Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Wind power takes a blow around Minnesota
StarTribune.com ^ | 1/12/10 | TOM MEERSMAN

Posted on 01/12/2010 5:15:00 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo

ELKTON, MINN. -- Every sunny morning, shadows from the massive rotating blades swing across their breakfast table. The giant towers dominate the view from their deck. Noise from the turbines fills the silence that Dolores and Rudy Jech once enjoyed on their Minnesota farm.

"Rudy and I are retired, and we like to sit out on our deck," Dolores said. "And that darned thing is right across the road from us. It's an eyesore, it's noisy, and having so many of them there's a constant hum."

Just as they are being touted as a green, economical and job-producing energy source, wind farms in Minnesota are starting to get serious blowback. Across the state, people are opposing projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Opposition is also rising in other states. It's not likely to blow over quickly in Minnesota, which is the nation's fourth-largest producer of wind power and on track to double its 1,805-megawatt capacity in the next couple of years.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Local News; Science
KEYWORDS: banana; energy; frauds; nimby; nimbyism; turncoat; windfarms; windpower
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last
The 'Green Police' will be by shortly to quiet these heretics....
1 posted on 01/12/2010 5:15:01 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo

The green economy of the midwest has begun its collapse before it ever got going.

“Michigan- BPW blows off two wind power prospects (”too expensive”)”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2426536/posts


2 posted on 01/12/2010 5:20:11 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo

An hour east of Lubbock, TX there are many of these eyesores. I’m glad I don’t live near them.


3 posted on 01/12/2010 5:22:57 PM PST by DesertSapper (God, Family, Country . . . . . . . . . . and dead terrorists!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

Yeah, I saw that....unbelievable....


4 posted on 01/12/2010 5:23:58 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR... Monthly donors welcome!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo
Nina Pierpoint, a New York physician who has examined the issue, describes "wind turbine syndrome" with symptoms that include sleep disturbance, ear pressure, vertigo, nausea, blurred vision, panic attacks and memory problems.

What, she left out headaches, fatigue, back pain, and the heartbreak of psoriasis? Sorry, Nina -- I'm afraid you aren't going to get any ambulance-chaser-consultant business with that kind of half-hearted "effort"!

5 posted on 01/12/2010 5:30:08 PM PST by steve-b (Intelligent Design -- "A Wizard Did It")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo

I think we’re seeing the first dominoes beginning to fall and it ain’t gonna be pretty.


6 posted on 01/12/2010 5:30:39 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo
Those windmills wouldn't be there if their name was Kennedy.
7 posted on 01/12/2010 5:32:29 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (It wasn't the eight years of Bush - Cheney, It was the last two years of Pelosi - Reid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

The fraud that is Ethanol, which was pushed mightily in MN, continues to cost more than it is worth...


8 posted on 01/12/2010 5:35:35 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR... Monthly donors welcome!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo
It amazes me major road projects are held up for years by environmental concerns over frogs and snails and yet these things are going up all over the country with no environmental concerns from our green pointy headed libs!
9 posted on 01/12/2010 5:37:03 PM PST by Dem Guard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dem Guard

Ding....

Ding.


10 posted on 01/12/2010 5:41:36 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR... Monthly donors welcome!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo

This is why Pawlenty has no shot. He is the Green Police.


11 posted on 01/12/2010 5:46:54 PM PST by Brimack34
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dem Guard

These massive wind farms have the potential to do a great deal of environmental damage all by themselves.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081216104307.htm

The example I use is wind moving across lake Michigan. As the air moves across the lake in a steady flow it picks up moisture but may not rain over the lake. The rain doesn’t come until the air moves inland and rises over the warmer ground. As the air rises the moisture condenses into rain and falls in a line that matches the shoreline nearly perfectly. If you put up a thousand 300 foot windmills its going to disrupt the airflow and “could” cause serious changes downwind.


12 posted on 01/12/2010 5:47:14 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Brimack34

Captain Ethanol.


13 posted on 01/12/2010 5:49:55 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR... Monthly donors welcome!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo

We’d be far more effective drilling for natural gas under the lakes.


14 posted on 01/12/2010 5:51:30 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

Wind turbines also kill thousands of insect-eating birds and bats.


15 posted on 01/12/2010 5:53:15 PM PST by hellbender
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

Interesting thoughts. They might as well kiss the bird migrations goodbye too. Farmers used to be concerned about the effects of high voltage lines on their cattle. These things will really make them crazy.


16 posted on 01/12/2010 5:55:45 PM PST by Dem Guard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Dem Guard

One thing we can all agree on is that they’re an incredibly inefficient and overly expensive tax dollar boondoggle.


17 posted on 01/12/2010 6:04:24 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo
This is absurd, and typical of bureaucratic "project so-called management."

Private construction projects have always been analyzed and planning requirements met and mitigation put in place.
Public projects are not.

How much intellectual horsepower does it require to set minimum distance from residential structures, and at least a cursory environmental impact statement?

I was in the design and processing end of developments and construction of both public and private projects. Fortunately, mostly at the pointy end of design and "processing." This BS has been going on for many decades.

18 posted on 01/12/2010 6:04:31 PM PST by Publius6961 (Â…he's not America, he's an employee who hasn't risen to minimal expectations.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ButThreeLeftsDo
Aside from the environmental impacts noted here, the inconvenient truth is that wind is just poor at generation. Right now Great Britain is in the midst a severe cold snap (check out some of those satellite images, the whole island is frosted over) and their wind generation assets are producing at about a 4% capacity factor (high pressure and lack of wind). California had a similar problem a few years ago when they were dealing with their heat waves. The wind-based power sources had about a 5% capacity factor during that time of peak power demand.

On average wind-based generation has capacity factors in the range of 25% or so. That means to have an equivalent output compared with more reliable sources, you have to overbuild by a factor of four. Not good when you factor in things like transmission infrastructure requirements, power management and grid stability, land use, etc. Your other choice is to have available quick-start, high reliability backup generation, and right now, that means natural gas. So relying on wind for a significant portion of your baseload capacity builds in a structural requirement to burn more fossil fuel, which of course undercuts one of the main arguments for developing it as a resource.

19 posted on 01/12/2010 6:14:36 PM PST by chimera
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve-b
What, she left out headaches, fatigue, back pain, and the heartbreak of psoriasis? Sorry, Nina -- I'm afraid you aren't going to get any ambulance-chaser-consultant business with that kind of half-hearted "effort"!

She can't be too through; she failed to mention fallen arches, jungle rot and creeping crud.

20 posted on 01/13/2010 7:27:29 AM PST by dearolddad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson