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

Despite many reports of health issues, according to this pdf there is no basis to believe that windfarms cause any, something that others don't agree with.

Health Canada is doing a research study at the moment.

Bats - you should be very careful, according to this report 'bats lungs explode around wind turbines'!

"...a new study shows that the moving blades cause a drop in pressure that makes the delicate lungs of bats suddenly expand, bursting the tissue's blood vessels. This is known as a barotrauma, and is well-known to scuba divers...."

;)

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

I'm very pro wind farms but then I might be slightly biased given that they are my husband's livelihood. ;):lol:

I think they're a 'Marmite' thing but personally I think they're beautiful and I always have even before Mr Christmasoompa got in to the industry. I remember driving through California, seeing fields of them and being mesmerised.

I don't know much about them tbh, but I certainly don't think they ruin a landscape (if anything, for me they enhance it as they tend to be built on flat landscapes i.e. Norfolk or Manitoba). But I think anything we can do to produce clean energy is a good thing, and I'm glad my husband is involved with it and knows about it - not least because from a personal point if view, living in a draughty old Georgian farmhouse not on mains gas would have cost us £5k a year to heat in oil, rather than being pretty much free thanks to him knowing about renewable energy!

Bats, if you want any reports/stats then let me know - one part of MR C's job is compiling reports for the government and Ofgem, so he's got stats galore at his fingertips!

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

I simply can't understand why it is not compulsory for any developer of any new housing development, anywhere in the world, to ensure that the properties are all built with solar panels, geo thermal heating and wind power, etc. where appropriate.

Now we live outside of the City, we will be looking into converting our current energy sources to such sources as quickly as possible.

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

Probably because it significantly increases the developers costs. That said, as the cost of the energy producing equipment continues to fall, it will happen. A bit like insulation which in the UK was not compulsory until recently.

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

Paranoia nope i get headaches as well as others when working on the farm ,it feels like a pressure say .... someone squeezing your head. and low and behold it goes away when working away from farm..nb. headaches do not occur everytime but as someone that rarely gets headaches it catches your attention.
and the power all goes south .....US ran farm for sale to ND grid south of Winkler (same area as oil pipe from AB crosses)

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

+1 Don't know about them being a complete waste of time but hate the way they screw the landscape and views

'cus some areas don't lend themselves to enough sun and/or wind to make them worthwhile. Geothermal is a great idea but to recope the cost will take you awhile. A great use is when a whole development goes geothermal like the Westhills 5000 lot development in Langford, BC

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

Surely the developer will just pass it on to the purchaser. If people are serious about the environmental costs of not doing so, they will pay it.

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

I appreciate that some areas are easier to work with than others but, when I looked into doing this on a self build in the UK, I was amazed at how little sun was actually required.

Cost is another issue but, as production of the equipment increases, I would expect the cost to come down.

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

My ex installed a geothermal system, I believe it cost $35,000 which meant it could pay for itself in 400 years or so. That number was unlikely to be achieved in real life because it broke down so often, the only back up was electric space heaters. She emigrated and the buyer demolished the house to build an infill McMansion, making the actual life of the system about 18 months. At least, once it was built, it didn't offend the neighbours, unlike a wind farm.

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

The problem is that, in general, people aren't serious about the environmental costs. I work as a certified energy advisor here, and was previously a house builder in Ireland, and I come across this problem all the time. Costs are coming down, but it's not enough, or quick enough, for some folks. Contractors, in particular, won't go the extra because they are competing with the next guy, that's fair enough to a point, and they're not all like that. Self builders will always be the ones to try new things or pay the extra for better kit etc. There is definitely a different mindset here than back in Europe. Things have been price driven in Europe and energy costs here have been low. I get more in depth discussions on energy matters from Europeans building here than I do from the locals.
I think geothermal is way over rated in many respects, but it will do the job in certain circumstances. Germany has a huge solar industry, panels on many, many buildings, and there is a village in Germany that is a net exporter of electricity. Every city in Canada has as good, or better, solar energy than Germany. I think the problem here is that the government hasn't found a way of taxing the sun yet, and until they do I feel there will be little improvement. The only way way to 'push' renewable technologies is for governments, federal and local, to offer some form of incentives. Basically, if there's no grant then most folks aren't interested.
If you're building a new house then the best advice I can give is to insulate the f**k out of it, and take away the need for much heat in the first place.

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

Not really, because the developer is pricing the house against the local market (with a premium for being new) and unless the local market has expensive green energy systems in place, their house will seem over-priced.

There are of course small developments or individual houses where the higher value energy systems are installed, and the cost passed on.

Some legislation would sort this out, and it could be phased in over a number of years.

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

I agree with you, at least solar panels should be installed, say a minimum to run hot water systems or something, especially in places like sunny Alberta.

And surely the more systems installed will reduce manufacturing costs and then lowere the overall price of the panela?

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

Worrying, will try not to fly too close.:lol:

But seriously... this video shows how annoying the shadow flicker can be.
http://www.windaction.org/videos/37019

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

Be a bugger clearing the snow off them all the time

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

As someone who used to work with radar I offer the following. IMHO the quote above is partially true.

You can easily cancel the non-moving objects using MTI. However, the turbine blades move and there is a doppler effect masking things behind it. i.e. creating a radar shadow.

I know for example that the company building the ones in the Wash in UK paid the MoD more than 20 million for a new Radar which they placed seawards of the turbines and MoD then withdrew the objection to the windfarm as their radar coverage would no longer be affected.

ATC tend to rely on SSR more these days which is transponder based rather than primary radar returns so less of an issue for ATC methinks.