New Power to Huntley

The more I read the “Letters to the Editors” the more I find good ideas that need to be implemented. This is is in opposition to some of the drivel that passes for news.

I will be generous with the word “news.”

A letter today (April 18 2016) proposed that the US follow a project that was successfully done in Ontario, Canada. They closed down a coal fired power plant, just like Tonawanda is in the process of doing with the Huntley plant, and converted the coal storage bins/area to a “solar field.”

They put up a solar array that was easily wired into the existing power plant and the former coal plant now provides renewable energy to the community. Loss to the tax base? Zero.

Now, let's look at Huntley see if we can repeat the same thing here.

What problems did Ontario have when they made the conversion? Can they be prevented or mitigated? Let's learn form what they did successfully, the problems they encountered, and the mistakes they made. It will save us time, money, and frustration.

Furthermore, could we plug wind power into it somehow? Is is close enough to the Lake Erie shore that we could do a “Steel Winds” project off the shoreline and away from the boating/shipping lanes?

I also read last week about these small turbines that get mounted on the peaks of houses. They look like small heaters. Instead they generate wind energy from the wind that blows off the roof the the house that it is on. From what I read the wind speeds up near the peak and these little units do generate a bit of power. Is this the urban alternative to the tall wind towers? (I read about them on Earth 911.)

WNY is in a good location to use multiple sources of renewable energy – both wind and solar. We need to capitalize on both and use them to replace these carbon polluting and inefficient power plants.

We have Solar City going up, which could provide the solar panels.

Could we get the roof mounted wind turbines built here too?

And Tesla Car Co has open sourced the battery template for a house based version of their car battery. Can we get a plant building that too?

So a person has the mini turbine on their roof top. It charges the Tesla house battery, which periodically discharges itself (for conditioning purposes) by disconnecting the house from the grid and running until low. (At that point the house is back on the grid.) Then again, during a blackout, if a family only runs on what is needed, we won't need those noisy, polluting gas/diesel generators in people's backyards.

Blackout? Yes, With power lines above ground and all those nice trees, a power line will come down. Unless we work to get the lines put underground. Like the telephone lines are.

WNY could be the center of the energy revolution. And with the right laws in place, we could put the power back in the hands of the people instead of Wall Street.

Pardon the pun.