Windmills

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

Have you ever seen a wind turbine? They are still painted the same color as always, white, and the blades don't even turn that fast. Their are too many to count out here in west Texas, and I have yet to see a pile of dead birds behind any or any reports of an odd number of bird deaths. Below are statistics on the causes of bird deaths annually:

Man-made structure/technology

Associated bird deaths per year (U.S.)

Feral and domestic cats

Hundreds of millions [source: AWEA]

Power lines

130 million -- 174 million [source: AWEA]

Windows (residential and commercial)

100 million -- 1 billion [source: TreeHugger]

Pesticides

70 million [source: AWEA]

Automobiles

60 million -- 80 million [source: AWEA]

Lighted communication towers

40 million -- 50 million [source: AWEA]

Wind turbines

10,000 -- 40,000 [source: ABC]

I'm going home tonight and breaking out all my windows...poor birds.

[Censored by Laurie]

Have you ever seen a wind turbine? They are still painted the same color as always, white, and the blades don't even turn that fast. Their are too many to count out here in west Texas, and I have yet to see a pile of dead birds behind any or any reports of an odd number of bird deaths. Below are statistics on the causes of bird deaths annually:

Man-made structure/technology

Associated bird deaths per year (U.S.)

Feral and domestic cats

Hundreds of millions [source: AWEA]

Power lines

130 million -- 174 million [source: AWEA]

Windows (residential and commercial)

100 million -- 1 billion [source: TreeHugger]

Pesticides

70 million [source: AWEA]

Automobiles

60 million -- 80 million [source: AWEA]

Lighted communication towers

40 million -- 50 million [source: AWEA]

Wind turbines

10,000 -- 40,000 [source: ABC]

What just happened here? When did you turn into a tree-hugging liberal? Welcome to the song-circle, feather-child.

[GTWT]

Really? Windmills were used all over rural America to pump water, they just weren't as tall as the wind turbines of today. What about the windmills in the Netherlands?

1) The rustic windmills on your daddy's ranch are maybe 8 foot across, the modern wind turbine used for generation of electricity have blades that are up to 130 feet in length.

2) The small agricultural windmills we all remember fondly have only been in use for a short period of time - at least in an evolutionary sense.

God bless Texas!

[Green P1]

I'm going home tonight and breaking out all my windows...poor birds.

I'm going home and killing some stupid birds with my pellet gun before they fly into my car.

[Censored by Laurie]

I'm going home and killing some stupid birds with my pellet gun before they fly into my car.

I have 73,541 feral cats that I never let leave my room in the co-op. I'm doing my part.

[Green P1]

I have 73,541 feral cats that I never let leave my room in the co-op. I'm doing my part.

We really need to develop a renewable energy source that kills feral cats. That's a million dollar idea right there.

[PlummMeanGreen]

OK, lets go to a couple of sources on wind power problems for those who want to see the other side of all this. I'm sure wind power has its positives, but which outweighs the other is what our campus leaders really need to study.

http://www.wind-power-problems.org/

http://www.huffingto...s_n_826028.html

(The above article from the very liberal Huffington Post)

Wonder if our UNT BOR's would be interested in reading these 2 articles among many, many more such articles on this subject?

Addendum: Not sure how our Denia neighbors will enjoy a certain degree of

noise polution wind turbines also create.

Anyone know a UNT regent enough to share the ups and downs of all this before they strip mine our former golf course?

Edited September 28, 2011 by PlummMeanGreen

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

We really need to develop a renewable energy source that kills feral cats. That's a million dollar idea right there.

We could put it right next to the windmills at the stadium. Imagine the press we'd get:

Apogee Stadium: the first stadium in the country powered by wind and pussy.

[GTWT]

What just happened here? When did you turn into a tree-hugging liberal? Welcome to the song-circle, feather-child.

The statistics on bird deaths due to windmills depend on who you use as a source. Here are a few things to consider:

1) Your stats are for 'birds' - some species are heavily impacted by windmills, some less so, some not at all. California, for instance has about 2500 golden eagles and loses about 80 to windmill strikes per year. That may not sound like much but its mostly young-of-year birds and 80 is a large percentage of the year's production of young. Combine that with the projected tripling of wind-turbines in California and for eagles you have a major concern.

