Wind Turbines

[emmie]

do you think they are a good idea, clean energy or a folly?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/9837026/Wind-turbine-collapses-in-high-wind.html

[emmie]

I thought they were supposed to work when it is windy, this one obviously didn't care to.

[ludwig]

I don't know enough about the science to know whether they're good from an energy efficiency point of view, but I do think they blight the landscape.
I don't mind them when they're offshore though.

Also I must say it's pretty funny that one's blown over.

[RATTER15]

I quite like them, as long as they are as good as claimed, I think they are quite majestic in some ways.

[emmie]

i confess i hate them, a blot indeed, onshore, offshore, i also don't think this is the first one that has buckled, fallen over.

[emmie]

http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/accidents.pdf

[RATTER15]

I see this one that collapsed was at a town very close to me, we have lots of them around, I'm quite happy with them. I can't believe the winds we have had recently, we had quite a few trees blown over on our land as well.

[emmie]

Ratter, they are wind powered turbines, so the last thing you would think it would fall down, because of high winds. Seems most of the accidents that have happened are to the blades which can sheer off, not good if you are nearby. I also wonder what they are doing to our wildlife, on and offshore.

[anotheoldgit]

Apparently when the wind reaches a certain force they switch them off.

Being an island I would have thought it would have been more sensible to utilise the sea, ie wave power?

[Mick-Talbot]

I think pylons are a bigger blot on the landscape.
I agree with Ratter.

[jake-the-peg]

I'm cautious about that safety document Em

It contains no references and comes from a site directly opposing wind farms.

A number of those accidents for example are probably industrial accidents in places of the world where there is insufficient health and safety.

You'd need to look at how many happened whilst they were operational and how many occurred in countries with proper industrial safety standards.

You'd also want to compare with othe energy generation industrial accidents.

Having said that there are clearly a number of issues like blade damage and this in particular is very very scary!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16115139

[youngmafbog]

Don't like them. They are trying to put them off shore near us, not surprisingly the company wanting to build is not coming clean on what the effect will be. We all know it will be an eyesore.

As AOG, I wonder why we cannot put more into wave power, surely that has to be the way to go. Waves never stop wind does.

To get enough energy from wind power we would need swathes of them. Odd how some complain about HS2 but seemingly ignore the wind farms.

As for wild life it has been shown they learn to adapt, both for wind and wave generators. Sure there will be the odd few but then I bet more than the odd few fly into pylons and kill themselves.

[emmie]

don't farmers who have them on their lands get a large subsidy for doing so?
as to safety record, i have read other documents relating to blades sheering off, that wouldn't be good at any point, seeing how large the turbines and blades are.

[emmie]

most of the birds like rooks, that i see out in the countryside sit on pylons, on the wires, they can't with the blades rotating,

[jake-the-peg]

Wind Farm subsidies are running at less than a billion - HS2's projected cost is 32 billion

Wind Farms have a positive effect in our meeting our climate change commitments whereas the HS2's environmental case is predicated on reducing slots at Heathrow

Windfarms bring benefits to people over all the country today - HS2 is beneficial to a small section of the country in 20 years time.

I could go on but I'm sure you get the point


Of course the safety question is another good argument for more off-shore wind farms.


Still we're looking at more nuclear plants I'm sure if YMB doesn't like the look of windfarms near him they can be replace with a pressurised water reactor

[RATTER15]

em, I think wind turbines will always be at risk in high wind situations, the same as any other very tall structure, I dont know the percentage of these that have been damaged by wind but I bet it is very low.
Im sure that wind turbines are a safer alternative to nuclear power stations and other methods of generating electricity, the world needs to move on from the damage these other methods cause.One day we will find a safer and more attractive alternative but until then..................

[ladybirder]

Noisy I'm told, if you have one near to you.

[emmie]

sorry don't like them, and never have from the first one i saw blotting the landscape, i wonder if they are a truly better option for our environment, the one that was on fire was scary. Going on some first hand testimonies, they are noisy, and not cost effective, still if they want to dot around the place let them, doesn't seem as though most of us get any say in the matter.
As to the Hs2, i totally agree, it's a vanity project and will hopefully be scrapped.

[emmie]

Ratter, our weather is as we have seen, very very changeable. It's getting wetter and windier, so should one expect more to come crashing down, it's not as though they are small, the whirring blades must be annoying to people who have had them installed near their homes.

[jno]

much more elegant than pylons. I wouldn't want on literally in my backyard (too small) but if there was nearby farmland I wouldn't mind.

[ludwig]

They're pretty hefty things. I wonder what the carbon footprint of manufacturing one is, and how long it takes before it reaches neutrality and starts being environmentally beneficial.