One...giant...fail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-turbines.html

 

I dont like wind power as an alternative I much prefer hydro power!

 

Why you hate'n on the fish?

 

Goes to show ya just how stupid the folks are in Kalifornia. In Texas, we are the largest producer of wind energy in the world. We produce twice that of the entire USA. We also have these units in West Texas where there are several endangered birds like the Peregrine Falcon. Using typical country thinking, they have painted the poles to like large eyes. From a distance a pair of poles looks like a huge set of owl eyes. Works for the more intelligent species of birds....or maybe just Texas birds that are smart enough to stay away.

 

I love fish. I fish at Tippy dam, big fish! Doesn't seem like it hurts the fishes all too much. Now if you want to talk about dead sea animals talk about the BP Oil Spill!

 

Hydro is our main source of power here in the Northwest, not an alternative. Wind farms are still popping up all over the place and I think it's great. Birds flying into turbines is like a form of natural selection the way I see it. If I had to make the choice I would chose electricity over golden eagles and we need to start putting renewable energy sources in place now if we are going to be able to supply the power demands of the future

 

I think hydro power should be used more all around the US! No waste and its completely renewable as long as there is a lot of water!

 

Environmentalists are often opposed to new hydro power for several reasons.

1) Habitat destruction - lots of native birds and fishes found along rivers/streams will be replaced by other species.
2) Methane gas is produced from the millions of tons of rotting vegetation that will become submerged behind the dam
3) Other rotting algae and gunk in the lake continue to produce methane for the life of the dam, especially in warm climates.


Some enviros claim the overall increase in greenhouse gas produced by a dam is WORSE than a carbon burning powerplant.

FWIW, there are not going to be many new power producing dams, but there is a HUGE surge in windmill construction in California. This surge is not based on market forces, but is being fueled by government regulations and subsidies. The end result is expensive energy and unintended consequences.

 

Do wind turbines even produce a good ammount of Kw/h?

 

Natural selection... remember the dodo's...

 

There are tons of variables to consider, including size of the windmills, how many, how close together, weather, etc... Basically, the cost per Kw/h is going to vary by a very large amount depending on the variables.

Even in areas well suited for windfarms, it takes lots of land and lots of wind to make a significant amount of power. Proximity to transmission lines is also very important for economic feasibility.

Generally speaking, you see windfarms where land is cheap, populations of animals and people are low, and it is not too much trouble to hook into the grid. They don't make good neighbors (visually unappealing, potentially noisy, can throw parts and ice a long way when things go bad), so it's hard to put a new wind farm in a populated area.

Compared to say a modern solar facility, a wind farm is going to produce much less energy per acre, but cost much less per acre to build.

I'm sure a hydroelectric dam + lake is going to make way Way WAY more power per acre than a windfarm.

 

The article states that "the golden eagles, which weigh about 14 pounds and stand up to 409 inches tall." Geez, any wonder why they're hitting the windmills? One's got to wonder what kind of damage they're doing to the windmills?

 

The company I work for developed a radar system originally for airports that detect large migrations of birds and helps warn the airports of potential bird strikes. Its being converted to use for wind farms...to shut them down when potential for large migrations are in the area. Don't know a lot of info on the radar systems...another department from me but kinda cool..we also have put in bids to do construction management on a ton of solar farms in California..

 

At least alternative energy puts people to work