Ground broken on huge wind farm ( Silence from Kennedy and Kerry )

Denver Post ^ | 05/17/2007 | Steve Raabe

[thackney]

I was talking with a company who manufactures electrical switchgear yesterday. They said the wind farms are giving them a lot of business the last couple years.

[lepton]

And how much will they contribute to global warning?

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Far better than breaking wind on a ground farm.

[george76]

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

These wind farms are becoming such a huge source of energy that some juco’s are offering courses in windmill maintenance.

[captain_dave]

Just think about it....Energy from Passing Wind.

[P-40]

Of course Kennedy and Kerry won’t say anything.

Nope. Those low-life scum won't have a thing to say about it since it is not visible from their compounds. Funny thing is, I just watched a hearing where Kerry himself criticizes the President for his lack of commitment to renewable fuels. Is Kerry really that clueless? I know Kennedy is but at least he is a drunk.

[NRA2BFree]

Nope. Those low-life scum won't have a thing to say about it since it is not visible from their compounds. Funny thing is, I just watched a hearing where Kerry himself criticizes the President for his lack of commitment to renewable fuels. Is Kerry really that clueless? I know Kennedy is but at least he is a drunk.

Well, Kerry is pretty much of an airhead, and you have correctly described Kennedy.... ;o)

[P-40]

And how much will they contribute to global warning?

Less than Kennedy's sailboat, I'd imagine.

[DTogo]

Probably using GE 1.5MW machines, Uncledave should know. More wind energy is good for America!

[Disturbin]

[Uncledave]

Renewable Energy Ping

Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off

[Uncledave]

Yes, that project is using GE machines.

[Calpernia]

Windmills should be set up on the outskirts of D.C. with all the hotair that comes out of that place.

[dayglored]

>> "The 120-foot long, 8.2-ton blade..."

> This could very well prove to be the most efficient bird killer ever devised.

Oh, geez.... Same old bird-shredder argument. No matter how many times the facts are presented (such as, the number of birds injured by large wind machines is miniscule compared to the population; it's a negligible cause-of-death among healthy birds), this still comes up.

It's just not a significant problem, because the prop rotates so slowly. Do the math, don't just parrot falsehoods.

The blade tips must stay well below Mach 1 (the speed of sound), which is a little over 1000 feet/sec. A 120-foot radius means the circumference of the rotor is about (120 * PI * 2) or about 750 feet. This means that the prop won't be turning faster than about 1 rev per second tops.

Say a large bird (couple feet front to back) flies straight into the swept area of the rotor. Say it's going, 30 feet per second (slow-average speed of big birds in open windy areas). The chances that it'll encounter the blade are less than 1:10 -- that's flying directly into it. Smaller bird, even smaller chance. Faster bird, even smaller chance.

(And as a different matter, any bird that can't see (and get out of the way of) something turning that slowly probably isn't long for this world anyway.)

As for "efficient", you'd do better with a BB-gun, at much lower cost.

Or if you really want to kill birds with wind-machines, get a small one that turns really quickly, a backyard unit with 10-15-foot blades. Those turn fast enough that they might actually shred a couple of local avians.