my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘energy’ Category

The boys and I went down to the shoreline to check out the space where that big old ship was, because we wanted to see how big the holes left by pulling out the chains were. But there were no holes at all, and it doesn’t look like they filled anything in, either.

The wind was blowing pretty hard. Three of the eight windmills were turning, and the other five had been set so that their blades would let the wind pass over them without making them spin–perhaps the wind was too strong. I counted off four seconds for one rotation of a windmill blade, so that makes 15 rotations per minute. That seems pretty fast, but I don’t know.

The waves were crashing over the breakwall. It gave us the feeling that maybe a hurricane was approaching, but of course that feeling was quickly replaced by the reality that the wind were not that fast.

Unfortunately, I lost the stylus/pen for my Treo while I was running, and because of the wind I didn’t hear it hit the ground. By the time I realized I had lost it, we were unable to retrace our steps and find it.

Several years ago, I went on a couple camping/fishing trips with my friends Craig and Greg and our families. West Virginia and Virginia have some amazing mountains. At least they do for now. Many mountains are being destroyed, permanently.

Watch this video:

One time, when it was just the men camping and fishing together, we met a coal miner. Craig knew a lot more about mountaintop removal than I did, and he was asking some questions of the miner. The miner was a good guy, but he seemed to not understand what kinds of damages were being made by the work he did.

Well for more info, check out the web site I Love Mountains.org.

UPDATE: I wrote a comment at the end of the original entry below, but I didn’t have an example. Here’s one from today’s paper:

The Steelwinds project had been receiving almost unanimous support in public meetings, but some residents voiced concerns Monday.

Nick Buscaglia of Wanakah said the eight turbines already operating across the border in Lackawanna have changed how he looks at the lake.

“It’s an awful-looking sight, to look out and look across the water and see those things,” he said. “We only have one lake and one chance to develop our waterfront, and we’re putting in windmills.”

END OF UPDATE.

Nice article about the Lackawanna/Hamburg windmills in today’s Buffalo News.

The eight towering windmills that make up the Steel Winds wind farm at the old Bethlehem Steel plant site in Lackawanna are up and running.

Nine months after developers broke ground on the unprecedented wind energy project, the giant blades can now be seen spinning in the strong, steady gusts off Lake Erie — and they are not only generating electricity. They’re creating a buzz.

(read the full story)

Here’s a picture I took of the windmills (and apparently the News photographer stood in the same spot that I stood in when he took his picture):

Can anyone explain to me why these awesome windmills would be considered as a negative visual impact? The old rusting industrial site that was abandoned was better looking? Makes no sense to me.

I shot this short clip today on the shoreline just south of Buffalo. If you can’t tell, it’s 8 windmills, 4 of which are moving while the other 4 sit stationary for some reason.

(hmmmm, what happened to the video? there is supposed to be titles at the start and and of it. I think youtube’s video system took them off….)