Disabusing Saskatoonians of the theory that local politicians are more grounded in reality than their provincial and federal counterparts: “The project marks the first time in more than 80 years the city has attempted to generate its own power.”
A reader sends this helpful note;
So that’s $5-mill for 1.5 to 2.0 megawatts of capacity (I am assuming capacity, but that is always how these projects are presented). Given Saskatoon is in a far-worse wind zone than the existing wind park near Swift Current, let’s use the low-end of the out-put at 1.5 megawatts, but let’s run it at 40% capacity like the Swift Current region turbines (which is being generous). That is therefore $5-mill for .6 megawatts of power. So the cost is $8.33 million per mega-watt.
A reactor complex can do 3,500 megawatts but at 90% capacity = 3,150 megawatts. Given the wind costs, the reactor should have a budget of: 3,150 megawatts x’s $8.33 million per mega watt = $26,239.5 million.
So, to be competitive with wind, the reactor complex needs to be built for less than $26-billion. With that budget, a few could be built, even with the largest cost over-runs in reactor construction history.
You can contact Don Atchison here to congratulate him on his impeccable oversight of Saskatoon taxpayer dollars.
Ideology is king.
The people who usually wind up running things in government are those who will spend their lives in the most boring and mind destroying useless situations.
The primary fuel to achieve the upward mobility to actually have some power is to be very politically correct, as dishonest as possible without getting caught, but mostly to kiss the asses of those just above your station with passion.
That is not an attractive career path for smart motivated, productive people.
That is why we are governed by the worst and stupidest among us.
I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Good assessment, Abe.
Case in point, on O’Reilly last night, Dennis Miller described Nancy Pelosi as “tongue-in-the-electric-fan kind of stupid”.
Pretty much nailed it as far as I’m concerned.
All you ever wanted to know about nuclear power.
http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/TheBenefitsOfNuclearPower
“In fact Vattenfall finds its Nuclear Plants to emit less CO2 than any of its other energy production mechanisms including Hydro, Wind, Solar and Biomass although all of these processes emit much less than fossil fuel generation of electricity.”
If they want to harness wind power, should they not perhaps place the turbines inside the council chambers of city hall? Or would they need to meet outside now? That could take care of the problem right there.
The tower will be a big white shining example of 1)symbolizism to appease loony left and 2)utter disregard and lack of respect for the proper treatment of tax payers dollars.
Colin from Mission: I agree dear Don is pullng a Pelosi, except it’s “a tongue in the giant fan kinda of stupid”.
I seen the Denise Miller episode and near lost my beverage through the nostrils.
Saskatoon City Engineers are pushing the project as revenue positive, based on the fact that the Federal and Provincial governments will pay the lion’s share … they deduct the cost to Saskatoon tax payers and voila, revenue positive for Saskatoon.
Bend over Canadian Tax payer … keeping in mind that these funds are provided by the Conservative Harper and the Conservative Wall. Who needs Liberals and Dippers when you have Cons like this (no pun intended).
Is it some kind of job qualification that the majority of politicians (at the municipal, provincial or federal levels) should be a) primarily laywers and b) utterly incapable of grade-school level mathematics?
Just wondering.
Can they guarantee that there will be not be any of the much adored “$#it Hawks” aka Seagulls killed by the rotors?? I think I saw a couple of gulls out at the landfill once. Oh the humanity.
Since I am a crazy environmentalist I can not endorse this until they can guarantee avian safety for all.
Saskatoon Citizens Unite For Avian Safety !
The reader’s analysis is pretty good, but it’s still too optimistic. First, the capacity factor is not likely to be anything close to 40%.
Second, you have to look at the actual performance specs of the machine itself. For example, the Vesta 1.65 MW turbine has a designed wind speed of 8.5 m/sec. That’s the speed at which you get the full design life. However, in Vesta’s own performance document for the machine you find that 8.5 m/sec only gives you 800 kW, not 1.65 MW less than half of the nominal performance. Exceeding 8.5 means significantly shortening the service life of the machine.
