Wind farms generate opposition - "We're destroying so much scenery for so little power."

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 5, 2007 | Thomas Korosec

[backhoe]

Cincy, I don't have the link handy, but a few years ago our Canadian cousins were set to sink a billion dollars into a wind farm near one of their big cities.

All the usual blather about "protecting the environment" and "renewable energy"-- then some spoilsport pointed out that for one-fifth of the money, they could generate the same amount of power with a conventional plant.

And not be subject to the vagarities of the wind...

Don't know what ever became of it- one could hope common sense prevailed, and they spent their money on 5 conventional plants...

[MadIvan]

Not long ago, Mrs Ivan and I went to a local DIY store to pick up some paint; we found that they were selling wind turbines. I was fascinated - it had a huge propeller, looked ridiculous and the sign suggested one could assemble it at home.

No thank you. I'm not going to besmirch an 18th century house with one of these. I can't imagine anyone else looking at it and not thinking it would be an eyesore.

Regards, Ivan

[Lurker]

Just build a nuke plant and be done with it.

L

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I've seen these things from the freeway in Texas. Even with vast, wide open spaces, these things are visually overpowering.

[FreedomCalls]

I was down in Abilene recently and what used to be an empty pass south of town, Buffalo Gap, is now studded with these enormous wind turbines all over it. One is right beside the road. You just don't realize just how BIG the things are until you are up beside one.

The turbines are so large they show up well on Google Maps.

Link here

[MadIvan]

Far be it from me to praise the French, but in terms of electricity generation, they have it right - over 70% of their electricity comes from nuclear. That's how to do it - the world's leading supplier of uranium is Australia. I'd much rather be dependent on our cousins from Down Under for that, than on the Russians for natural gas.

Regards, Ivan

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thank you for the link!

Here are some more visuals.

[MARTIAL MONK]

I wonder if they would object to a windfarm in ANWR.

[enviros_kill]

My feelings exactly. More backround on the windmill folly (only reason they're getting built is because our tax dollars subsidizing them via stupid laws):

Check out the windmill carnage here (toppled windmills and bird carcasses)
Horrors of wind power
http://www.matsuvalleynews.com/wind1.html

Wind farm 'hits eagle numbers'
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5108666.stm
Wind farm turbine blades are killing a key population of Europe's largest bird of prey, UK wildlife campaigners warn.

Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-04-windmills-usat_x.htm

Group's lawsuit over bird deaths gets green light
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1346697/posts

Nuclear vs. Wind, Part I
http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2006/03/nuclear-vs-wind-part-i.html

Wind Farms Provide Negligible Useful Electricity - White Paper
http://ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20060331_wind.pdf
SUMMARY: wind farms for power generation can only provide negligible electricity to grid supply systems, make no significant reduction in pollution, cause significant environmental damage, increase the costs of electricity and create risks of power failures

Only reason these poodle power devices are being erected is stupid politicians succumbing to greenie pressure and an ill informed electorate. Windmills are feel good devices that will topple in hurricanes, require baseload (fossil and nuclear backups) and visually pollute large sections of beautiful landscape due to their low energy density per sq mile compared to fossil and nuke.

[Lurker]

I wonder if they would object to a windfarm in ANWR.

We ought to put a turbine right inside the Senate. There's enough wind there to power all of DC.

L

[familyop]

The color of the paint on the neighbors' house is visually overpowering. We need to force them to change it. I don't like the color of their car, either. Those colors are lowering the value of my place. The color of paint is actually regulated in some HOAs and counties. One HOA that I know of does not allow white or other reflective paint jobs (only nature colors allowed--dark brown, for example).

[Little sarcasm and irony there.]

Are PV panels any prettier? Some people are off of the power grid and in windy places. Others are off of the power grid in sunny places. Some people have much wind and sun. Busybodies who claim to be environmentalists are trying to stop people in places off of the grid from generating their own power. The false enviornmentalist busybodies are doing so for the purpose of devaluing and buying the properties of others cheap to make way for their big developer friends.

If you want to regulate all of the scenery around you, buy property all the way to the horizon, IMO. If you don't own it, don't try to control it.

[familyop]

"Just build a nuke plant and be done with it."

And be sure to build it close and directly upwind from the homes of a bunch of anti-property-rights busybodies.

[R. Scott]

Royalties paid to ranchers in the Abilene area average about $12,000 per turbine per year, according to testimony in a lawsuit there.

In my current financial position, I’d welcome a dozen of them.

[Lurker]

If you want to regulate all of the scenery around you, buy property all the way to the horizon,

You got that right.

L

[backhoe]

Just build a nuke plant and be done with it.

Lurker, two cites over to the west of us is Plant McManus- a nuclear power plant.

For the last thirty years, all it's done is produce clean, cheap electricity.

By contrast, the two chemical plants in town kill one or two workers each, every year. Guess which of these I would choose to work at, given a choice?

The "whadda we gonna do with THE NUCLEAR WASTE?" issue is a red herring-- boob-bait intended to distract the easily duped into chattering endlessly about a non-problem... you just recycle the stuff, as many other nations have done for decades.

Jimmy Carter outlawed it here, that's the only reason we aren't doing it now. Yes, stupid Executive Orders, and Laws, seem to live forever.

[Total Package]

Their in the middle of nowhere

[Lurker]

Take a look at a map of the locations of nuke plants in IL. I'm literally surrounded by them.

And I remember that blithering idiot Carter and his stupid order. That's one that Bush should invalidate before he leaves office btw.

The nuke plants around here have a nearly flawless safety record. Not one single citizen has ever been harmed by any of them. Not one.

Some workers have had accidents, but none were radation related. By contrast we lose dozens of workers every year around here just in the construction trades.

Just about a week ago a young man was killed by sand in a concrete pipe factory. That's right. He was killed by sand. It was a tragic death and the business owner hasn't as of yet re-opened his plant because he's so traumatized.

In spite of having at least 3 operating nuke plants around here, (2 are out of service IIRC) Chicago still faces occasional 'brownouts' in the summer.

Now personally I don't care if folks want to put windmills on their property or if they want to sink geothermal vents. As long as the magma doesn't fry my house it's fine with me.

But this whole 'energy crisis' thing would go away, at least as far as electricity is concerned, if we would just build some more damned nuclear plants of modern design.

L

[ravinson]

At the quoted royalty rate, those big turbines are objects of supreme beauty (no matter what they look like).