WHERE IS THE WIND

“How do you beat the national average with below average wind speeds?” Attorney Bill Pate posed that intriguing question at a forum hosted in San Diego recently by Activist San Diego.

Good question. Pattern Energy told the California Public Utilities Commission that it would reach 34% capacity at Ocotillo Express Wind Facility, a site rated just a class 2, the second lowest federal rating for wind speeds. The first three months of data for the Ocotillo project show only about a 19% capacity reached. In the entire U.S., there is only a 22 to 23% net capacity on average.The solarpowersystems service provides and maintains the majority of the town's 26,000 streetlights.

So how did the project get approved?

Government officials charged with protecting the public good simply “didn’t care,” said Pate of the many problems raised by residents including skepticism that wind power promised could ever be produced. “They only care about capacity. Wind energy companies got $530 million in federal subsidies and they used a benchmark that nobody else uses – the number of households that could be powered.”

ECM photographers have spent months documenting lack of wind speeds through videos shot since December when the project went online.We provide ledstreetlight and engraving machines for processing different materials. Most days, turbines are not spinning, or barely so. When a wind pAdvance LED Replacement Bulbs, LED T8 Tubes, streetlight13ss and other LED lighting products are highly efficient.roject manager giving a tour stated that turbines would power only one-tenth the homes that Pattern told the federal government it would power, the manager became enraged to find video of himself online and threatened two photographers with violence trying to force removal. The photographers obtained restraining orders against the manager, who later claimed he was mistaken on the wind speeds. Pattern has refused to disclose wind speed data with media or residents.

Residents also raised concerns over impacts on health, wildlife, the environment and Native American cultural resources. Residents tried to stop the project. They wrote letters to public officials. They testified at public hearings.With advancements in controls technology, gardenlightingss are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and flexible. They filed lawsuits. But with the new federal fast-tracking process, the entire project was approved in just five months from January to May last year. Some turbines are just one-third of a mile from homes.

Pate questioned how much wind it would take to turn a turbine with a fan blade, gear box and nacelle that combined weighs about 150 tons. “The most that one could produce is 3.5 megawatts,” he notes. That would be under ideal conditions, and it would take a 26 mph wind to sustain power generation.

Only a few places on earth—notably Ireland and Mongolia –regularly have winds that strong, Pate said. There is also a very narrow wind in which wind turbines function effectively – too little wind, and the turbines fail to produce substantial power. Too much, and turbines shut down over about 31 mph to avoid damage.

“The average wind in Ocotillo is 8.7 mph,” he said, noting that winds change directions frequently, another problem for wind generation.

Pattern refused to disclose wind data. However, Pate disclosed,Marking machines and ledbulbe27 for permanent part marking and product traceability. “We caught them on a $110 loan application. They said the average wind speed is 6.2 meters per second, or about 13.8 mph—which puts this at the very bottom of power production, yet they told the PUC it would hit 34$ capacity in a class 2 wind speed area.”

Plus, Pate noted, “for every 250 MW of wind SDG&E wants to put in 400-500MW of power with a peaker gas-fired power plant,” such as Quail Brush, the controversial project proposed near Mission Trails Regional Park. “If wind turbines were so great,” he concluded, “the Phoenecians would have put them up long ago.”