Wind Turbines are a bust!

[Wild Bill]

Here's the link:

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/46519

"Andrew Walden of American Thinker explored nearly 2 years ago the demise of the 37-turbine wind farm at Kamaoa Wind Farm in Hawaii: “Built in 1985, at the end of the boom, Kamaoa soon suffered from lack of maintenance. In 1994, the site lease was purchased by Redwood City, CA-based Apollo Energy. Cannibalizing parts from the original 37 turbines, Apollo personnel kept the declining facility going with outdated equipment. But even in a place where wind-shaped trees grow sideways, maintenance issues were overwhelming. By 2004 Kamaoa accounts began to show up on a Hawaii State Department of Finance list of unclaimed properties. In 2006, transmission was finally cut off by Hawaii Electric Company.California’s wind farms — then comprising about 80% of the world’s wind generation capacity — ceased to generate much more quickly than Kamaoa. In the best wind spots on earth, over 14,000 turbines were simply abandoned. Spinning, post-industrial junk which generates nothing but bird kills.”"

This would confirm what many of us have been saying all along. Wind power cannot compete without large subsidies. It's only good for politicians to get photo ops to impress the scientifically ignorant!

[olp1fan]

This would confirm what many of us have been saying all along. Wind power cannot compete without large subsidies. It's only good for politicians to get photo ops to impress the scientifically ignorant!

I thought that was obvious...

[Guest Manny]

“Built in 1985, at the end of the boom, Kamaoa soon suffered from lack of maintenance."

'nuff said. Same thing applies to Nuclear.

[wyly]

meanwhile germany is increasing wind power sources, 20-25% of germany's energy will come from the wind by 2020...

[waldo]

This would confirm what many of us have been saying all along. Wind power cannot compete without large subsidies. It's only good for politicians to get photo ops to impress the scientifically ignorant!

whaaa! WB... your immediate source British tabloid blog article, itself, draws reference upon the American Stinker and a global warming denier blog, no less!!! In skirting your "sources", I can't seem to find any indication on where they, themselves, source their information from - go figure! We've already been down the comparative path that definitively points out the overwhelming subsidy disparity that still... to this day... favours fossil-fuels over renewable energy. Perhaps you might comment on just why fossil-fuels still receive the overwhelming share of subsidy dollars?

in any case, have a chew on this recent announcement from Bloomberg: Renewable power trumps fossil fuels for first time

[waldo]

Built in 1985, at the end of the boom, Kamaoa soon suffered from lack of maintenance

'nuff said. Same thing applies to Nuclear.

most certainly there are anticipated life-spans and formal decommissioning of wind farms... we had a recent MLW thread on a Vermont mountain-ridge farm development, one where the application for development included direct reference to a life-span decommissioning:

...we have an ~5k of mountain ridgeline that will ultimately host 21 turbines. I also understand that the approval decision was only granted when two MOU's were struck between the recognized governmental stewards of environmental protection within Vermont, the state's Agency of Natural Resources, and the applying power company. As I understand, the MOU's cover strict adherence to environmental restoration, inclusive of a trust sufficient to cover costs associated with

ultimate decommissioning (projected 30 year timeline)

.

in any case, I note this googly quite easily pops-up concerning WB's article reference to the 1985 Hawaii Big Island Kama'oa wind farm: "The 37 battered and beaten Mitsubishi 250 kw turbines essentially went dormant and were recently replaced by fourteen new 1.5 mw at the Pakini Nui wind farm.

[waldo]

meanwhile germany is increasing wind power sources, 20-25% of germany's energy will come from the wind by 2020...

meanwhile suggestion that offshore wind might be positioned to meet 14% of the overall EU 2030 electricity demand:

EWEA estimates that by 2020, 40 GW of offshore wind power will produce 148 TWh annually, meeting over 4% of the EU’s total electricity demand and avoiding 87 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Between 2020 and 2030 a further 110 GW of offshore wind capacity is expected to be added in European waters. 150 GW of wind power would produce 562 TWh annually, enough to cover 14% of the EU’s 2030 electricity demand and avoid 315 million tonnes of CO2 emissions

[fellowtraveller]

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Ontario: take over unproductive windfarms.

"Utility companies of the World: Queens Park wants your rusted, your collapsed, your becalmed.... and we will pay 10 times the market rate for every volt."

[waldo]

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Ontario: take over unproductive windfarms.

"Utility companies of the World: Queens Park wants your rusted, your collapsed, your becalmed.... and we will pay 10 times the market rate for every volt."

one would think that someone with the moxie to attempt a take-off of the, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...", wouldn't confuse voltage and units of generated energy. Or that there appear to be many examples of a thriving used market, like here: Go figure!