need to get wave generators going. Lots of free energy with minimal impact… unlike these Offshore wind farms.

I’m all in for clean energy, but done smart and organically not authoritarian ordered stupidity.

Aside.

I remember lots of wind skiing 2 miles a day to Woodriver elementary every day for school.

And playing outside for recess until it was -20.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Are they going to include a redicusly large battery farm to ride through the no wind times? The batteries don't work when frozen but you can't tell them that.

They have ears but nothing between them.

a reply to: pianopraze

Ive been wondering about that, considering how long the tech has been around its astounding its not more main stream.

a reply to: BeyondKnowledge3

Havent dropped that nugget yet, I am not looking forward to that.

I live on the other side of Murphey dome from it so a goodly distance, but man is this a bad idea and that idiot is trying to use her lobbying for as a look what I did for donations.

a reply to: Zanti Misfit

Only thing I can come up with is the monopoly bought another politician.

It’s just another democrat grift of taxpayer money.
They’ll get billions, spend 60% on who gets enriched building and maintaining the things, then spend the remaining 40% filling each others campaign coffers and special interest activities.
Here’s the kicker, they will then ask the feds for more of our taxpayer dollars so they can finish it.
California has been doing this for decades with their ‘high speed rail’ to the tune of over 12 billion spent.
Miles of track so far? Zero.

originally posted by: Zanti Misfit
a reply to: Irishhaf

Come On Man , In Frigid Temperatures the Turbine Blades Will Freeze in Non Motion . WTF are these A Holes Thinking > ?

While I agree, but....and this is out there...

Maybe they know what cataclysm is about to befall and they are setting infrastructure in place. Then after said disaster, we have a power grid ready to go for the common people.






Hahahaha!!!!

a reply to: Irishhaf

Average wind speed in June does not go below 2 MPH Westerly and in Jan doesn't go above 14 MPH Easterly.

Seems fairly consistent and a good place to set up a wind farm, except for the temperature drops up to -40 around January. If you used the extra wind energy that occurs at the same time to prevent icing, then I don't see a major issue.

originally posted by: 38181
a reply to: Irishhaf

Look at the land destruction, why aren’t the tree huggers up in arms?

You should see the destruction in New Mexico. The land will never be the same for hundreds of thousands of years.

fm.kuac.org...

Land destruction?

An access track, some power pylons and some concrete pads?

They usually put them on a ridgetop where there is less wind obstruction and vegetation is sparser, too.

With the really cold temperatures there, I doubt if they could even turn. Cold bearings don't work that great so there will be more upkeep on those windmills than the value of the electricity they get. Can't they find a better place to put the money? Our government heads sure know how to make mistakes in judgement.

a reply to: chr0naut

I am not against a wind form in general, I do think the US does it in the worst way possible I prefer germany's approach of spreading them out vs packing as many into the acreage as possible. I think it could be an excellent subset to the power grid even.

My issue is the closing a coal plant and expecting the wind farm to pick up that slack considering wind farms cant really handle increased power need.

Like this winter has been pretty mild, till now we are looking at -35 to -50 across the valley so usage is way up after many people believed the hype and unloaded their wood stoves so have a much stronger reliance on electric power being available.

My crawl space for instance where the hot water heater and well pump are located depends on an electric heater till I can afford a good alternative, so if power goes out for the next week I risk my pipes freezing and cracking since the heat tape wont be turned on.

While this is a normal risk a coal plant doesnt struggle to meet increased demand.

eta: hope that made sense.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: chr0naut

I am not against a wind form in general, I do think the US does it in the worst way possible I prefer germany's approach of spreading them out vs packing as many into the acreage as possible. I think it could be an excellent subset to the power grid even.

My issue is the closing a coal plant and expecting the wind farm to pick up that slack considering wind farms cant really handle increased power need.

Like this winter has been pretty mild, till now we are looking at -35 to -50 across the valley so usage is way up after many people believed the hype and unloaded their wood stoves so have a much stronger reliance on electric power being available.

My crawl space for instance where the hot water heater and well pump are located depends on an electric heater till I can afford a good alternative, so if power goes out for the next week I risk my pipes freezing and cracking since the heat tape wont be turned on.

While this is a normal risk a coal plant doesnt struggle to meet increased demand.

eta: hope that made sense.

Yes, I fully agree, but I would hope that they have deals to share loads with other (Canadian?) networks and have extra capacity from emergency generation on hand for those outages.

Alaska is a state with a lot of land area and is less population dense overall than any other US state, but the population density of its cities is quite high. One would imagine that generation and distribution challenges there would be significantly different than in other US states.

a reply to: chr0naut

GVEA is a great example of why a power company should never have a monopoly in an area.

This year there have been multiple instances where a tree limb or tree took out the power line to a house between the road and the house.

GVEA said not our problem we will drop off a pole but its up to you to get it placed and connected, all they would do is turn off power to that location.

To put it bluntly I would trust congress before this power company.

a reply to: Irishhaf

If you want to see real madness come to the UK and you will not believe your eyes or ears , paying suppliers not to turn the wind farms on, to windy to operate are just some of the crazy things we hear.

We had gusts of wind last night of 60 to 90 mph which is pretty normal for winter time , that destroys these towers more than they admit and they need replacing way more than what the manufacturer states It was utter lunacy what the government did here and destroyed the coal stations rather than mothball them .

And good luck trying to find a use for the old blades ,, they litter the landscape everywhere

a reply to: stonerwilliam

Thats a horrifying thought, already a lot of issues in the environment here with the industries we have here now, so of course they will add to it in the name of climate change.

Bleh.