Wind and Solar Ain't Cheap nor Environmentally Friendly

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crrcboatz

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And you have to ask to pay more for the wind electricity that comes from OG+E even though you are getting the electricity produced from NG plants. Think about it. How are you getting wind power over the same transmission lines as everyone else?


AND COAL! They are still a huge player here in Oklahoma!
 

Oklahomabassin

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The real fiscal benefit is indense population states. In Hawaii, who's average rate is 4x the average OK rate, it makes sense with steady winds and abundant and steady sunshine. It's just like the electric car debate. In California where gas is regularly at or above $4, EV's make sense even if their electricity is double our rate.

It's all relative to the individual. Most people can't see merit beyond their own benefit.

The OK electric average is just over 8cents/kwh, but it varies. In Summer, I pay 2.5cents/kwh 19 hours a day, 10cents/kwh during peak time 2-7p. Thanks to good insulation, my 1400sqft only costs $55/mo to keep at a crisp 70 degrees. Tile floors don't hurt either. Oct 1st to June 1st, I pay a steady 4.5cents/kwh.

I wouldn't benefit from solar/wind either... but that doesn't mean I think it's the devil.
They would really trash out the islands quick if all of the windmills were sent over there. Oh and disposal of the old blades.
 

TwoForFlinching

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They would really trash out the islands quick if all of the windmills were sent over there. Oh and disposal of the old blades.

There are currently a half dozen or so wind farms around the islands, six more in the building stages. Hawaii's been a wind community for some 30+ years. Disposal is easy. When you have a large piece of equipment that doesn't easily break down, it becomes reef.
 

TerryMiller

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Not so sure on the dumping of stuff into the ocean. Wife was reading a story somewhere a while back where one state (Florida, maybe) decided to dump old tires into the ocean to serve as a base for coral. Instead, the "leaching" from the old tires caused just about all marine life to leave the area.
 

TerryMiller

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Base load for OG&E is coal burning power plants. I spent 16 years as an instrumentation and control systems tech at Sooner power plant. Coal burner at 1100 megawatts.
They do have NG plants that were used for back up during heavy usage before NG became so cheap. Coal is still boss, but the NG plants run right along with them now.

When we were working our Summer gig up in Wyoming this Summer, one of our routes took us through the area where a lot of the mining of coal is done. Just in the short time we were driving through there, we must have seen 7 or 8 unit trains for coal transport there either loading or waiting to load.

Link to my photos of the mining area

This isn't the largest open pit mine in the area. This one is the Thunder Basin mine. The largest is just south of this one, but out of sight from the road we were on.

 

dennishoddy

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When we were working our Summer gig up in Wyoming this Summer, one of our routes took us through the area where a lot of the mining of coal is done. Just in the short time we were driving through there, we must have seen 7 or 8 unit trains for coal transport there either loading or waiting to load.

Link to my photos of the mining area

This isn't the largest open pit mine in the area. This one is the Thunder Basin mine. The largest is just south of this one, but out of sight from the road we were on.

All of our coal came from Wyoming. Low sulphur stuff that was easy to meet EPA requirements.
When Sooner PP was first built, the legislature required the plant to use 10% Oklahoma coal to give a boost to that industry.
It was so high in sulphur that it could never meet EPA requirements, no matter how it was treated. That requirement was abandoned.
Oklahoma has a lot of coal underground. It's not usable though.
 

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