T. Boone Pickens Says Peak Oil Reached, Plans World’s Largest Wind Farm
When one of Texas’s richest oil men bets big on wind energy, it gets attention. Yesterday NPR’s Living on Earth broadcast an interview with Mr. Pickens, who shared the salient facts about his planned wind project:
- It will be the largest in the world, he reckons, at 4,000 megawatts
- It will provide enough power for 1,300,000 homes
- It’s a $10 billion dollar project from which he plans a 15%-25% profit
Asked why he is investing in wind now, Pickens replied:
“For a number of years I’ve watched the wind turbines develop — and I feel like it’s time for it. I think that oil has peaked at 85 million barrels in the world. We’ve got to develop other forms of energy — wind, I think solar will be next, and I hope I’m still around to be in the solar deal.” (Pickens is 80 years old.
But what if Congress doesn’t vote to extend the wind Production Tax Credit?
- » See also: Storing Renewable Energy in Boxes of Air
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“Well, I think they’ll vote on it. They’ll either do that or they’ll give some kind of carbon credit because, the wind has to be developed in the United States. We’re now importing 72 percent of the oil we use every day. I think everybody can see that we’re gonna break the country if we pay 700 billion dollars a year for, uh, imported oil……I’ve got a good team of people that are knowledgeable in wind energy, and I don’t worry about it. I think it’s a good project, and it’ll do well and we’ll make money. And it’ll help the country.”
I took a look at Pickens’s bio on Wikipedia. He grew up poor but worked hard. He became a geologist in the 50’s, which “were difficult times for the oil industry and petroleum geologists.” He stuck at it and obviously his bet on oil paid off; Pickens is worth $3 billion now. But he’s moving on — to wind. Find out more about this story in the current issue of Fast Company.
T. Boone Pickens on ethanol: Which is Worse: Exporting $1 Billion Per Week or Growing Fuel?
More on Wind Power:
- Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines: The Future of Micro Wind? [w/video]
- The “Unlimited” Potential of American Wind Power: AWEA
- Top Five Micro Wind Turbines
Image credit: www.boonepickens.com
We can easily extract all the free EM energy flow from the vacuum that we wish to! Anywhere, anytime! One can easily (for a couple of dollars) make a little gadget that will sit on the bench and freely pour out real Poynting EM energy flow, till the end of time if one just lets it alone and does not let its configuration be disrupted. Here’s how:
Simply place an electret (or a charged capacitor, if you wish) on top of a permanent magnet, so that the E-field of the electret is at right angles to the H-field of the magnet. Then by the standard Poynting energy flow theory in all our EE textbooks in every technical university, that silly gadget will just sit there and pour out real, Poynting energy flow S, given by the simple equation S = E X H.
http://www.cheniere.org/correspondence/060908.htm
If Mr. Pickens is willing to build a wind power farm with his own money why shouldn’t the government build the power lines? They are the only ones who can change the laws to get all states to except the new right of ways; also, why not build a new mass transit system? The transmission lines could be built using super conductivity materials which would cut down on resistance enabling further transmissions of the power and Magnetic trains could follow the transmission lines to take advantage of the magnetic field produced by the electricity!!
Regarding peak power usage and no wind…why can’t the U.S. be the first to build a new power storage facility using leading edge technology using capacitors and batteries? The production of hydrogen on low peak demands and high winds conditions and then reverse the process by producing electricity from the hydrogen during low wind high power demand is one other solution? Producing of algae to convert it into ethanol during high peak low wind conditions could be a solution to cover reserve demand. Third we could store the energy by producing hydrogen which could be used to produce electric during high demand low wind conditions to cover the reserve demand. A company in Arizona is claiming it could produce 75 percent of our needed energy using part of the New Mexican desert in production of Algae to produce a vegetable oil and then convert it into ethanol from the sun. It would affect our food chain regarding corn!!
SO…I think we should be thankful we have Mr. Pickens spending his own money to benefit all mankind and helping to cut hydrocarbons for our grandkids. When all of mankind is going to benefit I think the Feds and the States should pass the laws to make new write away lines and STOP organizations which tries to stop the building of wind farms. Come on are we all stupid thinking that birds can’t see and avoid a LARGE blade? If we do not cut hydrocarbons it may be the end of all animals.
L.L.
Do you believe the petroleum industry started out without help from the government?
