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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Climate change is here to stay-9 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wind Energy. That is the key takeaway from the National Climate Assessment, a major report released last week on the state of global warming in the United States. “Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the authors declared. Burning fossil fuels has led to water scarcity in arid regions, torrential downpours in wet regions, extreme heat waves, and larger and longer-burning wildfires. Unless we are prepared to condemn our descendants to a world that could be 10 degrees warmer on average by 2100, we need to dramatically wean ourselves off fossil fuels. That means embracing renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power—which generate virtually no emissions and displace carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that would otherwise be released by, say, the coal plant that’s also giving you asthma and cancer. Herewith, nine awesome facts about wind energy. 1. As early as 5000 B.C., ancient Egyptians used wind energy to propel boats up and down the Nile River. 2. In 1941, Palmer Putnam, an MIT-educated geologist, unveiled the Smith-Putman Wind Turbine in Vermont. The device was the first to send wind-sourced alternate current power to an electric grid. “Slowly, like the movements of an awakening giant, two stainless-steel vanes—the size and shape of a bomber’s wings—began to rotate,” gaped the Sept. 8, 1941, issue of Time. 3. A modern wind turbine usually has three blades, which can reach rotational speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. 4. Around 70 percent of turbine equipment used at U.S. wind farms—that includes blades, gears, and generators—are made in America. 5. The United States has 60,000 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity. This powers the energy needed by roughly 15 million American homes. 6. America has barely scratched the surface of its wind energy potential. “The land-based wind energy resource in the United States is over 10,000,0000 megawatts, which could produce enough electricity to power the entire country 10 times over,” reports the American Wind Energy Association. 7. Wind energy accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the world’s electricity usage in 1997. This increased to 1.5 percent in 2008 and 2.5 percent in 2010. That’s progress, but there’s still a long way to go. 8. The U.S. generated 168 megawatt-hours of wind energy in 2013—or roughly the equivalent of removing 16 million cars from the road for an entire year. 9. In January, the world’s “largest and most powerful wind turbine” went online at an energy-testing center in Osterild, Denmark. The prototype is enormous: 720 feet tall, with 260-foot blades. It can generate eight megawatts of power, or enough to power 3,000 American households for an entire year. Related stories on TakePart: • Leave the Gun, Take the Turbine: Italy Seizes Mafia-Run Wind Companies • Weirdest Apartment Ever? These Guys Will Live Inside a Wind Turbine • You’ll Be Blown Away by the World’s Biggest Wind Turbine • L.A. Subway Generates Wind Energy—Yeah, We're Big Fans • Can Offshore Wind Farms Really Slow Down Hurricanes? Original article from TakePart Poster Comment: [rip greens] We have 1, let me be clear, "1" wind turbine in our town that is supposed to run the train depot building in our town. This "1" turbine spins like a top when windy & looks very productive. The problem is that it is actually broken & produces no energy at all @ taxpayers expense. We were told that there is no fix for this turbine & now it just an eyesore to the community & who knows how many birds it kills in it's broken state disguised as a success. Check out Angus King & his wind power ideas & it is quite clear that he is making a killing off of the Maine taxpayers while producing nothing. +9-2 [Chuck I] Wind and solar (PV and thermal) are good sources of electricity. What I read in the above is both unprovable and most likely untrue. Wind and Solar are both what are call interruptible sources of electrical and there is a limit to what they can be as a part of the grid. Grid needs to be balanced and constant otherwise you have black outs. We will be using great deals of natural gas, coal, nuclear (both plutonium/uranium and thorium) for a very long time. BTW both solar and wind have great changes to the ecosystem in which they operate, they are not clean as people would have you believe. +2-1 [Nobody Special] I love the comments. "It can't be done", "It's all a scam". Meanwhile those of us that know better are doing it. The big boys are building massive projects, while little guys like me are making ourselves energy independent. My small wind/solar system provides more power than I can use most days and my storage system has yet to fail me in ten years. I did not receive any subsidies and the cost of installing my system was less than bringing in grid power. Nobody can tell me "It can't be done" I've been doing it for a decade. +6-4 9 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wind Energy By TakePart Staff | Takepart.com 3 hours ago Takepart.com Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
What nonsense? No informed and intelligent person believes that CO2, a trace gas, contributes to global warming. The fact is that the atmosphere has been losing CO2 for billions of years and is now CO2 starved. Water vapor, not CO2 is our greenhouse gas since at about one molecule per 3,000 there is to little CO2 to have any measurable effect on temperture. Since CO2 is so important to plant growth which decreases global warming, we would be better off with 2 to 10 times as much CO2 in the atmosphere. 500 million years age, there was 20 times as much CO2 in the atmosphere and global temperture was about the same as now. It is not global warming we need to fear it is the return of the ice age we are in. We are just fortunate enough to be living during a warming period within this ice age. In time, after hundreds of millions to billions of years, as the sun ages and heats up, global warming may be a severe problem for whatever life exists on earth.
Chemtrails are spraying aluminum that makes forest fores worse in addition to killing the trees.
The Truth of 911 Shall Set You Free From The Lie
You mean seasons are here to stay? Really? OK, if you say so. LOL!
God is always good!
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