Posted on 11/24/2011 10:21:06 AM PST by LRoggy
(NaturalNews) Literal beacons of the "green" energy movement, giant wind turbines have been one of the renewable energy sources of choice for the US government, which has spent billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing their construction and use across the country. But high maintenance costs, high rates of failure, and fluctuating weather conditions that affect energy production render wind turbines expensive and inefficient, which is why more than 14,000 of them have since been abandoned.
Before government subsidies for the giant metals were cut or eliminated in many areas, wind farms were an energy boom business. But in the post-tax subsidy era, the costs of maintaining and operating wind turbines far outweighs the minimal power they generate in many areas, which has left a patchwork of wind turbine graveyards in many of the most popular wind farming areas of the US.
"Thousands of abandoned wind turbines littered the landscape of wind energy's California 'big three' locations which include Altamont Pass, Tehachapin and San Gorgonio, considered among the world's best wind sites," writes Andrew Walden of the American Thinker. "In the best wind spots on earth, over 14,000 turbines were simply abandoned. Spinning, post-industrial junk which generates nothing but bird kills."
Walden speaks, of course, about the birds, bats, and other air creatures that routinely get tangled in and killed by wind turbine propellers. And as far as the "post-industrial junk" language, well, if it costs too much to run the machines in the first place, then it definitely costs too much to uproot and remove them post-construction.
This whole wind energy mess just further illustrates how the American people have been played by their elected officials who bought into the "global warming" hysteria that spawned the push for wind energy in the first place. And now that the renewable energy tax subsidies are gradually coming to an end in some places, the true financial and economic viability, or lack of wind energy, is on display for the world to see.
"It is all about the tax subsidies," writes Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail. "The blades churn until the money runs out. If an honest history is written about the turn of the 21st century, it will include a large, harsh chapter on how fears about global warming were overplayed for profit by corporations."
Sources for this article include:
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurbe...
http://toryaardvark.com/2011/11/17/...
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034234_wind_turbines_abandoned.html#ixzz1eeDXyzva
Like every other program the leftist aka progressive treehuggers have forced on America. Another big screw up.
“And as far as the “post-industrial junk” language, well, if it costs too much to run the machines in the first place, then it definitely costs too much to uproot and remove them post-construction.”
Having been raised by a father who owned a couple of scrap yards, I can assure you that if those windmills are metal, and if clear title to them can be had, they will be scrapped.
Agreed. Every technology has its sweet spot and the smaller units have lots of promise for providing power in remote and mobile applications like sailboats.
The same applies for solar. Solar panels have a shelf life and again, the cost of replacing those panels in the large acreage panel farms will suffer the same result.
One of my projects was to take an outdoor vending device and redesign it so it used a solar panel to recharge the internal battery that actually was the power storage for the system so it could be installed anywhere like golf courses, boat docks, beaches, lakes and water parks. This is where solar shines but large scale AC power generation over a long period of time is not economically feasible when the shelf life of the panels is just under the ability to pay for them from the savings over fossil fuels.
Watermellons is an excellent term for them.
You won't hear any OWS moron complain about this particular corporate welfare.
Idols for their cult.
Happy Thanksgiving
National Guard engineer units across the country could probably use the practice blowing things up (actually controlled demolitions). Let the scrappers at the rest, they will clean most of it up.
All so that it all looks like nice and "green" when they take pictures of it.
I partially agree with you — corporations and VCs ARE culpable here. But they would have pursued none of this if it weren’t for the gross market distortions caused by government spending our tax money with wild abandon and crooked academics. Government and the academy set the table. The corporations and VCs simply sat down for the prepared feast.
“Like every other program the leftist aka progressive treehuggers have forced on America. Another big screw up”.........just like sister ethanol
It isn't a case of not liking the technology. I think it is a great idea...Idea.
The problem comes in when the idea has to work, and that is the R&D aspect which should have been done long before going to production level implementation.
Like electric cars, the research isn't done yet, at least not for something which can compete in any but niche markets, and until it is, trying to take the idea to mass production will be an expensive lesson in premature implementation.
Sadly, those expenses were not left to the private sector, but are fuelled by our tax dollars, present, past, and future. Had the private sector been wholly responsible there may have been far greater accountability and far, far, less waste.
“...it will include a large, harsh chapter on how fears about global warming were overplayed for profit by corporations.”
Individuals are involved as well....
Fisker Automotive, a startup that plans to start selling a plug-in hybrid (sticker price $87,900) this year, received a $529 million loan from the U.S. government..
“...the $300 million federal subsidy to Tesla Motors -founded by Elon Musk.to produce electric cars
Produce a sexy enough con...and the Feds will beat a path to your door to give you money in the name of feeling good about doing so...and of course a hefty return to their “campaign finance fund”-which BTW if they “fail” to use...may be kept personally.
This is a scam. All a scam.
Notice how PETA nor the environmentalists never got involved with the bird kills?
That’s all that needs to be said about the Marxist movement.
You’re gonna need a bigger porch!
The corporations were only the legal entities that was used by corrupt politicians, fake scientists, dishonest financiers to defraud the taxpayers out of billions of dollars.
It doesn't really matter who corrupted who. The fact is that it is the power of government that incites the corruption.
I knew this was going to happen.
All this physical stuff requires maintenance, repair, periodic replacement of parts.
On top of not paying for itself, having to use power when there is not enough wind, to having to be shut down when it’s too windy. Brake failures that cause them to blow up.
Sad thing is that it was totally deliberate. Wasting taxpayer money on the worst forms of energy out there, that also cost the most to gather. Incredibly high cost for very low energy return. Instead of sinking it into better coal plants, or new safer almost impossible meltdown nuclear plant designs (pebble bed reactors).
Plus on top of it they make a lot of noise and the shadow issue is huge for people who live close to them, and they’ve been killing birds and bats like nuts.
It’s on purpose. To waste our money on stuff that costs a ton of money that we’ll not get any use out of. So we’ll be even more dependent on foreign sources. And also to burn the money away so it’s not spent on real energy solutions that do work, like better coal and nuclear plants.
Totally deliberate. Totally.
Big swords to slice the heads off of swaths of people who won’t convert to the false god allah.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.