Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper

Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by jxramos on Monday September 04, 2017 @01:54PM (#15169768)

There was an interesting City Journal article about fishermen getting in the mix that caught me by surprise in an interested party that never occurred to me before. City Journal has good historical background and context that they gather up on subjects too... "The mounting opposition to the development of offshore wind in Long Island’s waters is the latest example of the growing conflict between renewable-energy promoters and rural residents. Cuomo and climate-change activists love the idea of wind energy, but they’re not the ones having 500-, 600-, or even 700-foot-high wind turbines built in their neighborhoods or on top of their prime fishing spots. The backlash against Big Wind is evident in the numbers: since 2015, about 160 government entities, from Maine to California, have rejected or restricted wind projects. One recent example: on May 2, voters in three Michigan counties went to the polls to vote on wind-related ballot initiatives. Big Wind lost on every initiative." https://www.city-journal.org/html/bonackers-vs-big-wind-1533...

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by notatoad on Monday September 04, 2017 @04:31PM (#15170682)

"'Not even Superman standing on Montauk Point could see these wind farms,' he said. Maybe not; and maybe wealthy beachfront homeowners won’t be able to see the proposed turbines, but lots of fishermen will. And that has them spoiling for a fight."

seriously? Why on earth does it matter if fishermen see wind farms? when did we invent the rule that all energy generation needs to be invisible?

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by jxramos on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @01:50PM (#15177498)

I figured it was a simple matter of navigation and not crashing into these monstrous obstacles. I could even imagine it becoming a slalom sport of some kind if the danger was not too high risk. Something along those lines. Should be interesting to see the optimum grid layout for these things and how that scale of spacing compares relative to the average length of a fishing trawler.

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by yuliyp on Monday September 04, 2017 @06:28PM (#15171229)

The point is that they fear that fish will be scared away from the area by the presence of the turbines.

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by notatoad on Monday September 04, 2017 @06:50PM (#15171318)

Is there any evidence to suggest that's the case though? A quick google suggests the opposite to be true. [1]

This reminds me of the middle-america folks who were claiming the wind turbines near their houses caused all kinds of disease, including somebody who claimed the wind turbines were causing people to contract aids. Not sure if it's just an unfounded fear of new things, or if it's a concerted effort by the fossil fuel lobby, but people really like to hate wind power.

[1] http://www.aqua.dtu.dk/english/News/2012/04/120410_Fish-thri...

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by wbillingsley on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @03:51AM (#15173277)

If you're not keen on a big noisy ugly thing near your house, then the unspecified-risks-to-health card looks like handy one to play..

As I understand it, it's predominantly the noise that annoys people (At 110db up close, a turbine is equivalent to a propeller aircraft on taxi, and while most people hear the local town airport when the wind is in the right/wrong direction and/or there's a temperature inversion making the sound carry, those aircraft take off and are gone, while a turbine just keeps droning all day). ~60db has occasionally been measured near housing, and that's loud enough you'd have to raise your voice to talk -- not what people move to the countryside for, and as it's hard to get rid of a turbine after it's built they'll fight tooth and claw to stop it being built anywhere near them.

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by oblio on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @10:25AM (#15175472)

I think we're talking about offshore turbines. Who can hear 110 db from 30 km away? :)

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by dsfyu404ed on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @10:50AM (#15175745)

The Navy could take a census of whale populations by having sonar operators listen for whale farts. Sound travels really far over water but even farther in water. The ocean is obviously a very noisy place but the long term environmental affects of what's essentially a white noise machine are yet to be known.

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by jxramos on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @01:58PM (#15177572)

lol, that's quite the sampling technique. Whatever works right? Must be a pretty characteristic sound, but what a job right. "What do you do for work?" "I analyze waveforms for whale flatulence"

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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper by wbillingsley on Wednesday September 06, 2017 @01:13AM (#15181384)

The one I was replying to was talking about objectors in the mid-west. Not much ocean in Iowa :)

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