37 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans”

  1. And thousands more to go worldwide. Now to clean up that mess and do what with it?? More pollution !

  4. Notice the view of the horizon improved. Breath taking. Now they’ll just bury the goddamed things. Outta sight, outta mind. Idiots.

  6. The folly of the ruling class. Wonder what the total cost per kWh turns out to be for power generated by the 90 scrapped turbines( including the necessary base load power plant to cover when the wonder turbines aren’t turning out enough power to meet demand, but not counting the visual blight, and the dead birds). 10 times fossil generation? 20 times ? Does anyone know? A fossil fuel powered plant near me has been in operation over 50 years. This one is a total write-off after only 15, and was never as reliable as fossil generation.

  7. “You see gigantic wind turbines appearing all over the country, but there is very little about the practical value of these monstrosities.”

    – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

  8. “No effort was made to preserve foundations or other wind farm infrastructure. CDI’s crew felled the 90 Units in two (2) mobilizations to the site, permitting the Wind Farm Owner to complete salvage of blades and drive-train elements from some of the wind turbines to provide replacement parts for similar Units they operate at other wind farm locations.”
    I imagine there will be very few blades undamaged from their impact with the ground, and bearings in any type of electric motor or generator, do not take kindly to impacting with the ground.
    Salvage is a word used to placate the ignorant as true salvage would have been a dismantling of each unit. Time consuming and very expensive.
    Windmills for the landfills. Sort of rhymes.

    2. The turbines are gone but those massive footings will scar the landscape forever.

  9. A few years ago I took a trip to the south of France – mostly for the weather and the Roman architecture like the Pont du Gard.
    I wonder if the Romans would be appalled.

  10. Are they going to dig up the concrete bases? Down to 1 m below ground level.

    Come to think of it, perhaps white collar criminals can be given sledgehammers and be told that their weekends are now to be served by turning windmill based into gravel.

    1. “Down to 1 m below ground level”

      Are they that shallow?
      My radio tower had more concrete.
      Abt 2.5 Cubic yards I would guess, but the hole was dug many years ago and it could have been more, or less as there was a fair bit of re enforcement also.

      1. https://www.windpowerengineering.com/take-a-closer-look-at-pouring-turbine-foundations/

        These guys state the foundation is 15 to 20 feet deep.
        “Lafarge provided Type I portland cement from its Paulding plant to Irving Concrete of Ohio, which built a portable ready-mix batch plant to produce about 122,500 yd3 of concrete for the project. The construction of 15 to 20-foot-deep concrete foundations to support all of the 328-foot-high towers with 2-MW turbines required 30,000 tons of cement. On average, each of these below-ground support systems used 60 truckloads of concrete (750 yd3), which was poured in two steps. A 2-ft. thick mud matte was poured first to create a solid base and then an upper pedestal where the tower connects was poured in step two. The huge bolts that fasten to the tower were embedded into the upper section of the concrete. Quality testing was conducted at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days to ensure a solid cure.”

      2. Several years ago, I was approached by a friend of a fellow ham to help sell off his station. (He had been diagnosed with ALS and his buddy was taking care of his affairs.)

        The tower (which, as I remember, was about 10 m high) was sold separately but, as I recall, the decision was made to leave the concrete base in place. I can’t remember how much was used, but it was considered to be too expensive and would have taken too much time to properly dispose of it.

        During my work in renewable energy, I was never involved with the installation of a wind turbine generator. I can only guess how much concrete would have been required to hold the machine steady, particularly since it’s a free-standing structure.

    2. Any lease agreement with the landowner should require this. Lease agreements I’ve done with cell phone towers always had this as a standard clause.

  11. I wonder if they ever generated enough electricity to match the energy used to build and install them? Plus the energy to blow them up and dismantle and disposal?

    1. They never do offset the cost of production and installation and disposal. That is why subsidies are needed to keep the illusion going that they have any value at all. The amount of fossil fuels needed to make them could generate much more power than the wind turbines ever could.

  12. There will be no such disposal of offshore wind turbines at Horns Reef off Denmark or Vineyards off Massachusetts. I would expect they will simply be abandoned in place as permanent navigation hazards.

  14. Somewhere eagles, other birds and bats are sleeping a little more peacefully tonight. That was a pleasure to watch!

  15. Of course then there are other peoples money….
    The article is against Trump, just so you know what the deal is.
    Nonetheless here is what they wrote, first they go about trying to blame of course Trump for bad stuff. Then they go on a windy tour to distract from the point at hand and then they print this, it negates all that they wrote before.

    From FactCheck.org®
    Does Wind ‘Work’ Without Subsidies?
    “According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, U.S. support of wind through the PTC has amounted to at least $1 billion every fiscal year since 2010, including estimates of $4.5 billion in 2018 and $4.7 billion in 2019, or a total of just under $25 billion since 2010.”
    https://www.factcheck.org/2019/07/does-wind-work-without-subsidies/

    Including the installation in the demolition derby.

  16. I always found it ironic that the product promoted to replace fossil fuels cannot be mined, manufactured, installed or removed without massive amounts of fossil fuel. Ditto for the increased transmission and distribution infrastructure to connect decentralized wind and solar farms.

    So, not only are wind and solar at the mercy of weather and seasons ; they are wholly dependent on fossil fuels to exist at all.

  18. Sorry folks. If you read the links the 1MW Mitsubishi towers are going down soon to be replaced with 90 MW GE generators.

  19. Wind runs on SUBSIDIES….everywhere on the planet.

    Drive up the cost of electricity (witness Ontario).
    Always requires expensive NAT Gas Back up gens
    Last 15-18 yrs MAX while producing very little usable electricity
    Destroys wildlife.
    Destroys Scenery
    Cannot recycle the blades – Carbon fibre
    Bases are never removed.

    Biggest GREEN CON EVER. All designed to enrich the developer and impoverish the rate payer. May they all be torn down World Wide…in my lifetime.

      1. True wind power is what you have when your schooner is slicing through the water and you are heading south.

  21. L – Kate’s preferred method of demolishing “stinking giant fans”:
    1. First attaching a very long rope.
    2.Then a Brigade of motorcyclists; which she would lead, with the command: “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your (bleeping) engines and pull !”
    3. Followed by a celebratory pig roast party, which could include: wild boar, beef et al.

    *(a. Those of SDA nation, not having a motorcycle, could rent one for the day. b) No electric bikes. (c. Motorcycles with a passenger would provide more traction to the rear wheel.)

  22. In operation for 15 years; but how many hours did it actually produce power for? And at what percentage of nameplate capacity?

    15 years in operation, with 5 years of generation at an average of 1/3 nameplate?
    15 years in operation, with 1 year of generation at an average of 1/5 nameplate?

    1. Keep in mind that wind turbine generators are designed to start operating when the wind is at a minimum cut-in speed. The power output increases as the wind becomes stronger, the manner of variation depending on the type of machine (e. g., linear, exponential). The power reaches a maximum rated value, and remains steady even if the wind speed should go higher.

      One reason that WTGs are often idle is because the wind isn’t strong enough to start the blades rotating.

      Generally, WTGs are shut down for maintenance after a certain cumulative operating time, say, 5000 hours.

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