This means that the design capacity of the machine is 45% of its nominal capacity even before you get to problems of wind variability.
These are not my numbers; these are Vesta’s numbers straight out of their own tech spec doc, “Class I General Specification V82-1.65 MW Mk I, NM 82/1650 Vers. 2”.
Irrespective of the type and size of machine, it will have the same wind speed-to-power curve of the Vesta machine.
ya but if you go nuclear, think of all the tens of thousands of birds that won’t get shredded.
Instead of Roadkill Stew, you could call it Turbine Stew.
Any environmentalist who doesn’t support nuclear power is a hypocrit, or refuses to inform themselves of the facts, and I tell them so, but it still doesn’t seem to help
Oops hypocrite
The capacity vs. generating ability of the Vestas turbines in Saskatchewan being at 40%, can be read in the Saskatchewan Legislature Hansard, January 2007, page 794.
Note, this 40$ ability is high and was acheived at one of the best places in the province for wind generation – the Centennial Wind project near Swift Current. See the map at:
http://generationprocurement.saskpower.com/pdf/SPD_80m_021403.pdf
Instead of spending the money on this dumb idea maybe they should spend it on something worthwhile in the city…fixing the streets…picking up garbage along Circle Drive…learning how to clear snow….getting cars off the bicycle lanes…etc…etc…etc. Don’s really losing it.
What grates on my in all this is that because the other levels of government are going to pay the lion’s share it makes this project a positive for the city of Saskatoon.
Taxpayers everywhere are being insulted and disrespected by that kind of thinking.
Situating a large windmill on the landfill, the city’s garbage dump is just a way to blow the smell over to where people live.
Placing a windmill where it is the windiest, the southwest of the province, makes some sense. Placing it elsewhere is erecting a religious statue to the god of political correctness at public expense.
So much for the separation between church and state.
STOP THE PRESSES! The C. C Howe Institute is suggesting that Dalton McGuinty’s ‘green energy fee’ may be unconstitutional. If this is successfully challenged in court, he may have to give the money back. Read Eric Lam’s article in today’s National Post. http://www.financialpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=2938485
Here is a short article that fit’s right in with your current post from Fox site and some goint points on what to ask greens on earth day.
http://tinyurl.com/2clkz5z
Here is a short article that fit’s right in with your current post from Fox site and some good points on what to ask greens on earth day.
http://tinyurl.com/2clkz5z
One can expect this stupidity when Saskatoon’s City Council is packed with Leftoids. Maybe Conservatives should show up and vote come next election!
Let’s not go too hard on Mayor Don. After all, at the end of the day, he has only 1 vote on council which, like rats infesting an abandoned slaughterhouse, is permeated with left-wingers who behave petulantly when things don’t go their way. If you have ever watched a televised session of a Saskatoon City Council meeting, you would have noticed the lefties, led by former NDP MLA, Pat Lorje greatly extending the length of the meeting by taking turns listening to themselves babbling. This is what Mayor Don and the few sensible councillors have to deal with.
From the city’s website:
“The expected benefits of a single tall wind turbine are:
– An environmentally clean and revenue positive electricity source–enough to power approximately 600 homes.
– A visible benefit for local residences and businesses wishing to participate in a program to reduce their environmental footprint.
– The improvement of the City of Saskatoon’s environmental footprint by offsetting the City’s greenhouse gas emissions.
– The promotion of Saskatoon as an environmentally conscious and responsible city.
– A visible educational tool for sustainable development in our City.”
By my count that is 4 of 5 largely political/symbolic ‘benefits’ (and the remaining one is highly dubious if you discount the ‘revenues’ from other Canadian taxpayers).
The landfill should be generating energy by using modern, clean incineration of garbage (it is done widely in Europe), which would have the more substantial benefit of reducing tremendously the amount of material left to bury.