Wind farms generate opposition - "We're destroying so much scenery for so little power."

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 5, 2007 | Thomas Korosec

[A CA Guy]

I'm sure they are subsidized or have a pool of green minded people who in the past have been willing to fund them.

I do know of many folks who invested in such black holes and have even had the IRS retroactively disallow them as a tax write off despite them being a huge expenditure for investors. You have to know those kinds of folks loved seeing 50-500k of their investments disappear without even a write off.

Maybe in the future, but they don't have them down to where they can operate without large maintenance cost yet.

[goldstategop]

Liberals love alternative energy - as long as it doesn't get in the way of their views.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[FreeInWV]

'If ANYTHING becomes a big enough nuisance, be it visual or otherwise, to impact a significant number of people, they can vote to over-rule his "property right". This is settled law, and has been for quite a long time. '

Can you provide a source for that. I don't think its true. If true, the size of the nuisance and the number of people impacted would definitely figure in to the outcome of any litigation. In both cases, it would be small. The property likely has very few adjacent landowners. The impact of equipment in the distance would be negligible as well. Environmental activists making their complaints from hundreds of miles away would not figure in at all.

We have windmills here in WV. We also have a handful of really vocal opponents to them. Most of these opponents live hundreds of miles away and have never actually seen them. Other than these few opponents, most people think they look pretty cool.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Hunt and other critics say the wind power hardly merits the major tax subsidies it receives. Because wind is so variable, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which controls most of the state's power grid, calculates it can rely on only 2.6 percent of wind power capacity being available during peak summer demand periods, council reports show.

Pathetic.

[sam_paine]

...went to a local DIY store...and.... found that they were selling wind turbines. I was fascinated - it had a huge propeller, looked ridiculous and the sign suggested one could assemble it at home.
... No thank you. I'm not going to besmirch an 18th century house with one of these. I can't imagine anyone else looking at it and not thinking it would be an eyesore.

LOL! In the late 19th century, my forefathers in the Texas panhandle plains had what was called a "windcharger" that sounds similar in function to what you were describing (see that little two-bladed thing on top at this museum pic).

It created 12V during the dusk and early morning winds enough to avoid burning the house down with candles.

Those folks thought it was the height of beautiful 'DIY' additions to their house!!!! LOL.

Let me just add...I can assure you that, having heard both, the old stock tank windmills that made cattle ranching posible here were much creakier and more obnoxious than these new 125ft monsters going "woosh-woosh."

[gas0linealley]

You noticed. Reminds me of Canterbury Tales: "...a running sore..."

[woodbutcher1963]

Along with Vestas out of Denmark. The biggest manufacturer of windmills in the world.
As a percentage, Europe produces a much higher portion of electricity with wind power.
All those windmills the Dutch have are not just for keeping the North Sea from flooding the countryside.

[RobbyS]

Aethetically they sure compare favorably with powet transmission lines. Amazing that people haven't complained about the latter.

[chimera]

My mom used to tell us stories about her father's farm in rural NJ that had an ancient, old-style windmill that pumped water from his well into a cistern that they used for their potable water supply. He was always running out of water and was continuously worried that the wind would not blow enough to keep his tank full enough for his household to use. When rural electrification came through the first thing he did was hook up to the power line, put in an electric pump, and knock down his windmill. Sure, he had a monthly electric bill to pay, but it was a helluva lot better than running out of water at just the wrong time.

[DungeonMaster]

I'm sure they are subsidized or have a pool of green minded people who in the past have been willing to fund them.

You think GE is being subsidized to build windmills?

[Doomonyou]

I wonder if they would object to a windfarm in ANWR.

You know how many mosquitoes that would kill?

[A CA Guy]

You think GE is being subsidized to build windmills?

The ONLY reasons I can see for them building any since they lose money is for international PR or because some law makers somewhere created little known special tax breaks for them to build them into law.
Outside of those two reasons, I couldn't tell you why they would consider it.

[Doomonyou]

Somebody installed one of these in Sonoma. You would never know it was fake unless you really looked close.

[CottShop]

[We ought to put a turbine right inside the Senate. There's enough wind there to power all of DC.]

Lol- they'd have to be superstructured to withstand the hurricane force winds from those windbags!

The following link is a signature link and does not relate to this thread http://sacredscoop.com

[DungeonMaster]

75gw worldwide and growing!

[DungeonMaster]

The ONLY reasons I can see for them building any since they lose money is for international PR or because some law makers somewhere created little known special tax breaks for them to build them into law. Outside of those two reasons, I couldn't tell you why they would consider it.

You thing GE is losing money selling windmills? Really?

[A CA Guy]

The point of sale is not where the loss is. It is in the large fees associated in maintaining them.

They are not worth it at this time.
I do hope in the future they can do it better though.

[sam_paine]

Out in the panhandle, one thing my relatives never had to worry about was "too little wind!" In fact, I think the "wind that comes sweeping down the plain" comes directly from Canada through the Texas panhandle to Oklahoma!

[chimera]

That sounds like installed capacity. What is the average available capacity?

[chimera]

There is a lot of available wind on the Jersey shore where another guy put up a wind turbine to help him go "off the grid". Threw in some ground-level PV panels as well (tax breaks were quite generous). Seemed to work okay, off and on, until his neighbors got an injunction against his windmill because it made too much noise. They also complained that it impacted their land because depending on where the sun was his tower blocked the sun from some of their property. So after his windmill got stopped he was getting by on grid power supplemented now and then by his PV array. Which was until a hurricane came up the coast and washed/blew his PV array away. So he ended up with a tax writeoff as the bottom line. But I think he was happy in the end about that because he was getting a bit older and not having those things saved him a heckuva lot of work, washing salt spray and seagull poop off that PV array.