Energy towers don’t make sense
Yuma Sun | June 10, 2014 | www.yumasun.com
It’s just a change of the name of the towers, a change of site, and other changes to Pickett’s Clean Wind Energy Towers he proposed two years ago. Now it’s going to be called Solar Wind Energy Tower and it is to be built on private property rather than on federal land.
Two years ago, Pickett proposed two towers 3,000 feet high and 1,500 in diameter and now is proposing 2,250 feet for the height which is 750 feet less. The reason for the reduction of height is to enable the use of concrete in place of steel reducing the construction costs. He proposes to have the towers built in stages with the first one ready for operation in 2018.
The development agreement anticipates that the city of San Luis will receive $2.9 million from Solar Wind Energy Tower in the sale of water for the towers. How did they determine how many millions of gallons of water to be used in the towers to come up with $2.9 million?
The pact makes other requirements of the company. One of them is that the project will create 2,000 temporary jobs in the construction phase, plus 500 full-time workers at the towers.
The cost for 2,000 temporary workers at $10 an hour would be $20,000 per hour, one month would amount to $400,000 and one year would be $4,800,000.
For the 500 operators at an estimated $15 an hour, you’d have to run four shifts to run 24/7, which would be 125 per shift. It would cost $315,000 a week. Four weeks would cost $1,260,000 and for one year $15,120,000.
In reality, to run three turbines and generators with two operators per turbine generator, six operators per shift, for three shifts 18, to operate 24/7 there is the fourth shift, for a total of 24 operators, at a cost of $15 per hour for eight hours, seven days a week, would be $15,120; for a year, $786,240.
The difference of cost between 500 operators and 24 would be $14,333,760. That’s quite a difference.
I don’t think Mr. Pickett knows how many operators it takes.
I believe Mr. Pickett has conned the San Luis Council members by overstating the number of jobs created, and the number of local employees that would bring revenue to the San Luis economy.
OMAR CAMPBELL
Somerton
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/06/11/energy-towers-dont-make-sense/