Re: coal industry ads on Mpls. TV, and dirty energy in general-- Last week I toured a 40 MWe-installed capacity wind farm in SE MN; approximately 40 wind-turbines, each over 200' tall., and interconnected with the grid. This one wind farm's installed capacity is about 1/8th or 1/10 the size of each of Xcel's local power plants that will soon be converted from coal to natural gas. Granted, while the annual production of electricity will be less from a wind-energy plant than from a gas-powered (or coal) power generator of the same capacity (due to variability in wind speeds), the point is, we do have options. Not only is the wind resource clean, there is no annual cost of fuel- only the capital investment and conventional operation/maintenance costs! An FYI to those list members interested in seeing what others are doing with wind energy:
In the US-- check out the location of U.S. installations: http://www.awea.org/projects/index.html In Canada: http://www.canwea.ca/CanadianProduction.html Given adequate installed wind-capacity in Minnesota, Minneapolitan's could simply contract for wind-produced electricity in a competitive electric marketplace, and have it delivered to the outlet nearest your appliance. Let's get rid of any investment/regulatory barriers under our control in MN. [As for our oil dependence and all it's implications, let's get rid of sugar subsidies (US import tariffs) and produce ethanol from sugar cane- Gulf coast and Caribbean produced! Talk about jobs and balance of payments!] Michael Hohmann Linden Hills www.mahohmannbizplans.com note- this infomercial brought to you over the ethereal Internet as a public service effort to attain equal access/parity with paid, conventional dirty-fuel advertising provided over the ethereal airwaves of TV, and traditional print media. My claim of equal time, if you will. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of ken bradley > Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 12:18 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Mpls] Coal (We don't need it!) > > > Hello Minneapolis Folks, > > Sean Ryan wrote: > During the 10pm news on WCCO I saw a disturbing ad. > The add showed a family doing family things and > smiling while turning up their thermostat. This was > followed by a shot of the Minneapolis skyline. The > ad was for coal energy 'the affordable energy'. snip > > Ken Bradley writes: snip > > Europe is moving very quickly away from coal and > producing significantly more of its electricity from > wind and biomass, snip > > Minnesota has better wind potential then Denmark, yet > a similar size population. Denmark produce > approximately 18% of its energy from wind, and another > significant portion from biomass, solar, with a goal > of producing 50% of its energy from renewable. snip > > Denmark > leads the world in wind turbine manufacturing, which > steel is a major resource need (Minnesota has plenty > of iron and jobs that are needed), to produce turbine. > They have also reduced their usage through an > aggressive conservation program. snip > > Ken Bradley Corcoran Neighborhood > --- snip REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
