Forget the birds, keep your head low, speed limit there is 70mph.
Posted on 07/01/2025 1:05:11 AM PDT by Libloather
One person is reported injured after a wind turbine blade broke loose from a truck and crashed into traffic on Interstate 70 in Maryland.
It happened early Monday morning in Washington County, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) confirmed to Fox News Digital.
"At approximately 5:30 a.m., a tractor trailer traveling westbound on I-70 was pulling a wind turbine blade that struck the guardrail causing the blade to go partially into the eastbound lanes," a statement said. "The blade was then clipped by a tractor trailer traveling eastbound."
The crash resulted in the closure of all westbound lanes of I-70 at I-81 and two lanes in the eastbound direction, the Maryland SHA said on X.
All lanes were reopened by 8:28 a.m., a subsequent post said.
The scene, captured by a Maryland Department of Transportation camera, showed the blade in the middle of the interstate while impacting traffic on both sides.
"Heavy tow crews were able to back the truck up after the guardrail was cut out and get the trailer back onto the westbound lanes. The entire unit was then driven up to I-70 west of Md. Rt. 63 and parked on the wide shoulder," SHA's statement said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
But I don't live in an area that gets enough wind for it to be feasible, the last time I researched it.
I wonder how much that blade costs - and how little energy it produced.
But of course democrats only judge themselves on their ‘intentions’ not on results... Effing idiot.
Years ago a local newspaper in my area tried that - they set up a system at one of their remote sites to much fanfare and hoopla. Some years later after many thousands of dollars were spent keeping the thing going - the thing was quietly taken down. A friend who was an editor asked me how much money I thought it was ‘saving’ them on their monthly power bill. I guessed several hundred. He said ‘eleven cents’...
The reason people aren’t using wind power in some version or other is because it costs MORE to produce the energy than to buy it. You have to be a brain dead liberal to buy into the idea.
My Gawd there must have been a twenty mile back-up. Fortunately no fatalities.
Plus, here in the south not only is there a benefit of more sunlight (good for solar power) than up north, there's also the weather aspect of us needing a lot of power during the summer to run our A/C -- which is the time of the year we get more sunlight. And the hottest days tend to be the sunniest days. So we get more free solar power at the times of the year we need it most. All in all, we usually get more solar power when we consume more power (usually, not always, hence I hate the idea of the grid depending on solar because we need the grid to work always, not just usually). That and other variables for mine and my wife's particular situation results in solar being a good ROI up to the point of fighting against the law of diminishing returns. (i.e. I'd spend too much money trying to have so much solar and battery capacity that I could be off grid, so I'll be happy at providing 80% of all the power I consume and buying only 20% of my power from the grid, mostly in 4 winter months November - February.)
I haven't read an honest breakdown of strengths and weaknesses like that for decentralized wind power. I have extended family who live a few miles from the coast and get more wind than I do, but nothing close to as much sun as I do. Thus, you'd think that wind power would be attractive for them. But we haven't recognized a pattern of there being more wind at times they need more power. And the cost per kW of pico wind turbine power was a bit steep IMHO (seems like it was $5K per kW last I checked).
Want til you find out about the landfill problem...
Several years ago I saw one being hauled by a semi and my first thought was how the heck does that semi navigate corners with that thing behind it.
I’ve looked into wind and solar, and it’s just not cost efficient at all. The most obvious issue is having enough wind and sun to meet your needs. That can be countered by having a larger windmill and more solar panels. Then to meet the needs of night time use, windless days and cloudy days. That means batteries, hordes of them. It’s not just expensive to set up but there is maintenance and replacement costs of the batteries.
There will be times when you will need a backup, such as a gas engine driven generator. It’s just not worth it.
Our travel trailer is rigged with solar. On a sunny day it meets all needs. We have three expensive batteries that keeps things going at night. We also have two Honda generators for cloudy days. This is OK for a travel trailer, but not for a home.
My intended question was if anyone had done research to see if decentralized wind could get a good ROI, not necessarily being enough to go off grid. See post # 7 where I elaborated a bit more.
I have solar, a total of 30 panels and 3 Tesla power wall batteries.
Solar can be feasible in locations that get a lot of sun such as FL, AZ, NM and maybe a few other states but it isn’t for many other places. My solar takes care of all my electricity needs. During hurricane Helene we (development) lost power for 16 hours, my house didn’t. Of course once the power goes out you don’t know how long it will be until it is restored.
I got it because of my wife’s medical condition and that we can’t be without power for her equipment.
As for electric bills, we have Duke and they are VERY GOOD at getting what they want from the legislature. When we over produce electricity (which is monthly) they still manage to charge us a “hooked to the grid” fee of $30.80 per month. Initially we had no charges before Duke took over our electricity provider.
Probably high winds causality.
If in service it would have been shut down when it could do it’s bestest!?!
Striking a blow against fossil fuels, I suppose?
For tight turns, the trailer has a gas engine and is steerable by an operator who jumps on the trailer or used a hand held remote to steer around the corner.
I just cannot imagine the cost of shipping those silly blades one at a time around the world. Most analysis I’ve seen has the turbine, when accounting for manufacturing, transportation , construction and maintenance costing more energy than produced in a lifetime. Not to mention that the actual usable lifespan is as much as half what was projected. I think Siemens admitted theirs only last ten years before replacement is needed.
Wind and solar are retarded. The only electric plants we should be funding is nuclear and nat gas turbines. Musk is dead wrong on the BBB cutting tax breaks for useless “renewables.”
Cruising sailboats that can anchor away from land and the power grid for weeks or months at a time use both wind and solar. The economics seem to work compared to fuel and maintenance for a generator. I only have solar now, but considering a small windmill for when I retire and sail off into the sunset. Much of the literature discusses similar off-grid uses, like a remote hunting cabin where grid power unavailable.
ROTFL! They’re not just after the eagles anymore. These things are trash. Way to go Wackos!
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