I'm doing my part!

Baseload is baseload. It is the minimum power level that can consistently be supplied at all times.

In reality, it is not constrained to turbine power plants. Wind turbines can supply baseload. Solar with batteries can provide baseload. Switching power in and out is not baseload. There is a lot of that switching in and out in the power grid at all times.

This is why the "what happens when the wind dies?" question is properly answered by "switching other power into the grid." The grid doesn't care if the power is generated by wind, solar, turbine, hydro, or hamsters on a wheel. It needs what it needs (or doesn't) when it needs it (or doesn't)

You are correct about switch on, and off times - although it doesn't take as long as you say regarding Turbine electrical power. Maybe you mean scramming the reactor? That said, when there is a sudden surge in demand, the renewables actually hep the turbines because of their fast reaction times. Turbines really like steady, and the renewables help.

Keeping the grid running is fascinating, and the people and systems that do it are impressive and smart folk.

Only if they have a good internet connection.

Not all are in operation all the time. That has to do with grid power needs, occasionally when radar shows birds or bats migrating. Almost always some running though, doing what the grid needs to do.

Electrical power, is not a one size fits all generation solution. If no citizens in Washington need ever look at a solar panel, or wind turbine, then every single citizen in Washington is served, no matter where they are because of Hydropower, that is a wonderful thing.

Now about hydropower in Pennsylvania. We have a lot of dams here in PA. Few are useable to generate power needs. Lake Raystown is an exception, there the entire overflow of the lake is diverted to electrical production.

Most of our lakes are flood control dams, since our rainfall gets a little erratic, surprisingly often. Not quite as useable, water level is lowered in the winter to get ready for the spring melt and rain. Or in this late spring, to deal with a lot of rainfall. Then in the summer, the rainfall fell off a cliff. Not at all good for power generation.

Side note: In addition, if you do not live in a development, you are going to pay for the cost of running the lines to your place. It is actually more economical to use solar and occasionally wind than pay for those power lines to be put in.

But back to the wind turbines, they are doing a great job, even though the usual slashdot crews keep coming up with the same reasons why solar and wind do not work. Just like the natgas lines, when the need arises, known locations will be brought on line to do their job. If your state is being weird about installing something not needed, get to the ballot box.

You wrote

Oh I get it - you were insinuating they would probably be dumped in those old culverts you see discarded willy-nilly in public forests.

Mea Maxima Culpas all around.

Well let's take a look at it from a different angle. In order to discard turbine blades two things would have to happen. Since they are rather large, and quite long, the open culverts would take a lot od heavy equipment bulldozers, and raids to reach those new culverts. Be pretty hard to hide, donchya think?

Second thing is that the meme that Turbine blades can't be recycled is an old meme, and it doesn't check out any more. https://www.energy.gov/eere/wi....

So recycling will just be part of the process, just like recycling metals and aluminum. Resulting in 99 percent pure fiberglass strands, and something called pyrolysis oil - apparently something that can be used as fuel.

Yes. Windows are a real killer. Even on a small scale. We lose a number of birds in my back yard every year. Some just knock themselves silly, others end themselves.

Glad you asked. It's optics, my man. Point is, when people mention one thing to the exclusion of others, it makes it look like the others don't exist. If as you put it, Wind turbine parts are thrown into open pits, why would nothing else be there. I'm concerned about all illegal dumping.

It happens. As I posted in another thread, I've hear people up in arms about the pollution (mercury) that were coining to be a huge issue from those Compact Fluorescent bulbs. Meanwhile, they had nothing to say about those tubular ones in their workplace and garage.

Now on to some info. Recycling Wind Turbine blades will be coming at the Carbon River Plant in Tennessee. https://www.energy.gov/eere/wi...

I'm a little surprised at how pure they managed to get the resulting fiberglass 99%, and in the long strands needed for reuse - even melting for other reuse. Another use is in fiberglass reinforced concrete. Apparently the process creates "pyrolysis oil" as well.

It is just heated, in similar fashion to reusing things like steel, iron and aluminum.

Turbine plants (nuclear, natgas, coal) can provide baseload, and are needed at the moment. preferably the first two

But to clarify, Batteries work well at night, and there are places like the Allegheny escapement where the wind never stops. We could use storage for wind if needed but most installs just condition the power right into the grid. And the reason that wind turbine installs are slowing down is that we have enough here at the moment. But when we need more, they will happen.

Indeed, the leveling abilities of wind and solar are a good thing for turbine based power, which doesn't like sudden load changes.

We have something similar here. Our area has Turbines near a migratory path, and occasional bat swarms. Part of the reason we have lotsa turbines. If the radar shows birds approaching, shut 'em down.

The "bird problem" is similar to people who used to get all concerned about Compact Fluorescent Bulbs citing mercury in them. Conveniently forgetting that they are working in buildings with often kilometers of fluorescent tube lighting, which they never gave a second thought about.

Along the Allegheny front, where we have hundreds (maybe thousands) of wind turbines, there has been little to no negative effect on the birds.

I live in coal country In Pennsylvania. There are strippings and pilings all over the place. Good once forested land now useless. No possible real estate use, no one will be building developments and generating tax revenue. No more lumbering of the property for profit.

Water stained yellow with acid runoff from these mines, devoid of life. Streams that once attracted fishermen from across the country. I can take you on a tour and show you the legacy of strip mining, from a time when the SOP was strip mine, then declare bankruptcy, have a cohort open up a new business, and move to the next place to strip. It's better now - they are required to "reclaim" the land - sorta.

I can even give you GPS coordinates.

How about you doing the same - giving us GPS coordinates of the open pits in the forest where the old Wind turbines are scrapped. I know some people who would be pretty interested.

Good question. We should look into that, as well as every other piece of equipment like Solar panels, electronics, Steam turbines, Nuclear fuel. Where do decommissioned reactors go? Is there some reason you single out wind turbines?

What actually is a "wage slave" I keep hearing that term, but it seems kinda nebulous.

I'm not particularly against unions when they are needed. But as you note, if they become too powerful, they are just another layer of mess that people have to deal with.

"Remote work isn't a perk. It's a necessity for our health, our families, and our access needs. RTO policies should not be handed down from executives with no consideration for accessibility or our well-being,"

Perhaps the good gentleman can produce the citations that people who work from home live longer, have better family dynamics, and whatever the last thing is.

There should be a very clear cut line starting in 2020, of excellent health, happy families, whereas before 2020 these workers had many health problems, families broken up, huge divorce numbers.There should also be a clear delineation between at home tech workers, and the rest of the world, and people who have jobs with no way to work from home should be dying off, ill, divorced and lonely.

There are benefits to WFH, I do half of my time WFH, so I know them. This is pissing on our leg and telling us it's raining outside. Waiting to be at -1 troll in a few minutes.

Those are the breaches we are told about, not the actual numbers. The actual numbers worldwide are nearer 100 percent pwnage.

If nothing else, solar and battery might have an opening for people to go off grid. I have one friend who powers his entire house, shop, and radios of his solar setup. He notes the big difference is his expenses come in chunks, replace a battery here, upgrade an inverter there. But overall, he's saving money. If the AI energy sucking places cause electricity prices to soar, it makes solar/battery the economical and better uptime option.

Finally, If AI needs gigawatts per super center, it just isn't sustainable unless the super center has its own solar/battery install. And reopening shuttered nuclear plants might seem an option, but reviving an end of life station, staffed by people and organizations that have profit over safety orientation, the situation might get interesting.