Okay, rant time:

- Wind power will never, EVER, be as clean, efficient and cost effective as nuclear, coal, etc. It is non-constant energy. It has to be regulated by constantly running gas generators, so the whole "green" benefit is right out the window.

- These thing are FUCKING LOUD AS HELL!!! Unfortunately for me, one of the world's largest 'wind farms' was built right next door (right across the property lines...oh sure they could have moved those four right by the house down a mile or two and not made a difference, but nooooooo.) They sound like jet engines flying overhead constantly, even louder at night. Anyone who touts them as wonderfully silent deserves a punch in the face. Seriously, when was the last time you heard a room-sized generator that was silent? Not even taking into account the low "whumph-whumph-whumph" of the blades cutting the air, or the high pitched squeals.

- They keep the blades spinning even when there is no wind. This is because the blades are so massive and heavy that it will bend/damage the turbine if left still. So everyone who lives 20 miles away thinking those tiny, silent turbines are producing constant energy can die in a fire.

- They are shoddily built, and rushed through production so they can get as many put up as possible before people realize this is just a massive scam; 21st century snake oil. The companies building all these damn things get tons of tax relief/cheats for pushing "green" energy. Thanks Bush...Oh, Florida Power & Light is getting lots of tax money to build this crap? The same company that you, your brother, the guys from Enron (and I'm sure Gore, Clinton, etc, etc) are big investors in? And you conveniently passed laws that say the only thing you can sue against is the sound they make, and not the decimation of property values, the fact that none of the neighbors want them, the effect on animal populations, etc?

- And in case you think that last point is all conspiracy, why then was the world's largest (it was called that, don't know if it still is) wind farm built in an area that FPL's own website listed as a 2 on the scale of wind power averages, when the website also lists level 3 as the MINIMUM required average for worthwhile power?

- Birds (and more importantly bats, they eat the most mosquitoes) are absolutely being slaughtered by these things. I went to school with a guy whose job was to go each morning and bag all the carcases. The flashing lights at the top of the turbines attract swarms of insects, that attract birds, and splat.

- I'm sick of writing...so: They don't achieve near what power ratings they are touted at, you have to reroute air traffic around them, they screw with TV signals, they ruin the power grid (power outages out here tripled when they were put in)anyone who thinks they are wonderful and will keep us from using oil is retarded. <sigh>

It has all been done in Europe and proven not worth the cost and effort, just like those damned compact fluorescent light bulbs...but they push it through anyway

</rant over>
The ONLY 'green' energies worth exploiting are solar and hydroelectric. And it is probably 50 years before solar is worth the cost involved

Douche McCallister wrote:

...these new farms would be created away from urban areas.

I don't live in an urban area, though. I live far away from the urban area, and I think the cities using the electricity should be the ones having to put up with the turbines.

...ruin my peace and quit....grumble...damn hippies...
(I live for the too few days when the damn things are turned all the way off and I don't need music playing in my ears while I'm outside)

And, frankly, I'd like to see an (honest) electricity-savings/cost-to-build-and-maintain comparison for the Penn farm

Quote:

they also work when the wind is going any direction.

So do the old ones. They make awful creaking/wire-twanging sounds as they turn. None of which changes the fact that there is never enough wind out here for it to do any good anyway. There was no energy-making reason to build them here, just a way for one land owner who lives hundreds of miles away in a mansion to make even more money at the expense of the people who already lived here, and a city to get green-energy credit while building out of sight of the city.


Finally, (a pet peeve) they aren't wind mills, because they aren't milling anything.