Wind Farms : A clean fuel or a health hazard.

a reply to: mikell

You mean you hope it's not an issue, it could be should the cooling ever fail that's a given, then there are potential radioactive leaks to consider which can arise from all manner of different situations.

What's the worst thing a wind turbine can do aside from possibly kill a few birds, catch fire and/or eventually keel over?

originally posted by: Arnie123
I don't know about all that, actually didn't even know.

Usually, anything health related and wind turbines, I look at birds, poor suckers 😞

That is what I was going to say. Definitely a hazard to birds..

originally posted by: paraphi
The problem with wind turbines is that they do have an impact on the natural world and on industrialisation of the countryside.

The best solution is to cluster them out at sea, and away from areas which support large sea bird colonies and bird migrations. In that way they will do good and not have a negative impact.

The issue with putting them out to see is the cost to run high power electric 12-20 miles. Additionally, metal erodes, concrete erodes, due to sea salt. It can work, but it’s cheaper to put it on land.

You should check out the new infrared and uv solar panels, that increase solar panel efficiency to 45-50%. That’s the next wave to hit. Regular solar are only 10-15% efficient.

Camain

originally posted by: BrianFlanders
Sounds dubious to me. I don't see how a wind turbine is going to cause a stroke. Maybe someone could explain exactly why they believe this and what it's supposed to be doing that causes "health problems"?

Check it out-

es-ireland.com...>oct-2015.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Asktheanimals

Put it this way i would rather live next to a wind farm than a nuclear reactor or coal/gas fired power plant any day of the week and twice on Tuesdays.

How do you know? Have you spent lengthy amounts of time in or next or near a wind farm?
I wouldn't want to live next to any of them.

a reply to: ALSTA

its clean energy. in germany we have many if this. have heard about some sleepproblems but a stroke...? sounds strange.

a reply to: LABTECH767

I live near several dozens of those. The heads turn, making the directional sound uni-directional over time. It´s a pain to the eyes and destroys not only the biosphere where they are built but also drives animals nuts.

To only get them where they are supposed to stand, everything is destroyed. The ground is dug up and replaced with gravel, they make it dense so that they can bring the hardware on site.

For that they destroy half of the forrest, dig unnatural drainage pipes and drive birds and animals nuts.

Before these things were built, on my morning drive to work I´d see at least 5-10 buzzards and or falcons on their hunt.
Now I´m exited if you see ONE.

We find killed birds or their remains all the time around these things in the woods when out hunting or making firewood. Many of them with broken necks or wings. Not only falcons, but other big birds like storks and herons too.

Let alone ice-throw...

a reply to: camain

Isn’t the oxygen level in sea water so low that corrosion / oxidisation isn’t a major problem?

a reply to: ALSTA

Camped about 100 meters away from some for about a fortnight with no perceivable adverse effects other than a hangover most mornings, but that was not the wind turbines fault.

Let's just say i will take them over the alternatives.

a reply to: and14263
No, saltwater is a electrolyte, it even speeds it up.

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: and14263
No, saltwater is a electrolyte, it even speeds it up.

Good information, thanks.

Leaves me wondering how long it will be until droves of underwater vehicles are contracted to deal with this corrosion. I'm sure the manufacturers (Seimens and Vestas etc) have considered this but it certainly does make me wonder.

In addition, turbine blades are also subject to a form of erosion themselves leading edge erosion.
Seems to me these things are going to become a bit of a maintenance nightmare within 50 years.

a reply to: ALSTA

something that I'm a bit more interested in (and have yet to find anything on the topic) is if these large wind farms are affecting the overall wind patterns of the local (and beyond) areas.

Yes, it's neat to harness wind to create useable energy, just like it is neat to harness the sun's light and do the same, but at what cost to the surrounding ecosystem?

Energy is energy, and whether it's damming up rivers to create hydroelectric energy, or putting an armada of wind turbines up to harness wind, or putting massive blankets of solar panels to harness light, at some point it is going to have an effect on things around these areas.

The negative aspects of damming up waterways is already well established, but we have yet to really research the negative aspects of "damming up" wind and solar rays (that I have seen). Unfortunately, I think that this may end up being a case of unintended consequences being discovered too late, possibly like what you've linked to in your OP.

a reply to: and14263

There are several methods to protect.
Coating is one. Using sacrifice anodes is another one.

Actually, if you own a boat with an integrated engine or a electrical water boiler for your shower, you own such a thing.

They corode away to protect other iron rich metals. You need to exchange those things, I think a member from ATS just found such a sacrificial anode years ago on a beach and did a thread about it.

