Alright.

A few did you know.

Did you know that Nabisco Shredded Wheat was using renewable energy in the turn of the century. By this very same waterfall.

Did you know that the population of Buffalo and Niagara Falls hardly visits this Wonder of the World? [Sad, but true]

Did you know that Buffalo is one of the saddist excuses of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Did you know that all attempts to modernize in this area have fallen, because of scardy cats, and NIMBYs.

No Wind Energy, No Off Shore Wind Energy, heck we ship must of the hydro-electric power we generate to Albany.

I doubt this will pass.

So all of this negative, how do I push for this to go through. Because I'm sick of people like my parents and general beauracauts killing me slowly.

Well, since you asked . . .

The key ingredient for wind's continued expansion? Continuing the federal wind energy production tax credit (PTC), which reduces a wind farm owner's tax payments by 1.9 cents for each kilowatt-hour of electricity the wind farm generates during the first 10 years of its operation. The PTC is currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2007. If the credit is extended for several years, we will see much greater use of this clean energy resource. For smaller turbines, the key incentive is a Small Turbine Investment Credit, something that doesn't yet exist. Readers can help support these and other pro-wind laws here.

Also, plug-in hybrid autos can be manufactured with technology available today. They'll get 80 or so mpg, and they will allow wind energy (for example) to take a bite out of our oil imports. Readers can support this concept through Plug-In Partners.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org

Something doesn't seem right.
120 kg of hydrogen a day, roughly equivalent to 120 gallons of gas, for an investment cost of $21 million?

yep, that's money well spent. $21 million for 120 gallons of gas per day.
700kW. how many electric cars could that charge?
stupid and wasteful. just to prop up the fictional hydrogen economy.

I agree Greg- 120 Gallons a day for 21 million dollars adds up to a LOT more than even $3/gal for gas... unless they are producing this for (quick math: 21million dollars, divide by 3 (dollars), divied by 365days a year)... after 19,178 years we'd break even!

Way to go!

The direct ROI on research/test/development projects are often as bad or worse than this.

How do we get to the promised land if every project must leap into existence with a 2 year breakeven or ever break even?

What was the payback schedule for early solar cells, etc?

The founder of Gillette - King Camp Gillette - now widely credited as the person who created the disposable economy, had the original vision of much of the US population being housed in a mega city at the foot of Niagra, with it being fuelled by hydro power. This was at the beginning of this century when population levels were dramatically lower. Whilst wondering how to fund such a project, he stumbled on the idea of a disposable razor. The rest is history. Funny how life turns out.

Caveat: I am fairly skeptical of hydrogen power.

"The hydrogen generation stations will cost approximately $7.5 million, including infrastructure upgrades and educational displays." The rest will go towards hydrogen buses and trucks.

Re-running the math goes to 7.5 million/120 (gallons per day)/$3 (though gas does not cost $3 in WNY now, but it will soon)/365 days=57 years.

So if you are looking at it from a purely economic standpoint, this will pay for itself in 57 years, not including the difference in gas prices now and 57 years from now, inflation, or the cost of waiting 5 years when a more attractive technology will be in the table. Or the actual cost of day-to-day maintenance and production, which would have to be pretty high. Or however much of this price tag was just job-producing pork or how much goes towards education and existing infrastructure. That's a lot of ignoring.

I'm no expert, but I don't think 57 years is that bad of a turn-around for a major infrastructure project.

But more importantly, New York is acting as an early adopter here in alternative fuel. Even if it's the wrong fuel (which has not been proven by any stretch), it is still a state government--lead by a Republican governor for heaven's sake--putting out some decent cash for alternative fuel.

Wow talk about comparing apples to oranges. Why is everyone comparing a non existent infrastructure to one that has been established for decades? I'm sure a similar cost would be if they were converting or building stations for EV's instead of hydrogen. Generation, distribution, vehicles.

This is an interesting way to generate Hydrogen. The alternative would be hydro-carbon steam conversion or electrolysis by emission free (?)Nuclear power...

I agree, hydrogen is not exactly the cheapest, but it may be one of the cleanest portable energy sources. Small Hydro & Flywheels may stand a better hace given efficiencies involved.