The AI-generated cat pictures thread
12-04-2014, 09:05 AM
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12-04-2014, 10:10 AM
Boost Pope
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I can't say as I learned anything new from a technical standpoint, but it did help me see things from a perspective which I hadn't previously considered, namely that there is a significant percentage of individuals who:
- Believe that the meltdown at Three Mile Island resulted in deaths and other significant harm,
- Believe that Fukushima had consequences comparable to (or greater than) Chernobyl,
- Believe that wind, solar, etc., are genuinely viable alternatives to nuclear, coal, gas, etc., for base-load energy production,
- Do not realize that for every wind / solar / etc., array constructed, a NatGas plant has to also be built to power the grid for the majority of time that it's not producing energy,
- Simply don't understand the distinction between base-load and peak generation,
- Do not realize that the alternative to nuclear, quite simply, is coal, and
- Do not realize that fossil-fuel plants, when operating normally, kill more people every year than all of the nuclear accidents in all of human history combined.
I found it wryly amusing that the film opened with images of a protest at Indian Point Energy Center. This is mostly because I ride past Indian Point twice each day on my way to work and my way home. Here's a shot of its twin reactors which I snapped on the train this morning:
I sleep pretty damn well each night knowing that Indian Point is sitting there just a few miles from me, generating a little over 2GW of electricity around the clock, rain or shine, with zero carbon emissions and damn near zero environmental impact.
Frankly, I'd like to see them expand the facility with several more Gen-III APWR reactors.
Last edited by Joe Perez; 12-04-2014 at 07:23 PM.
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12-04-2014, 07:03 PM
Slowest Progress Ever
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For you joe:
If I hike up the hill behind my house, I can see this. It spans for a much greater area than any nuclear power plant I've ever known about, and generates nothing compared to nuclear. It's neat to see and drive past, but everytime I do, I only see like 1/4 of em moving.
The Locust Ridge Wind Farm is a large wind farm located near Mahanoy City in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The first phase, Locust Ridge I, has 13 Gamesa 2MW Wind Turbines that began commercial operation in 2006. The wind farm has a combined total nameplate capacity of 26 MW, producing about 68,328 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, which is enough to power 24,000 homes.
Construction of Locust Ridge II began in 2008 with the installation of 51 additional Gamesa 2MW wind turbines that are projected to produce 102 MW of electricity. The calculated yearly production of the wind farm is estimated to produce 372,300 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 40,000 additional homes in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Seven of the 51 wind turbines are located in Conyngham Township, Columbia County and the remaining turbines are located in Schuylkill County. Locust Ridge II became operational in late 2008.
Click the link for photos of a wind turbine on fire.
WindAction | Iberdrola owned Locust Ridge wind turbine fire
If I hike up the hill behind my house, I can see this. It spans for a much greater area than any nuclear power plant I've ever known about, and generates nothing compared to nuclear. It's neat to see and drive past, but everytime I do, I only see like 1/4 of em moving.
The Locust Ridge Wind Farm is a large wind farm located near Mahanoy City in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The first phase, Locust Ridge I, has 13 Gamesa 2MW Wind Turbines that began commercial operation in 2006. The wind farm has a combined total nameplate capacity of 26 MW, producing about 68,328 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, which is enough to power 24,000 homes.
Construction of Locust Ridge II began in 2008 with the installation of 51 additional Gamesa 2MW wind turbines that are projected to produce 102 MW of electricity. The calculated yearly production of the wind farm is estimated to produce 372,300 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 40,000 additional homes in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Seven of the 51 wind turbines are located in Conyngham Township, Columbia County and the remaining turbines are located in Schuylkill County. Locust Ridge II became operational in late 2008.
Click the link for photos of a wind turbine on fire.
WindAction | Iberdrola owned Locust Ridge wind turbine fire
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12-04-2014, 07:11 PM
There's another huge farm here in Kansas on I70, it's funny how few of the lot are actually running when you drive by.
Smoky Hills Wind Farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Driving through at night is pretty neat, all the red lights...
Smoky Hills Wind Farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Driving through at night is pretty neat, all the red lights...
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12-04-2014, 07:12 PM
If you drive through northwest Indiana at night on I65, **** is crazy looking.
