Wind Farms - the new breed of farming

[CADsortaGUY]

New Farm Seen As Model for Wind Energy

Every time I read one of these articles I get a big ol grin on my face. I am by no means a tree-hugging environmental wacko but when a logical clean solution is there hitting you in the face - one can't ignore the overall positives and near zilch negatives. The only "negatives" in this particular case is that the turbines don't appear to be produced/engineered here in the US.

<snip>
And unlike the wind farm in the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco, where smaller, low-power turbine blades have killed an estimated 22,000 birds, High Winds' turbines rotate more slowly, so few birds get caught.
</snip>

Woot - and now we can ignore the "it kills birds" chanting.

GO WIND!

CkG

 

[DealMonkey]

It probably kills squirrels who try to clamber up and onto the slower moving turbines. :Q You BASTARDS!!

 

[Crimson]

But Walmart is still ruining the country!

 

[LunarRay]

Gee CAD, You'd think we could design and make a wind mill here.. I like wind, hydro, solar and nuclear.. A really nice public works project there... maybe to power maglev trains cross country.. to get the worker to work....

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: LunarRay
Gee CAD, You'd think we could design and make a wind mill here.. I like wind, hydro, solar and nuclear.. A really nice public works project there... maybe to power maglev trains cross country.. to get the worker to work....

GE makes them here...Guess they went with another design.

 

[TheBDB]

I'm sorry but screw the birds.

 

[Bitdog]

This is the second time I've agreed with CADkindaGUY,
the wind power if possible is a great thing,
especially if the area was using non renewable resources such as oil,
or poluting with coal or nuke. (nuke waste has to go some where?)

I heard of a solor panel that was a multi layered sheet of something like visqueen
that one could roll out on a roof. I haven't heard much about it lately. (low output?)

I looked into buying a home hydro generator and a car alternator was $900 (rediculas)

How come our government doesn't motivate manufacturing of a good, cheep, small hydro
made available to the public, since there are thousands of potential sites & some
could produce lots of kilowatts ?
---------------------


Quote: DealMonkey:
It probably kills squirrels who try to clamber up and onto the slower moving turbines. You BASTARDS!!
---------------------
Yeah, but only the stupid squirrels.
---------------------

Quote: TheBDB:
I'm sorry but screw the birds.
---------------------
Yeah, but only the stupid birds.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
New Farm Seen As Model for Wind Energy

Every time I read one of these articles I get a big ol grin on my face. I am by no means a tree-hugging environmental wacko but when a logical clean solution is there hitting you in the face - one can't ignore the overall positives and near zilch negatives. The only "negatives" in this particular case is that the turbines don't appear to be produced/engineered here in the US.

<snip>
And unlike the wind farm in the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco, where smaller, low-power turbine blades have killed an estimated 22,000 birds, High Winds' turbines rotate more slowly, so few birds get caught.
</snip>

Woot - and now we can ignore the "it kills birds" chanting.

GO WIND!

CkG

Ah for crap sake, Caddy, all that's happened here is that you happened in one small area to see through the clouds of your usual density into the clear skys of progressive idiology.

We don't need wind, we got Iraqi oil. Shut this stuff down. It'sn not win win for the oil man.

 

[KenGr]

The Wind Farm article is interesting, but, as usual with the press, missing the important facts. These designs are quite efficient and only about twice as expensive as electricity from coal or nuclear plants. There is a continuing development program to get the cost down to the same as other sources, but this is only thought to be feasible at "excellent wind sites". These are places where the wind blows strongly and constantly. The challenge facing expansion of wind power is probably to make a significant number of these sites acceptable to local residents, given the huge size of these machines.

 

[Crimson]

Originally posted by: Bitdog
This is the second time I've agreed with CADkindaGUY,
the wind power if possible is a great thing,
especially if the area was using non renewable resources such as oil,
or poluting with coal or nuke. (nuke waste has to go some where?)

I heard of a solor panel that was a multi layered sheet of something like visqueen
that one could roll out on a roof. I haven't heard much about it lately. (low output?)

I looked into buying a home hydro generator and a car alternator was $900 (rediculas)

How come our government doesn't motivate manufacturing of a good, cheep, small hydro
made available to the public, since there are thousands of potential sites & some
could produce lots of kilowatts ?
---------------------


Quote: DealMonkey:
It probably kills squirrels who try to clamber up and onto the slower moving turbines. You BASTARDS!!
---------------------
Yeah, but only the stupid squirrels.
---------------------

Quote: TheBDB:
I'm sorry but screw the birds.
---------------------
Yeah, but only the stupid birds.

Because then the environmentalists would be going nuts over the rivers being ruined..

