A Houston utility is planning to build 170 400-foot wind turbines, generating 500 megawatts. It would be the biggest US wind farm to date. The Sierra Club is concerned many birds will be killed by the turbines, while the utility thinks they can prevent most of it. CNN Story
There has been many studies done on this in US already by "CEC, include the US Department of Energy (DOE), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service" Most species of birds learned to avoid the areas near the wind mills. They seen the sound of the blades turning as a sign of danger to the learned stay low or just went around them. There was a write up in an issue of Home Power Magainze at one point on the results of a couple of the EPA/SPCA studies. Here is the artilce they wrote on it. Wind Generators and Birds: Power Politics? Here is the page for more on Wind Power
Nice wind farm outside Ft. Stockton. I don't know how many there are but you go for a mile or two it seems and off in the distance it's NOTHING but wind turbines. Yes thats it NOTHING...lol well rock. kevin
BIRDS LOL BIRDS LOL!!!!!!!!! OMG BIRDS!!!! So what part of the world would not be effected by BIRDS? It's called natural selection (bird watchers should know about that sort of stuff). Like squirles, the ones that run infront of the car don't grow up to have kids of their own... the same is true for the birds. Just another case of NIMBY. We have a few of them here on Long Island. Off Jones Beach they want to put up a wind farm in the ocean, but the few hundred people say it will effect their view of the ocean... No joke, that's the argument.
I do think we should pay some attention to developments (the Amazon forests, the Artic....). Having said that, if a few birds die that's one thing. If populations of birds are affected, then it needs addressing. The solution is probably as simple as making the blades noisy and more visible.
I think there are easy solutions. Playing the calls of predators etc. No doubt some birds will be killed, but oil spills kill lots of birds. I don't get the NIMBY groups. Heck, I would pay to see them.I was driving along I-40 in Okla-just short of the TX panhandle(Weatherford??) last summer in HUGE THUNDERSTORM! Suddenly, the whole countryside lit up like a strobe light, and HUGE windmills just APPEARED FROM NOWHERE (seemed that way).It was like a freaky SciFi movie;the windmills would strobe on and off!! Heck, I would pay to see that again. Perfect place for them-lotta middle of nowhere out there, and the wind blows like hell most of the time in the panhandle region. It was a heck of a show! Thanks,Charlie
I made a special trip from Norman just to see the mills at Weatherford. I'll take a windmill or a hydro lake in my backyard any day. Those mills are fantastic! Somebody else can volunteer for the nuke plant in their backyard. Weatherford is on 40 straight west of Oklahoma City by about 75 miles. Got pics somewhere.....
We saw the Weatherford windmills on our PHX trip. We just had to stop and enjoy the site of the gaint mills. Took some pics that can be seen in this thread. http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=535 Ive seen these mills on trucks in and around the Tulsa area. The blades and gen unassembled always impress's me when seen on the trucks. Seeing them along Inerstate 40 was a real thrill.
I-40 Weatherford-Okla windmill farm lakedude, psyshack- Those windmills on I-40 are a heck of a show. We doubled back and returned that way just to see them even though it is 100 miles farther. We normally goes from DFW to Amarillo via Hy287. It is a straight shot-about 360 miles- of a good non interstate HY. We decided to try DFW-OKC-Amarillo(450 miles) because it was all interstate(I-35-I-40). We ran into the windmills about 3 am in a blinding rain/thunder/lightening/wind storm. It was a SHOCK, the windmills just suddenly APPEARED all around us. Heck,I thought I was having a flashback to the 60's or something!! We had no idea that there was a windfarm there. They should really sell tickets-like Meteor Crater. Of course, they are so big you really don't have to be very close to get the show. Still, I would like to get close to one of those moving blades. I don't agree with T Kennedy and company saying the view off Cape Cod(or wherever) will be ruined by a floating windmill farm. Hey, it is just an ocean. If it slightly decreases the sailing pleasure (in $250,000 sailboats) of the local residents-then F them. Louisiana has been punched full of holes, and the wetlands have been riddled with canals to provide energy. They can give up a little viewing/sailing pleasure. Heck, they should sell tickets also. All those NE areas like Martha's Vinyard etc are strictly rich folks playgrounds now. I'm sure the folks who "support" them in the service industry would like some nice,cheap, clean energy to heat their homes. It is the working middle and lower middle class that is suffering because the costs-all the costs- of energy. Heck, they will look at their Nor 'Easterns in a different way now."Rare wind that blows all evil" will have real meaning now.! Oh well,Charlie
phoebeisis, I guess you are familiar with the "scenic Red River portion of US 287". It is a good trucker's route however.
