Cuisinarts of the Air
Folks in Louisiana are all too well aware of how dear birds are to the environmental movement. Just look at the unprecedented efforts (not) being made to protect our coastal estuaries! The federal government did halt construction of the sand berms out of concern for an estuary they’d not shown an interest in for years. Granted, concerned citizens are working furiously to rescue and clean our wildlife, but the bigger picture is one of oil continuing to encroach in our marshes.
But what have you heard about the thousands of deaths to birds and bats being caused by wind farms?
The Wolfe Island EcoPower® Centre is Canada’s second largest wind farm. In its first eight months of operation, it reported 1,962 bird and bat deaths involving 33 different species of birds and five bat species. Reports released in February documented 45 bird and 45 bat fatalities in May and June of 2009, and a second report regarding July through December of that year denoted 602 bird fatalities and 1,270 bat deaths.
Deaths of birds and bats are not the only negative impact of wind farms. Commercial scale farms require about 2.5 acres per turbine and are thus very large. Their construction, along with the necessary infrastructure (roads, operation and maintenance buildings, and transmission facilities) results in the land becoming unsuitable for a variety of wildlife. Why aren’t environmental activists outraged?
And don’t you want one in your own back yard? We’ve heard for several years about the 80% income tax rebate available for the installation of solar panels on our homes – in other words, our fellow citizens will pay for 80% of our investment in “free” electricity – and those same incentives are available for the installation of personal wind generators. Imagine the thrill of being the first on your block to have a 60 foot tall wind turbine in your back yard (for that matter, imagine the thrill it will give your neighbors. Better check those deed restrictions).
Time Magazine is reporting this week that manufacturers of small wind turbines are appealing to the federal government for help in promoting their product, since despite high purchase prices to purchasers, they are losing money.
Some of these problems would go away, manufacturers say, if they could persuade Congress to pass a national renewable-electricity standard, forcing utilities to generate a portion of their electricity from renewable sources. The industry would also like to see expanded federal, state and local tax incentives.
There’s nothing like crying to the federal government when free market economics doesn’t allow a business to make a profit!
For what can we thank the environmental movement and its push for renewable energy in lieu of proven technologies? We can thank them for pushing drilling so far offshore that the technology doesn’t yet exist to mitigate a disaster. We can thank them for the destruction of our coastlines, about which they seem indifferent because that destruction supports their higher agenda. We can thank them for the massive dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers due to over-fertilization in the Midwest to grow more corn for ethanol. And now we learn that we can thank their “Cuisinarts of the air” for mutilating birds.
That’s quite a record of success in protecting and improving the environment.
Time to go solar. Besides, wind farms are useless when there's no wind.
Solar is no panacea either, as I'll discuss in a post tonight. Solar farms also require a great deal of land and are terribly inefficient. We need to continue to work on the technology at a pilot scale – it's not ready for prime time. The short term answers are natural gas and nuclear.
Yes, I know. Solar doesn't work at night either.
Except in Spain, where solar farm operators hid diesel generators within the farms to reap additional subsidies for the additional power they put on the grid. It took a while, but someone finally questioned how they were able to provide supplemental power at night and discoverred that they were running the diesels.
Ah, yes, I recall that story. Why they're being subsidised is another question.
The only way to make them remotely competitive is through government subsidies – but you know that, too.
Of course. Not enough economy of scale yet, I suppose.
Time to go solar. Besides, wind farms are useless when there's no wind.
Solar is no panacea either, as I'll discuss in a post tonight. Solar farms also require a great deal of land and are terribly inefficient. We need to continue to work on the technology at a pilot scale – it's not ready for prime time. The short term answers are natural gas and nuclear.
Yes, I know. Solar doesn't work at night either.
Except in Spain, where solar farm operators hid diesel generators within the farms to reap additional subsidies for the additional power they put on the grid. It took a while, but someone finally questioned how they were able to provide supplemental power at night and discoverred that they were running the diesels.
