tagged w/ wind farms
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A recent study of satellite data found that nighttime land temperatures in the immediate vicinity of wind turbines in Texas have increased relative to nearby areas without turbines. Conservative media outlets, including Fox Nation, Rush Limbaugh and Jim Hoft, are distorting the research to claim that wind farms "cause global warming" and Fox News' morning show concluded "wind ain't working." But the study's lead author said via email that this coverage is "misleading."
The researchers, led by Liming Zhou, said it is "[v]ery likely" that "wind turbines do not create a net warming of the air and instead only re-distribute the air's heat near the surface, which is fundamentally different from the large-scale warming effect caused by increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases." The turbines pull down warm air, increasing land surface temperatures, which already have "a larger day-night variation" than the surface air temperatures featured in daily weather reports.
The authors further noted that "this analysis is from a short period," from 2003 to 2011, and is "over a region with rapid growth of wind farms," west-central Texas, so it is likely that their estimate of a "nighttime warming effect" is higher than "in other locations and over longer periods."A recent study of satellite data found that nighttime land temperatures in the... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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U.S. probes golden eagles' deaths at DWP wind farm
The toll makes the Pine Tree site in the Tehachapi Mountains among the deadliest in California's wind farm industry. Activists say birds' behavior should be studied before erecting more sites.
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PHOTO:
Wind turbines in operation in the Tehachapi Pass. The flight behavior and size of golden eagles make it difficult for them to maneuver through turbine blades.
(Anne Cusack, Los Angeles Times / July 13, 2011)
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By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
February 16, 2012
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Two more golden eagles have been found dead at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains, for a total of eight carcasses of the federally protected raptors found at the site.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to determine the cause of death of the two golden eagles found Sunday at the Pine Tree wind farm, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and 15 miles northeast of Mojave, said Lois Grunwald, a spokeswoman for the agency.
The agency has determined that the six golden eagles found dead earlier at the 2-year-old wind farm in Kern County were struck by blades from some of the 90 turbines spread across 8,000 acres at the site.
Those deaths give Pine Tree one of the highest avian mortality rates in California's wind farm industry. The death rate per turbine at the $425-million facility is three times higher than at California's Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, where about 67 golden eagles die each year. However, the Altamont Pass facility has 5,000 wind turbines — 55 times as many as Pine Tree.
The flight behavior and size of golden eagles make it difficult for them to maneuver through forests of wind turbine blades spinning as fast as 200 mph — especially when the birds are distracted by the sight of squirrels and other prey. Golden Eagles are about 40 inches tall and weigh about 14 pounds,
The DWP is developing a avian and bat protection plan that "will include measures for mitigating risks to golden eagles," utility spokesman Brooks Baker said.
Critics say the problem is fundamental. "The increasing golden eagle mortality at Pine Tree clearly points to wind turbines built in the wrong location," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. The utility needs to redesign its 250-megawatt Pine Tree network and Kern County needs to put a moratorium on construction of nearby wind farms to prevent deaths, Anderson said.
Garry George, renewable energy project director for Audubon California, said the best solution is to devote years of research into golden eagles' behavior in an area before deciding where to erect turbines. "If you don't ... you wind up with a Pine Tree," George said.
Killing golden eagles is illegal under federal law, but so far, federal authorities have not prosecuted any wind farm operators for violations.
A prosecution in the Pine Tree case could force the booming alternative energy industry to revise its approach at a time when Kern County is drafting boundary maps for wind resource areas for dozens of proposed wind projects designed to generate electricity for Los Angeles County.
A year ago, the Kern County Board of Supervisors adopted a renewable energy goal of having 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy production by 2015. Los Angeles has a renewable energy goal of 35% by 2020.
A coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Defenders of Wildlife recently sued Kern County to block construction of the proposed North Sky River and Jawbone wind energy projects, which would operate on 13,535 acres of mountainous terrain adjacent to Pine Tree.
According to the lawsuit, the projects would have an unacceptable effect on protected bat and avian species, including the golden eagle and the rare and protected California condor, and on an important avian migratory corridor.
.Los Angeles Times...
