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We should put a windmill on the political forum. Just think of the all the electricity we could be generating!
One more thing Manny, have you ever driven out west on I-10 near Ft. Stockton. They have an unbelievable amount of wind generators on top of those mesas. Don't know if we would have enough wind here for that. I asked one man what they do when the wind isn't blowing and he said the wind always blows.
We should put a windmill on the political forum. Just think of the all the electricity we could be generating!
Damn good idea 666We should put a windmill on the political forum. Just think of the all the electricity we could be generating!
The Chihuahan Desert does not have expensive land, nor does West Central Texas. They don't even have to buy the land outright -- when phone companies build cell towers, they pay a lease to the landowners. You can still raise cattle and crops on wind farms. It just sucks for the birds who come flying through.
Wind costs are down below $0.04/kWh for large-scale farms. What's the unit cost on your latest CPS bill?
CPS apparently is trying to maintain a balanced energy portfolio. Three years ago everybody and their grandma was building combined-cycle gas turbine units, which is why gas prices are now so high and so volatile. Pulverized coal looks like the cheapest option right now, so whaddya know, that's what the managers want to build.We already have coal plants in the area and that's probably why we are going for another one.
That's not good enough. CPS should have to complete its NOx, SO2, and particulate reduction projects on existing facilities before it can build this new unit. Their permit also should require them to meet the new restrictive mercury rules which they are trying to avoid.Any new plant built will be VERY clean burning compared to the current ones in operation in the area.
Why isn't it?I wish nuclear was an option here or atleast in the area.
Cities far from West Texas use that power. I bet SA already buys some of it. We have a statewide power grid.
The Panhandle is similarly windy.
Wind power is certainly not the only option, and I'm not some wind power freak, but this one technology illustrates that CPS needs to prove why they need to use coal, and a slide showing the lowest operating costs based upon today's market prices is not sufficient.
3-mile island ring a bell? I think nuclear is the way to go for energy production. Fussion is a ways off. Wind is much more expensive than coal, gas, or oil. Tidal generation is another alternative.Why isn't it?
That is why they are using coal. Coal is much cheaper than anything else. Nuclear is much better but people just don't want a plant near them. It's also VERY expensive.
march, parade..whatever.. it is people walking in the street... and you and your group are hijacking MLK Day for you own agenda.
How many march's again? Zero? So you don't know what the march is about? Just what you THINK it's about? What did MLK stand for?
Give me a break, I'll take you seriously should you decide to actually go to a march, THEN tell me we're doing something that goes against the spirit of the day. Also, check the initial post to see if we're going to be canvasing during the march.
You can keep saying that, but I quoted you a price. $0.04/kWh. What are you paying now?
Yeah, but three years ago everyone said the same thing about gas. Gas was the way to go. What happened?That is why they are using coal. Coal is much cheaper than anything else.
They're forgetting the hidden costs. They draw a box around just CPS operations and pretend there is no surrounding community. Their calculations ignore the costs to San Antonio if it fails to meet SIP standards. In that case, all development citywide would be restricted. The city would lose all federal highway funding. They might limit how many days a week you could drive your car. How would that affect you? Would you want to live in San Antonio if that happened? What would happen to the economy?
The area has to meet ALL priority pollutant requirements, which would be much more difficult with additional unncessary power generation capacity grandfathered in to avoid new mercury regulations.
CPS does a song and dance on its website about how somehow they don't affect area pollution, despite contributing something like 30% of the NOx for the entire metropolitan area. They are trying to get over on you with this.
Nuclear is pretty cheap, actually. But everyone is afraid of it.Nuclear is much better but people just don't want a plant near them. It's also VERY expensive.
If the French can do it, we should be able to. You'd think those ers would be glowing.
Coal was and still is cheaper than gas. Gas was going to be an alternate means but now it's price is out of control.
Your price for wind power is cost to generate, or cost to the consumer? And scale is a huge factor with wind power. We simply can not build enough wind mills to supply the demand. The start up costs of wind power are also more than that of fossil fuel systems. It has to be some of each source of energy, each used in their most efficient means.
