What do you think of - Wind Turbine Power Farms

[Marti Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Marti]

Wind Turbine Power Farms

Wind energy is ample, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and mitigates
the greenhouse effect if used to replace fossil-fuel-derived electricity.

Any suggestions on buying Wind Turbine Stocks

[Marti Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Marti]

Atlantic City New Jersey Wind Farm


AC Project Overview and Photos

After several years of collecting wind data, community education, avian impact studies
and permitting, development of the Atlantic City Wind Farm at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) Wastewater Treatment Plant in Atlantic City, N.J. will begin in 2005.

The first wind farm in New Jersey, it will be the most visible wind energy project in North America with Atlantic City's 34 million visitors driving past it as they enter the city. As an Eastern, Urban, Coastal, Industrial, Onshore, Multi-turbine wind farm, it will be unique in the world.

http://www.acua.com/alternative/a_pr...ply.cfm?id=214


We seen the Wind Turbines as we drove along New Jersey`s White Horse Pike Route 30

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

The way electricity costs are rising, I wouldn't mind one right in my back yard.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Basically they are responsible for bird genocide. So if you invest in green you have to think about the red. They are subsidized here in Cali. I have never really looked at them as an investment.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I think they are great. They should start by putting them up near Martha's Vineyard.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

I think they are great. They should start by putting them up near Martha's Vineyard.

I agree.

We have plenty of them on our way from Los Angeles to Palm Springs but you see them from the freeway and you don't see them once you are in Palm Springs or in the surrounding cities and desert area.


We were horrified when we saw this eyesore here on the top of this ridge.

They were hardly turning but we didn't have much wind this week in December 2006. Also, there was a big fire this year so that didn't help either and scarred this beautiful mountain range but that vegetation will grow back eventually but this eyesore will stay here forever. :-(

I have many pictures of this beautiful mountain range when it was green and lush without these horrible windmills. Even the locals are very unhappy about it. They have enough of more people coming to Maui as the roads can no longer handle the traffic either. There is too much construction on this island.

[somerville Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close somerville]

I think they are ugly. I don't know how many homes each turbine can provide electricity to, but if not many, then the ugly factor may not override the renewable factor. I have also read of the problems that birds have with the turbines.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

I'll take ugly oil independence any day of the week, just let me live long enough to see it....

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Does "Green Power" really exist

Let's consider "Green Power"; energy from renewable resources.

• Hydropower? Nope. Dams intefere with free running rivers and destroy fish runs.
• Wind farms? Unsightly. Kills large numbers of birds. Are not reliable.
• Ethanol. Nope. Requires large amounts of farmland. More energy actually required to produce the crops and convert to fuel than there is in the fuel itself. Converts farmland from food production to fuel production, increasing the price of food and decreasing the amount of food available to feed poeple in the worlk.
• Combustion of non-fossil fuels? Causes air pollution. Doing this on a significant scale would require converting large amounts of land produce carbon sources to combust. That would mean converting food land to fuel production (see ethanol discussion above) or putting forest lands on an aggressivle plant-and-harvest program for use as "energy" farms
• Tidal power? Involves constructing tide gates in tidal passages, restricting passage of marine organisms. Turbines will kill small fish and other creatures caught in the turbine intake. Disruption of tidal flow patterns will change ecosystems.
• Other options? Name anything you want; it has environmental problems.

So what is "green power"; power that doesn't create an environmental problem??

Well, let's consider energy in an ecosystem. A basic principle of ecology is that any capture and conversion of energy necessarily changes an ecosystem. All life is simply the capture and redirection of energy to create specific arrangments of physical matter that wouldn't otherwise be created. If you change how energy is captured and directed, you change the ecosystem. It's unavoidable.

So, the "problem", if you believe there is a problem at all, is us. As people, we are busily engaged in capturing and redirecting energy to benefit ourselves.

****

But if you are an earnest seeker of "green power" there is good news, because therein lies the real means to "green power". Since the problem is us, remove us from the picture and you now have green power.

Yep - "green power" is that boost you give to the grass and plants growing over your grave, recycling you into the stuff that plants need to capture energy and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. So if you're anxious to help the environment, just be patient a bit and wait till you die.

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

Many wind turbines are also far less efficient at producing power than early claims suggested. Recent reports in the UK suggest that they actually on produce about 1/4 of the estimated figures. At least one major windfarm project has either been scaled back dramatically or scrapped completely as the company involved doesn't see any likelihood of a return on it's outlay.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

I noticed now that my eyesore of a picture didn't show in my post so will try again. This beautiful mountain range was scarred by the fire and then by these ugly windmills too. It spoiled the landscape completely.

PS. How strange because now both pictures show. I get a window popping up asking me to allow a scripted something. Is this new? I gave it permission only for one time. Do you get that too? Did the picture show before or not? I am completely confused.

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

We need to do something besides just sit around and "knock" every new idea that comes along. Yes, they aren't beautiful but nobody ever wants anything in their backyard, so we need some compromises.
My feeling is we need to continue to develope these alternate energy sources so I will say go for it.

[camachinist Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close camachinist]

I'd invest in the company which successfully brings photovoltaic roofing materials and the attendant power transformers/switches to market. I'm surprised no one here mentioned that. Photovoltaics work even in areas with limited sunshine. I've been using one on our camper for nearly a decade now.

The off-the-grid home I'm designing will utilize such technology, along with advanced battery power and traditional fossil/biomass fuels. Hydrogen fuel cells are a little out of my price range

Pat

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

We need to do something besides just sit around and "knock" every new idea that comes along. Yes, they aren't beautiful but nobody ever wants anything in their backyard, so we need some compromises.
My feeling is we need to continue to develope these alternate energy sources so I will say go for it.

I agree that we shouldn't simply knock every new idea, but it would also be an equally good idea if some of the supporters of alternative energies didn't make inflated claims in order to support their cause.
Wind, wave and sun power all have a part to play in production of energy, but all also have a downside. Whether that be visual environmental impact of windfarms; affecting tidal flows for wave power; or the potential problems of eventual disposal of solar panels - they all need to be included in the mix.

[camachinist Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close camachinist]

Just for the record, humans have been making inflated claims to support their cause since we were living in caves. Killing each other too.

Timeshare sales should be enough evidence of that to render such a non-issue.

Look beyond the idiot human salespeople at the true minds here, the scientists and thinkers who couldn't give a whit about money and just seek to further knowledge and mankind's evolution. They're the real heros. I see such evolution over decades and centuries. Our lives are insignificant in that process, but with an open mind we can have an effect.

What were people thinking when they made the asbestos floor I recently had to dispose of as toxic waste? Just one example. Our faux paux define us. But, at least, someone said let's move forward and find something different and better. And they did. And so they will. Alternative energy hasn't even been born yet. You're just looking into the womb for a sneak peak.

Pat