Vic Smith wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 11:30:59 -0400, BAR wrote:

Richard Casady wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 09:10:12 -0400, Keith Nuttle
wrote:

Windmills have been tried and were rejected several hundreds of years
ago, because they are dependent on the weather
What utter bull****. Windmills have been in constant use ever since
they were invented. The state of Iowa gets 5% of its juice from wind,
BTW.
Now tell us farming was rejected because it is dependent on the
weather.
How do you increase the power output of a windmill, right now?

How do you generate power from a windmill on a dead calm day?

Windmill's are unreliable for on-demand and controllable power.

I don't know the details, but I've read that one solution to the
"storage" problem that is being used - maybe in Australia - is pumping
water uphill when demand is low then releasing through generators when
needed.
Doesn't seem very scalable.

It looks good on paper. What do you do about the loss of energy
potential due to evaporation?