 

[heartsurgeon]

lookee hereee..

back in the 60's (for the mathematically challenged, that would be 40 years ago) the "earth movement" really got going...
solar power, windpower, hydroponics, earthmass shelters, heat pumps, all this great new technology was going to save the planet....
well none of that stuff has had any meaningful impact on anything.

the simplest way to cut energy costs is to personally reduce usage! duh!

now you "liberal" "concerned" "green" kids are some of the worst, high resource consuming, spoiled consumers i've ever seen! i know, because i have kids.

examples:
i turn the lights out when i leave a room (save electricity, even though the wife buys those energy saving bulbs) - my kids..never turn lights off
i turn my computer off when i'm not sitting in front of it...my kids leave there computers on ALL the time.
the wife turns the thermostat down to save on heating, we put on sweaters...the kids turn up the heat or put a space heater in their rooms!
not uncommmon to find the computer on, the television on, the lights on, and no kid in the room!

i tell my kids over and over to save energy, to be frugal with energy resources..they don't listen.
when i go to a store, i tell then frequently not to put the already shrinkwrapped item in another plastic bag at the checkout country..just more waste..

yet my children are all "green", they profess love of "mother earth", they hate "pollution" they want to "save the whales" yet they..and i suspect most of the liberal posters here on AT, take no personal responsibility for decreasing the amount of pollution they create, and the amount of energy they consume.
instead you all want to legislate/tax/dictate what people can and cannot do..well just start doing it yourself!!

come on you spoiled brats....tell me how wrong i am........

 

[crisscross]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
lookee hereee..

back in the 60's (for the mathematically challenged, that would be 40 years ago) the "earth movement" really got going...
solar power, windpower, hydroponics, earthmass shelters, heat pumps, all this great new technology was going to save the planet....
well none of that stuff has had any meaningful impact on anything.

the simplest way to cut energy costs is to personally reduce usage! duh!

now you "liberal" "concerned" "green" kids are some of the worst, high resource consuming, spoiled consumers i've ever seen! i know, because i have kids.

examples:
i turn the lights out when i leave a room (save electricity, even though the wife buys those energy saving bulbs) - my kids..never turn lights off
i turn my computer off when i'm not sitting in front of it...my kids leave there computers on ALL the time.
the wife turns the thermostat down to save on heating, we put on sweaters...the kids turn up the heat or put a space heater in their rooms!
not uncommmon to find the computer on, the television on, the lights on, and no kid in the room!

i tell my kids over and over to save energy, to be frugal with energy resources..they don't listen.
when i go to a store, i tell then frequently not to put the already shrinkwrapped item in another plastic bag at the checkout country..just more waste..

yet my children are all "green", they profess love of "mother earth", they hate "pollution" they want to "save the whales" yet they..and i suspect most of the liberal posters here on AT, take no personal responsibility for decreasing the amount of pollution they create, and the amount of energy they consume.
instead you all want to legislate/tax/dictate what people can and cannot do..well just start doing it yourself!!

come on you spoiled brats....tell me how wrong i am........

great post

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
lookee hereee..

back in the 60's (for the mathematically challenged, that would be 40 years ago) the "earth movement" really got going...
solar power, windpower, hydroponics, earthmass shelters, heat pumps, all this great new technology was going to save the planet....
well none of that stuff has had any meaningful impact on anything.

the simplest way to cut energy costs is to personally reduce usage! duh!

now you "liberal" "concerned" "green" kids are some of the worst, high resource consuming, spoiled consumers i've ever seen! i know, because i have kids.

examples:
i turn the lights out when i leave a room (save electricity, even though the wife buys those energy saving bulbs) - my kids..never turn lights off
i turn my computer off when i'm not sitting in front of it...my kids leave there computers on ALL the time.
the wife turns the thermostat down to save on heating, we put on sweaters...the kids turn up the heat or put a space heater in their rooms!
not uncommmon to find the computer on, the television on, the lights on, and no kid in the room!

i tell my kids over and over to save energy, to be frugal with energy resources..they don't listen.
when i go to a store, i tell then frequently not to put the already shrinkwrapped item in another plastic bag at the checkout country..just more waste..

yet my children are all "green", they profess love of "mother earth", they hate "pollution" they want to "save the whales" yet they..and i suspect most of the liberal posters here on AT, take no personal responsibility for decreasing the amount of pollution they create, and the amount of energy they consume.
instead you all want to legislate/tax/dictate what people can and cannot do..well just start doing it yourself!!

come on you spoiled brats....tell me how wrong i am........

