Whither Wind?

In response to Virginia's comments on wind turbines in the Dec
07/Jan 08 issue, page 13: 1. I would rather see non-polluting
windmills than traditional pollution belching generating plants. 2.
If built on farm land, all but a small area surrounding the tower
can still be farmed. This can provide additional income for the
farmer. 3. With the new larger wind turbines, they spin much slower
and birds can avoid the blades and are not "instantly butchered".
Also with the use of tubular towers shown vice the older lattice
towers, the birds are not attracted to rest on the towers.

Living in the metropolitan Twin Cities, I normally wouldn't see a
wind generator farm but a few years ago on a trip to Colorado, I
noticed one just west of 35W in Iowa. I was entranced by them.
Fortunately, I wasn't driving. Graceful and elegant with the slowly
turning blades, I watched them until we were out of sight of them.
Slighty awed also because of their size. I really was fascinated by
the sight of them. Obviously, I don't get out much. I do have
concerns about where a large commercial farm is. While simple and
elegant in design, they certainly don't lend much to a rural vista.
I also worry about the disruption of flight patterns and injury or
death to birds. That being said, at least wind power is clean so
poisons are not spewed into the air affecting both mammal(us) and
fowl. All in all, we need power. There are trade-offs, limitations,
unacceptable options and creative new ideas. Windpower is one
option. It may still be an option ten years from now generated in a
totally different way with new technology. We must just keep
working.

I would rather have wind generators in the scenery than the cooling
tower of an atomic power plant. or the smoke stacks of oil powered
generators. As for power lines how do you expect to get the end
product, electricity, to the consumer? If you think underground,
ever hear about earthquakes? We are currently in a transition from
dependence on one product for all our energy needs to a future
where we should not let any one or two resourses be the sourse of
all our energy needs.

I just finished a trip through the panhandle of Texas (Amarillo,
Lubbock) and there are many windmill farms out there. The farmers
pass under neith them. What is the problem? I think there should be
more and disconnect the coal fired plants.

Ugly? I would think that windmills looks a whole lot nicer than a
big black smokestack or dark skys. In fact, windmills will cut down
on polution thus saving the grand vistas and beautiful scenery

US Fish and Wildlife Service: Bird Mortality Fact Sheet. See link
http://www.fws.gov/birds/mortality-fact-sheet.pdf Cats kill and
est. 39 million birds each year. Building collisions 97 million to
976 million each year. Radio towers kill and est. 4 to 5 million
each year. Interestingly, during inclimit weather migratory bids
will circle the towers lighting colliding into the guywires. At the
time of the research, 2002, wind turbines killed and est 33,000
birds each year.

One huge 382 foot high wind mill nicked named 'the Zepher' was
recently installed at a ski resort with sight of my home. I find my
self looking daily to see if it is turning and it ususally is. I do
not see it as ungly at all. I want one in my own back yard! i am
tired of hight electric bills. I am weary of imported oil at $3.25
per gallon and rising. I find myself increasingly thinking green
and would actually like a 'energy free' home, meaning no energy
bills! And If I could find a reasonably energy alternative to
gasoline, I would invest it! And it IS possible! Many homes here
already are! And as oil keeps goping up, those who dare will coe up
with alternatives. Think positive! I wish to be one of these doers
and hate negative thinking except for the catalyst it is for
POSITIVE thinking. If we all do our part, maybe, just maybe, we can
make a difference. I like that idea! Let's go for it!

I don't like the looks of wind farms as much a the next person but
we the next generation(s) are going to need all the energy they can
get. Here's a video by Prof. Richard Smalley illistrating the HUGH
challenge facing the first half of the 21st century to meet its
energy needs:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4626573768558163231 Even
with conservation in fist world nations, as third world nations
develope their energy needs increase. Natural gas in North America
has peaked, world oil production may be peaking now:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20060710/default_full_mac.htm
But we have hundreds of years of coal to burn, right? No. 1991 we
had 500 years (with the caveat) at the then current rate of use.
The use of coal has been growing at an exponential rate of 2.86%
per year. At that annualized rate the US supply of coal could be
used up in 70 years such is the power of expnential growth. Will we
stay at 3% annualize growth rate in the use of coal? Not if plug-in
hybrids and electric cars go into the marketplace. That rate will
go much higher. See the next two links explaining exponential
growth: http://www.webpotential.com/ambiente/exponential_growth.htm
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5051121482067161853
Ethanol from corn? To replace 30% of the gasoline used in the US
with ethanol would take as much water as flows over Niagra Falls
each year, according to Toyota's advanced fuels manager:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPB6uHm2p_Q Will wind farms make up
the difference in the growing demand for energy, espically as
fossil fuels deplete? They won't even come close. If someone has a
better solution, I and the late Prof. Smalley would like to know
what that is. BTW I am an independent oil producer.