Ah, yes, I recall that story. Why they're being subsidised is another question.
The only way to make them remotely competitive is through government subsidies – but you know that, too.
Of course. Not enough economy of scale yet, I suppose.
I'm glad that Louisiana has some of the lowest wind levels in the country that make those killers impractical here. They are definitely ugly.
Your statement is incorrect. Our firm has three areas of interest, Offshore Louisiana. In addition, technological advances in blade design, and refinements to the method of generation and transfer of power continually lowers the amount of energy input, thereby lowering the meters/second wind speed required.
I'm glad that Louisiana has some of the lowest wind levels in the country that make those killers impractical here. They are definitely ugly.
Your statement is incorrect. Our firm has three areas of interest, Offshore Louisiana. In addition, technological advances in blade design, and refinements to the method of generation and transfer of power continually lowers the amount of energy input, thereby lowering the meters/second wind speed required.
Quote: “I kill more Birds in a week with the bumper of my Pick-Up than a Wind Generator does in a year.” – Jerry Patterson, Commissioner, Texas Land Office.
I’m an Industrialist. A Marine Engineer working in both the Offshore Oil industry(37 years) and the Offshore Wind industry(5 years). It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m working on the design and installation of a Protective Jacket for a Gas Well or a Support Platform for a Wind Generator. It all pays the same.
I’m certain that the EPA in their “infinite wisdom” will “assign” a number and price for each and every one of those “budgies” cuisinarted, as they already do to each and every Pelagic species that floats to the surface when you set off the charges to blow the pilings when you are removing an Oil Platform from the Gulf. When you make an omelet, you break eggs. It doesn’t matter the KIND of omelet.
One of these days the Eco-Weenies are going to realize what will happen to their “pristine environment” once industry is totally defeated and those hordes of now jobless, hungry people living in cities decend on their “preserves” and strip them of every vestige of fish, fowl, flora and fauna.
Quote: “I kill more Birds in a week with the bumper of my Pick-Up than a Wind Generator does in a year.” – Jerry Patterson, Commissioner, Texas Land Office.
I’m an Industrialist. A Marine Engineer working in both the Offshore Oil industry(37 years) and the Offshore Wind industry(5 years). It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m working on the design and installation of a Protective Jacket for a Gas Well or a Support Platform for a Wind Generator. It all pays the same.
I’m certain that the EPA in their “infinite wisdom” will “assign” a number and price for each and every one of those “budgies” cuisinarted, as they already do to each and every Pelagic species that floats to the surface when you set off the charges to blow the pilings when you are removing an Oil Platform from the Gulf. When you make an omelet, you break eggs. It doesn’t matter the KIND of omelet.
One of these days the Eco-Weenies are going to realize what will happen to their “pristine environment” once industry is totally defeated and those hordes of now jobless, hungry people living in cities decend on their “preserves” and strip them of every vestige of fish, fowl, flora and fauna.
TheOilDrum.com ain't gonna be too happy about you crappin' in their Peak Oil punch bowl…
TheOilDrum.com ain't gonna be too happy about you crappin' in their Peak Oil punch bowl…
“The only way to make them remotely competitive is through government subsidies”
Actually, …….no. I’m sure if a U.S. firm was ignorant enough to utilize the “European Model” they would never make a dime even with a subsidy, and it does appear that the Windfarms proposed offshore on the East Coast are headed in that very direction. The European countries are all Socialist in nature and their major subsidies go to their major industries which are controlled by their major Unions, which cast the votes to continue their self-defeating policies.
On the other hand, our firm, with 50 years in the Offshore Oil business and a firm knowledge of what will and won’t work Offshore, has proven its numbers, without subsidies to all the major banks and largest independent investors. Technologically, its a matter of scale. We will be going Offshore with Wind Generators twice the size of units previously built for land, utilizing installation systems geared to efficiency to reduce costs, rather than inefficiency to create numerous Union scale Socialist “Green Jobs”.
