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The stimulus saved the US wind industry in 2009 | 63 comments (63 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: new installations only (none / 1)
Because that was the focus of Jerome's diary.

Sigh. Jérôme's focus was US growth, not the comparison of US and other growth, and even less an analysis of falling behind...

I really don't see any room for complacency on this issue - we should be fighting for the EU to do better on a broader range of fronts - rather than being overly self-satisfied at what we have achieved to date.

That's good. Though it is more local, with the obstacles typically being local regulations.

Instead of arguing about how great we are, we have to do better.

You were arguing that we are worse than others -- if you wanted to speak about doing better compared to ourselves, you derailed your own argument there.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 09:46:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: new installations only (none / 0)
DoDo:
You were arguing that we are worse than others -- if you wanted to speak about doing better compared to ourselves, you derailed your own argument there.

Is it not possible to note both that - as Jerome's figures revealed - the EU installed less new capacity than the US last year, and that the EU should try to do better?  I am now left wondering what all this extreme sensitivity and slightly insulting responses to asking a simple question means.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 10:02:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: new installations only (none / 1)
Is it not possible to note both that - as Jerome's figures revealed - the EU installed less new capacity than the US last year, and that the EU should try to do better?

That would be two independent statements -- but didn't you conclude one from the other? (If not, what was the point of noting that the EU may have installed less?) Did our replies not challenge the rationale for comparison, in multiple ways (resource to exploit, level of current exploitation, long-term trends)? It read like an argument about US and EU GDP growth.

I am now left wondering what all this extreme sensitivity and slightly insulting responses to asking a simple question means.

Well -- I can't speak for others whether they actually felt sensitivity (extreme or not) or intended to hurl insults (slight or not), but I myself sighed because I didn't think your re-framed version meant the same as what you yourself and Jérôme said earlier.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 10:18:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: new installations only (none / 0)
DoDo:
Did our replies not challenge the rationale for comparison, in multiple ways

Perhaps you missed the following in the original question:

Frank Schnittger:

I appreciate that onshore is quicker, cheaper and easier to deliver, and the US has a huge advantage in onshore wind resources.  But they also have a crap grid and poor corporate infrastructure for enhancing it.  So who is going to hit capacity constraints for integrating wind power sooner?  Where are the EU and US on developing smart grids and efficient means of moving gigawatts of power from wind resource rich regions to wind poor but high demand regions?

The reality is that both continents face differing challenges of geography, infrastructure, finance and politics, and I was trying to find out more about how well both were doing in addressing them.  I don't think that is a silly question that only neo-libs would ask, and I don't know what your sighing added to the conversation. Wind energy is hardly my specialist subject but I had been planning to do a diary on the Irish Electricity Supply Board's plans in sustainable and intermittent power sources in the area and wanted to get a handle on the bigger picture.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 10:57:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: new installations only (none / 1)
Perhaps you missed the following in the original question:

I shall reply to it more specifically below, but it (1) doesn't justify the comment's title, (2) doesn't change the validity of our challenges of the rationale for comparison.

But they also have a crap grid and poor corporate infrastructure for enhancing it. So who is going to hit capacity constraints for integrating wind power sooner?

As a serious problem, that's in the future, on both continents. As an excuse raised by regulators stopping wind in certain regions, that's the recent past: see the crash of the market a few years ago in Hungary and Austria, and that's Europe. Meanwhile, zoning laws and the scramble for the best on-shore wind sites are real constraints on rapid on-shore expansion at the present, in Europe.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 03:12:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The stimulus saved the US wind industry in 2009 | 63 comments (63 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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