LOL, I think it has more to do with paying the light bill than it does with political affilation. If yor kids had to pay it they'd be conserving too

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
lookee hereee..

back in the 60's (for the mathematically challenged, that would be 40 years ago) the "earth movement" really got going...
solar power, windpower, hydroponics, earthmass shelters, heat pumps, all this great new technology was going to save the planet....
well none of that stuff has had any meaningful impact on anything.

the simplest way to cut energy costs is to personally reduce usage! duh!

now you "liberal" "concerned" "green" kids are some of the worst, high resource consuming, spoiled consumers i've ever seen! i know, because i have kids.

examples:
i turn the lights out when i leave a room (save electricity, even though the wife buys those energy saving bulbs) - my kids..never turn lights off
i turn my computer off when i'm not sitting in front of it...my kids leave there computers on ALL the time.
the wife turns the thermostat down to save on heating, we put on sweaters...the kids turn up the heat or put a space heater in their rooms!
not uncommmon to find the computer on, the television on, the lights on, and no kid in the room!

i tell my kids over and over to save energy, to be frugal with energy resources..they don't listen.
when i go to a store, i tell then frequently not to put the already shrinkwrapped item in another plastic bag at the checkout country..just more waste..

yet my children are all "green", they profess love of "mother earth", they hate "pollution" they want to "save the whales" yet they..and i suspect most of the liberal posters here on AT, take no personal responsibility for decreasing the amount of pollution they create, and the amount of energy they consume.
instead you all want to legislate/tax/dictate what people can and cannot do..well just start doing it yourself!!

come on you spoiled brats....tell me how wrong i am........

LOL, I think it has more to do with paying the light bill than it does with political affilation. If yor kids had to pay it they'd be conserving too

Great Post

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
lookee hereee..

back in the 60's (for the mathematically challenged, that would be 40 years ago) the "earth movement" really got going...
solar power, windpower, hydroponics, earthmass shelters, heat pumps, all this great new technology was going to save the planet....
well none of that stuff has had any meaningful impact on anything.

the simplest way to cut energy costs is to personally reduce usage! duh!

now you "liberal" "concerned" "green" kids are some of the worst, high resource consuming, spoiled consumers i've ever seen! i know, because i have kids.

examples:
i turn the lights out when i leave a room (save electricity, even though the wife buys those energy saving bulbs) - my kids..never turn lights off
i turn my computer off when i'm not sitting in front of it...my kids leave there computers on ALL the time.
the wife turns the thermostat down to save on heating, we put on sweaters...the kids turn up the heat or put a space heater in their rooms!
not uncommmon to find the computer on, the television on, the lights on, and no kid in the room!

i tell my kids over and over to save energy, to be frugal with energy resources..they don't listen.
when i go to a store, i tell then frequently not to put the already shrinkwrapped item in another plastic bag at the checkout country..just more waste..

yet my children are all "green", they profess love of "mother earth", they hate "pollution" they want to "save the whales" yet they..and i suspect most of the liberal posters here on AT, take no personal responsibility for decreasing the amount of pollution they create, and the amount of energy they consume.
instead you all want to legislate/tax/dictate what people can and cannot do..well just start doing it yourself!!

come on you spoiled brats....tell me how wrong i am........

You're wrong. What a lame analogy too ...

 

[heartsurgeon]

how am i wrong?

do you think using wind farms instead of burning oil is going to reduce energy consumption?

their are two ways to reduce energy consumption - voluntarily ("costs" nothing), or involuntarily (tax energy use, or make it more expensive in order to coerce people to use less)

i don't hear my kids or their friends (who are the age of most of you out there) talking about car pooling, or composting, they're talking about
NOS and fast cars, and bling-bling, they all want cell phones, portable mp3 players,....you get the idea.

when i was in high school, the only kids that drove to school where the "work-study" crowd that went half time to high school, and had a job in the afternoon.
NOW, the parking lot at the high schools are huge, and they're PACKED with cars.

Car pooling? what's that? my "personal schedule" is to complex to share a ride with someone else.

let's get personal now....a big draw to anandtech originally was OVERCLOCKING! what's that...that's how to use more energy to run a videogame faster!

i am of course playing the devil's advocate, but on a real level, when i was growing up people had a much more hands on approach to conservation..you started by altering your personal habits to preserve resources. compost your organic kitchen waste, reuse paper bags, plastic bags, conserve electricity, simple stuff that adds up..
i don't see ANY of that in today's hyper-consumer oriented kids.

tell me how i'm wrong..

it's about personal responsibility, not more goverment regulations/taxes

i may be a conservative pr!ck, but i bet i'm "greener" than most liberals....

