China, known for its environmental struggles, is looking to have a success story in wind power. "China's wind energy market is unrecognizable from two years ago," says Steve Sawyer of the Global Wind Energy Council. "It is huge, huge, huge. But it is not realized yet in the outside world." China's wind generation has increased by more than 100 percent per year since 2005, and the country may have already beat out the U.S. as the world's biggest turbine manufacturer. Policymakers originally had ambitions of generating 5 gigawatts of wind by 2010, but met that goal in 2007; they've revised the 2010 goal to 10 gigawatts, but very well may hit 20 gigawatts. Granted, coal still supplies 70 percent of China's energy needs, and is currently half as cheap as wind generation. But that doesn't faze Junfeng Li of the China Renewable Energy Industries Association, who wrote in a recent paper, "It is widely believed that wind power will be able to compete with coal generation by as early as 2015."
source: The Guardian
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piglet Posted 12:19 pm
31 Jul 2008
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GreyFlcn Posted 1:38 pm
31 Jul 2008
3 California wind farms featuring OLD turbine designs, with a large variety of heights, and have small quick blades, are the cause of almost all bird deaths from US wind turbines. Altamont Pass alone makes up more than half the deaths.
http://greyfalcon.net/birddeaths.png
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11935&pag ...
And on top of that, house cats, and buildings make up gigantic orders of magnitude more bird deaths per year.
Should we get rid of those too?
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=483 ...
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piglet Posted 4:39 am
01 Aug 2008
All I am saying is that before we go charging off into new technology we take into account the impact on the whole natural organic bio-diversity and eco-systems that we humans depend on for our very survival. The more we mess with Mother Nature the worse things seem to get..and the house of cards begins to collapse. We can co-exist..we just need to be more mindful of the entire picture and change our short-term thinking. Every species is relevant in its own right and deserves the same respect and understanding that we demand for ourselves. It is up to we humans to be good stewards, we are at the top of the food chain, remember. Thanks again David.
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amazingdrx Posted 5:22 am
01 Aug 2008
This is helpful on wind related bird endangerment.
I would still ilke to see an impact cushioning surface on wind machine blades. It's worth the extra cost and effort.
And webcam studies of what is actually happening regarding bird collisions with wind equipment. Bird scientists need financial support to get these studies done. The more that is known, the quicker this can be minimized.
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Warren Heath Posted 4:44 am
02 Aug 2008
It is erroneous and misleading to compare numbers of birds & bats killed in cities, with birds & bats killed in the rural areas where the turbines are located. In some regions, large numbers of rare raptors like golden eagles are being killed, it is hardly sensible to compare one golden eagle killed by a Wind Turbine in Altamont Pass, to a sparrow killed by a house cat in Los Angeles. House cats kill the weakest and smallest of birds, aiding in the natural selection process, and are balanced by the fact that many city residents, feed large numbers of birds.
Florida Power & Light Co. abruptly cut off funding for a study of wind turbine bat kills and blocked access to researchers at all of it's industrial wind turbine facilities, when it became apparent the large number of bat kills by the turbines. Sounds like industrial Wind Turbine Companies have something to hide:
"...Bats are incredibly important to humans and the ecosystem as a whole; each bat consumes approximately 2,000 insects nightly, and a lactating female bat will consume up to 3,000 insects each night..."
"... If the 900 or so turbines proposed are built within a 70-mile radius [of Mountaineer] prior to finding solutions, it's very easy to extrapolate from this data that close to 60,000 bats could be killed every year," Tuttle said. "That's very likely not an ecologically sustainable kill rate; it's urgent to find a solution..."
FPL blocks research on Bat Kills by it's Industrial Wind Turbine Facilities
Well I guess, we can just increase our use of environmentally destructive insecticides to make up for all of the dead birds and bats in rural areas.
Raptor kills by Wind Turbines in Altamont Pass
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