Windy Day

Denver, Colorado.

Up bright and early. Loaded up the truck. Had a lot of fun getting everything down from my room and loaded up. Hey Bou! Guess which floor I was on at the hotel? I was on the third floor just like at the Sleep Inn at Etowah. Fortunately, there wasn't a fire like there was at the Sleep Inn. I'm on the 2nd floor tonight.

Really cold this AM. Also very, very windy. Fighting the crosswinds, and going up and down the hills in eastern Kansas, I found my speed fluctuating between 65 and 90. I really wasn't trying to do 84 when the cop pulled me over. (I really miss not having cruise control in my truck.)

As soon as I saw the cop coming up behind me I knew I was tagged. I think he saw the wheelchair in the bed and the crip plate and he decided to give me a break and let me off with a written warning. (The same thing happened to me in Texas a few years back.) He did ask if my seatbelt was fastened when he pulled me over. (I had to unclick it to roll down the passenger window to hand over my driver's license and insurance card.) He even apologized for taking so long in checking me out. "The computer was running slow."

Shortly after that, Kansas flattened out and became as boring as I-10 through Louisiana, except the wind was still screaming across the highway. And then I came upon a bunch of windmills. Geez. Just like in California, none of them were turning. This isn't a very good promotion of wind power. 20 mph winds and no windmills turning. Wait! After about five miles worth of still windmills, I finally came upon some that were turning, but only half of them were. Maybe they're waiting for Jug Hussein Ears coronation before they all start turning so he can say he increased the production of green energy.

And speaking of wind power, Walt sent me this story.

KINGMAN - Rumors of Kingman's windiness may have been greatly exaggerated. That, at least, has been the experience for Dr. John Lingenfelter.

Lingenfelter made ink in late April, when he became the first Kingman resident to purchase a Skystream 3.7 wind turbine for his home at 1080 Riata Valley Road. At the time the man who sold Lingenfelter the turbine, Scott Travis, told the Miner that the Skystream could be expected to produce anywhere between 30 and 85 percent of the doctor's electricity each month.

Yeah, sure.

"The normal house uses approximately 3,000 kilowatts a month," Travis said at the time. "The generator will produce approximately 1,000 to 1,200 kilowatts a month at eight mile per hour winds, based on an eight-hour day."

And there will be peace in the Middle East. And the Pelosi Congress will be the most ethical Congress in history. And the JHE administration will be the most ethical in history, just like the Clinton administration. Good thing JHE has the press to carry his water for him. The guy who is gonna run the Treasury Department is a tax scofflaw, just like Charles Rangel, who is the head of the committee that writes the tax code, is a tax scofflaw. Can you imagine the outrage if Rangel and Geitner were Republicans?

But that has not been the case for Lingenfelter's turbine, which has produced only about 770 kilowatts of power since it was first activated June 1, according to John Kirby, the marketing director for the Gardens Rehab and Care Center and the nephew of Lingenfelter's special projects manager, Paul Levesque.

"It's far underperformed, and when you figure that a KW is 11 cents, we're at 770 kilowatts," Kirby said. "You're only talking $77, $80 that's been 'saved,' $80 worth of power in six months."

Considering the turbine cost Lingenfelter between $7,000 and $8,000 to purchase and install - and that's down from $14,000, thanks to rebates - Kirby said it would take many years for the turbine to pay for itself.

Maybe he needs a bigger subsidy from the gummint.

Even so, Kirby isn't sure the turbine manufacturers are to blame for the low output. He believes the reality may be simply that Kingman, despite a reputation for heavy winds, does not have consistent enough winds to allow the turbine to generate its advertised capacity.

The turbine, he noted, requires at least a constant eight mph wind to start generating power. It doesn't hit full production capacity until winds get at or above 12 miles per hour and stay there.

Sounds like he bought a pig in a poke. And folks, that's what JHE and the Dimocrats want to impose on us with their alternate energy schemes. Didja see in the article where electricity costs 11 cents per kilowatt hour? It's gonna take a hell of a lot of gummint subsidized windmills to reach that figure. But that's OK. Remember that JHE wants to bankrupt new coal fired plants so rather than lowering the price of wind power he's gonna raise the price of coal power. Hope. Change. Bullshit!

Ran through some snow showers in western Kansas. Got to Denver around 4:00 and I'm settled in for the night. I'm planning on getting to Snowmass early tomorrow afternoon.

Posted by denny at January 14, 2009 08:38 PM