Why T. Boone Pickens Could Be the Best Hope for Wind Energy

A Good Deal For Our Country

The people of the United States deserve a coherent energy policy that will offer them a future free from dangerous dependence on foreign oil. About 60% of our oil comes from abroad at a cost of nearly $700 billion a year. This vast outflow of money weakens our currency, our economy and our country.

Absurdly, Americans are told that achieving true energy independence is either impossible, too costly or impractical. Yet Brazil has already achieved energy independence. Iceland, Israel, Denmark and Sweden are ahead of us in reaching it. What do these nations have that our country lacks? Leadership perhaps? The elements needed for energy independence are abundant in the US; what's missing is a logical plan to put these pieces together right now, today, and the leadership to see it through to completion.

Such a plan has recently been proposed by T. Boone Pickens. The Pickens Plan focuses on two natural resources: wind and natural gas - wind as a source of electrical energy, natural gas as a source of transportation fuel.

The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity could be produced by wind. Boone's plan is to build facilities in the wind corridor that stretches from Texas to North Dakota, freeing up natural gas to run government fleet vehicles cleanly and cheaply. Eventually 20% of our electricity would be produced from wind at the one-time cost of $1 trillion. If we just reduce the $700 billion annual outflow by 20% we keep $1.4 trillion right here at home over the next 10 years. Sounds like a good deal for our currency, our economy and our country to me!

local wind.

Pickens plan is great but he fails to look at developing wind energy resources closer to where the need is. Wind electricity can be generated efficently in a broad belt as far east as Illinois without having to build new transmission lines. Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis etc could all be serviced with little new developement of infrastructure. Why don't we do this first?

It's About time for a change!

As a sophomore college student in 1973, my Earth Science geology course listed all of the current "hot topic" alternative energy resources. Wind, wave, solar, coal gasification, oil shale, tar sands, geothermal & all were more than just concepts at that time. The 1976 oil embargo had yet to happen. What has transpired in the intervening 35 years? Just about nuttin'honey. None of those identified alternatives were not economically feasible back then, but Big Oil did all it could to minimize any chance of Fed funding for development. Political processes do not necessarily permit that our country can make the best choices. We are in the situation we are in due to short-sightedness in the political arena. Good luck with the work, but I won't be expending any more of my energy to make good solutions work for the good of the country.

Synergy of PHEVs & Wind

With long-distance transmission lines spreading the sources and uses of electrical power over vast distances there is a very small chance of a significant wind-drought. However, the requirement for such transmission lines, say from the vast winter-only wind resource offshore of Los Angeles, to the cold northern plains states like Minn, can be vastly reduced by finely disbursed energy storage built right into millions of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. (PHEVs) Because these storage devices are distributed so finely they do not put any heavy point loads on the existing grid, and they can be recharged during off-peak hours (night) at a slow enough rate to not require new household wiring. This is one of those rare cases where large scale synergies exist between two new technologies, and we would be foolish NOT to exploit this.

energy

Right on!!!all kinds of energy ---excluding oil and other non-carbon fuels.

He's doing what needs to be done.

Pickens is right, and hes doing what needs to be done. He's taking the steps to get America to go green and harness the wind, but he is also laying the foundations for other people to step onto the scene and inform people of the need for wind energy. I personally think that we really need to get on the ball, and Pickens is the first step.

Energy independence

I am not an American but I believe that the world will be a safer place when America becomes energy independent. T Boon Pickens is absolutely right. Wind energy needs to be harnessed. I wish he would invest in Wind energy in my country Barbados where he would be very welcomed.

Siting Windmills & Wind Turbines

Industrial-size 5-megawatt wind generators require about a third of an acre each. Multiply that for a wind farm and you're into some serious acreage, viewable from great distances. Siting is becoming a big business, evidenced by bidding wars for domains (web addresses) like SitingWindmills.com and ProfitFromWind.com. The wind energy business is starting to boom, so siting is going to burn a lot of dollars for consultants and lawyers.

The Pickens Plan is about doing the right thing.

I think that money is really not the overwhelming issue at hand anymore. It has become more personal for the American people now. The Pickens Plan is a plan that considers my 2 Grandsons future. That is what is most important getting out of this mess for our Children and Grandchildren. If you think about it what monetary value could be more important than the love for our families future. Competiveness come into play too. I would love nothing more than to see the American Economy to thrive for our children as a result of the Pickens Plan and us the baby boomers giving back to our children. Wouldn't you agree that is why this is going to succeed. We can make this succeed because it's for our children! Ready to go in Florence, KY.

Have a great day!

Tony McClanahan

Good ideas, which should be the part of any solution to energy. Though we must remember that it is more of a mid term solution, given that the other part of his plan is to use the existing natural gas infrastructure throughout the U.S. to power cars and trucks.

Eventually we must transition to renewables given that nearly all fossil fuels will peak, though we must be careful to ensure there is sufficient supply of certain fossil fuels at a low enough price to make the transition as smooth as possible.

For example, in order to build a wind turbine you need steel which is made of iron and carbon. To obtain the iron you need a diesel powered shovel, which places the iron into a diesel powered dump truck, which then takes it to a diesel powered locomotive which then takes it to smelting plant which melts and purifies the iron using electricity which comes from coal, natural gas, nuclear, and some tiny portion from renewables. Thus far we have mostly used fossil fuels, if we decided to use only energy from current renewable sources, it would take much longer and cost more to transition to renewables.

Yes, even biofuels require fossil fuel inputs, you need a diesel powered tractor or combine, to plant and harvest the material. Also, you need oil based fertilizers and oil based pesticides to ensure the plants grow healthy. In addition you need electricity to turn the plants to fuel.

Don't forget our electrical infrastructure is quite old and is regularly at maximum capacity, which if not expanded will cause problems with increased demands via electric cars, buses, and trains.

What we need is time, time to build the windmills, solar panels, thin film solar, and batteries in sufficient quantities to power a significant portion of our economy. We also need time to develop the technologies that will make renewables more practical and more flexible when it comes to transportation.