(Archived Article) Wind Turbine Projects Run Into Resistance

This post summarizes an interesting New York Times article with the above title that was published on or about September 9, 2010. (When I download an article from my Kindle to my computer, the date recorded is the date of the download, not the date of publication.)

Although this article did not contain many of the numbers that I am so fond of, it still highlighted a problem that does not receive much discussion.  People interested in the proper siting of wind turbines should take note.

BARSTOW, Calif. — The United States military has found a new menace hiding here in the vast emptiness of the Mojave Desert in California: wind turbines.

Moving turbine blades can be indistinguishable from airplanes on many radar systems, and they can even cause blackout zones in which planes disappear from radar entirely.

Clusters of wind turbines, which can reach as high as 400 feet, look very similar to storm activity on weather radar, making it harder for air traffic controllers to give accurate weather information to pilots.

Although the military says no serious incidents have yet occurred because of the interference, the wind turbines pose an unacceptable risk to training, testing and national security in certain regions, Dr. Dorothy Robyn, deputy under secretary of defense, recently told a House Armed Services subcommittee.

Because of its concerns, the Defense Department has emerged as a formidable opponent of wind projects in direct conflict with another branch of the federal government, the Energy Department, which is spending billions of dollars on wind projects as part of President Obama’s broader effort to promote renewable energy.

Eliminating turbine clutter on radar is complicated. Part of the challenge is that many radar systems in use in the United States date back to the 1950s and have outdated processing capabilities — in some cases, less than those of a modern laptop computer.

While there are technology fixes to ease interference on these aging systems, it can be tricky to filter out just the turbines.

On radar, “a wind turbine can look like a 747 on final approach,” said Peter Drake, technical director at Raytheon, a major provider of radar systems. “We don’t want to have the software eliminate a real 747.”

The Energy Department says the problem should be solvable through new technologies.

(Archive Article) Noisy Wind Turbines Attract Complaints

The following was gleaned from a New York Times article published October 5 or 6, 2010.  Although the New York Times is a left-leaning newspaper, its reporters are honest enough to report some of the drawbacks, as well as the advantages, of renewable energy.  That, together with figures of cost, generating capacity, etc. can lead to reasonable discussion of the pros and cons of locating a renewable power facility in a particular area.

I hope you enjoy this condensed version of the article.

Noisy Wind Turbines Attract Complaints

By TOM ZELLER Jr.

VINALHAVEN, Me. — Nearly all of the residents on this island in Penobscot Bay, celebrated the arrival of three giant wind turbines late last year. That was before they were turned on.

Now, a dozen or so neighbors living less than a mile from the $15 million wind facility here, say the industrial whoosh-and-whoop of the 123-foot blades is making life unbearable.

In Vinalhaven, an audio consultant hired by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection determined last month that the 4.5-megawatt facility was, at least on one evening in mid-July when Mr. Lindgren collected sound data, in excess of the state’s nighttime sound limits. The developer of the project, Fox Island Wind, has contested that finding, and negotiations with state regulators are continuing.

Maine, along with many other states, puts a general limit on nighttime noise at 45 decibels — roughly equivalent to the sound of a humming refrigerator. A normal conversation is in the range of 50 to 60 decibels.

In almost all cases, it is not mechanical noise arising from the central gear box or nacelle of a turbine that residents react to, but rather the sound of the blades, which in modern turbines are mammoth appendages well over 100 feet long, as they slice through the air.

Turbine noise can be controlled by reducing the rotational speed of the blades. But the turbines on Vinalhaven already operate that way after 7 p.m., and George Baker, the chief executive of Fox Island Wind — a for-profit arm of the island’s electricity co-operative — said that turning the turbines down came at an economic cost.

“The more we do that, the higher goes the price of electricity on the island,” he said.

A common refrain among homeowners grappling with sound issues, however, is that they were not accurately informed about the noise ahead of time.

Richard R. James, an acoustic expert hired by residents of Vinalhaven to help them quantify the noise problem, said there was a simpler solution: do not put the turbines so close to where people live.

“It would seem to be time for the wind utility developers to rethink their plans for duplicating these errors and to focus on locating wind turbines in areas where there is a large buffer zone of about a mile and one-quarter between the turbines and people’s homes,” said Mr. James, the principal consultant with E-Coustic Solutions, based in Michigan.

