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Study: Huge wind turbine farm could cut hurricane wind and storm surge damage
Chronicle ^ | 26 Feb 2014 | Carol Christian

Posted on 02/27/2014 7:02:32 AM PST by shove_it

Edited on 02/27/2014 7:13:41 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

Research from Stanford University in California holds out hope for hurricane protection that's better and cheaper than a seawall. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, uses computer models to estimate the reduction in hurricane winds and storm surge that results from installing huge wind turbine farms. For example, had there been 78,000 turbines spread across a wide swath of Louisiana coastline when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, the turbines would have reduced the wind speed by between 80 and 98 mph and the storm surge by 79 percent, the study showed. For Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey in 2012, the model projected a wind speed reduction of 78 to 87 mph and up to 34 percent decrease in storm surge.


(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: climatechange; junkscience
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To: Nervous Tick

“I bet they did a back-of-the-napkin calculation”

OT: That made me chuckle because the local town here decided they “needed” to buy a private water supply company. So, after finding a “suitable” outside appraiser, one who agreed with their idea, he miraculacy agreed with the asked for sales price through an off hand calculation on the back of a napkin while having lunch. See the town figured they could use the water company to fund all their pet projects while raping the customers. Of course they ended up paying about twice what the asset was worth and have not paid one dime on the corpus of the bonds in 12 years while running the system into the ground financially. So guess what? They now need raise taxes or increase the already sky high water rates. Where did the money go? No one seems to know as it went into the pit called “general revenue” and money is fungible.


21 posted on 02/27/2014 7:20:53 AM PST by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: shove_it

“Puny humans.”


22 posted on 02/27/2014 7:21:27 AM PST by onedoug
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To: Nervous Tick

Louisiana has 397 linear miles of coastline. They have much more if you measure all the inlets and tidal areas but thats no really accurate for this purpose.

So they want to spread 78,000 turbines over 397 miles. Thats 196.4 wind turbines per mile. They cost $2 million each plus land acquisition and maintenance costs.

Why aren’t idiots like this run out of town covered in tar and feathers.


23 posted on 02/27/2014 7:21:52 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: shove_it
Existing turbines can withstand wind speeds of up to 112 mph, in the range of a Category 2 to 3 hurricane, Jacobson said in the release. His study suggests that the presence of massive turbine arrays would probably prevent hurricane winds from reaching those speeds.

Probably??? Well, hell, if you're THAT sure.

24 posted on 02/27/2014 7:22:48 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: enduserindy

Not an expert but the jet stream is not near the ground, up in the stratosphere I think.


25 posted on 02/27/2014 7:23:05 AM PST by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: shove_it
...had there been 78,000 turbines spread across a wide swath of Louisiana coastline when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005...

They would have suffered an additional $234 billion in losses, when the wind turbines ($3 million a pop) were destroyed.

26 posted on 02/27/2014 7:24:44 AM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: shove_it

Hasn’t PETA shut down these ‘windmills’ yet because of the stupid birds that keep flying into them.
The BIRDS must be the stupid ones here because I know ‘our’ Government would NEVER do anything to harm people or animals.

Do ‘birds’ come under the ‘animal’ category in the eyes of PETA?

Kind of like NAACP being ticked at the word Negro and the usage of ‘you people by one Ross Perot’, yet both words are in their title.

Almost like the group NWA (’N’ With Attitude) being upset with the ‘N’ word.

Like Amy Carter was told ‘Pick a cause and stick to it. You are NOT allowed to protest any or everything that comes down the pike while you are a student here’.


27 posted on 02/27/2014 7:26:38 AM PST by xrmusn (6/98 --When you have them by the short hairs, the minds and hearts soon follow.)
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To: Texas Eagle

Windmills won’t break if you make them out of unobtainium.


28 posted on 02/27/2014 7:29:07 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Texas Eagle

Now, during a serious hurricane, multiply that picture by the thousands. Quite a vision for the future that this study has.


29 posted on 02/27/2014 7:30:32 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: shove_it
The study ... uses computer models to estimate the reduction in hurricane winds and storm surge ...

And once again the computer models predicted it so we should pay attention. Reminds me of the following section from Michael Crichton's lecture called Aliens Cause Global Warming (highly recommended reading).

To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: "These results are derived with the help of a computer model." But now large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world—increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward. There can be no observational data about the year 2100. There are only model runs.

30 posted on 02/27/2014 7:33:28 AM PST by ken in texas
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To: shove_it

78,000 windmills are cheaper and better than a seawall? {sigh} Only a study from the moronic geniuses Stanford could come up with a conclusion like that.


31 posted on 02/27/2014 7:36:45 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: shove_it
Stupidity
32 posted on 02/27/2014 7:39:15 AM PST by Ray76 (How modern liberals think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c)
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To: Nervous Tick
Especially if they’re in the SOUTH.

Probably bitter clingers. We're better off without them.

33 posted on 02/27/2014 7:39:18 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: Tenacious 1
78,000 Wind turbines? spread across a wide swath of Louisiana coastline

And they don’t like the sight of drill rigs WAAAAAAY out in the distance on a clear day?

This is Louisiana. The oil & gas platforms are all over the area. They like jobs and cash flow.

34 posted on 02/27/2014 7:40:18 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Mouton; P-Marlowe

this is satire? Wind mills will stop a hurricane?

If I put space heaters outside will it stop a snow storm?


35 posted on 02/27/2014 7:42:29 AM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins
this is satire?

My first thought also ;o)

36 posted on 02/27/2014 7:46:44 AM PST by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of ObamaÂ’s America)
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To: DTogo

Ever been in Louisiana in late summer/fall? Some/most days you can’t buy a breeze. Dead calm is the normal, just hot and hotter.
Sure, lets put wind farms all over! Spending tax money to support a boondoggle that free enterprise would turn down because its a money looser.
Stupid is as stupid does.......


37 posted on 02/27/2014 7:47:50 AM PST by 9422WMR (: " Tolerance is the virtue of a man who has no convictions".)
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To: shove_it

“For example, had there been 78,000 turbines spread across a wide swath of Louisiana coastline when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, the turbines would have reduced the wind speed by between 80 and 98 mph and the storm surge by 79 percent, the study showed.”

Only 78,000? Hell, we could put those up in an afternoon. These people are insane.


38 posted on 02/27/2014 7:48:05 AM PST by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: shove_it

In a related story:

Bridges for sale real cheap!

This sale won’t last long, as supplies are limited.


39 posted on 02/27/2014 7:49:58 AM PST by PoloSec ( Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again)
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To: shove_it

A better idea and entirely doable is to put the entire United States on a lazy Susan and turn it so the Rocky Mountains face the hurricane to block it. Then just turn it back after it passes.


40 posted on 02/27/2014 7:50:05 AM PST by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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