Wind Farming
Comments: 9
It’s one of those forgivable little hypocrisies of life that I find high-tension power lines and cell phone antennae heartbreakingly ugly while considering windmills and turbines simply beautiful. Huge man-made structures that blight the landscape become more than just acceptable when they’re generating clean electricity.
The latest turbines are very beautiful indeed.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2004.01.06 (Tue) • 09:04
Comments
Posted by Scott Johnson 2004.01.06, 10:15
Here in the US, I recently heard that approximately 6% of the landscape has suitable winds to justify the installation of wind turbines. If this entire 6% were to be utilized, the collective “farm” would produce more than enough power than is necessary for the country’s needs. Considering that the population is concentrated in less than 50% of the available space, I say go for it! I wouldn’t mind seeing small bits of countryside taken up by these things if I knew that they had just eliminated coal burning from our electricity generation industry.
Posted by Jeff Lawson 2004.01.06, 16:00
I find high-tension lines and windmills equally beautiful…but perhaps I’m just weird.
Wind energy is a growing industry here in Texas. Several farms have existed in the western part of state from Midland to Big Spring for a few years now (in midst of the largest oil and gas producing area of the U.S. outside Alaska, oddly enough). A new wind farm currently being constructed near Lubbock will be one of the largest in the country. For a year now, I’ve seen trucks carrying blades and turbines pass through here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, heading out to the site. The equipment is simply massive viewed close-up.
As for me, I’m doing my part - I went with Green Mountain for my electricity when I moved into my new apartment back in November. Wind energy will never eliminate the need for coal, petroleum, or nuclear-based electricity production in the United States, but it can still make a worthwhile difference.
Posted by Mary Beth 2004.01.06, 23:16
I don’t mind high-tension lines and towers and the odd cell tower as much (AS MUCH) as the unforgivable tangle and growth of phone, cable and power lines that line all roads and streets. Geesh. A drop of planning would mean that the next time the road gets taken down to dirt, the lines would get buried. Sight lines would be restored and the risk of power outage from storm and accident removed. I tell everyone I know that when I become queen, it will be so. No money to do roadwork unless you bury all the wires.
Posted by Aegir 2004.01.07, 08:25
I remember reading that if all the tile roofs in Britain were replaced with those solar panels that look like normal tiles, we’d only need one power station for “exceptional demand”… And this is Britain, an extremely industrialised nation where we get loads of rain and cloudy skies! I dread to think what the environmental cost of replacing all these tiles would be, but done piecemeal over a number of years I’m sure this could be minimised.
Posted by Jenny 2004.01.08, 05:16
I have to agree. I hate the powerlines, but the windmills are absoloutely beautiful.
Posted by matthew mcglynn 2004.01.12, 02:14
Jeremy, I share your sentiments. I too find it easy to see beauty in the structures of clean energy production. In contrast, there’s nothing pretty about a smokestack.
On a related (perhaps contradictory?) note, an old steelworks in Germany has been converted to a museum of sorts, featuring a light installation that paints the blast furnace (and smokestack!) with color. Another picture: Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord
Yet another related note: during my recent solar energy installation, I stumbled across this still-life of a Kyocera 125-watt solar panel. It’s not wind, of course, but as with the turbines I’m somehow predisposed to find art in this accidental composition.
Posted by Dris 2004.01.13, 06:23
And to think, where I live in Kansas (very suitable for wind farms), people turned down the proposition of a wind farm north of Wichita because “they look tacky”. Bull.
We could use it, too. Electric bills here are ridiculous.
Posted by Ang 2004.01.13, 12:42
Don’t you think that aside from just being elegant structures, it might have something to do with the fact that they move, and are interacting with the environment? They are also somewhat organic: vaguely tree-like, or even a bit like anemones waving in the current. Compare that to the massive, static concrete walls of power plants and smoke stacks and the rigid metal towers for electrical lines.
Posted by bigdave 2006.02.24, 14:27
I think Kansas is too windy. Let’s use this stupid energy that keeps the paint on my car dirty, and makes me wear a windproof jacket in the winter. I see no point in burning up all of our fossil fuels and containing nuclear explosions, when we can just harness natures energy without such a large destruction of our enviroment.
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