There's gunna be a windfarm in my neighbourhood

[old man emu]

We had our local show  this weekend. I got the chance to speak to representatives of the mob which is in the process of gaining approval for an eighty-tower windfarm within 20 kms of my place.

 

Eighty towers seems  like a big crowd, but when I was shown to proposed location of each tower, I saw that they were separated from each other by close on a kilometre. My first thought when I heard of the proposal was that teh towers would be visible from the Newell Highway which is located to the east of the proposed area. I learned that the closest tower woulod be about 5 kms from the highway, with a line of low "hills" between them. So that's no longer a concern to me.

 

I think I've whinged before that around here it can be pretty windy, nd said that it would be ideal for a wind farm. Seems I'm right in some ways and mistaken in others. I experience wind as air movement within about 10 metres of the ground surface. That air movement is very turbulent compared to air movement 100 metres above ground where the turbine blades are. That turbulence, caused by the moving air particles colliding withthe ground and trees and ricocheting into air particles higher up. These collisions rob the air particles of energy due to loss of momentum. If the air movement is free of the turbulence, then there is more energy for the collision between the moving air and the turbine blades. That's why the towers are so high.

 

I was also told that studies locally have shown that the most consistent air movement begins at these heights after sunset and stay pretty good until just before dawn. That means the turbines are best able to produce electricity at night in complement to solar panels. That sounds good.

 

What about the effects on farm incomes? The builders don't resume the land they need like the government does when it wants to build roads etc. It seems that the land is rented from the landholders at a rate determined by the generating capacity of the turbine. An example was that of a property with two towers on it. Based on the generating capacity of the intended turbines, renting the land for two towers would return $100,000 p.a. CPI-indexed for a contract period of thirty years. That's got to provide a degree of stabilisation of farm income. I bet any landowner would love to get that sort of money, especially in the present circumstance when it looks like a drought is on the way.

 

Why does it take so long to get a windfarm up an running. Would you beleive that it is in part due to the very people who pursue a renewable world? One of the environmental reports required deals with the effect of the turbines on bats and birds. Getting the data required a study lasting two years. Then there are the Native Heritage studies and gaining clearances from the local indigenous community. Then there are the geo-technical studies, planning permissions yadda yadda. 

 

We should consider the economic benefits. It is said that the workforce required to create the windfarm complex is about 500 persons. These people will be newcomers who will have to be fed, housed and entertained for several years. Already the local Council has allocated an area for an accommodation camp. Someone has to build it. An extra 500 people will hopefully boost local trade, although the proximity of the City of Dubbo, about 30 minutes' drive away might not do good for my town. Still, it's money coming into the district.

 

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with this project. Really, it is going to be 'out of sight, out of mind' to teh majority of the population. And kn owing what I know about smart crows and blind bats, I don't envisage too many mid-air collsions with revolving turbine blades.

[old man emu]

Here's a link to the project's website: https://milpullingwindfarm.com/

[randomx]

Earlier in l didn't mind wind farms. But through Vic now, west side anyway, they're all over the place and still popping up.

lt's not a practical solution bc 1, sounds like they'll need a lot more than this to make much of a dent at all but there's already too many.

2nd thing l've read, is that the props blades only have a 10-15yr life, then what do you do with those. The US already has 1000s of acs of old props stacked up, saw pics.

Far as l know there's not really anything they can be recycled into .

[old man emu]

33 minutes ago, randomx said:

Far as l know there's not really anything they can be recycled into

Like all new things, if they create a problem, eventually a solution will be found. I heard that solar panels are hard to do anything with, but how long have we have lots of them? I bet people are working feverously to develop ways to get something useful from the junk. I have faith in the fact that someone eventually finds a way to utilise the smell of a turd.

[Marty_d]

Recycling the blades is a challenge.

Cement co-processing seems to be the best option currently.

 

There'd have to be some innovative reuses of them - there was a story in ABC recently of someone making surfboards out of them.  I'd have thought they could be incorporated into fences, walls, roofs etc. 

 

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/14/2414

Edited 5 hours ago by Marty_d

[randomx]

 

Yeah right, be great if they could find some way of doing something with them.