I don't know much about all of this, but I don know that when we switched from TXU Energy to Green Mountain (wind-based), our bills were cheaper.
Where was that Spurm?
how long have you served in the military? zero days right...but in your posts you act like you know everything about it. basically, i don't have to go to an MLK march to know what it is SUPPOSED to be about.
MLK was a civil rights activist. i don't remember him having sit ins about coal plants.
Metroplex.
Speak of the devil...I took a picture of some on our way out to CA. Apolgies for the big picture. I'm too lazy to resize it.
There's a plant at San Onofre State Beach right by San Clemente. It's one of the most popular surfing areas in south Orange County. Maybe that's why the waves are good.
We should build an bunker oil and petcoke plant.
Go back and find a post where I act like I know everything about serving in the military.
I'm not saying that wind power is a bad idea in some areas, but there are a lot of things to consider.
Here's a suggestion:
Delay any action on the permit for 18 months. Force CPS to demonstrate the need for additional capacity, which they have failed to do so far. If they are not going to cross the threshhold where they need the plant to ensure reliability until 2014, then don't grant the permit until 2009. An energy conservation program to reduce demand should be implemented before any capacity increase is approved.
We aren't just talking about environmental concerns here; since CPS is a regulated municipal utility, they are talking about a $750 million capital investment out of YOUR pockets -- if it's not truly justified, you should not assent to it. We're talking about a $500 hit per customer, even though that hit would be over several years. The later the plant is built, the better the state of the art will be, and the more the customer is going to get for that money. If the plant is operational before its capacity is needed, then its fixed costs just sit there and jack up the unit cost of your power.
Ensure that commissioning of the new unit cannot occur until ALL SO2, NOx, and particulate reduction projects at existing units and at the coal yard are completed and proven.
If for some reason the EPA has failed to promulgate the new mercury standards by whenever the permit is being processed, place mercury restrictions in the permit anyway, with either a cap-and-trade or a MACT requirement on CPS's total mercury emissions.
How does that sound?
I don't really have a problem with what your saying and am usually on the eco side of things. The one thing about this is the huge growth we have going on in SA right now. The fight over those transmission lines is related to this as well. The Toyota plant and PGA resort will push demand really high before your purposel would come to fruition and that may be the problem. The costs between building the plant now and buying outside power have to be weighed.How does that sound?
On an interesting side note:
How many people know of SMI in Seguin? They are a steel mill/recycler located there. I went on a tour there once and picked up a few interesting facts. They use electricty to melt scrap steel and recast it into rebar and other raw steel goods. I was told they buy power from CPS here in SA. They use so much power that their electrical bill can reach $300,000 a month! During summer months CPS will ask them to shut down because there is not enough power to supply the increased demands of everyone running their a/c systems. They then get credits to use power during off peak hours. I think there is a definate need for more sources of power in this region, especially with the growth we are experiencing now.
$300,000 a month and that is supposed to be huge? A chemical plant in Houston can have a bill of $5-$10 million a month and the Houston area has dozens of those. Then again, Houston is deregulated and independent power generators have built so much capacity in the area, all with brand-new, state-of-the-art, low-emissions units that comply with the SIP, that the conventional units from the old regulated utility are being shut down because they aren't economical. The plant I work at had a third-party company build a 800 MW plant nearby for our needs, and saved massive amounts of money compared to the way it was under regulation. It's more reliable power, too.
I guaran-damn-tee you it didn't cost any $750 million to build that unit, either.
Even in the old days, Houston had distributed generation all over town, not this cluster of capacity in one place like SA has.
If CPS is asking them to shut down, that means they are on an interruptible power contract, and in return get lower rates. Similarly, they get a price break by using off-peak electricity. If they needed firm power, they would be paying the higher price for it. It must work for them. Reprocessing scrap metal is a batch process, right? With a flexible production schedule, if I ran that business, I would want interruptible and off-peak power, too.
I'm sorry I was incorrect on the scale of what I said. It was $300,000 a day on peak days. Some months can be 5-7 million $.
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