Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Thanks Novo.
I have my place here in Creston up for sale as I've bought a lot in Kimberley where I will be building, probably for the last time (huh, said that a few times before), a house for me and my wife. Again, built very close to Passivhaus, net-zero etc. Bloody frustrating though as some of the key items I'd like will have to come from Europe, probably Germany, because they aren't available here yet. What a surprise :frown: Never mind, the 1990s beckon,eh:ohmy:

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Is 50 billion KWh trivial?. If a tiny fraction of the $$ already spent (and so far wasted) on fusion research were to be spent on practical renewables and conservation, there'd be no problem.

As a former physics teacher can you suggest a conceivable explanation for such an effect?

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Large moving metallic objects tend to show up on radar
I guess it's hard to tell the noise from the aircraft!
As I said I've no idea if it's actually a problem or not. I just hear it touted as a reason not to build them
I filed it away in my head along with the noise and aesthetic arguments,

Aesthetically I have no problem with them , but then again I have no problem living close to a nuclear ( fission) power station either

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

I like wind farms. For me, whatever faults they may have in terms of efficiency, noise or bird kills is more than out-weighed by the fact that they are clean and a source of renewable power. It's a new technology which means there are jobs created, and it seems right that we should harness wind energy. Imagine, HYPOTHETICALLY if these turbines could be tiny, say 1m high, would there be as many objections then? Doubtful.

Personally, I quite like the look of the turbines and farms. It depends on placement, obviously if the farm destroys a sublime view or disrupts a community, that's an issue. But placed in empty locations or out at sea they make a nice visual focal point. Not unlike the windmills that might appear in 18th century Dutch paintings.

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

chernobyl and the Japanese nuclear Crisis I think are enough to make my mind up that nuclear is not an option, if a wind turbine falls down or blows up the damage is contained within a small radius.

I'd have wind turbines anyday, nuclear is just to dangerous and it's not clean energy either as they have to bury the waste somewhere. Since the a bomb they have been researching nuclear fusion and all these years later its still no safer and there is still the waste issue. Spending money on researching it would be a waste. The real power is water or more specifically the sea, consider the water mass on this planet and money spent on wave, tidal technology etc would be money well spent. Just my 2 cents

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Large objects show up on radar whether or not they're metal or moving. Turbines aren't moving in any sense that could be detected by radar. They would be indistinguishable from any other ground clutter.

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

I'd agree on that, I lived in Denmark for a while and renewable energy is big over there and in Scandinavia as a whole. I think they are pleasant to look at and certainly while I lived out there I did not hear or come across any news or research that flagged wind turbines as being a radar issue or having a profound impact on wild life.

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Regarding noise, ontario has a maximum of 40bB 20m from a dwelling. This is about the same as conversation levels. Iwas shown data from Australia comparing the frequencies and volume, the windturbines came out as quieter than waves from the sea. No idea if these were crashing or gently lapping.

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Just to aid your further reading, it's dB (decibels) not bB. :)

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Good grief I know this, it was a typo ffs, a typo I tell you. Can't a person have a typo?

Damn touch keyboard.

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

ok ..i live near a large wind farm not as close as another poster on here ,but close enough for me ...and yes there is a whooshing noise all the time much more on quite days or at night .
A number of people who live on the verge of the farm suffer from extreme headaches (they never had them before).
They stick out like a sore thumb up here in a beautiful part of the country.
My biggest problem i see is that the power is all sent south and apart from the landowners getting a good bundle from the company the local community gets next tae nothing apart from a blight on the landscape and for some constant headaches.
Personally i would like an investigation into the headache syndrome.
i could say more but ya never know you reads this ! and i quite like my job.:sneaky:
jimmy

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Interesting but what woukld cause the headaches?

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

One typo a month is acceptable. ;)

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Look up paranoia on wikipedia.

BTW how do you see the power is all sent south? Is it the cables?

Re: wind farms, pros and cons, love or hate?
 

Have a look at the bbc programme about wind turbines, I think it was called windfarm wars if that is the one I was thinking about. Some interesting points of view. I personally wouldn't want to be anywhere near them from what I have read and watched.