I’m all for alternative sources of energy . . . providing that they actually produce enough to cover their costs.
Sad to say, it’s beginning to look like wind power is for the birds, if not the bats.
One big fear some people had about wind turbines was that they might kill too many birds. Think giant food processors in the sky.
But it turns out that the bigger danger is to bats. Dead bats are found all around wind turbines. Why?
Wind pressure. The poor little creatures can’t stand the quick change in air pressure around those spinning blades.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the government agency overseeing the state’s rebate programs for alternative energy, has put a halt to subsidizing small wind turbines. No more bucks for housetop windmills, folks.
The agency sponsored a study that has calculated that the average energy output for the turbines reviewed was no more than 27 percent of what installers had projected. It could be worse, and sometimes is. In Britain, a study found that some poorly placed turbines sucked up more energy converting current from DC to household AC than produced, making them economic and energy sink holes.
We should remember, when activists start talking about revolutionizing things, that subsidies are for the birds, and technology based on hope alone, bats.
It’s from successful business operations that future revolutions come, not from mere wishful thinking. Or any amount of government subsidy.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Wind Turbine Blues”
Paul, get the biology right. The bats’ trouble is much more likely the moving blades that are too difficult for the bats’ sonar based navigation to manage avoidance.
Bats? Rodents? I say a mill on evey house. That sure would drive the production costs down. Did you figure inflation in energy w/ the increasind worldwide demand? Looks to me like now is the time.