Wind News

[vfx]

You probably could, but at any rate you are of course entitled to your opinion.

It certainly depends on the particular turbine, but I think some of the concerns are legitimate. I would not be happy with noise at night and during the day, a strobing shadow and can make some feel ill.

Power lines aren't that bad. Probably the power can be generated more efficiently at wind farms with larger turbines a good distance from where I'm trying to sleep.

I would submit that we are just used to power lines but I would still relish a community that has underground utilities and wind/solar.

Noise is not much of a problem in newer blade design and the bigger the blades the slower they rotate which also cuts down on noise.


I've never heard the evil shadow argument. Seems silly since it would be of such short duration.

 

[doug]

San Francisco tilts toward wind power - SFGate.com

The two famous windmills in Golden Gate Park could soon have a lot of company as a broad array of city officials, business leaders and environmentalists push for streamlined, modern versions to spring up at famous spots all over the city.
...

 

[dpeilow]

BBC NEWS | Africa | Malawi windmill boy with big fans

I love the fact that he had to explain to his neighbours that he was creating something magic, but that they all have mobile phones...

 

[doug]

40,000 wind turbines to power up North America by 2015 | VentureBeat

 

[vfx]

I don't have a source but I read that this increase in wind is displacing coal on the national grid.

What I remember reading was 7 years ago the grid was 51 percent coal. Now it's 48 percent coal -knocked down by mostly wind with some solar as well.

In big-picture arguments the US is still "half" coal but at some point we can comfortably say "less than half".

 

[richkae]

coal decline

Actually the coal decline probably has more to do with the fact that residential use has grown faster than industrial.

I wrote up an analysis here:
electricity « High Speed Charging

The DOE site is a treasure trove:
Electric Power Monthly - Table 1.1. Net Generation by Energy Source

 

[vfx]

Actually the coal decline probably has more to do with the fact that residential use has grown faster than industrial.

I wrote up an analysis...

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing. Though I am not thrilled by your conclusion, I concede to your facts and have bookmarked your page.

 

[dpeilow]

Nexans wins a 39 million Euros power cable contract for an offshore windfarm project in Belgium - Voltimum UK - Electrical Installation Products and Contracting

 

[dpeilow]

Bad news: BBC NEWS | Programmes | Politics Show | Regions | West Midlands | Wind farm buffer zones proposed

Good news: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | 'Stealth' wind turbine deployed

 

[vfx]

Wind Turbine design from bees:

Products « green wavelength

[youtube]kWMuFnxk1o8[/youtube]

 

[malcolm]

Article from October: Mechanical glitch for Quiet Revolution.

Wind turbines suspended after flaw discovered - ZDNet.co.uk

 

[dpeilow]

That explains why all 4 by the M25 near Woking were off on a windy day when I drove past recently.

Also, this is not good:

A report for Southwark Council, which is considering installing Quiet Revolution's urban turbines as part of its Elephant and Castle regeneration project, found the QR5s could consume more energy than they generated. The report, which was undertaken by the Gas Dynamics consultancy and released on Friday, also said the control system often cut out when large gusts of wind triggered its vibration sensor.

A bit unfair that the article then tars the whole industry with the same brush.

 

[doug]

Wind Turbines to Power Cell Phone Towers - ecogeek.com

 

[vfx]

New AES WindJet 5 Small Wind Turbine Installed in Kansas City

New AES WindJet 5 Small Wind Turbine Installed in Kansas City [Video]

The twin-rotor turbine is rated at 5 kW and was designed to increase efficiency by up to 54% over existing designs. With a slow rotor speed, the turbine is quieter, more durable, and less likely to create problems with birds.

 

[dpeilow]

So my local news just came on and the lead story was that a wind farm of 3 turbines on the Isle of Wight was rejected by the council.

BBC News - Island's wind farm plan rejected

Some stereotypical hippy woman was interviewed on TV and said, "our Island landscape won't now be damaged irrevocably for our children". Eh? They are windmills. They can be taken down again just as easily as they were put up if and when we have something better...


But here's the real irony (and not picked up by the media). The very same transmitter that was sending me the news is under a mile away:

And an even taller one - one of the highest in the UK and twice as high as the proposed turbines - is just up the road:

This picture shows the view from the second to the first, about 3 miles away - the turbines would be to the left of this shot between the two:

NIMBIES...

 

[dpeilow]

"Scarecrow" wind farms put rare birds to flight - Times Online

The RSPB does not oppose wind farms but wants them sited away from areas where birds feed or breed and from migration routes. Pearce- Higgins said: “This work lets us assess prospective sites more accurately.”

It follows planning failures in America, Spain and Germany where the wind-farm boom has seen them built in prime bird areas. The danger is that the birds will be caught in the blades of a turbine: one wind farm in Altamont, northern California, has been blamed for killing 1,300 migratory birds of prey a year.

Gordon Brown unveils £100bn wind farm gamble - Times Online

 

[dpeilow]

BBC News - New wind farm zones are announced

More than 30GW.

 

[malcolm]

quietrevolution - usa

quietrevolution will be exporting turbines to a few areas in the US from late 2010. We are particularly interested in the following States:
New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Texas and California.

 

[vfx]

This is cool. LIDAR systems can make existing Wind turbines 10% more efficient.
Laser Guidance Adds Power to Wind Turbines | Wired Science | Wired.com

The startup company that developed the Vindicator system, Catch the Wind, recently deployed a wind unit on a Nebraska Public Power District turbine. It increased the production of the unit (.pdf) by more than 10 percent, according to the company’s white paper. If those numbers held across the nations’ 35 gigawatts of installed wind capacity, the LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors could add more than 3.5 gigawatts of wind capacity without adding a single additional turbine.

“This is what they call disruptive technology,” said William Fetzer, vice president of business development for Catch the Wind. “There are roughly 80,000 to 90,000 wind turbines out in the world, and they don’t have this technology.”

 

[dpeilow]

BBC News - Hundreds of jobs to be created in UK wind turbine plan