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U.S. probes golden eagles' deaths at DWP wind farm... more
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39324391/ns/us_news-environment/
Whopper of a wind farm opens off Britain
World's largest offshore project has 100 turbines — so far
Image: Wind turbines in Thames estuary
Stefan Wermuth / Reuters
Photo: A boat powering through the Thames estuary on Thursday provides perspective of just how big the wind turbines there are.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 9/23/2010 11:59:42 AM ET
LONDON — The world's largest offshore wind farm had its grand opening Thursday — and its location on the estuary of the Thames River makes it a showcase for Britain's push to move beyond fossil fuels.
So far, 100 wind turbines have been planted in waters up to 80 feet deep across the estuary in southern England. The idea is to produce enough electricity, 300 megawatts, to power the equivalent of 200,000 homes.
Each turbine is nearly as tall as a 40-story building and the blades are at least 65 feet above the water for clearance with vessels. No turbine is closer than 1,600 feet to another and the entire "farm" covers an area of 22 square miles.
Up to 341 turbines will be installed over the next four years.
With Thursday's opening, which tops a 91-turbine farm off Denmark, Britain now has more offshore wind capacity than the rest of the world combined.
"We are in a unique position to become a world leader in this industry," British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said in a statement before he attended the grand opening. "We are an island nation and I firmly believe we should be harnessing our wind, wave and tidal resources to the maximum."
Britain now gets three percent of its electricity from renewables but aims to get 15 percent by 2020. As part of that, the government this year awarded licenses to wind farm developers in a program that could deliver up to 32 gigawatts of generation capacity and require investment of more than $117 billion.
Critics of the $1.4 billion wind farm include some nearby residents who object to the sight of the giant towers, some visible from shore. The farm starts about seven miles from shore.
Environmental groups tend to back wind power as long as projects are not in areas of significant bird flight paths.
The new wind farm met that standard. It's an "important stride forward," said Craig Bennett of the British chapter of Friends of the Earth.
But the group also wants Britain to guarantee funding of at least $3 billion a year for the recently created and government-funded Green Investment Bank, which aims to boost private-sector spending on low-carbon technology.
"I know that there is still more to do to bring forward the large sums of investment we want to see in low-carbon energy in the U.K.," Huhne said, "and we as government are committed to playing our part."
One embarrassment to the government is that only 20 percent of the investment in the new wind farm has gone to British firms. The farm is owned and operated by Swedish energy company Vattenfall, and the largest chunk of expenditure has been to Denmark's Vestas for the wind turbines.
Global interest
The promised vast expansion of Britain's offshore wind resources is proving to be a powerful lure for companies not normally associated with renewables but keen to generate eco-friendly and reliable sources of revenue.
Engineers, consultants and oil rig makers around the world are setting up new divisions and partnerships in order to get a foothold in the market, which offers secure returns to those building and running the turbines.
"It's attractive for a lot of companies that are looking for contracts," said Ian Simm, chief executive of green fund firm Impax Asset Management, which has holdings in companies such as Vestas.
"The fundamental point that makes it attractive is scale and government commitment, and the fact that industrial companies can learn the facts of success in one offshore environment and be able to transfer the majority, if not all, of those skills to other countries," he said.
However, clearer statements from the government on renewables incentives are still needed to support wind farm developers and really kick-start the market, according to Sarwjit Sambhi, managing director of power generation at Centrica, which has won the rights to develop up to 4.2 gigawatts of offshore windpower in the Irish Sea.
"There is a general theme across this in that we haven't passed the tipping point yet where the industry is confident enough that there is a long-term pipeline of projects."
Britain's potential
The Offshore Valuation Group, made up of government and industry organizations, estimates if Britain were to develop just 29 percent of its potential offshore resource, this could deliver 169 gigawatts of capacity by 2050 and turn Britain into a net exporter of electricity.
This would involve installing 7.2 gigawatts a year — roughly equivalent to 1,000 7.5 megawatt turbines — with fixed offshore wind accounting for 5.4 gigawatts of the average annual build rate needed.
The supply chain needed for this would have annual revenues of nearly $100 billion in 2050 and employ around 145,000 people directly, according to the Offshore Valuation report.
As a result shipbuilders and companies that specialize in making oil rigs are also entering the wind market.
SeaEnergy Executive Chairman Steve Remp, who has worked in the offshore oil and gas market for 30 years, expects the market for equipment vessels to take off at the beginning of 2012.
"I foresee a sizeable industry evolving that calls on the engineering expertise in working offshore in deep water," he said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39324391/ns/us_news-environment/
Whopper of a wind... more
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Week one of the Copenhagen climate conference is coming to a close. What's happened so far? Here's a quick round-up for you. (Climate conference enthusiasts - I'm sure I'm leaving a bit out - feel free to add in the comments.)