The warning cry regarding our environmental abuses and the over-use
of natural resources went out long ago. Theodore Roosevelt saw it
all coming. At the turn of the 20th century, the red flag was
already up! How is it possible that we can justify the long
commutes to work, the "weekending" at second homes, the glut of
merchandise purchased and thrown into landfills and still say with
conviction that wind turbines are an eye-sore! HELLLLOOOOOOO!! For
right now, it's a good solution to an accelerated problem. If the
nay sayers do not like this answer to our planetary problems, can
they please offer another viable solution?

It never ceases to amaze me how well people like the above critics
of wind turbines can convince themselves of ideas based in
falsehoods and bad attitudes about something as pure and
incontrovertible as the use of wind energy as a significant part of
a solution to our energy addiction. I have one suggestion for them:
Open your eyes, your mind, and get some therapy.

Ref: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly. This writer obviously likes
feeding the corporate pig (oil). I personally cannot see any reason
for not using the land under the mills and lastly I guess that
birds do not fly close to the house in Taylors, South Carolina. The
whole situation looks VERY GREEN to me. Mother Earth keep up the
good work. Robert P. McFarland Lincoln University, Pennsylvania

Just as stars are light in a dark place, so wind turbines are a
glimmer of hope on a fading horizon. That's my 2-cents' worth!

When I hear people decrying the ugliness and destruction of
wildlife and habitats that they claim will inevitably occur when
wind power is used, I wonder where these people were when wildlife
and habitats were destroyed building coal-burning plants, or
draining and filling in wetlands to build shopping malls or cheap
housing for as high a profit as possible for the developers. One of
our neighbors has been using wind power on his farm for many years.
He bought the windmill himself and assembled it and keeps it
running year after year. He took a big hit financially just to
install it and probably is much less "wealthy" as a result, but as
he will tell you, wealth is not necessarily measured in dollars and
cents: sometimes it is the peace of mind and satisfaction in
knowing you have done the right thing to keep from adding to the
destruction of environment using fossil fuels. Meanwhile, his
little wind turbine hums along, making hardly any background noise,
while his sheep graze around it and the birds and bats just avoid
it when it is running. When I see it, I smile, knowing his family
is sustained comfortably, but not extravagantly, by the power
generated, and have learned to adjust to the times when the wind is
calm. Two years ago my husband and I saw a wind turbine array in
Nova Scotia on a blustery day. Yes, the turbines made some noise,
but no greater than the wind itself buffeting the landscape, and
once again, the birds-from large seabirds to much smaller land and
shore bird- were navigating around the structure without any
difficulty, and there was no pile of animal carnage around the
turbines. Perhaps some people find the possibility of these large
structures aesthetically displeasing, but to me the image of a coal
or nuclear plant to generate electricity is deeply troubling on
many levels, and the likely inevitability of an environment that is
being heated to a temperature that is making most plant and animal
life as

I think that wind turbines are amoung Man's most beautiful
creations, even though I have never actually seen a wind farm.
Recently it was reported that one is being planned for the
shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean not that far north of Palm Beach
County, where I live. I was excited to hear the news, and look
forward to the opportunity to some day see it. I will be taking my
camera along with me to be sure. Yet asthetics aside I must admit
that I have reservations about wind farms. And I find the
comparison of wind turbines to power lines an interesting one,
because how do you get the power from the wind farm to the user
without power lines? In my own utopian vision of the perfect world,
we have all learned to live on far less power, and have found ways
to generate it on our own property. The ideal is to be disconnected
from the grid, not to be connected to a greener grid.

I find wind turbines visually pleasing. It calls too mind kintetic
art where movement is part of what you see. Yes I can appreciate
that wind turbines lower our carbon foot print but that is not my
deciding factor on the visiual impact. I also recoginize that we
continue to lose more of the natural landscape to urban sprawl than
will ever be effected by wind turbines.

Whether or not one agrees with the wind farms or not, I think most
of us would agree, that the American life style has to change. We
are the worlds' leading consumers. I think the debates are useful,
as they serve to highlight one of our most important freedoms. That
of speech and of course thought. Now, we also must add to this the
freedom to choose, and whether or not we're going to be
"responsible" consumers... or not. Instead of arguing with each
other, we should work together, to find the least harmful, most
beneficial solution to a world problem. Let us be the leaders of
tomorrow, and let us lead by example.

I live in northeastern pa where we have two wind farms located high
on the western edge of the pocono mountains. I find it ironic that
this area which was home to the anthrcite coal fields is now home
to wind farms. The coal was used to fuel the power plants in the
northeast and the wind farms are doing the same with no pollution.
At first there was opposition but after they were up and running no
one complained. It does matter where they are located. I believe
they should be part of a national plan to provide power for our
future. The best benefit of the windmills is that my children can
actually see what the future source of electricity will be.

Even though wind are not the only solution to the energy crisis,
the ones who dont want them either ar e too pig headed or have
screwed enough people out of their money that the coul care less
about anything but themselves and its time to take the money from
the crooked rich and re-distribute it

To Whom it may concern: During May of this year, my wife and I had
the honor and privilege to attend the wedding of a former exchange
student, in Hamburg, Germany. We saw many wind generators, both
operating and non-operating. Yes, it would have been nice too see
the landscape without them. However, it was much nicer to breath
the air, be able to see things clearer, and our cloths stayed much
cleaner, than mine did when I was there, in the U.S. Army during
1965-66. As for complaints about the noise of the generators. it is
certainly less offensive to me than traffic noise, even when I was
standing on the base of one near Herten. People must choose their
poison: either a little noise, a slight obstruction to their view,
or danger of radiation leaks, steam clouds being released, smoke
stacks (taller that any wind generator I have seen) belching
literally tons of black smoke, carbon-dioxide, sulfur-dioxide,and
mercury vapors, and I do not know what other toxins. As for me and
my wife, we will take the wind generators,if they are sufficiently
cost effective. At least we will until photo- vol tic equipment
becomes far more efficient.

I've been reading these comments and it is really interesting at
how short- sighted people are. First they are talking as if they
merely have a choice such as, should I wear the red hat or the
blue? Folks, think- no oil! Because we are running out! The prices
will climb until only the rich can afford it. Some folks think
energy production has to be ALL solar or ALL wind or ALL wave
action, and they badmouth any other system. How stupid can you get?
All this exclusivity is only succeeeding in slowing down any
movement in any direction as this dissention confuses the
marketplace. We need energy- producing systems that do not use
non-renewable resources and do not produce carbon dioxide as a
by-product. We should plan on utilizing all systems that do not
burn any fuel and cause CO2 production. We need to start getting
used to life being a little different. I have heard some people's
feeble excuse for not using the new fluorescent bulbs as they are
funny looking! Give me a break! They are a light producing device
that saves you 75% of the power you would spend on a regular bulb
and they save approximately $30. over their lifetime for God's
sake. Electric cars that are powered from wind-solar-wave
electricity generation, that are only allowed to be manufactured in
this country, will go a long way towards freeing us from foreign
oil, reducing the CO2 emissions and putting America back to work!
That's a win-win-win proposition! Stop the naysaying and let's get
to work!

I think that a working windmill is simply a thing of beauty.I live
in southern Alberta where there is quite a few wind farms including
the largest one in Canada.The land under the windmills is used as
it has been for several generations,cattle ranching.

I Live in TEXAS.Where we can sale a natural resource like WIND. Our
economy was hurt in the late 80's due to the oil! Ihave recentaily
just finished working on my company's 4th wind tourbine project.I
dont understand @ the uneducated people in this world, that has an
oppinion that dont know what there talking about! They need to
visit a windmill sight and then talk there trash.They create alot
of jobs,They are a natural resource,from there natural force, you
can take one 1.5 tourbine,that puts out 2500 mw hrs. per year.if
you have 27 of these tourbines it will save 160.000 barrels of oil
or 40.000 tons of coal per year we could keep underground. Spinning
at 15 revolutions every 4 seconds.And provide 24.000 Houses with
electricity per year.Not to mention how distructive fossil fuels
are to our enviroment.and what about our ozone layer? We come up
with better ways to live longer some people need to accept changes
because it changes around us every day.it's time to wake up for our
children of the future! Please study the good verses the bad before
you have an oppinion! From someone who has in Texas.Thank you for
reading my comment.

Thanks to Jarred for asking the question “What is the carbon
footprint of a wind turbine?” Talk about corporate “Greenwashing”
The wind industry is guilty of perpetrating a huge scam on the
public. The actual land usage footprint of each turbine or a wind
factory consisting of hundreds of turbines is HUGE for the small
amount of electricity it actually adds to, or should I say
displaces from, the grid. They waste too much precious space. We
need to conserve our open spaces. The wind industry is steam
rolling over communities before people even have time to evaluate
the full impact. I hope the public wakes up before we destroy the
beauty of this country. (Visual pollution is not regarded as an
important concern). Anti-wind proponents NEED to be hysterical.
They are fighting a well-funded industry and a rush to a feel-good
solution that will make very little impact on our energy problems
or on climate change. A TOTAL WASTE. A SCAM

I have been working in the wind industry for 4 years, and I found
it to be sad what some people were writing in and saying. If you
don't know what your talking about you should go to the different
Companies like Vestas, GE,or Siemans and on these companies web
site they will provide the narrow minded with GOOD information. In
my 4 years I've never saw a meltdown or a coal pile that burned out
of control or strychnine wash into the streams and cause massive
fish and wild life kills, But I have to admit that I have saw ONE
bat dead from chasing a bug into the path of a blade ; no other
fatalities. The gearboxes hold 95 gallons of oil and there is a
catch tray that will prevent a oil spill. The new turbine produce
1.5 to 2.5 megawatts which is 1500 watts to 2500 watts. The 1.5's
will produce enough power for about 350 to 400 homes depending on
the time of year. They need 15 mph winds to start making power and
after that the wind can die down to 6 mph and still put out full
power. They pitch there blades to kept the RPM's it needs to stay
at full power. The turbine turns into the wind when the wind
changes direction. These are not the old dumb wind mills of the
past. They have come along way. I say to those who don't want them
in their back yards, TURN OFF ALL YOUR ELECTRICITY and see how long
that lasts. We have to do something now!!! We can't wait another 30
years!!!!! By the way, which is how long some of the wind turbines
have been running in Palm Springs, Ca., and believe it or not they
produce power. Did you know that Denmark gets 85% of its power from
wind. I read that in Popular Science. You wouldn't want a Coal
plant or a Nuke plant right next to your house would you? So why be
a hater of the wind turbines.We should all support them!!!!

NIMBY's = Not in My Back Yard. Neighbors to windfarms scream and
yell because of jealouly, pure and simple. They usually are of the
poorer economic end of the spectrum, hence living in an area with
the resemblence of a wind tunnel. They see the farmers hosting the
sites making money, they see the developers risking millions to put
in a green renewable project to make money while protecting the
earth, and when they find out they can't Extort money out of what
they view as the "Big Corporations" wallah, jealously, annoyance
and the creation of NIMBY's. I am sure every NIMBY would love to
see the planet a green clean place, yet when it comes to a small
sacrifice to protect the environment, i.e. installing pollution
free windmills, poof their morals are gone. Instead, they delve
into a game of Fear Mongering, Lies, Slanted truths, statistics
taken out of context, and try their darndest to stop a project. Now
if they were to get a check, and I have seen this first had, best
supporters of the world, they want the project to go in so they can
get $$. Funny how that works. It is a pure and simple fact that
Wind Energy is supported at EVERY level of government, supported BY
THE PUBLIC at levels in excess of 80%, yet the silent majority of
SUPPORTERS are always drowned out by the very vocal MINORITY. To
the NIMBY's of the world, I say, sit down and be quiet. Just as you
exercise your right for free speech, exercise your right to move to
a NON-Windy area. In CA aswell as other states, something close to
98% of the state is not developable for wind, I am sure you can
find a home that won't have a view of what you consider an ugly
(what I consider a beautiful masterpiece of engineering, technology
and man-kinds quest to protect the earth) wind turbine. SUPPORT
WIND!

As someone who has a 'wind farm' in my area, not only is it an
eye-sore, but it has torn up the paved county road to my community.
I live just south of the wind farm at Beaumont, Ks. I would like to
know what the carbon footprint is of just one of those wind
turbines (there are a hundred of them)? I know it took 5 (five)
overweight/overlength tracker-trailers to bring in just ONE of the
wind turbines and that doesn't count: cement trucks, heavy earth
moving equipment, rebar by the semi-truck load, gravel trucks. Now
they want to haul in a hundred more! And to top everything off, the
power IS NOT for Kansas, it is for Springfield and Joplin,
Missouri.

Renewable wind energy is not only self sustaining but it is a
majestic site to see these windmills slowly turning on the
mountaintop. I have bee around them in california (altamont pass)
and the allegheny ridge in west central pennsylvania and I love
them . There has been opposition to these in pennsylvania by many
folks, including the Sierra Club which particularly bothers me. The
main opposition seems to be the damage to forest areas where these
are placed. I disagree heartedly because, at least here in the
pennsylvania area we have way more damage to forests and nature
lands by ATV riders than any other method. They not only destroy
nature land but also seem to have the opinion that they can ride on
and destroy private land also. They do so using the valuable oil
products that we are fighting for in the Middle East. We should be
working to rationing fuel for these ATV's to help reduce our oil
dependency along with expanding out renewable windmaill options.

I live in northwest Oklahoma where the wind industry is moving in
and amassing large blocks of pristine prairie for the wind farms. I
have researched the wind industry very thoughly. Here is the low
down. This industry is heavily subsidized by the tax payers and the
companies recieve huge tax breaks, so this is all about profit. We
are losing millions of acres of precious land in America to
mega-mulit national corporations. This industry is not federally
regulated and most states have no regulations. Here is Oklahoma
this unregluated industry is going to destroy precious wildlife
habitat. It is the death knell for the Lesser Prairie Chicken since
all planned farms are in their small but vitally important habitat.
The shame and the sham is there is pitifully small amounts of
energy supplied by these turbines and massive amounts of
distruction of our beautiful country. These corportation have done
an outstanding job of pulling the wool over our eyes. They have
paved the way with millions of dollars placed in the right places
to make them look environmentally friendly. They have spent
millions of dollars publicizeing themselves. We are looking a
wholesale distruction of millions of acres purely for the profit of
these mainly forieng corporatons Sue Selman

Don't do it! Go solar! I grew up with big powerlines in my back
yard, yes they are ugly. Wind turbine are only slightly better
looking. If we just put solar panels on our roofs we wouldn't need
either one of them. The new technology can now be built into the
building and roofing material making it almost invisible to the
eye. I'd much prefer to see rolling hills without either power
lines or wind turbines. Besides if you have a big wind farm how
does it get to the distribution grid??? through the power lines! So
how much sense does that make?

I live in Southern California. Believe me, I have thought long and
hard about alternative energy. Solar energy is OK, but in the
absence of putting panels on roofs, which isn't always possible or
feasable, then what? About seventy miles north of here is a
windmill farm. When it was put in, people were having fits over it.
They said it would kill birds, it would disturb wildlife, and it
would be an eyesore. Let me tell you something, for those of you
who have never seen a wind farm. Every time I have to go north, I
try to pass by that area, so I can see those rows and rows of
windmills, generating electricity without polluting anyting. I see
goats grazing underneath them sometimes, and once even a deer. I am
particularaly amused by the sight of BIRD NESTS on the tops of the
supports for the windmills. So, far from killing hundreds of birds,
there are now many more nesting sites for birds, and the local
fauna don't seem to be disturbed in the slightest. So that (snaps
fingers) for people who think they know what they're talking about.
Come out here to Los Angeles, and I'll show you a thing or three
you won't expect!

I live in Ohio, look at all the smoke stacks spitting out who knows
what into the air. Coal has got to go, I wonder if some of these
people that hate windmills have ever seen a strip mine or seen the
hiil top blown off to get at the coal. Wind and solar will save the
planet and if we're lucky us too, if it's not to late. When I can
afford it I will have my own wind turbine and if everybody could do
the same, we could get rid of the smoke stacks one at a time...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3893254167410595527 Here
is another alternative of solar and wind power that you don't hear
much of!! The ground under it is still usable just like the ground
under standard wind turbines contrary to what some believe

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3893254167410595527 Here
is another alternative of solar and wind power that you don't hear
much of!! The ground under it is still usable just like the ground
under standard wind turbines contrary to what some believe

I can equate watching a wind turbine on a hillside to watching a
sailboat on the lake off my back porch. Our property adjoins the
Maple Ridge Wind Project in upstate NY in the poorest county. I was
raised in New York City a few blocks from the elevated trains. So I
see the landscape with wind turbines as a thing of beauty and I can
compare the noise to wind blowing through the pine trees.I also see
the local farmers who were barely making ends meet pocketing $6000
per turbine situated on their property. The project has also
resulted in tax payments to the local town, county and school. I
have worked in a coal fired power plant and a Nuclear Power Plant.
Wind energy provides the best view. The bottom line is I do not
want to live with out electricity.

Thank you, thank you to all of the above writers who have pointed
out the hype, misinformation and negative aspects of wind
factories. The manic march to blanket the world with wind factories
is frightening. I am baffled by the stance of some of the best
known environmental groups when it comes to industrial wind
development. Does it have anything to do with where some of their
big donations are coming from?

Thank you, thank you to all of the above writers who have pointed
out the hype, misinformation and negative aspects of wind
factories. The manic march to blanket the world with wind factories
is frightening. I am baffled by the stance of some of the best
known environmental groups when it comes to industrial wind
development. Does it have anything to do with where some of their
big donations are coming from?

The bat mortality from industrial scale wind turbines located on
eastern ridges is an environmental crises occurring behind closed
doors. Once the industry recognized the severity of the bat kills,
it closed its facilities to further research, thus preventing the
discovery of possible solutions. At present no proven solutions
exist. Bats are the primary predators of night flying insects. By
keeping insect populations in control, they make it possible to
farm without pesticides, protect forests, and increase our
enjoyment nature. These small mammals produce only one to three
pups per year and so are especially vulnerable to the high
mortality. The continued existence of migrating bats is threatened
by the proliferation of wind turbines. Merlin Tuttle, the head of
Bat Conservation International, has said, "If the approximately 900
turbines currently proposed for wooded ridge tops within a 70-mile
radius of our study sites in Pennsylvania and West Virginia are
built, those turbines alone could kill more than 50,000 bats a
year, Given bats' low reproductive rates, kills of such magnitude
cold put entire species at risk." The life span of these turbines
is 20 years so the mortality in this relatively small area could be
a million bats. While descrecrating the beauty of our last large
stretches of wildlands is immeasurably sad, killing off entire
species goes to the very heart of why wind turbine development on
eastern ridges is immoral.

Poor Mr. Carnes. He thinks that industrial wind turbines are
beautiful and that, "no matter what we do there must be some
sacrifices." He is entitled to his opinion on beauty but if people
are going to make sacrifices in the name of cleaner energy, they
should make them in support of a technology that actually works.
Industrial wind turbines in the eastern US drain away our tax
dollars, increase utility rates and have significant negative
impacts on wildlife and the environment, all while producing
negligible amounts of low-quality electric power and having little
or no impact on climate change. Industrial wind is a sham and a
delusion. Perhaps its most dangerous feature is that it lulls a
gullible public into the false sense that, because we are erecting
wind turbines, something useful is being done to combat climate
change.

Reference: Virginia Robin of Taylors, South Carolina in her letter
in the Dec 2007 MEN disliked commercial wind plants. She talked
about butchering birdsDid she never have a pretty pin wheel as a
child and discover the beauty of wind? The US Air force and
commercial organizations have studied bird and how they move freely
through helicopter rotar blades in motion and wind turbine blades
with no damageor death. It is true that bats will go for a moving
object and can be killed. MEN readers should put up more bat homes.
No matter what we do there must be some sacrifices. To me the wind
plants are a thing of beauty. I use to live at Mojave, California
where the big wind plants cover the lanndscape. Cheers, Robert
Carnes, Asheboro, NC

I think windmills are wonderful! Especially here in the eastern
mountains of the U.S., where thousands are about to be built along
the ridgetops. Yes, they are going to be great! Well, except for
the fact that they will produce zero dispatchable capacity, will
require the construction and running of more fossil-fuel plants to
provide the necessary back-up when the winds blow either too slow
or too fast (and wouldn't you know it, the times when the wind
blows the least just happen to correspond to the times when we need
electricity the most - darn!), require huge amounts of concrete,
metals and composites (all manufactured through very
environmentally unfriendly processes), require hundreds of miles of
additional transmission lines and interconnects all over the
countryside, cause the clearcutting of thousands of acres of
ridgetop forests, building of roads, erosion and destruction of
habitat and streams, consume billions of taxpayer subsidies and pit
neighbor against neighbor in constant strife and lawsuits. Oh, and
let's not forget how our once-beautiful, wild and peaceful
mountains will soon be transformed into an industrial hell, with
thousands of huge, thrashing windmills visible as far as the eye
can see atop the highest ridges,stobe lights flashing, blade noise
echoing through the hills and valleys and the destruction of
millions of birds and bats, including many hawks, eagles and
migratory songbirds. Oh, and let's not forget that they will
provide great cover for big energy and its supporters to present a
greenwashed facade by investing in them and blanketing the media
with fraudulent ads. Yes, the perfect energy source! Thank you,
Sierra Club, National Audubon Society and your friends at the AWEA
and NREL. You have done a great service to the Country!

Go to any area where the developers reported the locals being in
favor of the industrial turbines. Go there three years after they
are installed and all of the people who have benefited are long
gone, along with any desire to maintain these huge industrial
machines. Listen to the noise the generators make above what used
to exist. Ask the local community again if they are in favor of the
industrial generators. Act surprised if they are not. By the way,
the supposed low level of noise at 45 dBA is UNFIT FOR HUMAN
HABITATION according to the world health organization. At 64, OSH
recommends hearing protection if constant occupation is required.
Does this sound noisy to you? I have not even mentioned the lack of
USABLE power since they generate just when the power is excess, the
200 mph tip speed that necessitates the developers in Searsburg
turning them OFF during PR tours. Or the fact that they would be
unfeasible if not for huge subsidies, or that the developers
inevitably sells after installation, or that there is no recourse
if they do not perform as advertised. Industrial turbine generators
are not the answer.

Of course what wind energy has behind it is well heeled
mega-corporations. These are the same corporations who argued for
years that global warming did not exist. Sounds familiar? Like the
tobacco companies running nicotine addiction programs? Big business
has not been slow to turn a profit on wind energy devices, with
$B's from Congress to support these otherwise uneconomic systems.
So what could those $B's have been spent on instead? Reducing
dependency on oil and coal? This is the huge tradegy that is
unfolding in our life times. The failure to fund real research into
sustainable alternative systems and then deployment of those said
systems. If I were the power company executives I'd want to ensure
that wind power was top funded alternative too - because its
completely non-threatening to the current status-quo. Congress
should immediately cancel all funding subsidy to wind projects and
power generation - and then we'd truly see the real value exposed
as corporations dump these assets enmass. New startups can then be
funded who truly offer real sustainable power generation.

The above weblink provided by Rosa Goldman accesses a beautifully
written and hard-hitting response to Komanoff's "spin" in support
of the ENRONesque wind industry. Kudos to its author. Komanoff
continues to ignore the evidence which refutes his repeated claim
that the Madison wind turbines operate with an annual capacity
factor of 28%. The Madison, NY wind energy facility is actually
operating at under 20% capacity factor (the combined average for
2005 and 2006, according to the US DOE's Energy Information
Administration 906/920 database - which posts on the web
spreadsheets containing the monthly generation reported by the
turbines' owner). Komanoff choses to ignore this fact - which
indicates the Madison wind turbines are poorly sited. The national
average capacity factor of recently installed wind plants is now
about 30%, and a few "wind farms" are achieving a capacity factor
of 40% or even higher (meaning they produce a lot more electricity
in a year per MW of installed capacity than Madison's turbines).
However, these facilities are located in the Mid-West - where the
wind resources are far superior to those found in New England or
elsewhere in the eastern US. None of the "wind farms" so far
installed in the eastern US have operated with an average annual
capacity factor of more than 32% - and nearly all are under 28%.
Komanoff's providing obviously false information about the
operational effectiveness of the wind turbines at the Madison "wind
farm" doesn't reflect well upon his work as an Energy Consultant.
It appears he doesn't let facts get in the way of a good argument.

I'm pretty sure we are going to have to make some inconceivably big
adjustments in the way we live if humanity, to say nothing of the
flora and fauna, are going to get through the constantly arriving
future without extremely onerous costs. It's impossible to think we
are going to find one solution to our need for energy. We will find
and try many methods, and that is exactly what we should do. Of
course, the fastest and least difficult way to have the energy we
think we need is to conserve, conserve, conserve. Use less of
everything. One of the things that makes it so obvious that we use
and waste so much is the growth of the storage rental industry! We
just have so much STUFF. Voluntary Simplicity is one system out
there. A simpler life is so much easier. We happen to be low
income--believe me, that makes it all so much easier! And for those
who think the windmills are ugly, have you seen the other style,
the spherical ones that I call dancers? They may be slightly less
efficient, but they are so pretty, and they may be easier on my
friends, the birds. We are happy to be part of the Mother Earth
community. Cordial best regards to everyone.

The writer is ridiculous when he states that wind turbines can keep
oil in the ground. or prevent emissions. Even more ludicrous is his
assertion that the blades on modern turbines turn slowly. The tips
reach speeds over 200 mph and are killing thousands of birds and
bats. Articles like this are wishful thinking, not researched
journalism. I won't be reading Mother Earth again.

Charles Komanoff is two with nature. See the response to the
original article in Orion at
http://kirbymtn.blogspot.com/2006/09/charles-komanoff-is-two-with-nature.html

After extensive evaluation of the various alternative energy
technologies, including those not yet available commercially, such
as wave (both electrical and hydroelectric) and geothermal "hot
rock" and heat pump, I have arrived at the conclusion that wind
power is far and away the worst method for producing electricity. I
laugh when this author remarks that wind turbines use large blades
because of these various wind force principles, when it should be
obvious to everyone that the reason one needs a gigantic blade is
bacause wind is such a meager source of energy and an enormous
amount of it needs be gathered to amount to anything. Those
amounts, interestingly enough, are totally misrepresented by the
exaggerated nameplate capacities stamped on the turbines. Wind is
simply too inefficient a method of making electricity, as compared
to all of the other technologies, thus is intrinsically expensive
by itself and because of its unreliability, which basically
requires that it be duplicated by a reliable source. Because wind
power cannot be counted in the portfolio required for peak demand,
additional demand will always require building more power plants.
During peak demand, wind is virtually nonexistent in most regions.
That has enormous implications that are ignored and avoided by wind
advocates, who persist in cranking out bogus cost estimates that
must have been calculated by a master of voodoo economics. Wind
advocates continuously lie about the technology, its capabilities
and its total unreliability. Just one sqaure mile of seapump wave
machines, for example, has the capability of producing as much
output as 3,020 wind turbines, and producing that power on demand,
which means a value for their output at least twice that of the
wind generated electricity, and is much cheaper, probably less than
half as expensive. Such wave machines are extremely simple,
reliable and cheap, with no internal electrical parts. Unlike the
60 ton