Wind Turbines

[TexasDave]

Rode home to Texas from California 1985 and again in 2013. The one major change in the landscape was the addition of many wind turbines. Now see these sprinkled about the countryside on all long trips. Thought this video of how they were erected was interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/84BeVq2Jm88?feature=player_detailpage

Dave

[Pat Conlon]

Locally, we have the San Gorgonio Wind Farm with 4,000 windmills. These are located in an area with very fragile top soil common to desert environments.
Development began on these windmills in the 1980's and a serious mistake was made. There was no restriction on vehicular traffic imposed on the developers.
The protective top crust on the arid soil was destroyed in this windy area. 100's of acres of soil damage. Irreparable damage as it turns out.
Sure, the developers said, "oops" and tried to stabilize the top soil, but with no success (or at best, very limited success)

We (the downwind residents) are now paying the price and will continue to do so for decades. PM10 (Particulate Matter 10 microns or less) is now a serious issue.

I'm all for alternative energy (done right) but in this case, our Riverside County Board of Supervisors sure fucked this one up....

[rlucas]

There's quite a few of these around here; my nephew works for one of the companies (Iberdrola). They advertise for help pretty regularly. There's apparently a fair amount of required maintenance on the stuff at the top.

You couldn't pay me enough to get my chicken-shit ass up on one of those things.

[Country Joe]

You couldn't pay me enough to get my chicken-shit ass up on one of those things.

That makes two of us, Rossi.

[PaulG]

Whatever you do, don't let them do what our government did with their Complete CLUSTERF!@K.

They sole sourced ALL windmill production to a consortium lead by Samsung on a 20 yr contract paying them 8-10 times the regular rate for electricity.  Most of this electricity is now exported at a loss costing us $200M/yr and rising.  Ten yrs ago we had the lowest electricity rate in N/A - now we have the highest.  There is a new term in our lexicon; Energy Poor.  Rates are so high for some people they have to juggle between paying their hydro bill or food.

This summer they raised the rates again because - get this:  People have cut back on usage like we were asked, to conserve energy - because of that they experienced a drop in revenue - so they upped the rates to meet revenue projections - because we were'nt using enough - like they asked!  Seiously we need an exploding head emoji!

It's enough to drive a man to drink a hefty glass of single malt.... mmmmmmmmmm   

[rlucas]

According to a news report last night, the state of Iowa gets 35% of its electric power from wind farms.

There was no mention whatsoever of reduced costs to consumers.