Oh calamity, we are getting windmills in our county

[KK4AMI]

I went to a county supervisors meeting to listen to the discussion about a company called Apex Energy. They want to build 150 600 ft tall windmills on 22,000 acres of our county. I have no issue with wind power for electrical generation and I especially have no problem with a little more industry in this very rural county to pick up the local economy. I guess I can even get use to those monster towers with their 200 ft rotors.
1. I do wonder however, how much they will help our county in the long run.
They are leasing Weyerhauser logging land. Normally that land is open to hunting. If the windmills go up it will be closed to hunting. Our rural county does pick up a lot of tourist hunter and fishing dollars.
2. These towers will be just north of the airport, while the regular power towers are just south of the airport. I think it is going to be tough on the pilots.
3. Apex bragged about setting up windmill farms all over the US, but none of these farms resulted in the shutdown of a single coal, nuclear or natural gas plant. What gives? Is this just a technology demonstration?
4 Of course the standard Ham fears, will 150 200 ft Dia rotors rotating at 19 rpm screw up my AM, FM and shortwave listening pleasure? The farm will be about 20 miles north of me.

[KG4NEL]

I don't see how it's a zero-sum game. The "clean coal" lobby isn't just going to roll over and die because some wind or solar farms go up. The more, the better - and maybe if people see that renewable energy isn't Obama's secret Kenyan plot to steal their children in the night people will be more likely to vote on pro-environmental policies instead of burning whatever's cheaper at the time.

The next county over from me is throwing a fit over some new solar farms. I can't think of a better industrial neighbor.

[n2ize]

I say Go Nuclear !! Only problem is the words "nuclear" or "radioactive" strike intense fear in the hearts of most Americans.

[N7YA]

I say Go Nuclear !! Only problem is the words "nuclear" or "radioactive" strike intense fear in the hearts of most Americans.

When wind farms go wrong, a few birds die. When solar "goes wrong", some utility companies lose a little bit of money. When nuclear goes wrong, people die and entire areas are rendered completely useless.

We have been led to believe that solar and wind are things to fear.

[ka8ncr]

I say Go Nuclear !! Only problem is the words "nuclear" or "radioactive" strike intense fear in the hearts of most Americans.

That and not much to do with spent fuel.

[PA5COR]

Nuclear didn't work out so good for Chernobyl or TMI or Fukushima.
Wind and solar are at the moment the largest or only added energy supply's to new plants in the USA, the new plan from Obama will shutter the old coal plants anyway.
Germany now gets 50 - 75 % from renewables Denmark Portugal Spain etc in the same ball park.
Even China is now installing wind and solar like mad and closing down the old coal plants.

Coal is on the way out, the industry might fight it but it's a done case.

[n2ize]

Nuclear didn't work out so good for Chernobyl or TMI or Fukushima.

Actually it worked out quite well in general though. Out of thousands of nuclear plants only two had any major issues. One, due to a Tsunami and the other in Russia was an outdated design and was put through testing by people who didn't know what they were doing and had little regard for safety. TMI was a joke,
the amount of radiation exposure was nominal even among those who lived right next to the plant. Virtually ALL the radiation was contained within the reactor site. Chernobyl and Fuku were worst yet damage was minimal. Even after the accident Chernobyl reactor 1 was kept operational and was staffed. Today most the major radioactivity has long since decayed. Even in the exclusion zone radiation levels are quite low, except for a few scattered hotspots... mainly buildings which stored and tested soil samples directly after the mishap.

So I would say that nuclear energy has overall an excellent track record. And with modern and far safer designs nuclear energy it too great of an energy source to be overlooked or forgotten. II think the hey to our future is going to be a combination of renewables (such as wind, solar, water, etc.) and new generation nuclear energy. The toxic gases and chemical pollution and CO2 emitted from coal, oil and gas bothers and scares me far more than radioactivity and atomic energy.

[KK4AMI]

I know it's a necessary change over, but I still wonder if it is practical. There is currently no way to store energy, so I guess we still have to keep the fossil fuel plants around for those non wind days.
The opposition is throwing every counter environmental and health issue they can think of, ie. It's going to cause flicker, kill the bald eagle population, lower the surrounding real estate values, etc, etc.
The funny part about this is that Apex is a company based out of Charlottesville where I just came from. I kinda feel like I should root for the home team. We use to make jokes about Apex, calling it a Democratic Political Action Committee. The only way they are making money at this venture is through all the Federal tax breaks. So in this case are tax breaks good or bad? That was just rhetorical, don't want politics here.

[KC2UGV]

I know it's a necessary change over, but I still wonder if it is practical. There is currently no way to store energy, so I guess we still have to keep the fossil fuel plants around for those non wind days.
The opposition is throwing every counter environmental and health issue they can think of, ie. It's going to cause flicker, kill the bald eagle population, lower the surrounding real estate values, etc, etc.
The funny part about this is that Apex is a company based out of Charlottesville where I just came from. I kinda feel like I should root for the home team. We use to make jokes about Apex, calling it a Democratic Political Action Committee. The only way they are making money at this venture is through all the Federal tax breaks. So in this case are tax breaks good or bad? That was just rhetorical, don't want politics here.

What do you mean there's no way to store energy?

Flywheels? Battery? Supercaps?

The windmills here in WNY charge a flywheel, which levels energy production somewhat. Sometimes, they do shut down, mainly because it's easier to turn down a windmill than it is to turn down a coal producer.

[PA5COR]

Pumping water up to higer reservoirs when there is an excess of generated electricity, and use that to power generators when there is a shortage, Molten salt to store heat to be used to drive turbines when there is a need for, heat special oil to release the stored heat, etc etc.

Combine the wind turbines with other alternative energy producers to get a 24/7 production it's all done over the world, I can't see any reason the USA can't do that.

Prices for electicity where wind turbines are build or solar is used nose dived.