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| Other alternatives to energy sources than windmills |
| BY hardware-tools-china.com, Writer |
| Growing up on the Great Central Plains of this country, I thoughtthe ubiquitous windmill on old farms was quaint. Nevertheless, itdid pump the water from underground springs to the farmer and hisanimals. In public school, I learned of the windmills of Hollandthat drained areas of the Rhine River delta. Actually, windmillswere used as far back as the seventh century in Afghanistan forgrist milling. In fact, in the early 1980s great investment rush, I bought stockin a wind farm. Several years later, the stock market dropped and Iparted company with some kind of equity agreement. Sometime later, I saw those horrid monstrosities in Altamont Pass,called wind turbines. For real, this time. Not just investment"enticement" pictures. Actually, for years as we journeyed to our desert property inTwenty-nine Palms, I have seen the disfigurement of the hills eastof Tehachapi on Highway 58 with hundreds of wind turbines. But, themost egregious I have seen is the hundreds and hundreds of windturbines straddling U.S. 10 in the vicinity of North Palm Springs. I had hoped this harnessing of wind would pass. Pun intended. However, in June, my wife and I, daughter, son-in-law andgranddaughter journeyed to my home town in Oklahoma. And, for theenvironmentalist, the round trip was 3,400 miles and my big MercurySUV achieved 19.8 mpg. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful trip andfor two of us, it was the first time to see this great land ...from desert to forests to sparse vegetation mesas to mountains andvalleys and to the flat central plains. In Texas came a surprise. Big wind turbines. In Oklahoma more windturbines. From my home town of Enid, we traveled west out into the"panhandle" of Oklahoma. More wind turbines. From Boise City, lastcity in the Oklahoma "panhandle," we took the highway north toLamar, Colo. Surprise! We passed by a gigantic "wind farm" south of Lamar. So,we stopped at the Lamar Visitor Center because there was a giganticturbine blade featured in front of the center. In fact, my8-year-old granddaughter could stand inside. Here, we learned that wind turbines on the eastern Colorado plainswould bolster the economy of Lamar. With the help of energycompanies, one rancher with 30,000 acres some 24 miles south turnedit into the fifth largest wind farm in the U.S. That is what we hadbeen so startled to see, earlier. We returned home and found TV advertisements from T. Boone Pickenstouting his intention to build wind farms from Texas to NorthDakota. He says that "studies from around the world show that theGreat Plains States are home to the greatest wind energy potentialin the world." So what are these wind turbines? Encyclopedia says: "Turbines used in wind farms for commercial production of electricpower are usually three-bladed and pointed into the wind bycomputer-controlled motors. These have high tip speeds of up to sixtimes the wind speed, high efficiency, and low torque ripple whichcontributes to good reliability. The blades are usually coloredlight gray to blend in with the clouds and range in length from 65to 130 ft or more. The tubular steel towers range from about 200 to300 feet high. The blades rotate at 10-22 revolutions per minute. Agear box is commonly used to step up the speed of the generator,though there are also designs that use direct drive of an annulargenerator. Some models operate at constant speed, but more energycan be collected by variable-speed turbines which use a solid-statepower converter to interface to the transmission system. Allturbines are equipped with high wind shut down features to avoidover speed damage." Additionally, most turbines cost over $1million with a 20 year life expectancy. Income from the turbine isexpected to pay for itself in 10 years. T. Boone Pickens is an old time "oil man" and entrepreneur. Hebelieves that future energy will come from wind and natural gas. Perhaps natural gas. But, I don't agree with wind power. To mysense, it is an absolute atrocity to create forests of thesegigantic windmills all over our beautiful country. Just go check Altamont, Tehachapi or, the worst, North PalmSprings. You must agree that this landscape is ugly. Now, imagine from Texasto North Dakota covered with this ugly forest of windmills. There must be better alternatives. |