Mr. Pickens said yesterday that he is delaying, not canceling, his $10 billion wind energy project, called the Pampa project. The project purportedly will be postponed until 2013, when Texas is "expected" to complete a $4.9 billion transmission line. Yet on Tuesday, Mr. Pickens said that he was looking for a home for the 687 giant wind turbines that Mesa Petroleum ordered from General Electric Co. a little more than a year ago for a reported $2 billion. One report said that Mr. Pickens joked that he didn't have room for the turbines in his garage.
I sincerely hope that the Pampa project comes to fruition at some future date. But if Mr. Pickens resells those wind turbines to third parties, they won't be available for the project four years hence (although I suppose he could order replacements sometime in the future). And it's hard to believe that Mr. Pickens will keep the leases Mesa Petroleum currently has on 200,000 acres in Texas for four years in the hopes that the project will eventually go forward.
As much as I want the Pampa project to succeed, I certainly wouldn't invest my money in it.
Showing posts with label T. Boone Pickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label T. Boone Pickens. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
How's that wind power working out for you?
I can't think of a more ardent supporter of wind power than T. Boone Pickens. He has championed the construction of the world's largest wind farm, to be located in the Texas Panhandle. As part of this project, he contracted to purchase 678 giant wind turbines -- which can stand taller than most 30 story buildings -- and he leased about 200,000 acres in Texas for his proposed site. He even paid for television commercials touting his project. Yesterday, he announced he is abandoning the project, at least in its current form.
Why? It turns out it is uneconomical to transmit power from the proposed site to a distribution system. Mr. Pickens referred to "technical" problems, but transmission systems are almost as old as electrical power itself. It is far more likely that the ambitious project turned out to be uneconomical. Apparently, Mr. Pickens's faith in new sources of alternative energy blinded him to the economic realities.
But then, there is nothing new about wind power. Don Quixote tilted at windmills in a book that was first published in 1604. Wind power is older than commercial electricity itself. To be sure, modern wind turbines bear scant resemblance to those 16th-century windmills. But that is because the technology has been continuously improved over the intervening centuries. One has to wonder how much additional efficiency can be wrung out of this centuries-old power source.
The ineluctable facts are that the winds do not blow 24/7, and they often blow most strongly in remote places like the Texas Panhandle, far from potential consumers. Apparently, even Mr. Pickens's formidable resources could not overcome those facts
Why? It turns out it is uneconomical to transmit power from the proposed site to a distribution system. Mr. Pickens referred to "technical" problems, but transmission systems are almost as old as electrical power itself. It is far more likely that the ambitious project turned out to be uneconomical. Apparently, Mr. Pickens's faith in new sources of alternative energy blinded him to the economic realities.
But then, there is nothing new about wind power. Don Quixote tilted at windmills in a book that was first published in 1604. Wind power is older than commercial electricity itself. To be sure, modern wind turbines bear scant resemblance to those 16th-century windmills. But that is because the technology has been continuously improved over the intervening centuries. One has to wonder how much additional efficiency can be wrung out of this centuries-old power source.
The ineluctable facts are that the winds do not blow 24/7, and they often blow most strongly in remote places like the Texas Panhandle, far from potential consumers. Apparently, even Mr. Pickens's formidable resources could not overcome those facts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)