20 amazing wind farm photos
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What's not to love?
I'm an unabashed fan of wind turbines. I took a tour of a wind farm a few years ago and was blown away by the beauty of the towering, majestic monoliths spread out over the Wyoming hills. The slowly turning blades reminded me with every revolution that a little bit less coal would be burned to power our way of life. I pored through the photo archives of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to find 20 of the most stunning photos of wind turbines.
Here, the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center consists of 44 228-foot turbines that generate enough clean electricity annually to power 20,000 homes in the Backbone Mountains of West Virginia. I love this photo because it’s a view that’s not seen very often. (Text: Shea Gunther)
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Comments
The article was very informative . Thank you! I like your blog.
The solution to the energy problem is fossil fuels. Peak oil is a myth as huge new reserves are found. Coal and natural gas is plentiful. ManMade Global Warming is an great example of fraudulent politicized research that serves the economic interest of Sylvania, GE, Carbon Trading and Tax schemes and scientists making their living off government grants.
Like it or not, understand it or not, renewable energy is powering us into the future of sustainability. No one technology will provide the solution. Only a combination of many brilliant, creative and imperfect but evolving technologies along with efficiency and a conscious effort to conserve can make enough difference to turn this dubious trend around.
If you want the truth about wind farms go to; www.aweo.org
Solar panels and/or mirrors have to be in sunny outdoor areas (deserts), the kind of areas with dust. You have to constantly clean them for them to keep working and there is a problem getting enough water to keep them clean.
Wind doesn't produce enough energy to offset the cost of construction and maintenance, but is probably the best in this list of failures.
Tidal, like wind, are far too expensive to build and maintain (especially since they'd be in salt water). Keep in mind that.... More
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I think that methane generators are the way for the future; use them to replace sewage treatment plants, collect organic wastes from home (food scraps) reducing landfill use and create power all at once. The digested organic matter, including human waste is clean enough to then be used as compost and can be used on farms, orchards to feed and produce healthier crops and stock feed, also reducing the need for heavy fertilizing and spraying.
We need to look.... More
I really dont get what people dont understand about wind power and water turbines. You are taking energy out of the Earths ecosystem, take enough out and it will stall. Solar energy is the way to go, abundant, everywhere and outside of the system.
I really hope you're trollin' boy. What you just said makes no sense, wind is caused by temp differences on the planet. Wind always flows because the sun is always hitting a different part of the earth. the "system" will never stall because the sun is forever powering it and always adding to the turmoil. /rant
Windpower does not TAKE the wind from the ecosystem. It uses the windmills to generate electrical power from the cranking of a generator through the wind turbine. The wind doesn't vanish, kinetic energy of the wind doesn't vanish, it passes on through, on its way turning a few propellers here and there.... Same with water.. the power of the current. Water doesn't become "useless" after it passes through the device...
Alternative energy is a Green goal but worthless in global terms. No wind = no power. Present day civilization needs a reliable power supply. Wind is so not it! Wind power has to have fossil fuel backup. The average supply from wind farms is a fraction of the oft quoted capacity. Usually 20/25% or less! Only massive subsidies have attracted investors. In those areas where the subsidies have subsided the wind farms lay idle or diminished.
"It is in California where the impact of.... More
You are correct, sir, no wind means no power. But being from Kansas, I very rarely see any of the several hundred turbines in my area that aren't spinning on a regular, consistent basis. See, the thing is, you don't build a wind farm where the wind don't blow. Pretty simple really!
I have to wonder where you get the data you so recklessly flaunt or what possible agenda you may have? Sure, fission is a good thing to move forward with, now the the oil companies have lost their presidential protector, but wind farms ACTUALLY WORK. We have large numbers of them in this area and they have drastically cut our energy costs and reduced the coal and gas we burn by about 15%. This in addition to the reduced CO2 emissions and cleaner air. We own the utilities here and get to see.... More
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Back in the 50s I was living and working in Europe and began climbing in the summers. Among other places, I climbed on the glacier in the Rosenlaui Valley in Switzerland, a little east of the central mountain mass of the big mountains - the Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch. The ice was about 60 to 70 feet thick from surface to base.and it extended deep into the valley. When it thawed in the spring, giant chunks would fall down in avalanches that filled the valley with.... More
Americans will have to tailor back their oil consumption to that of Europeans as oil prices are pushed up by competition from rising Asian demand. Wind power is clean and perpetual. China respods with "Pebble Bed" reactors and builds nuclear power plants as fast as they canm just to keep the current economic ball rolling - the risk: they are one cascading series of error events away from Armageddon at all times, and will have a nuclear ware problem of insurmountable proprtion very soon..... More
We are seeing a lot of proposals about pollution, global warming, fossil fuels, and alternative energy sources. I think they are all missing the point. The real problem is too many people on the planet using too much energy. The most basic law of physics is the law of conservation of energy. All energy, from whatever source, eventually becomes heat.
Wind energy? The bird kill problem would be solved by a different design for windmills. Vertical axis designs have been demonstrated.... More
Yes, it is very well known that in all real-life situations, when energy is converted from one form to another, some of the energy will become heat. James, you are correct in saying this is unavoidable.
However, your proposal to "[r]educe the number of people on the planet by maybe 1/2" is out of the question. It's not a matter of whether or not we can attain perfectly ideal circumstances; it's a matter of increasing the amount of usable energy with the least amount of effort, and the.... More
You can't fool Mother Nature!
Wind has and will be energy for the future.
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