wind energy southern california
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Critics argue that only $32 billion of the $825-billion stimulus package – also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 – will go for energy infrastructure, namely transmission and distribution lines and power plants.
It’s not enough, they say, to incrementally expand infrastructure so that vast solar arrays in the California desert, like Solel’s 553-megawatt Mojave Solar Park, can deliver their precious cargo of watts to people living in the big cities like Sacramento.
The power grid is too old, these critics argue, and needs almost twice as much funding to join the modern world.
While they sigh and wring their hands, solar projects in the desert languish for lack of transmission. Solel lucked out and is using the defunct transmission from the former, coal-fired Mojave Generation Station, but other projects that depend on the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line are stalled at the starting line by a combination of environmentalists who argue that regional projects are kinder to the ecosphere and citizens afflicted by the NIMBY factor.
In fact, transmission line costs have an industry standard of $1-million per mile. This figure is inflated by Southern California land costs and occasionally difficult terrain, but these inflationary costs are not justification for shutting down President Barack Obama’s vision of a United States “smart grid”.
It never ceases to amaze me that people who call themselves environmentally aware will, when confronted by an alternative energy project in their ‘backyard’, turn into naysayers. It happens to the Kennedy family, which is currently opposing the Cape Wind project, and it happens with my neighbors – who admit line-drying of clothing is environmentally superior, yet won’t allow clotheslines in the community.
On a $32-million budget, most of the needed grid connections between the Midwest ISO and the PJM could be built, delivering Eastern solar to cities like Minneapolis, where the sun is absent most of the winter, and sending wind energy back to Philadelphia from the soon-to-be-expanded historic Buffalo Ridge wind farm in Minnesota. And this is only one example of the benefits of a smart grid, which could ultimately free American from its dependence on Mideast oil.
I think we need to stop using the environment as a “feel good” mechanism, or a status symbol, and start viewing it as a commitment we each have to make if we want our planet to be habitable to future generations. Commitments require sacrifice, and now is the time to make them. NASA climate scientist James Hansen has already given President Obama a mandate of four years to save the earth. Let’s forget our quibbling, get behind our elected leader, and help him do it.
About the Author:
Cooler Planet is a leading solar resource for connecting consumers and commercial entities with local solar Installers. Cooler Planet’s solar energy resource page contains articles and tools such as our solar calculator to help with your solar project.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Get Behind Solar Initiatives and Infrastructure
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