We covered the walk-out over the so-called "Danish text". (Despite folks who seemed to think we were censoring "Danish text" by not letting people use it as a tag. Site bug, people! Read all about it in the comments! Tag away!) Walkouts have continued among smaller and developing nations, leading to fears that the conference will produce two rival documents.
Answering calls for developed countries to pony up the cash, the European Union came through with a pledge of over $10 billion (over 7 billion euros), but leaders from developing nations said the figure wasn't high enough.
And what about the US? Well President Obama was busy this week on the other side of the North Sea from Denmark accepting his Nobel Prize. Back home, his loving and supportive nation was doing it's best to constructively add to the conference with the "climategate controversy" (and I was inspired to launch a new series called "-Gates that are not -gates"). And America's official delegation to Copenhagen? Well the Interior Secretary checked out a wind farm. We've got video!
U.S. Visits Danish Wind Farm: Raw Video
Meanwhile Leah Lamb has been crazy-busy over on Current Green with her live daily Copenhagen check-in. (Tune in at 9:15 am PT!) We've also got video of that!
Calling in From Copenhagen: Joshua Kahn Russell (Video)
Leah also weighed in on climate change skeptic Lord Monckton's comparing activists to Hitler Youth. Her take: Totally a publicity stunt.
That's it for today's round-up - we'll be ramping up to even more Copenhagen coverage next week as the negotiations intensify.
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Uganda's new laws: Anti-gay and FGM
- The Beast of Kandahar and conducting war via remote
- Spiral light over Oslo, Norway - Mystery SOLVED!
- Climategate: Gates that are not gates (a new series)
- It's Vanguard Day on Current News!Week one of the Copenhagen climate conference is coming to a close. What's... more
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The nation's wind industry is continuing to open new wind farms with the help of nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus grant money.The nation's wind industry is continuing to open new wind farms with the help of... more
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A little prairie grouse could give the wind energy industry big fits.
Should the lesser prairie chicken become listed as threatened or endangered — and it’s close now — there would be significant restrictions on companies hoping to plant towering turbines across a five-state region believed to have some of the nation’s best wind energy potential.A little prairie grouse could give the wind energy industry big fits.
Should the... more
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Residents should be offered discounts on their energy bills and free energy efficiency measures when wind farms are built in their community, the Local Government Association said today.Residents should be offered discounts on their energy bills and free energy efficiency... more
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In the past month, four wind turbine parts manufacturers have announced plans to put factories in the heartland, otherwise known as the wind belt. New factories in Arkansas and Iowa will make turbine blades. Two others in Indiana and Minnesota will make gearboxes, which control a turbine’s rotational speed.
In the past month, four wind turbine parts manufacturers have announced plans to put... more
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The sooner we become self sufficient as a nation the sooner we can 'buy' our country back from it's lenders (foreign natioins).
We need 'Green Jobs' now. Wind energy, solar energy and natural gas will help end the massive outflow of money overseas and keep it here on our soil.
Vote for the candidate that stimulates the economy with wind energy, solar energy and natural gas.The sooner we become self sufficient as a nation the sooner we can 'buy' our... more
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Visit this link and watch it on full speed!!
According to Edf.org, The United States is the top global warming polluter in the world. They also state that the U.S. fire season has increased by 78 days over the last 20 years. According to many sites with information on global warming, 2006 was recorded as the hottest year ever.
Despite all this information, there are still some people out there who say that global warming is a myth- my question is this: when people are presented with the cold hard facts, straight to their faces, how will they propose to solve the problem with our beloved earth?
This art speaks volumes- what are YOUR thoughts?
(Art courtesy of Anna Leychenko)
Speak your mind!!!
-EmilyVisit this link and watch it on full speed!!
According to Edf.org, The United... more
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Wind power, long considered to be as fickle as wind itself, can be groomed to become a
steady, dependable source of electricity and delivered at a lower cost than at present,
according to scientists at Stanford University.
The key is connecting wind farms throughout a given geographic area with transmission
lines, thus combining the electric outputs of the farms into one powerful energy source.
The findings are published in the November issue of the American Meteorological
Societys Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
AMS logo:http://www.rnrf.org/ams.jpgWind power, long considered to be as fickle as wind itself, can be groomed to become a... more
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