View Nedpower Project Map and Interactive GoogleEarth

Details of the locations of all 82 turbines involved in the Nedpower Mt Storm project and now available online and you can also load the GoogleEarth interactive map and visit the location at ground level.

Cape Wind and other projects on GoogleEarth

A selection of wind projects including the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound can now be reviewed via GoogleEarth.

Analysis of effectiveness of wind power during California blackouts

The article provides a balanced analysis of the performance of wind power production in California during the summer of 2006 when the state experienced power blackouts.

"By most measures these numbers are disappointing. On the day of peak demand, August 24, 2006, wind power produced at 254.6 MW at the time of peak demand. 254.6 MW represents only 10.2% of wind’s rated capacity of 2,500MW. Another perspective on the data, over the preceding seven days, August 17 to 23, wind produced at 89.4 to 113.0 MW, averaging only 99.1 MW at the time of peak demand or just 4% of rated capacity".

The many and varied reader comments are very insightful.

"A widely used power source that has an average 4%-10% capacity factor during the very time when it is most needed is not just disappointing - it is darn near criminal. Taxpayers have provided huge quantities of cash to wind turbine operators, constructors and salesmen. It is time to recognize just what that cash has bought - a feel good, unreliable, unsightly waste of beautiful countryside".

In response there are comments from many professional engineers in both the wind and nuclear power industries.

WVa Supreme Court agrees to hear nuisance case against Nedpower

By a vote of 5:0 the WVa Supreme Court agree to hear the case.

To guage a sense of what the case involves and the impact on the local community - there is a selection of maps available showing the locations of the 82 turbines for the project.

Also available there is a GoogleEarth interactive map - where you can fly-by the project and zoom down to ground level to see the exact detail of each turbine location (install of GoogleEarth software required).

Overall this gives a sense of the closeness (often within 500 yards) of existing houses and camp sites around the VEPCO lake and the scale of the construction involving 14 miles of clearing of the terrain to site the turbines.