The problem for the investment community seems to be less to do with profitability than it does with greed. Being of the “greasy fingernail” set among management, my benefit was to watch from a distance as the auditors poked and proded. One thing noticable among all of them. If they could make $.02 more per kwh by lobbying Washington for a subsidy, no different than Big Oil or Big Coal or Big Nuclear, or Big Farm, its no skin off their butt.
Me? Mei Yeah, I just build the damn things.
The issue is not with US firms utilizing the "European Model," but rather that its the "European Model" that the radical left wants to emulate for our entire society, economy and form of government.
If your firm is advancing the technology, making the blades more effective, the gearboxes more efficient, etc, then good for you. Such technilogical advances are the only way these renewable energy generators will ever be cost effective.
Its my understanding that the wind turbines are designed to stop turning when the wind is too strong. Something to do with a potential damage to infrastructure issue. Which sort of defeats the purpose.
“The only way to make them remotely competitive is through government subsidies”
Actually, …….no. I’m sure if a U.S. firm was ignorant enough to utilize the “European Model” they would never make a dime even with a subsidy, and it does appear that the Windfarms proposed offshore on the East Coast are headed in that very direction. The European countries are all Socialist in nature and their major subsidies go to their major industries which are controlled by their major Unions, which cast the votes to continue their self-defeating policies.
On the other hand, our firm, with 50 years in the Offshore Oil business and a firm knowledge of what will and won’t work Offshore, has proven its numbers, without subsidies to all the major banks and largest independent investors. Technologically, its a matter of scale. We will be going Offshore with Wind Generators twice the size of units previously built for land, utilizing installation systems geared to efficiency to reduce costs, rather than inefficiency to create numerous Union scale Socialist “Green Jobs”.
The problem for the investment community seems to be less to do with profitability than it does with greed. Being of the “greasy fingernail” set among management, my benefit was to watch from a distance as the auditors poked and proded. One thing noticable among all of them. If they could make $.02 more per kwh by lobbying Washington for a subsidy, no different than Big Oil or Big Coal or Big Nuclear, or Big Farm, its no skin off their butt.
Me? Mei Yeah, I just build the damn things.
The issue is not with US firms utilizing the "European Model," but rather that its the "European Model" that the radical left wants to emulate for our entire society, economy and form of government.
If your firm is advancing the technology, making the blades more effective, the gearboxes more efficient, etc, then good for you. Such technilogical advances are the only way these renewable energy generators will ever be cost effective.
Its my understanding that the wind turbines are designed to stop turning when the wind is too strong. Something to do with a potential damage to infrastructure issue. Which sort of defeats the purpose.
“but rather that its the “European Model” that the radical left wants to emulate for our entire society, economy and form of government.”
Astute observation. The American Wind Energy Association, “Watermellons and Eco-Weenies” all, literally hate the thought of our success. After listening to their particular brand of lunacy, and pretty much running off the majority of their glad-handers, I have come to the conclusion that they are becoming incensed that “Oilfield Industrialists” rather than “Green Energy” Socialists are going to be the people that actually make Wind Generation function at a decent ROI.
“but rather that its the “European Model” that the radical left wants to emulate for our entire society, economy and form of government.”
Astute observation. The American Wind Energy Association, “Watermellons and Eco-Weenies” all, literally hate the thought of our success. After listening to their particular brand of lunacy, and pretty much running off the majority of their glad-handers, I have come to the conclusion that they are becoming incensed that “Oilfield Industrialists” rather than “Green Energy” Socialists are going to be the people that actually make Wind Generation function at a decent ROI.
[...] result in the release of mercury to waste water streams, ground water, and soil, how wind farms kill birds and bats by the thousands, and how solar energy farms threaten Arizona’s limited water supply. For [...]
[...] At the same time, a wildlife advocacy group, the American Bird Conservancy, is asking lawmakers to limit those grants to those who will take action to protect birds from these Cuisinarts of the Air. [...]