Problems with Wind Energy

[Scales]

I was looking into Wind Turbines awhile ago and compiled a list of stuff I found. This is for the large-scale turbines that are more likely to be a part of wind farms, I'm not sure how much smaller sizes would have the same effects. As more wind farms are probably going to be built, hopefully they can be built distanced enough from residential areas, but then there is still the bat problem.

Windmill/Wind Turbine Explosion

"The braking mechanism that limits the speed of the wind turbine broke during a storm in Denmark. This was the outcome. 02/22-2008.

http://jp.dk/uknews/article1277616.ece

Bonus info:

-The tower of the mill was 60m high

-Wind speed was probably around 30 m/s

-You can see a truck at the base of the mill, but nobody was hurt. The mill had been evacuated 400m in each direction."

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Wind Turbine Syndrome

Radio Interview -

News Story -

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Wind Turbine Shadow Flicker and Noise, Byron Wisconsin

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The general consensus is that the death count for birds isn't that bad. But bats are another story as they are the first line of defense against mosquitoes. Whereas birds die from direct contact, bats die because the change in air pressure causes their lungs to explode. According to this discovery article its ten bats for every bird death caused by wind turbines.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/25/wind-turbine-bats.html

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Turbine Ice/Snow Buildup

[Msterbeau]

Nothing's perfect.

[TitsMcGee]

We have a wind turbine..well a small version of one. We have had no dead birds or bats, and our electric bill has been cut in half. I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it.

[candyman]

SMALL turbines are just fine. If every household have their own we would not only be able to say screw it to wind farms but we could also turn down the output rate of other power plants. If half of the households had their own small turbines we would still be better off. Combine that with small scale battery systems, small scale solar panels, geo-thermal heating, and all that other stuff and we would be all set.

The key here is SMALL! All the big shit will get us nowhere. Large turbines create large problems. However, they do not create large jobs other than what it takes to build them...which also costs ALOT of money for the finely machined parts and expensive high quality materials that I HOPE they are using. After they are build there will only be a small crew of technicians to keep them running.

Yeah stuff like this should be done but not at the cost of what these giant wind farms come at. Shit, these are going for the purpose of ridding the earth of "nature killing" things that we have now and what do they do? Oh thats right they ruing huge plots of land or sea and create a beautiful spinning eyesore. Maybe instead of forcing huge wind farms on us some incentive could be created to start SMALL things at home...like lower the prices on home build items because when you look up the grade of sheet metal used they bent it once and multiplied the price by 5.

Now, vertial axis wind generators are better but those cost on those is...really bad...at least they aren't as damn loud as the current turbines. Jesus I can't believe they build those so close to people's houses...they made us wear ear protection withing 800 feet of the turbines at the farm I visited!

[Tyger]

We have some turbines out in the county over here in Windsor. They never go that fast, even on windy days, and Ive heard that those ones don't go fast enough to kill any birds or cause any trouble with bats... But that's just what I hear. I would think, at least, that the windmills are better than nuclear plants...

[candyman]

We have some turbines out in the county over here in Windsor. They never go that fast, even on windy days, and Ive heard that those ones don't go fast enough to kill any birds or cause any trouble with bats... But that's just what I hear. I would think, at least, that the windmills are better than nuclear plants...

Those slow ones don't cause many problems really as far as breaking or killing things. However, they can still make noise and the slow speed is because of the gear reduction gearbox and as of yet they have not been about to make those produce much power...at least not enough to reduce our dependence on anything.

[Scales]

Now, vertial axis wind generators are better but those cost on those is...really bad...at least they aren't as damn loud as the current turbines. Jesus I can't believe they build those so close to people's houses...they made us wear ear protection withing 800 feet of the turbines at the farm I visited!

Yeah it seems pretty ridiculous on part of the energy companies.

[candyman]

Yeah it seems pretty ridiculous on part of the energy companies.

Yeah but most if not all of these farms are government owned and the companies only contract. If they know better they aren't saying anything...most likely because they are getting paid to do it. If they know what they are doing then they know the hazards and problems involved depending on where they build these things. Those prop blades can fly pretty damn far and I would say that 1 mile should be the minimum distance for residential areas and any distance to a farm has to be approved by the owner of the farm...like that will ever happen though!