Laserfiche WebLink
<br />" <br /> <br />,\:., <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />impact that. might reasonably be expected to result from a very large ..dndpower <br />complex, and hence a conservative stance. is one that tends to err on the <br />large side in imagining the project itself and its components. It is <br />conceivable that even this bias has resulted in an underestimate of what <br />might eventuate over the long term. Alternatively, the project might prove <br />infeasible from an engineering stance. From the viewpoint of the envfronmental <br />issues, feasibility today is immaterial so long as the projected complex or <br />something akin to it might become feasible under any reasonable scenario <br />during the inexorable but not-yet-scheduled transition from exhaustible to <br />inexhaustible energy sources. <br /> <br />The major conclusion is that a scenario for very large utilization <br />of windpower contains no environmental show-s toppers. Impacts there "rill <br />be, but for the most part impacts far less severe than those they would <br />displace. Several minor co'nciusions are possible. The largest direct: <br />impacts would be regional, confined to large construction sites, mostly in <br />remote regions of sparse population and scanty natural resources, The <br />largest indirect impacts would be partly regional, in the utility service <br />area reached by windpower, but partly much more widespread, and would be <br />those tied to the cost of electrical energy. <br /> <br />For the most part, these conclusions would remain valid even if the <br />particular pumped-storage scheme envisaged were to prove infeasible, for <br />there may be other technologies for energy storage that would serve the same <br />purpose and support the same leg in the tripod concept. Underground pumped <br />storage is a case in point, <br /> <br />Two implications follow. First, it may be worth while to explore <br />energy-related ideas that are still on the outer fringes of feasibility in <br />order to avoid making short-term decisions that might foreclose larger but <br />more distant options. <br /> <br />Second, even though wind energy is inherE~ntly a dispersed reSOUrCE!, <br />its most effective utilization may be through large-scale, centralized <br />technological systems. It is unlikely that a decentralized wind-energy <br />system, with a wind dynamo on every house and individual control of the <br />resource, could achieve a comparable level of availability and cost of the <br />resulting energy to the individual user, <br /> <br />E. Acknowledgment <br /> <br />The contributions to this presentati.on by reviewers, technical and <br />non-technical, is gratefully acknowledged. <br /> <br />REFERENCES <br /> <br />1. Todd, C, J., R. L, Eddy, R. C. James, and W. E. Howell, 1978:: <br />Cost-Effective Electric Power Generation from the Wind, <br />Wind Engineering (in press). <br /> <br />2. Whiting, C. S" 1975: Tying Sola.r to Hydro. Reclamation Era, <br />4:26, Washington, U.S, Bureau of Reclamation. <br />