Wind turbine in Sheffield broken by wind for second time

"Bats are beneficial consumers of harmful insect pests, and migratory species of bats cross international and interstate boundaries.

Dead bats are turning up beneath wind turbines all over the world. Bat fatalities have now been documented at nearly every wind facility in North America where adequate surveys for bats have been conducted, and several of these sites are estimated to cause the deaths of thousands of bats per year."

Source: http://www.fort.usgs.gov/BatsWindmills/

There was a link here on FR about a year ago to a large scale study of wind turbine performance. It covered about 30,000 turbines performance over a period of 5? years.

Ocean based wind turbines produced slightly over 30% of their nameplate power, land based slightly under 30%.

We looked into having the local power authority put up a couple of towers on our farm, but decided against it.

Then after a trip through the Pincher Creek area (to see the Rockies but there were too many windmills in the way), and a little Junko hitting my windshield after its encounter with a turbine blade, I decided I don’t like wind power as it currently stands.

YMMV.

Land-based turbines can and do have an annual average net capacity factor of well over 40% of their nameplate MW depending on the local wind resource. Offshore turbines tend to produce even more as the air density is at a maximum at sea level, the winds tend to be steadier (depending on location) , and there is no interference (trees, hills, etc.).

"That may be true, but it is not much of a defense. When cats kill birds, federal law doesn't require marching them to our courthouses to hold them responsible" ("progressive" WSJ piece)

That's because cats don't compete with big corporations that use environmentalists to shut potential competitors down.

"Michael Fry of the American Bird Conservancy estimates that U.S. wind turbines kill between 75,000 and 275,000 birds per year."

I know a Canadian who owns a property in a mountain basin on the Rockies. The area looks like a prairie, and there's no electrical grid power for miles, but she didn't want to move to the usual places in the USA, full of hateful easterners. Winds during the winter are most often like tropical storm winds, so some especially tough wind turbines do work well.

But thanks to rich, socially insulated, jealous and perverted Malthusians in the USA, eastern Canada, Germany and other countries, neither she nor her neighbors in not-so-scenic areas on the Rockies are allowed by local governments to have wind turbines over low building height limits in complicated, insane "land use regulations" (zoning, etc.).

I once felt owing to tourists and despised the inhospitable statements of some of the other Range residents (north and south). But now, thanks to the realization that outsiders are putting many efforts and funding programs into having governments eventually confiscate our properties ("strategic master plan"), I see a good use for my neighbors' madness.

Gaper, go home! No trespassing!

There are consequences for our attitudes and actions.

And BTW, quite big corporate/government wind farms are going to be built on the Rockies over the near future. Anemometers are mounted for testing all over the place. The same interests, along with their useful idiots, keep homeowners from putting small wind turbines high enough on their own properties to help keep from freezing to death or paying thousands of dollars for propane every winter (see "diversion loads" for heat, no grid power, LNG poison and house fires).

"On a gusty day when turning do the peaking plants dial back on their output? I have always wondered since you have to rely on the wind are they just creating excess capacity that is not needed?"

...sorry that I cannot answer those questions, either. Maybe another reader here will have an answer.

I'm way off of the grid and see brutal weather for most of the year.

Here are a some important points of information that you and other readers may or may not know.

* You cost of grid energy is much lower than generating your own power. There are no cheap wind energy solutions.

* There are a lot of scams out there in regards to small wind turbines. Beware hype, pyramid schemes, outrageous claims about "new" technologies,... Spam obstructing the finding good information on the Net is monstrous.

* Wind turbines are not very suitable for most sites. See wind averages, trees, buildings, etc. Numbers do matter. Beware claims of maximum or instantaneous wattages. Look for minute-averages, monthlies, seasons, etc.

* Relatively large rotors are necessary for generating much electricity, whether home-built (slower turning, larger alternators) or very expensive (faster turning, smaller alternators). Small rotors won't provide much.

* Arguments about measures of turbines' efficiency with respect to how much of the wind goes through them are red herrings from dishonest competitors. What really counts, is dollars of cost per amp/watt hours generated.

...apology again for not being informed about how utilities work with grid-tied equipment except knowing that the NEC and local codes need to be followed exactly (safety issues for electrical workers and other considerations).

The study I was referring to had at least 10,000 land based turbines in it, covering IIRC a five year time. Their performance was just under 30% for those turbines over that time frame. That included all downtime due to lack of wind, maintance, or any other reason they weren’t producing electricy.

40% is a huge jump from 30%, do you have a study to refer to?

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