William Larsen

Wind Power

Wind power made the news recently. As many who know me, know that I am a big proponent of wind power. Indiana is the fastest growing state in wind power. But this is because Indiana has little to begin with. By the end of 2009, Indiana could have 800 megawatts produced from wind power. This is about half the capacity of a nuclear power plant and about what a coal fired plant’s capacity.

Clean coal received $3.8 Billion from the stimulus bill. This is throwing $3.8 billion down the tubes. The feasibility prototype plant was canceled because the cost exceeded $2 billion and they still had no idea how to accomplish the task. You see, clean coal is a theory only. There is no working plant yet. The time line for the original plant was ten years. In ten years we could have great than 35% if not more of our electrical needs coming from wind. Wind power is known and proven technology and there is no need for billions of development costs.

Now if we can only stop the Governor from subsidizing coal we will begin to stop using a dirty 18th century conversion process to make electricity.

posted by William Larsen @ 2:02 PM