It think it was a UK member.

originally posted by: and14263
a reply to: camain

Isn’t the oxygen level in sea water so low that corrosion / oxidisation isn’t a major problem?

Good point but that is mostly below the surface and these at sea would be more having to deal with salt corrosion from sea spray mixing with oxygen from the air on corrosion vulnerable material's.

So corrosion at sea will always be a problem but you offset that cost by coupling the wind turbines (on high towers which are also anchored to the sea bed or large floating platform's for stability with wave energy conversion based on the old Salters Duck idea, the tall column's OR platform's upon which the wind turbine's would be placed would serve as Anchor point's for the wave generator's and of course we have all the know how of the old dirty oil drilling platform technology to draw upon for anti corrosion technology's, we could even use some decommissioned rig's as areas to place these sea based wind and wave harnessing system's it's more than feasible and while it would require some maintenance not as much as a nuke plant and is both cleaner and also potentially far more profitable over time with no nuclear waste to store and only wear and tear to attend to.
The real stumbling block to get this past is the petroleum industry and it's political lobbyists whom I am sorry to say are extremely powerful and will happily continue destroying the world around them to fill there own pockets.

Here is a lesson from history.
www.greenleft.org.au...
www.theengineer.co.uk...



Now you know about this old (but very good renewable energy) technology you would expect to see these were ever there was offshore wind turbine's but NO for some reason despite the fact the duck is if anything far more efficient than the wind turbines themselves and would not interfere at all with the wind turbine's own energy production merely produce energy beside them we don't.
Here are some off shore wind turbine installation's, no duck or other wave generation systems in sight anywhere?, maybe because the company's that are installing them want to market there own technology even if it is inferior to the Duck?.



So you see it's is all about money, yet to add the duck wave generators to these offshore site's would likely increase there potential power generation three fold or even more.

The sea is the potential greatest source of easily available free energy generation on the planet, tidal energy is another, build a barrage - a wall like a dam or even a large boxed in area at sea with the wall a little higher than the highest tide mark, in this wall are special channel's and in these channels are turbine's, as the tide rises water rushes into the enclosure via these channel's driving the turbine's and as the tide drop's the water then rushes back out of these channel's once again driving the turbine's.

Now imagine a nation free'd from the chain's of the petroleum industry, electrified road transport and train network's all driven by renewable energy's such as wave power - supplemented by the far less reliable and lower efficiency wind energy and solar energy production.

Nonsense

There is no negative health impacts of a wonderful farm on humans.

It's just a giant pinwheel.

They are relatively silent, I already knew this before but that video showing decibel levels proves it. Your average main road is louder than a wind turbine.

They are built to be silent.. because noise is created by friction, and friction decreases efficiency.

Electromagnetic waves? Once again if you stand next to a main road... Would all the alternators on all the cars around you be causing disturbances?


This is some cuckoo stuff

a reply to: Lucidparadox
I´ll stay one night at your bed, making "twishh twishh twishh KLONK twish twish twish" sounds.

Let´s see how long it takes until you freak out and kick me out. Only that you can´t and I´ll do it night and day. At one time of the day I´ll use a flashlight to blind you every 0.5-1.5 seconds from your peripheral vision.

twish twish twish twish twish twish KLONK (head lock engaged)


Let´s see if your opinion changes then...

a reply to: verschickter

I wouldn't be able to hear it over the police sirens... Ambulances... Cars whizzing by... Dogs barking... Crickets chirping... Owls hooting... Wind blowing.. rain falling... Thunder rumbling... Homeless fighting... Etc..

Also... I lived next to a giant one in an urban area for 2 years... And I stayed a week next to a rural windfarm...

In neither of these cases did I ever hear a sound.. I'm sure they make some type of noise.. but it for sure hasn't been lounder than the ambient noise of the environment

a reply to: Lucidparadox
So consider, you live on the land because of all that... and then you get those things in your backyard because the city needs power.

You would be pissed, too. I generate my own power, I don´t need those turbines or a nuclear reactor. Don´t be so blind and just because you can sleep in such a hellhole, does not mean others have, too.

Especially when they live on the land to have their peace. Your comment is very ignorant of other lifestyles.

originally posted by: verschickter

I´ll stay one night at your bed, making "twishh twishh twishh KLONK twish twish twish" sounds.

Don't buy an apartment next to the Elevated in Brooklyn, this is small potatoes next to that.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus
That´s why I live on the land. Isn´t it understandable that I want to stay it that way?

Why not put those wind turbines in the city? I mean, directly on each rooftop. Since they are so silent, pretty to look at and there will be no ice smashing.

Just an idea!