Didn’t off shore wind turbines kill some whales not too long ago? It was covered up by the media.
Disaster for whom?
All that mattered was the billions of dollars that went to government to industry insiders.
I drove down the Columbia River Gorge on Saturday on the north side of the gorge on WA-14. There were hundreds of wind turbines on the Oregon side of the river and NOT ONE was turning. The weird thing is the turbines on the north side of the river (the Washington side) WERE turning, albeit rather slowly.
Every time I see that spectacle of hundreds or thousands of those machines sitting there generating NOTHING I reflect on the pitiful nature of this industry. The machines typically have a capacity factor of 28% (actual output divided by nameplate rating over a year long period). The only entity that would invest in any asset with that horrible utilization is GOVERNMENT.
Lots of wind studies and costs analysis.
Conclusion was that wind turbines were only feasible with the current government subsidies in place at that time.
*The government subsidies have continued since that period of 1981.
If they put up too many windmills, the wind will slow down. Tell that to a greenie beenie. When they say that’s crazy, respond.with, kind of like global warming.
Nothing a few trillion tax dollars can’t fix and mandates that the sheep buy this expensive unreliable electricity.
I wish they would stop building those monstrosities here in Maine.
The RATS and their ecofreak corrupt cohorts want to build 179 more of these awful windmills in the northernmost part of Maine, west of Houlton.
They have to clear cut an area the size of two football fields per windmill, take away chunks of mountain tops, and dig a fifteen foot hole to anchor each windmill, adding concrete and steel.
Many 100 foot wide roads have to be built to accommodate the movement of the giant blades to the construction site, plus an endless amount of new power lines have to be built.
The existing wind mills and solar farms have not reduced the cost of electricity; prices have been soaring.
The lobster fisherman have successfully blocked the construction of these eyesores offshore, so far.
These windmills kill huge amounts of birds, and the ecofreaks don’t say boo.
The penalty for killing a bald eagle is five years in prison. I’m sure these Maine windmills kill a number of them, but hey, no problem; leftwing billionaires love those taxpayers funded subsidies.
Wait till the car companies start reporting their electric car losses!!
You can’t power modern civilization with wind and solar. Then there are all of the ecological reasons why windmills are a bad idea. Green extremist pipe dreams.
.
Meanwhile the politicians state and federal, having received large cash contributions from the companies involved in building wind-farms, are determined to push through huge Atlantic Coast wind-farms, even though there is lots of evidence that they will utterly destroy marine life, including whales.
Basically, commercial and sport fishing will cease from New England waters down to Maryland/Delaware. Seafood restaurants will have to buy imported seafood; the shell fish industry will shut down as those stocks are not mobile.
The public will receive higher electrical bills and lose their favorite seaside vacation spots, spots whose view is blocked by wind-farms, and the eternal crashing of the waves is modulated by the hum from hundreds of giant wind turbines churning away.
At sea wind farms are not oil rigs in a different shape - oil rigs can be beneficial to marine life, but wind turbines are detrimental.
—
from:
The effects of offshore wind farms on marine life, Written by Owen Harris
https://marinemadnessdotblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/the-effects-of-offshore-wind-farms-on-marine-life/
Excerpts:
Environmental damage from construction
One of the first effects OWFs have on their nearby surroundings is physical damage caused by their construction. The main effects of this are seafloor habitat destruction and sediment suspension in the water column, caused by the disruption of sand and silt from the seafloor.
Sediment suspension is likely to have a negative impact on fauna by increasing turbidity, mobilising contaminants and smothering sessile suspension-feeding animals, such as corals, sponges and anemones. A reduction in visibility from sediment suspension can also affect photosynthesis in algae and disrupt key behaviours in visual animals.
Different types of OWF foundations will have different levels of effect on the seabed. Monopile foundations consist of a single tube which is hammered into the seabed. This type of foundation can only be used in shallower waters up to a depth of 30 m due to hydrodynamic forces.
Tripod (three-legged) and jacket (four-legged) foundations are more stable and therefore can be used at greater depths, but their construction will have a greater environmental impact due to the amount of material that is driven into the seabed. However there are alternative solutions, such as floating structures which can be anchored to the seabed and reduces the need for pile-driving.
Noise pollution
One of the main issues caused by the construction and operation of OWFs is that they emit a lot of noise into the marine environment. Known as marine noise pollution, this can affect the behaviors of marine animals as well as potentially causing serious injury. Pile-driving during the construction of OWFs can generate noise up to 200 dB, while the operation generates up to 120 dB.
This noise is mainly generated above the water but transmits through the tower and is then radiated into the surrounding water, adding to pre-existing noise from other sources. This can affect animal behaviour, particularly those that are more sensitive to sound, that rely on their use of vocalization for communication and those that use echolocation for navigation, such as cetaceans.
In salmon, bass and harbour porpoises, it has been found that 90 dB is the level of noise that causes avoidance behaviours. This amount of noise is not instantly harmful to these animals, but prolonged exposure for around 8 hours could equal exposure to 130 dB which can cause either temporary or permanent hearing damage.
An example of an affected species is harbour porpoises who have been found to initiate avoidance responses within 20 km of pile-driving activity, whilst pile-driving noise has also been shown to disrupt their vocalizations which can take up to 72 hours to return to normal.
Other affected species include cod and herring, who can detect pile-driving noise from up to 80 km away. Additionally, cod and sole have been found to have behavioural responses to pile-driving noise, which included initial avoidance, higher swimming speed and habituation after time.
When exposed to the sound produced by an air gun (222.6 dB which is 10% louder than the noise produced by pile-driving) pink snappers have also been found to have sustained ear damage, meaning they and many other fish species are likely to be impacted as well.
Another potential issue with OWFs is electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which are generated by the transportation of the acquired energy through electric cables that are built into the seabed. They could have an effect on the behaviour or physiology of fauna which use electroreception for detecting prey or conspecifics such as sharks and rays.
A study on the small-spotted catshark found that they showed avoidance behaviours when exposed to electric fields which were equal to the maximum output of undersea cables, despite being attracted to much smaller electric currents which mimicked their prey. Thornback rays and spurdogs have also shown avoidance behaviour in the presence of EMFs, but more research is needed.
Wind like solar were project designed to suck government monies up for big investors. They never had real life application.
Ever.
You answered your own question. They need a public bailout. What don’t you understand?
I see what was done here.
The DPU last month determined that the contracts, which the wind developers and utility companies agreed to in May, “are in the public interest” and approved them over the developer’s objections
Directive 10-289 is the answer!
So called green energy requires government subsidies because it is not profitable on its own.
I haven’t checked in a while but the last time I did the cost of manufacture, transport and installation of a power generating windmill was greater that the value of all the electricity it would produce during its lifetime…
Complete scam
that blows...