Hi met,

I like this ideas release site heehe... ^_^
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Fantastic idea, great way of energy sourcing .. .. i have bought it from one of our local coolest gadgets manufacturers, and its working pretty good.. :)

I would love the concept of clean, renewable energy- but there are so many problems that your one-sided, biased article does not mention. First- have you ever been near one of these? For some reason, I am filled with an unnerving fear in their presence, with an urge to get away. They completely dominate some of the most scenic areas- bad for tourism and outdoor enthusiasts. To situate them on ridge tops, great swaths of forest must be cut- eliminating more scenery, habitat, and CO2-absorbing potential. Here in Western PA, we also worry about windmills being placed in the same habitat as bats, who don't have a good track record in surviving those blades.

Finally, you mention the financial return rate of 15 years for small turbines. I have not seen what the return rate is for large scale turbines- does anyone know? Given the massive amount of energy required to set one up- it's manufacture, transport, and forest clear-cutting- I wonder when the break-even point comes. Again in PA, a large contract was given to a foreign firm with huge financial incentives- so money was poured offshore, not even helping US firms.

If these turbines require so much reliable grid-power, and their actual impact is relatively small- then it's a terrible cost-benefit tradeoff, especially when you also take into account the negative environmental concerns. I also hear they make noise and are terrible to live near. Rodale, do you want your homes and business surrounded by these massive, high-impact structures?

Let's have a fair discussion with all of the benefits- and real costs/efficiencies- put on the table, instead of slanted one-sided information from either the pro or con wind advocates.

The most recent studies from Denmark and Germany (which have used energy from industrial-scale wind turbines for twenty years) state that 1) additional coal-fired electricity has been needed to cover wind power’s unpredictability; 2) no coal-fired plants have been placed out of service; 3) carbon dioxide emissions have increased; and 4) additional coal-fired and gas-fired plants have been constructed to ensure reliable delivery (http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/04/08/wi...).

Electricity in the U.S. uses 60 hertz (60 cycles per second). Only coal-fired or nuclear power plants can provide reliable steam pressure to keep the massive generators at 3600 rpm. If a single generator should drops to 3599.5 rpm, the generator must be taken off line immediately as it would eliminate the power it created as well as an equal amount from the grid, creating a blackout.

The unpredictability of wind energy creates a situation where the coal and nuclear units are forced to try to keep up with this variability, creating the potential of taking one or more units off-line when they lose their synchronization with the grid. This means the boilers must ramp up and down to integrate the wind power. This ramping up-and-down requires additional fuel, the same way your car or truck uses more fuel when you accelerate and decelerate. Some places with industrial wind are using peaking units in order to ramp up and down. The peaking units are usually ones which use more expensive fuel: gas or petroleum (http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/3563). The peaking units increase our dependency on foreign oil. Currently, the Department of Energy indicates only about 1.0 percent of our energy is from petroleum. The peaking units would not be necessary without the requirements for integrating wind energy, thus increasing demands for petroleum.

Industrial-scale wind turbines cannot provide electricity to homes and businesses unless the energy is first supplied by a coal-fired plant. Additionally, the industrial-scale wind turbines use electricity from the grid in order to operate properly. Also, a spinning reserve of electricity from reliable electrical generators must be available at all times to provide electricity if there is an unexpected problem with any other on-line generator or transmission line. Wind energy cannot supply a spinning reserve.

The only conclusion is that because the electricity provided by industrial-scale wind turbines is unpredictable and unreliable, the demands on coal-fired power plants are consequently greater and require the use of more coal or peaking units (using gas or petroleum) and result in actually increasing carbon dioxide emissions. Industrial-scale wind energy is therefore not green energy and will never be able to supply our electricity needs.

I have read that industrial-scale wind power has little or no effect in reducing CO2 emissions. Apparently even the National Academy of Sciences has come to this conclusion. The reason is that industrial size turbines (over 40 stories tall and with blade spans wider than a 747) need a lot of electricity to operate. I have read that they must be powered by a conventional power plant or they can't function, that if the wind is less than 10 miles an hour that they draw more electricity than they produce. I have also heard that many of these industrial size turbines are put up along migration corridors which has an adverse affect on wildlife in those areas. I think the ideal situation would be if everyone could install smaller, on-site turbines that would directly power one's own home.