The winds of change have things moving quickly in a wind farm project in Willacy County. Last year, Duke Energy announced plans to build a large-scale renewable energy system in Raymondville that will generate 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power roughly 120000 homes. Now, construction is set to begin later in the month on a 30 thousand acre facility said Milton Howard, Duke Energy vice president. “The nature of the wind here is on peak,” said Howard. “Meaning the wind blows at 8 a.mm it shuts down at 6 at night. So people are using power as the wind is blowing.” The farm is on fm 507 and fm 1018. Howard says there will be 171 finished wind mills by the end of December. “Then they will be testing and completing the plant for commercial operation by December of 2012,” said Howard. The duke energy wind power project, roughly 20 miles inland from the gulf say wind energy will help create around 300 jobs and bring needed money into our area. Wind farms have come under criticism for reportedly posing a threat to the environment, to migratory birds and for purchasing turbines in other countries. Duke, a company based in North Carolina, said although generators will be purchased overseas, many items will be bought right here in the Rio Grande Valley such as steel and concrete. They said they’ve collected wind data at the site for several years before proceeding with an environmental analysis. “There’s no emission into the air,” said Howard. “There’s no escalation as far …
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January 18, 2012 at 6:00 am
Hank explains the power of solar energy and describes how it may fit into our diversified energy future. Follow SciShow on Twitter: www.twitter.com Like SciShow on Facebook: www.facebook.com TAGS: solar energy, solar power, desert, power, watt, watts, coal, fossil fuel, natural gas, oil, nuclear, tidal, hydroelectric, wind, biomass, photovoltaic, photoelectric effect, edmund becquerel, efficient, efficiency, international space station, polysilicon, silicon, n-type, p-type, distributed power, concentrating solar power, power plant, plant, turbine, concentrated photovoltaic, CPV, gigawatt, hydrogen fuel cell, feasible, feasibility, law of conservation of energy, climate change, global warming, carbon, emissions, electric, electricity, scishow, science, infusion, hank green
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January 15, 2012 at 4:39 am
In this episode, Virginia covers the SolarKindle, the power of buying solar in groups, electricity prices in Victoria jump again and what commercial enterprises can do to combat electricity cost increases resulting from Australia’s carbon tax and other price hikes. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au
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January 11, 2012 at 9:28 pm