Do you think the petroleum industry doesn’t get tax credits?
The petroleum industry started out with government aid and is still aided with tax credits.
I want my government representatives to show leadership and help get the country out of the mess we are in.
“Once the technology is there . . .”
Friend, the technology is HERE! Maybe what you meant to say was once it becomes a commodity-priced technology. I am about to power-up a 3.3Kw photovoltaic (PV) solar array on my rooftop here in Southern California. At a cost of some $32,000 (before incentives), it wasn’t cheap by any means, but if all works as planned, including my change to LED-based lighting in and around my home (also not cheap since this is the cutting edge of that, too), our net cost of electricity at today’s rates should be about $10-$20 per month, maybe even less — won’t know until we’ve been up and running for a while.
Pickens is right, the time has come for alternative energy to rule. Of course, he waited until the cost of oil ran up to $135+ per barrel, too. Solar and wind technologies would be much farther ahead of where they are today if Edison could figure out how to put a meter on the sun and wind.
Southern California Edison, by the way, built the largest-ever wind-turbine generator here in the Palm Springs area back in the early 1980s, but the typical daily winds in the area were too strong, and the generator was poorly designed and could not withstand the physical stress. So Edison abandoned wind power as “unfeasable.” Of course, today, in the same area, there are now maybe 2,000 working wind-turbine generators pumping out several hundred Mw daily. All privately funded and operated.
Edison also abandoned its 1980s foray into “solar” generated electricity with it cockamamie “Solar One” installation outside Barstow after a fire in the oil tower in the early 1990s. The design concentrated reflected solar energy on a tower filled with oil that would, in turn, heat water that would become steam, that would spin electricity generating equipment. If that doesn’t sound inefficient, I don’t know what does. And once again, Edison determined that there was no future in “solar” electricity.
As for the comments about the cost of coal-fired, natural gas-fired, and nuclear-powered electrical generating facilities, each of which looks cheap on paper, all come with a host of “side effects,” not the least of which is declining reservoirs of raw materials (coal and gas), and impossible-to-dispose-of waste by-products (nuclear, courtesy of the NIMBY approach to transporting the fission trash from whereever to the Nevada wasteland).
Both PV solar and wind only impact the environment on the manufacturing side and, ultimately (20-30 years down the road), disposal side after the system’s useful life has come to an end. But, then again, the components are generally recyclable, so the net impact is far smaller than any of the “natural resource” alternatives.
I’m not willing to donate money to Pickens’ project. He and his other oil baron cohort have far more than the $10 billion he projects the plan will require. But if he wants to form a forward-thinking energy non-oil corporation and sell me some stock . . . now we’re talking!
I have a question for Mr. Pickens.
I understand he wants so build a wind farm to produce 4000 Mega Watts per year. The largest single wind turbine used by Xcel energy produces 1.567 MW per year.
If I have my facts correct, that would require 2548 wind mills in his wind farm. Just where is the wind farm to be built? Don’t forget NIMBY if this is to be built.
Let us not pretend that alternative energy sources will allow us to continue our current level of use, now based on wasteful consumption of fossil fuels. Nuclear will never be clean. Our habits will have to change drastically.
Look to see how much land Boone Pickens owns or is buying.The amount of land required for wind and solar will be millions of acres and will only produce a fraction of the total electrical power needed in the future. The only people who will get rich from wind and solar will be the land owners. The loosers will be the tax payers who will have to fund the programs which will operate at a loss for years or for ever.
So now every lifelong resource squandering profiteer is green. Is this “swift boat” financier Pickens, who royally chickened out when his offer of $1 Million to anyone who could prove “a single swift boat lie” was publicly accepted by John Kerry. Am I the only one that thinks this jackass has produced plenty of wind already?
I hope the ‘Can’t do’s’ won’t sandbag this also. We have no leadership on this issue in Big Gummint. At last someone is picking up the standard. I say, wind, solar, nukes, bio, all of it produced here in the US, creating jobs HERE, keeping the money HERE instead of making our enemies in the middle east rich. America first, and let them eat their oil over there, with a side of sand!
It is unclear to me why the Department of Energy is not promoting the development of low head hydropower.We have an abundance of rivers and canals in this country which could provide us with clean and reliable energy from the flow of water.
We have the knowhow and equipment on hand to harvest this low cost and reliable energy form the flow
of water without changes to the environment.