Vinalhaven’s wind farm enjoys support among most residents.

But that is cold comfort for residents living near the turbines.

==========

(Archive Article) Huge Wind Turbine Farm Opens Off Southeast England

I will be uploading a series of New York Times articles that I downloaded from my Kindle over the past couple of years.  One thing that I really appreciate about the New York Times articles is that they include numbers.  We simply must have some numbers relating to amount of power generated, area occupied, construction costs, operating costs, etc. if we are to have intelligent discussions about renewable energy and possible alternatives.

Unfortunately, this article contains no cost data, but other data are presented, and that is a start.

Huge Wind Turbine Farm Opens Off Southeast England 

Published September 23 or 24, 2010

By JULIA WERDIGIER

LONDON — The world’s largest offshore wind turbine farm, with a capacity to power more than 200,000 homes for a year, opened on Thursday off the coast of southeast England.

The wind farm is operated by Vattenfall, a Swedish energy company, and has 100 turbines spread over 13.5 square miles. At 377 feet tall each, the turbines are visible from the coast in Kent. The wind farm took more than two years to build and is expected to generate 300 megawatts of electricity.

Vattenfall’s turbines mean that power generated from wind can reach five gigawatts in Britain, enough “to power all homes in Scotland,” Chris Huhne, Britain’s energy secretary said in a statement.

“We’re in a unique position to become a world leader in this industry,” Mr. Huhne said. “We are an island nation, and I firmly believe we should be harnessing our wind, wave and tidal resources to the maximum.”

The British government has said it aims to support the renewable energy industry to achieve its goal to get 15 percent of energy from sources like wind farms by 2020. The efforts have focused mainly on wind power in recent years. Wind accounts for about 4 percent of Britain’s electricity needs.

Some industry executives feared that more government investment would be threatened in October, when the coalition government presented its program of spending cuts intended to reduce the budget deficit.

Britain has about 260 wind farms operating across the country and off its coasts.

Vattenfall operates 700 wind turbines in countries including Sweden, Germany, Poland and Britain.

The British wind farm is part of Vattenfall’s plan to double its electricity generated from wind power from 2009 to 2011 by building nine wind farms in six countries.
==========

Ancient Italian Town Now Has Wind at Its Back

The following was gleaned from a September 28, 2010 New York Times article with the above title.  I believe it provides insight into why some European communities have found it economically feasible, even beneficial, to incorporate renewable energy into their energy mix while few American communities have found that to be the case.

Faced with sky-high electricity rates, small communities in Italy have turned to making renewable energy. More than 800 Italian communities now make more energy than they use because of the recent addition of renewable energy plants.

The Italian town of Tocco da Casauria was motivated to adopt renewable energy because Italy already had among the highest electricity rates in Europe, and nearly three times the average in the United States.

 High electricity prices in Italy are a result of various forces: Italy has almost no fossil fuels of its own, and until last year, it banned nuclear power plants.  And, as in much of Europe, the lure of alternative power here was sweetened by feed-in tariffs — government guarantees to buy renewable electricity at an attractive set price from any company, city or household that produces it.

In the United States, where electricity is cheap and government policy has favored setting minimum standards for the percentage of energy produced from renewable sources rather than direct economic incentives like Europe’s feed-in tariffs, stimulating alternative energy has been only mildly successful. But in countries where energy from fossil fuels is naturally expensive — or rendered so because of a carbon tax — and there is money to be made, renewable energy quickly starts to flow.

With its four wind turbines, Tocco is now essentially energy independent from a financial standpoint, generating 30 percent more electricity than it uses. Production of green electricity earned the town 170,000 euros, or more than $200,000, last year.

Impressed with their new turbines, Tocco’s residents have lately turned to renewable resources to resolve other civic problems.  An installation of solar panels now lights walkways, powers the office and generates an income of 1,500 euros a year, or $2,000, to pay for maintenance at the town’s ancient cemetary.

A growing number of wealthier homeowners are paying these experts to install solar panels. The stucco home of Domenico Marini, a dental technician, has roof panels in addition to a koi pond and garden gnomes. His monthly electricity bills have dropped to $0 from as much as $700.