Diced Birdies

By: Mr. Wilson on April 17, 2009
I feel sorry for the birds who wander too close, but it sure would be nifty to see a few hundred wind turbines pop up out west. Unfortunately, the developer says it could take a decade to complete. That means 15 to 20 years. Shoot, we could have my favorite source of power up and running by then. I realize wind power still makes up a pretty small proportion of overall power generation in the U.S. But I wonder at what point, if ever, all these wind power projects that keep being announced will start to have a depressive effect on coal power costs. Not that coal power is going to disappear any time soon. Wind power has that nasty habit of going out when the wind stops blowing.

Comments

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beerorkid
April 17, 2009 at 5:14PM

The tech has improved on the turbines that they spin much slower and the gearing creates more power.  Glass on buildings a much bigger threat to birds.

I wish more of the stimulus money was going toward upgrading our power grid :(

Diane Kaye
April 17, 2009 at 8:47PM

Iowa now gets 7% of its power from wind. I drove through there a couple of weeks ago - herds of wind turbines! I can’t decide how I feel about what they do to the view of the horizon.

Mr. T
April 17, 2009 at 9:58PM

This is one of the things that irk me about state policy. It is indeed true that building new transmission lines is VERY expensive, and being a public power state, we are used to low costs of energy. But because there is great potential for wind energy in Nebraska (the plains area, dakotas, are excellent for wind), I feel that it is something we should be pursuing RUTHLESSLY, and we are not. Iowa has done a great job in pushing both biofuels (of course, whether or not biofuels and particularly ethanol are good or bad is debatable) and wind. We could learn a lot from them here in Nebraska.

CP
April 20, 2009 at 12:59PM

I find wind turbines (from a design standpoint) to be one of the most classically beautiful designs out there. As a huge fan of the open horizon, I must admit that I never cease to enjoy seeing them. Perhaps some of the enjoyment is psychological - they are generating energy without harming the earth.

Can anyone explain THIS to me: every time I ever drive past a wind farm, there are only about 1/3 of the turbines in movement. Why would you not have them all on line? There is probably a good reason, but I don’t know it.

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