{"id":454,"date":"2010-10-13T15:32:25","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T19:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=454"},"modified":"2011-06-21T09:16:52","modified_gmt":"2011-06-21T14:16:52","slug":"wind-power-still-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"WIND POWER, STILL CONTROVERSIAL"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
wind power on the Elbe River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Somehow we are still a long way from solving this problem. I will confess that I am not well informed, but I embrace the concept of wind power. Everyone I have ever spoken to admits that wind power is not yet financially practical.<\/p>\n

HRIS BEDFORD: Yes, there is a wind shadow. It can extend miles downwind<\/span>
\n<\/span>from a single large wind turbine and modeling shows the shadows extending<\/span>
\n<\/span>hundreds of miles downwind in the case of large wind farms. There is no such<\/span>
\n<\/span>thing as free energy. Taken collectively, all the world’s wind farms will<\/span>
\n<\/span>have an impact on the global climate in much the same way that burning<\/span>
\n<\/span>fossil fuels does. Other so-called Green Energy “solutions” – such as wave<\/span>
\n<\/span>and tidal power – also have environmental impacts. The only true green<\/span>
\n<\/span>“solution” is to reduce energy consumption.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>* How capable are these structures of withstanding extreme wind speeds?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>CHRIS BEDFORD: Wind turbines are designed to withstand extreme wind speeds.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Since they are often installed in locations known to have strong winds, this<\/span>
\n<\/span>is a standard requirement. In fact, most turbines shut down during strong<\/span>
\n<\/span>winds in order to protect the equipment from damage. However, like any<\/span>
\n<\/span>engineered structure, there are limits. There are most definitely cases of<\/span>
\n<\/span>turbines failing during storms which exceed design limits or due to control<\/span>
\n<\/span>system problems. Such failures are becoming less common as design,<\/span>
\n<\/span>manufacturing, installation and maintenance techniques improve.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Unfortunately, with the number of installations increasing all the time, the<\/span>
\n<\/span>news of failures will never go away in much the same way that airplanes<\/span>
\n<\/span>still crash from time to time.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>* Is that why there are none existing or planned for the Caribbean?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>CHRIS BEDFORD: There are wind farms in the Caribbean, however few large wind<\/span>
\n<\/span>energy plants. The main reason has to do with transmission to the users. It<\/span>
\n<\/span>is cheaper and more environmentally sound to build wind farms close to where<\/span>
\n<\/span>the energy is used. So a balance must be struck between building wind farms<\/span>
\n<\/span>where there is wind AND where there is infrastructure to get the power<\/span>
\n<\/span>produced to where it is needed. As is often the case, it comes down to<\/span>
\n<\/span>economics.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somehow we are still a long way from solving this problem. I will confess that I am not well informed, but I embrace the concept of wind power. Everyone I have ever spoken to admits that wind power is not yet financially practical. HRIS BEDFORD: Yes, there is a wind shadow. It can extend miles … Continue reading WIND POWER, STILL CONTROVERSIAL<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[767,766],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather","tag-going-green","tag-wind-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}