Re: Wind Farms
 

I just watched the Pickens video, read a good bit of the info on the website, and signed up. Do I dare believe it could bring back the directions we were moving in back in the '70s until the mid '80s, at which point the government put the kibosh on alternative energy and thus forced the continuation of our dependence on the petroleum industry? We toured and spent some time in the wind farm area outside of Palm Springs, CA and it is just awesome! This is exciting--wow!!! Thanks, samhass, for getting this info out on TOTV!

Re: Wind Farms
 

Count me in.

It makes the most sense. This ia a project that will definately take some work but we retirees have the time. We owe it to our earth to make an effort to undo some of the harm we have inflicted upon her.

Re: Wind Farms
 

I graduated in 1972 EMU Ypsilanti Mi. Nuclear energy was hated and feared. I remember someone had invented a power generator the size of a refrigerator that used a thimble sized piece of some kind of nuclear stuff that was safe and you buried this thing in the back yard and it made all the energy your house could use forever. It couldn't explode or create a "spill". I mentioned EMU because it could of been in some kind of study hall or something. Has anyone else ever heard of anything like this? Benj

Re: Wind Farms
 

I signed up and sent it to everyone on my email list. Can't wait to "let's roll".

Re: Wind Farms
 

Just out of curiosity, why are you focusing on wind farms? It would seem to me to be a lot more reasonable to go for a solar plan rather than a wind farm.

The wind farms require a fair bit of wind, not just breezes, to be efficient. TV would seem to be better positioned to take advantage of solar. There's not an overabundance of tall trees to block the sun, you don't have to worry about wintertime snow covering the panels on the roofs, and you would not need to buy up large tracts of land for the farms - you all have all the surface area you need right on your roofs.

It would seem to be a little more realistic to get a large group of people in TV to get together and pool resources to get some sort of "group discount" from a major installer of solar power systems to do multiple installs in a small area at the same time. The panels are unobtrusive, efficient, do not have moving parts that increase maintenance cots, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: Wind Farms
 

As a new comer to the Villages here are my thoughts. Counting on the government just doesn’t work. If you really want to make this happen it seems to me you would need to start at the manufacture of the turbines. The manufacture wants to sell the product so I’m sure they would have suggestions on how to start a wind farm. Always remember people are going to say not in my back yard. That is my take on the subject.

Re: Wind Farms
 

ebliss1, thanks for your worthwhile suggestion. Solar certainly could work; we have a solar water system on our house in the Mid-Hudson Valley of NYS which works well, and I couldn't even figure how much fossil fuel it's saved since we installed it in the mid-1980s, just prior to the ending of credits by the government at that time. Another thing to think about, although the Pickens plan already has a national structure, which could make a huge difference....

Re: Wind Farms
 

ebliss1 - I totally agree with the solar approach in Florida as well, but am interested in all alternative energy sources.
I know I sound like a broken record, but I've written to 7 Florida legislators (twice) regarding increasing the funding for homeowner tax credits on solar panels here in Florida. All credits for 2008 have been allocated, and there is a waiting list. We are in the perfect climate zone to make this work. To date, I have only received a response from Paige Kreegel.
Governor Crist recently hosted an International Climate Change summit in Tallahassee - check out the website:[http://www.myfloridaclimate.com/env/home/]
There is a contact link to communicate your thoughts.

Re: Wind Farms
 

joeutter,
Just so happens, a maker of wind turbines opened up in the manufacturing plant here in Little Rock that I used to work in, (replacing the telecom business I worked in for 30 years). I'm searching for contacts there (and at pickensplan.com) to answer 3 questions:
1) is wind farming even feasible in Florida given geography (ie: hurricanes) or (as suggested by ebliss1) is solar a better option here. T.Boone's farms are slated for the Texas panhandle.

2) If applicable to Florida, how much land is needed to support a city the size of TV.

3) How much capital investment, up front and ongoing, is required?

Other thoughts welcome, I'm still learning

Re: Wind Farms
 

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/sm...ic,8681.0.html

Muncle's thread on VHA QUESTIONS FOR CENTER DISTRICT AND DEVELOPER’S REPRESENTATIVES

can the possibility of TV developer support for alternative energy be posed to the District and Developer's representatives? How does that happen?

Re: Wind Farms
 

A friend of mine used to date a guy that worked for a research firm that was developing a wind turbine that was going to be launched into the jet stream. That was a few years ago that she told me about what he was working on. (She isn't dating him anymore, so I haven't had any recent information.) Don't know how far into the future that project is supposed to come to fruition. It would solve the issue of not enough wind, and would not need large amounts of land to house the wind turbines. Just wanted you to know that your project might become obsolete as soon as you finished it.

Re: Wind Farms
 

sschuler1, good point and well taken!
Just discussion to learn test viability at this point.

The world's largest maker of wind turbines is LS Glasfiber at this site, interesting to visit.
I've written 'em asking if they've any info to share
http://www.lmglasfiber.com

Re: Wind Farms
 

http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p...n_3tiermap.jpg

There's a US map of wind speeds, Florida is about in the middle.

T.Boone says 20% of the US needs can be met from the Texas venture he's working on.
If you've not gotten to his website, this part was interesting:

Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.

That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain.

Re: Wind Farms
 

From the LS Glasfiber newsletter:

One wind turbine with these 61.5-meter blades can generate a power output equivalent to the annual power consumption of almost 5,000 households.

So TV would need a couple dozen for 120K people.

Re: Wind Farms
 

I am not yet a resident of TV, but hope to be with in the next year. I would be happy to be involve with an alternative energy solution for TV.

Does anyone know if lightning could be a factor when thinking of wind turbines? It seems to me that the Ocala area of Florida is kind of like a "lightning alley".