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July 26, 2005
Wind power in China
An article in today's New York Times about China's wind power industry provides some hope that they might be coming to their senses about electric power production. They seemed to be following in the sooty footsteps of the U.S. -- first, pollute the air by burning dirty coal, then do something better. Maybe they will leap directly to renewable power production.
Transmission of wind-generated power from the steppes to the eastern cities is certainly going to result in some inefficiencies, but maybe a wind power industry will be able to produce a smaller windmill that can be sited throughout the country, to achieve a distributed power production network.
Posted by aquacura.com at July 26, 2005 02:07 PM
Comments
Does China have a national power grid over which to transmit? Or, is it broken up? Do some of the major industries (who produce power for themselves) sell power on the grid? Integrated steel plants or coke plants are good examples where they recover heat, to run boilers, to generate steam, to drive turbine electrical generators. If there is a grid, they can sell excess power. Although the source of the power may not be entirely green or sustainable, capturing the electricity as a by product of something already burning coal is better than burning coal to waste. I have no idea how far along they are with power distribution.
Posted by: Junior at July 28, 2005 10:21 PM
Junior raises a valid point, to which I alluded when I posted the entry: making wind-generated electric power is great, but you have to get it to where the consumers are. Which is not on the windy steppes.
I hope the Chinese marketplace drives development of smaller scale wind powered electric generation devices. Why not have a windmill on every building and home? Today, the capital cost is too high to justify, particularly in most areas, where the wind doesn't blow continuously. If the cost can be brought down, perhaps we could afford to mount windmills on our houses, using the power when the wind blows.
Posted by: Dave Sheridan at July 29, 2005 05:22 PM