Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 11/03/2011 7:30:02 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion
Which would you rather have in the view from your house? A thing about the size of a domestic garage, or eight towers twice the height of Nelson’s column with blades noisily thrumming the air. The energy they can produce over ten years is similar: eight wind turbines of 2.5-megawatts (working at roughly 25% capacity) roughly equal the output of an average Pennsylvania shale gas well (converted to electricity at 50% efficiency) in its first ten years.
Difficult choice? Let’s make it easier. The gas well can be hidden in a hollow, behind a hedge. The eight wind turbines must be on top of hills, because that is where the wind blows, visible for up to 40 miles. And they require the construction of new pylons marching to the towns; the gas well is connected by an underground pipe.
Unpersuaded? Wind turbines slice thousands of birds of prey in half every year, including white-tailed eagles in Norway, golden eagles in California, wedge-tailed eagles in Tasmania. There’s a video on YouTube of one winging a griffon vulture in Crete. According to a study in Pennsylvania, a wind farm with eight turbines would kill about a 200 bats a year. The pressure wave from the passing blade just implodes the little creatures’ lungs. You and I can go to jail for harming bats or eagles; wind companies are immune.
(Excerpt) Read more at newgeography.com ...
ping
As I recall , wind turbines need to stay moving , even when there is no wind , in order to prevent the turbines from ‘freezing up’. As a result , they use electricity to keep moving when they are not rotating, or there is inadequate wind ; isn’t that correct ?
So much anti-wind misinformation in this article.
If we are smart we will move to NG as vehicle fuel. There is plenty for transport and home heating into the foreseeable future.
This is no different than what Brazil did in going to sugarcane based ethanol, except NG is better.
Really good article. Thanks!
I would live next to a hydrothermal vent first off, use steam.
Next choice would be a year round constant water supply or an alpine lake that I can get a sluice box or pipe to create hydroelectric power.
Third would be solar, last would be wind.
Geography is the dealer in the whole deck.
And if I was fortunate to have my own natural gas well or a methane collection facility I would use CNG in my vehicles.
For my motorcycle I would make a still using sawgrass and run it on ethanol.
It’s my property—not yours, Lefty. Look at your backside for “open space”—not my place.
And BTW, most state politicians and their favored constituents are commies, too. Starve the beast.
Not correct. Steam turbines (and, I think, gas turbines) use “turning gear” to keep the shafts rotating at slow speed after shut down. This prevents the very large turbine shafts from developing a permanent bow. There’s no such need for wind turbines.
However, I believe heaters are used to maintain the correct viscosity of the lubricating oils at very low temperatures in shut-down machines.
Code words for eco-socialist utopia.
Stop the subsidies and the toxic production (was that part true?) and I would agree. My husband’s grandfather had a windmill to pump water up at their old ranch in Mariposa County.
You’re welcome, glad you liked it. I learned some new things from it, but I’m no expert.
The Texas experience is everything that you need to know about wind power. Texas has the largest wind capacity in the country about 10,000 MW at peak capacity. However, Texas needs power most during the late afternoons during its summer months. During peak energy times this summer, wind plants were producing less than 1,000 MW. For a $10B investment in wind power, Texas only receives less than the output of one conventional power plant when the energy is most necessary.
With just the headline, I thought it would be about my dog passing gas, it is powerful also...PU
Hence, I like the "both" approach (or an "all of the above" national energy policy) much like one would balance their investment portfolio.
Why don't you point point out the specific "misinformation" you are referring to?
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