Posted on 11/19/2011 12:59:33 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
As Jimi Hendrix may have put it: “And the wind cries bankrupt…”
Minnesotans for Global Warming report that in the last 30 years, the United States has had 14,000 wind turbines abandoned. Apparently, once the subsidies and the wind run out, these 20-story high Cuisinarts are de-bladed and retired. This means more bats and migratory birds will live.
From Minnesotans for Global Warming: “The symbol of Green renewable energy, our savior from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the subsidies taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or the wind speed is too high.”
Andrew Walden of American Thinker explored nearly 2 years ago the demise of the 37-turbine wind farm at Kamaoa Wind Farm in Hawaii: “Built in 1985, at the end of the boom, Kamaoa soon suffered from lack of maintenance. In 1994, the site lease was purchased by Redwood City, CA-based Apollo Energy. Cannibalizing parts from the original 37 turbines, Apollo personnel kept the declining facility going with outdated equipment. But even in a place where wind-shaped trees grow sideways, maintenance issues were overwhelming. By 2004 Kamaoa accounts began to show up on a Hawaii State Department of Finance list of unclaimed properties. In 2006, transmission was finally cut off by Hawaii Electric Company.California’s wind farms — then comprising about 80% of the world’s wind generation capacity — ceased to generate much more quickly than Kamaoa. In the best wind spots on earth, over 14,000 turbines were simply abandoned. Spinning, post-industrial junk which generates nothing but bird kills.”
When an honest history of this period in the United States is written, it will no be kind to the corporate cronyism that preyed upon public ignorance of earth science to create a crisis — global warming — to exploit and loot the Treasury.
First rule one learns to ask as a reporter is; "Who says so."
In this case, it's a bunch of environmentalist wackos.
Story is BS
Holland once almost collapsed the world economy of the day with those tulips.
There were small, old machines and no one did a proper job of planning.
New wind farm agreements include provisions for decommissioning and return of the site to previous condition.
A non issue designed to create uproar amongst luddites.
First rule one learns to ask as a reporter is; "Who says so."
In this case, it's a bunch of environmentalist wackos. Where is the proof or even source that there are 14,000 abandoned turbines?
I have always thought these things were just butt-ugly. However, the hypocrisy of the "greens" is what really galls me.
How many loggers lost good paying jobs because some enviro found some critter to put on the endangered species list. Or, simply because they didn't want the trees cut down. But now, they are willing to mow down acres of trees simply to put up these monstrosities. I have nothing but utter disdain for these people and their sham movement.
Actually, the US government wasted billions on corporate subsidies throughout the 1800s (in 2011 dollars). In the 1840s and 1850s, it was steamship lines and telegraphs. In the 1860s to 1880s, it was steel and railroads. A bit later, it was petroleum. Government subsidies led to sloppy and inefficient businesses that would not adopt new technologies, charged high prices, and provided expensive products only affordable by the very rich. In each of these cases, brilliant entrepreneurs who refused to take government subsidies beat the pants off the sluggards who lived off the government teat. But these entrepreneurs have been traditionally excoriated and reviled as "Robber Barons."
For the full story, I highly recommend Burton Folsom's excellent book The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America. It strongly bolsters the argument that the government should get out of the way of the private sector and end its wasteful market-distortions.
The tale is told that the dam, originally called Boulder Dam was renamed for Hoover at the cost of several thousands of dollars, for signs, buildings etc. while for about $10 Hoover could have gone to the courthouse and just changed his name to Boulder. Government...in action.
Just a little 'Rest of the Story'.
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I would assume they have outlived their life and sit rusting away
Leaving in their wake people with acoustic fibrosis.
Yup, I want pictures.
These behemoth windmills would be worth a pretty penny to them, and the probability that many of them would fall and break their necks while harvesting turbine parts would be an added bonus.
I'm very familiar with this line of windmills. There are
two such ridges running the length of Il. that are covered
with them. The other is to the west. I wish I had had a
camera with a very long lens to compress the scene south
of Rockford one morning on Rt 39. It was cold and windless
and the mills were completely becalmed. In the distance you
could see the steam rising straight up from the nuclear
plant that was providing all the energy! By the way, the
reason that the mills were running slowly even with the
strong wind is that they have variable pitch blades that
keep the speed uniform to produce the proper frequency of
AC current.
Clean up is sometimes a problem in the real world. A strip mining company, for example. has to clean up after it has removed the minerals it has mined. This involves filling in the hole, disposing of the slag (these two are usually connected) and re-contouring the land.
Green projects shouldn’t have their own set of rules. They need to cover all their costs, including clean up.
In addition to removing these cylinders, the batteries that many of them have need to be carefully disposed or possibly re-cycled.
Oh, the “school solution” when there are clean up costs is to have the company post a bond, equal to the present value of the expected clean up cost.
Don’t get off track here. I think the moral of this story is if wind power is so great why were these wind mills not replaced so they could produce more cheap energy?
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