Quote:
Originally Posted by tryreading  That isn't a flaw. His plan is to start with wind generation, and as that replaces natural gas for power generation, natural gas can then be used for cars:
... My plan calls for taking the energy generated by wind and using it to replace a significant percentage of the natural gas that is now being used to fuel our power plants. Today, natural gas accounts for about 22% of our electricity generation in the U.S. We can use new wind capacity to free up the natural gas for use as a transportation fuel. That would displace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. Natural gas is the only domestic energy of size that can be used to replace oil used for transportation, and it is abundant in the U.S. It is cheap and it is clean.
... My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil - WSJ.com
This will happen over a ten year period. Meanwhile, we will be investing in our own power transmission infrastructure and paying Americans to do the work. |
I understand all that, but what do we use for peaking power? Do we dismantle all the combined cycle gas turbine peaking power plants, the ones that are the best at coming on line quickly?
With wind power, we need peaking plants all the more.....when the wind stops, we need something to come on line, more or less instantly.
We can't take gas away from our peaking plants and maintain the availability that we currently enjoy.