There's hundreds of wind mills, and they all have those blinking red lights.
Completely surreal, you think you're being abducted.
Wind power in Indiana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There's hundreds of wind mills, and they all have those blinking red lights.
Completely surreal, you think you're being abducted.
Wind power in Indiana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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12-05-2014, 09:49 AM
Boost Pope
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The wind farm has a combined total nameplate capacity of 26 MW, producing about 68,328 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, which is enough to power 24,000 homes.
(...)
The calculated yearly production of the wind farm is estimated to produce 372,300 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 40,000 additional homes in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
(...)
The calculated yearly production of the wind farm is estimated to produce 372,300 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 40,000 additional homes in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
And yes, I'm sure that the wind farms produce enough electricity to power 24,000 - 40,000 homes*, at least for the very small percentage of the time that they're actually operating at full capacity.
The rest of the time, fossil fuel is being burned.
* = I wonder if people realize just how small a number 50,000 homes actually is? Taking a totally average city that I happen to be familiar with, San Diego contains 1,176,718 housing units according to the 2013 census. So the $59 million dollars in federal funding given to Locust Ridge has provided about enough generating capacity to power 5% of the homes in an average city.
Some of the time.
Some of the time.
A colleague of mine designs the lighting systems used on radio and TV towers, and has also done a couple of wind-farm projects as well.
At first, they had all the turbine towers slaved to a central controller, such that all of the lights were flashing in unison (this is how broadcast tower arrays are normally lit, so the pilots can recognize multiple towers close together as forming a single cluster.)
This has an eerily unnerving effect on the local populace, with a hundred or so towers all flashing in unison. Thus, they had to re-engineer the whole farm so that each tower was individually controlled, with each controller's period slightly offset in a semi-random fashion.
The result, when viewed from the air, is reported to be weird as hell, with the towers forming rather interesting flashing patterns over time.
Unrelated:
A large pot full of warm water:
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12-05-2014, 10:07 AM
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I see numbers like that thrown around a lot.
And yes, I'm sure that the wind farms produce enough electricity to power 24,000 - 40,000 homes*, at least for the very small percentage of the time that they're actually operating at full capacity.
The rest of the time, fossil fuel is being burned.
True story:
A colleague of mine designs the lighting systems used on radio and TV towers, and has also done a couple of wind-farm projects as well.
At first, they had all the turbine towers slaved to a central controller, such that all of the lights were flashing in unison (this is how broadcast tower arrays are normally lit, so the pilots can recognize multiple towers close together as forming a single cluster.)
This has an eerily unnerving effect on the local populace, with a hundred or so towers all flashing in unison. Thus, they had to re-engineer the whole farm so that each tower was individually controlled, with each controller's period slightly offset in a semi-random fashion.
The result, when viewed from the air, is reported to be weird as hell, with the towers forming rather interesting flashing patterns over time.
Unrelated:
A large pot full of warm water:
And yes, I'm sure that the wind farms produce enough electricity to power 24,000 - 40,000 homes*, at least for the very small percentage of the time that they're actually operating at full capacity.
The rest of the time, fossil fuel is being burned.
* = I wonder if people realize just how small a number 50,000 homes actually is? Taking a totally average city that I happen to be familiar with, San Diego contains 1,176,718 housing units according to the 2013 census. So the $59 million dollars in federal funding given to Locust Ridge has provided about enough generating capacity to power 5% of the homes in an average city.
Some of the time.
Some of the time.
True story:
A colleague of mine designs the lighting systems used on radio and TV towers, and has also done a couple of wind-farm projects as well.
At first, they had all the turbine towers slaved to a central controller, such that all of the lights were flashing in unison (this is how broadcast tower arrays are normally lit, so the pilots can recognize multiple towers close together as forming a single cluster.)
This has an eerily unnerving effect on the local populace, with a hundred or so towers all flashing in unison. Thus, they had to re-engineer the whole farm so that each tower was individually controlled, with each controller's period slightly offset in a semi-random fashion.
The result, when viewed from the air, is reported to be weird as hell, with the towers forming rather interesting flashing patterns over time.
Unrelated:
A large pot full of warm water:
HFIR, probably the most radioactive place on the planet.
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