T Kennedy's problem as well as the whole clan is that they are usualy too "wasted" on various "medications" that they can't navigate around the structures. Sorry. I couldn't resist. I realy hate that clan. More on topic. You would think that these guys would love the idea of clean power. As was stated above, Lots of people would go just to see them. They could make it part of a tourist attraction.
Re: I-40 Weatherford-Okla windmill farm Like this close? Whoooosh,,,,,,,,,,,Wooooooooosh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Wooooooooosh
Re: I-40 Weatherford-Okla windmill farm What if The Palace of Versailles had windmills sort of like this? Then the revolutionaries could have used it for a guillotine. Tom, maybe God was speaking to Sen Kennedy > Plane carrying Sen. Kennedy struck by lightning
tbaleno, I try not to hate the clan since I have Irish ancestry also, but it is tough when they display their Cadillac Liberalism so blatantly. One of them-the radio host with the funny voice-was defending his murderous cousin on the radio recently(the cousin who claimed he was jacking off in the tree).. Hard to like them since they have so much Joe Senior in them(he brought his girlfriend to the family Easter dinner, and made his wife serve her). Unfortunately, I find myself on that side against the current president and his "Eastern Elite" buddies(Rummy,Pearlman, Wolfowitz etc) that were so quick to send the "lower classes" to Iraq to remake the middle east. They are just so convinced they are sooo much smarter than everyone else-like Clinton but infinitely more malignant. In general Clinton actually was sooo much brighter, and he was infinitely more cautious with other folks lives(as the 1st GB was fairly cautious also).The current group is absolutely convinced that they can see the future.Watch, they will say we-the USA-failed- because we weren't "steadfast" enough!! Steadfast means not willing to bleed blood and money in Iraq for the next 20 years. Ut,Oh,I have run astray. Delta Flyer- HA,Ha, I love that "Scenic Red River" portion of 287!! Yeah, I could hardly make my way through all the tourist lining up along the banks!!! Talk about middle of nowhere!!On a good day I could urinate over that river!!We have drainage canals bigger than that(they are another story-New Orleans) . I have been that route maybe 30 times since 1971.It does rain like hell out there, and the wind will "stand you up" leaning into it at times!! 287 is a great road-4 lanes, lots of rest areas with clean restrooms-.We always hit it at night-leave NO in the morning hit DWF 10 hrs later, and spend 7 hours at night on 287 to Amarillo. Great for a non interstate. I really hate driving at night on unlimited access highways, but it is quicker and 100 miles shorter than the northern OKC route. LakeDude- yeah- WOOOOSH, WOOOSH- I would pay $10 to stand under that blade!!Thanks,sorry for the detour!!Charlie
The sound the blades make is a result of a weird combination of speed and distance. The towers and blades are tall enough that you don't really hear the blade at the top of the cycle. The blades turn are a low RPM but they are so long that the tip speed is really fast. Standing under a mill you hear the low blade go by whooooosh followed by quiet and then whoooooooosh again as the next blade becomes the low blade.
Sad thing about the Red River segment of US 287 is the little communities seem to illustrate what WalMart has done. There are other factors of course, but it seems to have accelerated the abandoned stores. I need to find a picture from ten years ago on I10 just east of LA. The movie Independance Day was out and the wind farm seemed straight out of the movie.
Delta Flyer, yeah, I have noticed that most of the towns-Childress for instance-are just what looks like one street thick. It is one of the towns that appears to be surviving by being one big gas station/motel. Other towns have lots of rundown buildings; they look a bit like ghost towns that haven't quite died yet. I mention Childress because I spent a night(1 am to 5:30 am) there-1999- with Isis(my dog-) in a crummy $21.95 motel. A horrible thunderstorm.rainstorm came up and I had been driving since 8am(780 miles)-I was beat, so I stopped for the night. I asked"is this area safe" as I passed the $23 through the plexiglass slide to the night manager. "Of course" says he.Yeah, right. The entire bathroom listed about 5 degrees. We drive to Flagstaff twice a year if we have the $$-spend 5 days at the LaQuinta. Nice change from summertime New Orleans-cool at night, no humidity.$3 gas isn't helping the cause! I guess the panhandle area isn't exactly a garden spot-hot as hell in the summer, and windy and cold in the winter. It is about at the end of tornado alley-not much of a recommendation.No mountains or hills to speak of, and mainly scrubby brush for miles and miles. Yeah, those towns look beat.All the motels are owned by Indians. I wonder how they ended up there? Luck,Charlie
