[Orcnet] Wind power and gas turbines (2)

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 02:34:24PM -0800, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> I was reading somewhere that many utilities are accomodating
> unpredictable wind power output with standby natural gas turbine 
> generators to fill in when the wind isn't blowing.  ...

An Orcnet member whose opinion I greatly value points out that my
posting can be considered a political rant.  If so, please accept
my apologies - I want to see all kinds of alternative energy
projects (as well as "old fashioned" energy projects) succeed, and
produce the most power at the lowest economic and environmental 
cost.  As Nobel Prize winning chemist Richard Smalley points out
( http://snurl.com/71u4w ) , we will need a mix of all energy
sources to satisfy world demand.  Rather than choose political
sides, it is our professional responsibility to provide credible
technical information to politicians and fellow citizens regardless
of our personal political allegances.   If somebody else is
spreading technical misinformation for ideological reasons, it
is our job to provide correct information - as politely as we
can manage.  And if the right thing is being done the wrong way,
we should speak up about that, too.

Or not.  If you don't want to talk about this, or if you think it 
will prove disrepectful to some of our members, then I will gladly
/shut up/ and hope the rest of you will do likewise.  

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs