Windmills as a Source For Electricity

Discussion in 'Energy & Fuel' started by Pat Baker, Jan 30, 2015.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Some formerly pretty mountainsides in Maine have been made ugly by wind turbines. From Wyoming News Now, we find the end result of wind power in Wyoming - old wind turbine blades are being buried in a landfill, at a profit to the waste management company of $675,485, which is probably more than the cost of the energy produced by them during the time they were in use. Wind power is a feel-good measure that people who like to be known as green put in place, facts be damned.
     
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  2. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Ken Anderson
    To me, wind simply is not predictable enough. Given the other unsubstantiated claims against it: alters weather patterns thus affecting farmers' income; makes unhealthy unearthly noise; kills birds in flight, it just don't hack it, IMO. I do believe substantial benefit may exist in the tides.
    Frank
     
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  3. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    The problem with wind turbines is that the liberal element of the government got involved. The only science they deal in is science fiction. It is like a disease....Thunderdome Syndrome. The environmental and financial impact of massive wind farms was glossed over with Utopian idealism and political gain. AC generating wind turbines fed into the grid is just insanity unless the wind blows constant with the same force. No place on earth offers this ideal. Solar power shows more promise, but only on an individual scale. Either is not environmentally friendly for having a source of AC 120/240 volt for 24/7. Massive batteries and inverters are required for constant power. Liberal political promoters fail to mention the massive mining required to get the elements necessary to make batteries and the pollution from their fossil fuel burning manufacture. They want to ban gas for personal household use, but use it to manufacture billions of miles of wire, requiring mining aluminum and copper. Every time I see the thousands of wind turbines and solar farms not maintained due to expense and inefficiency, it reminds me of the owl (revered as wise) that poops in its own nest and blames the stench and decay of its nesting area on other birds.
     
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  4. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I think the ones in Scotland are prettier. They also work better.

    images - 2019-09-22T193235.903.jpeg
     
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  5. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    Yes, they are. The Netherlands is great example of beautiful efficient windmills. Windmills once used to pump water or generate DC electricity for the American and Australian farm, is something being forgotten and a thing of beauty. Amazing how liberals took conservative ideas of old, went way too far and now our landscape is cluttered with a failed massive experiment costing taxpayers billions. I love windmills, but like most things, moderation is the key to success.
     
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  6. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Way back when my grandfather had a farm, he had outfitted the windmill to not only pump water but he also built an attachment which used a crosscut saw with a counterbalance to saw large logs into firewood. My dad said that grandpa was lazy but sometimes lazy people invent remarkable things.

    I have thought a lot about putting up a windmill atop my shop for heat generation for the nursery in back of the shop. It’s one of those, “it might happen and then again might not” things.

    I have to agree that the windmill farms I have seen are terrible looking and to me, a waste of good land.
    I think that in the long run and comparing windmills to @Frank Sanoica’s observations concerning using the tides, I believe the tides would win with overwhelming favor.
     
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  7. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    I agree! Tides show a lot of promise. My favorite is hydroelectric.
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Yet Maine is removing its hydroelectric dams, one by one, and adding wind turbines on the mountains.
     
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  9. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    WHY? That is just crazy. Wind is not a constant source of power like water. What is wrong with Maine? Are there no real educated enviromental scientist? Sounds like politicians playing scientist like BS or AOC. This kind of thing really upsets me. Fish can be routed around with a high rate of survival, whereas migratory birds don't have that human protection. It takes several hundred wind turbines to replace one small hydroelectric, even if the wind blows steady 24/7. Sure add some wind turbines in select areas even some solar, I love it, but removing a hydroelectric dam is just damn ignorance!
     
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  10. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I don't see the big deal about windmills; they've been around for centuries. If I had the choice of windmills or a nuclear power plant in my area, I'd definitely choose the windmills. I see all the experiments in producing clean energy as a good thing, but I don't believe our reliance on fossil fuels is going to change significantly for quite some time.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Democrats.
     
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  12. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    Well, we have mostly radical extreme liberal democrats as a majority in the Pacific Northwest and even a city controlled by Antifa and no one has the nerve to shut down any hydroelectric dam.
     
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  13. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    There might be another reason for not touching the hydroelectric and that would be the question of who it feeds.
    When I lived in Boulder, Nev., I went on a tour of Hoover Dam and they straight up told us that nearly 90% of the electricity produced went to Canada.
    Perhaps the other western dams feed another state a higher percentage than the one it’s built in?
     
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  14. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    View attachment 30579
    Yes, Bobby correct! Lots of power going to California, forcing Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to build massive wind farms to supplement hydro power and build more massive towers and multi wire very high voltage power lines destroying the once beautiful landscape and making it unsafe to live under or near such a high concentration of electrical magnetic energy. They once talked about shutting down dams because of fish management issues, but once it became clear that wind turbines were messing up migratory birds flight patterns and also the vibrations were driving rodents into organic vegetable food crop areas, they dropped that nonsense. .
     
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    Last edited: Sep 23, 2019
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  15. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    They aren't building many new wind farms (ran out of windy areas I think) and many have noticed less dam turbines left idle. Years before the California demand and WIND FARMS, usually 1/2 to 3/4 of these gates were wide open. Now most are shut down forcing turbines to produce more electricity. Photo a friend took recently. I couldn't believe how many were shut down with cool fall weather and less air conditioner use, plus shorter days. Then it occurred to me, they still need A/C in Calif. for their sprawling unnecessary energy wasting mansions and the increase in "environmentally friendly" electric vehicles requiring a high current draw to charge. I love electric cars, but let's be reasonable.If your state can't generate enough electricity, downsize your homes, and then get a pedal bike, or breathe the fumes of fossil fuel burning vehicles. Your environmental gain is another states environmental misfortune.
    McNary Dam & sunsets 2003 (3).jpg
     
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    Last edited: Sep 23, 2019

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