2) You have to combine the bird strikes with wind-turbines with the strikes with transmission lines needed to service those turbines. In Texas that means many hundreds of miles of new transmission line. Take a look at the data you present on transmission line/bird strike mortality.

3) Even if other things (e.g., buildings & cats) kill more birds, that's no reason not be be concerned with having a new source of mortality.

And it isn't just birds, bats are killed in large numbers of birds killed by transmission line strikes in your

datahttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39941-2004Dec31.html

It doesn't have to be this bad. We can have wind-generation of electricity and birds. We just have to be more careful with wind-turbine design and placement. AND, we have to care.

[UNTLifer]

I live in west Texas. There are thousands of these wind turbines out here and I have yet to see a pile of birds at the base of one. CBL, I'm not a tree hugging liberal, just tired of the statistics folks throw around when they don't agree with something. I think we should be drilling in the Gulf, in Alaska, off both coasts and in ANWAR. I also think we should be utilizing natural gas in more ways than cooking and heating. We have a huge surplus of natural gas and not one automaker is producing a vehicle that burns on natural gas. Instead, they produce electric vehicles at Obama's urging, yet our electrical grid system in the United States can't handle extreme weather temperatures and the load put on the system when we experience these weather issues. We had rolling blackouts out here when the weather was extremely cold this past winter, yet Obama wants everyone to drive an electric car.

[mgfan]

Have you ever seen a wind turbine? They are still painted the same color as always, white, and the blades don't even turn that fast. Their are too many to count out here in west Texas, and I have yet to see a pile of dead birds behind any or any reports of an odd number of bird deaths. Below are statistics on the causes of bird deaths annually:

Man-made structure/technology

Associated bird deaths per year (U.S.)

Feral and domestic cats

Hundreds of millions [source: AWEA]

Power lines

130 million -- 174 million [source: AWEA]

Windows (residential and commercial)

100 million -- 1 billion [source: TreeHugger]

Pesticides

70 million [source: AWEA]

Automobiles

60 million -- 80 million [source: AWEA]

Lighted communication towers

40 million -- 50 million [source: AWEA]

Wind turbines

10,000 -- 40,000 [source: ABC]

Not saying they are not white. I just knew that there has been talk about painting them. (Not sure I like purple though)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1320763/Why-painting-wind-turbines-purple-protect-birds-bats.htm

Edited September 28, 2011 by mgfan

[Eagle1855]

are birds not smart enough to not fly into them??? survival of the fittest, if they aren't...

I feel the same way about the polar bears that complain about global warming. Get over it. you're a bear, figure it out.

[UNTLifer]

Every energy source will disrupt something else when developing it. It doesn't matter if it is petroleum, wind based, solar, nuclear, etc... They all have benefits and drawbacks. I could deliver statistics that show problems with everyone and then turn around and show statistics that make each of them the best thing since sliced bread. The market has to support it before it can be properly utilized.

Birds fly into the back door of my house daily when flying away from the bird feeders. Should I remove my doors?

[greenminer]

Birds fly into the back door of my house daily when flying away from the bird feeders. Should I remove my doors?

Were they carrying coconuts?

[Army of Dad]

TTG was here.

[Stix]

Every energy source will disrupt something else when developing it. It doesn't matter if it is petroleum, wind based, solar, nuclear, etc... They all have benefits and drawbacks.

LIke this?

http://www.foxnews.c...esearchers-say/

New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomenon that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution.

Researchers used satellite data from 2003 to 2011 to examine surface temperatures across as wide swath of west Texas, which has built four of the world's largest wind farms. The data showed a direct correlation between night-time temperatures increases of 0.72 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) and the placement of the farms.

[NorthTexan95]

Bird and American eagle lovers have a case that the windmill like turbines kill thousands of birds of all species, especially eagles.

In my attic I have a fan that turns on to vent when the temperature gets too high. Yesterday I found that a bird had been impalled on one of the blades. I assume it kicked on when the bird was trying to get through. It was kinda cool considering the bird was a total pest.