Comments on: Wind Power: The Whole Story

By: Ben Harack

Ben Harack — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:24:20 +0000

Jeanette, I have heard numbers regarding birds on the order of one to a few birds per turbine per year, though it varies a lot depending on whether the turbine is placed in a migration pathway. There is a lot of work being done on placing turbines in ways that are known to minimize their effect on migrating or local birds, but without seriously compromising their ability to produce power.

Hmmm, well, the short answer is that effectively yes, wind turbine technology is moving sufficiently fast that older turbines are actually significantly less economical than the new ones. The biggest changes as far as I know happened before about the year 2000, so anything built before then is particularly different from what we build today. Whether or not the costs are actually prohibitive for removing them or fixing them up, that is a different issue entirely. It could be that the company just doesn’t have a direct incentive to do so. Usually NIMBY people are all over such things… I would expect Hawaii to be really strict about things that are changing the scenery. I’d be interested to learn about what the answer really is! Perhaps one of us can figure that out and bring it back

By: Jeanette

Jeanette — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:03:14 +0000

I have heard that the turbines can be very hard on local populations of bats and some birds. Have you run into much info on that and how it can be mitigated?

Also, when I was in Hawaii I got a pretty close look at a pretty impressive wind farm. I was less impressed with the derelict turbines rusting and falling apart right next to the shiny new turbines. Is wind technology moving at a pace where they can no longer salvage parts from/upgrade older turbines? I’m assuming the cost of removing them must be fairly high for a tourist driven place to leave such an eyesore.

By: Feed-in tariffs: A fitting policy for renewable energy | Vision Of Earth

Feed-in tariffs: A fitting policy for renewable energy | Vision Of Earth — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 18:52:04 +0000

[...] transmission issues exist for other renewable energy resources such as wind, solar photovoltaics, geothermal, tidal power, and solar thermal power. Cost-effective [...]

By: How can renewables deliver dispatchable power on demand? | Vision Of Earth

How can renewables deliver dispatchable power on demand? | Vision Of Earth — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 03:31:50 +0000

[...] that caused much of their wind production to go into automatic shutdown mode. This is because most wind power systems have a maximum wind speed that they can safely operate at. During the January 23rd [...]

By: Feed-In Tariff: Government Encouraging The Market | Vision Of Earth

Feed-In Tariff: Government Encouraging The Market | Vision Of Earth — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:39:35 +0000

[...] be catered to the Saskatchewan situation with domain knowledge. For instance, Saskatchewan’s wind energy resource is of higher quality than that in Ontario or Germany, two notable examples of [...]

By: Coal power: Pollution, politics, and profits

Coal power: Pollution, politics, and profits — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:05:45 +0000

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By: Progress and potential of renewable energy

Progress and potential of renewable energy — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:40:41 +0000

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Solar power from photovoltaic panels — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:46:54 +0000

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By: Voluntary and collaborative sustainable development

Voluntary and collaborative sustainable development — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 02:17:38 +0000

[...] power is far more cost-effective if built on a large scale. Saskpower estimates that large wind projects of 150MW or more will produce electricity that costs 6 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour while [...]

By: Reservoir hydro resources on the Canadian prairies

Reservoir hydro resources on the Canadian prairies — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 21:35:19 +0000

[...] in combining Manitoba’s extensive hydro resources with Saskatchewan’s high-quality wind power. A number of other groups in Saskatchewan have been lobbying for greater interconnection between [...]

By: Nuclear Power: The Whole Story

Nuclear Power: The Whole Story — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:25:18 +0000

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By: Personal and social change for a green energy future

Personal and social change for a green energy future — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:19:53 +0000

[...] you want to know more about how renewable energy sources work, check out our wind, hydro, and solar thermal power [...]

By: Publicly Owned Renewable Energy

Publicly Owned Renewable Energy — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 23:18:15 +0000

[...] say that SaskPower is interested in adding more wind power to the province. Instead of opening up a request for proposals from the wind industry like they [...]

By: Incentives to build renewable in Saskatchewan

Incentives to build renewable in Saskatchewan — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 21:06:54 +0000

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By: Coal Power

Coal Power — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:23:01 +0000

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