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
how am i wrong?

do you think using wind farms instead of burning oil is going to reduce energy consumption?

their are two ways to reduce energy consumption - voluntarily ("costs" nothing), or involuntarily (tax energy use, or make it more expensive in order to coerce people to use less)

i don't hear my kids or their friends (who are the age of most of you out there) talking about car pooling, or composting, they're talking about
NOS and fast cars, and bling-bling, they all want cell phones, portable mp3 players,....you get the idea.

when i was in high school, the only kids that drove to school where the "work-study" crowd that went half time to high school, and had a job in the afternoon.
NOW, the parking lot at the high schools are huge, and they're PACKED with cars.

Car pooling? what's that? my "personal schedule" is to complex to share a ride with someone else.

let's get personal now....a big draw to anandtech originally was OVERCLOCKING! what's that...that's how to use more energy to run a videogame faster!

i am of course playing the devil's advocate, but on a real level, when i was growing up people had a much more hands on approach to conservation..you started by altering your personal habits to preserve resources. compost your organic kitchen waste, reuse paper bags, plastic bags, conserve electricity, simple stuff that adds up..
i don't see ANY of that in today's hyper-consumer oriented kids.

tell me how i'm wrong..

it's about personal responsibility, not more goverment regulations/taxes

i may be a conservative pr!ck, but i bet i'm "greener" than most liberals....

You're wrong because you make idiotic comparisons between your kids and everyone (or frankly, anyone) else. You're wrong because (as usual) you're making sweeping generalizations about a whole segment of the population in a pathetic effort to demonize liberals. About the only thing you're right about is that conserving energy is a good idea. Oh, that and you being a conservative pr!ck. That you hit right on the head.

 

[heartsurgeon]

That you hit right on the head.

liberals are very easy to manipulate.

 

[zephyrprime]

... but this is only thought to be feasible at "excellent wind sites". These are places where the wind blows strongly and constantly. The challenge facing expansion of wind power is probably to make a significant number of these sites acceptable to local residents, given the huge size of these machines.

That's not really the primary problem. The primary problem is cost and the secondary problem is transport. There are many very large sites where wind power is available but these sites are often not where the big cities are.

 

[LunarRay]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: LunarRay
Gee CAD, You'd think we could design and make a wind mill here.. I like wind, hydro, solar and nuclear.. A really nice public works project there... maybe to power maglev trains cross country.. to get the worker to work....

GE makes them here...Guess they went with another design.

Well.. CAD said we imported them. Another design may be important but, I wish we'd buy these type items nationally.

 

[Moonbeam]

What we need is a war on energy dependence not a war to steal oil. We are surrounded by morons.

Whether you leave the light on or turn it off, if there was power available to turn it on you aren't saving the world a cent or being green by turning off that light. All you do is save on your own personal energy bill. We don't store electric energy and the energy used to create it is gone whether the power is used or not. Of course a massive natioonwide effort to reduce usage could lead to a slowing of productive capacity creation. But then conservatives get all pleased with themselves when they imagine they conserve. They are easy to manipulate that way.

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
What we need is a war on energy dependence not a war to steal oil. We are surrounded by morons.

Whether you leave the light on or turn it off, if there was power available to turn it on you aren't saving the world a cent or being green by turning off that light. All you do is save on your own personal energy bill. We don't store electric energy and the energy used to create it is gone whether the power is used or not. Of course a massive natioonwide effort to reduce usage could lead to a slowing of productive capacity creation. But then conservatives get all pleased with themselves when they imagine they conserve. They are easy to manipulate that way.

 

[LunarRay]

Originally posted by: TheBDB
I'm sorry but screw the birds.

We've enough bird brained creatures running the country as it is... let's not and say we did..

 

[heartsurgeon]

But then conservatives get all pleased with themselves when they imagine they conserve

that's why we're called conservatives, we conserve!

 

[LunarRay]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
What we need is a war on energy dependence not a war to steal oil. We are surrounded by morons.

Whether you leave the light on or turn it off, if there was power available to turn it on you aren't saving the world a cent or being green by turning off that light. All you do is save on your own personal energy bill. We don't store electric energy and the energy used to create it is gone whether the power is used or not. Of course a massive natioonwide effort to reduce usage could lead to a slowing of productive capacity creation. But then conservatives get all pleased with themselves when they imagine they conserve. They are easy to manipulate that way.

We delayed capacity creation in California and got stung by the fiasco and manipulation.
Some in this thread suggest that the source of wind is far from the cities.. I think one should look at the transmission lines from grid to grid..
Solar power on each house.. unused goes into the grid...
We will run out of fossil fuel some day.. If we make believe it is next year we can start to become less dependent on mid east oil and power our vehicles else ways.. Maybe even survive to use the technology before the air is too poisoned to breath.