Common sense isn't.
As we wait for TVA's
announcement page to be updated with fourth quarter 2001
results, we can ponder the weather data from the last few days of
the year. As luck would have it, after a string of very windy days,
the old year went out, and the new year came in, with a whimper (or
low winds). Below about 4 meters/second (about 9 mph) the wind
turbines can produce no power.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective,
the temperature was also quite low during this time of low wind.
Wind turbines can produce more power with lower temperature, denser
air. So, in a way the wind turbines like cold and windy weather
best, unlike most people. The dense, cold air on the mountain was
not being taken advantage of to make power at a time when power was
needed for heating. In fact, we can be sure that the turbines
themselves were consuming power to keep the precious components
warm.
You may explore the effect of varying temperature and humidity
on the power produced by the turbines, using my TVA
Buffalo Mountain wind power calculator. Of course, variations
in temperature or humidity don't make much difference if the wind
isn't blowing.
Thanks to
NOAA for the
weather data.
Previous Bottom Line Reports:
November 2001
| Quote of the moment |
| The policy of this country is a canal under American control. The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power.... The capital invested by corporations or citizens of other countries in such an enterprise must in a great degree look for protection to one or more of the great powers of the world. No European power can intervene for such protection without adopting measures on this continent which the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. If the protection of the United States is relied upon, The United States must exercise such control as will enable this country to protect its national interests.... An interoceanic canal across the American Isthmus ... would be the great ocean thoroughfare between our Atlantic and our Pacific shores, and virtually a part of the coastline of the United States. Our merely commercial interest in it is greater than that of all other countries, while its relations to our power and prosperity as a nation, to our means of defense, our unity, peace, and safety, are matters of paramount concern to the people of the United States. |
| ~ Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893), U.S. president. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. X, pp. 4537-4538, ed. James D. Richardson, Bureau of National Literature, 20 vols. (1897-1918), Special Message (8 March 1880). Reacting to Ferdinand De Lesseps’s dream of a Panama Canal, Hayes anticipated Theodore Roosevelt’s corollary of the Monroe Doctrine. ~ |
Common sense isn't.
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