Mr. Sandman
10-08-2002, 11:28 AM
I am dead against it for a number of reasons.
1) The cost will be big-dig like.
2) the upkeep will be mind boggleing
3) the cost/kilowatt will be out of sight. (they refuse to tell you what the cost per kilowatt will be...if they did I think it would collapse upon itself
4) it will not produce that much energy about 2% of MA demand
5) ugly
6) noisey
7) looks like a nightmare to maintain
8) I think this is based more on politics then energy needs
9) huge oppertunity for fraud and abuse
10) Most of the people pushing it have little knowledge of energy systems.
being a geek engineer, and having done research on wave energy devices in the 1970s-and early '80s, I can tell you the energy denisty of solar based energy generation devices (including wind mills) are very low and you need to cover very large areas with very expensive equipment to generate enough energy. This type of thing is best suited for small remote outposts where the cost per kilowatt can be justified. Most wind mill's don't last too long in the marine climate either. NASA had one on BI in the 1970's and they ended up removing it and putting in a bigger deisel generator. They had a serious fatigue problem in the blades and were concerned about losing one. Further it was noisey as hell. (more so the the generator....)
The best thing about windmills are the fed tax breaks....that is about it.
Just my opinion but if you ever get the chance you should vote NO.
1) The cost will be big-dig like.
2) the upkeep will be mind boggleing
3) the cost/kilowatt will be out of sight. (they refuse to tell you what the cost per kilowatt will be...if they did I think it would collapse upon itself
4) it will not produce that much energy about 2% of MA demand
5) ugly
6) noisey
7) looks like a nightmare to maintain
8) I think this is based more on politics then energy needs
9) huge oppertunity for fraud and abuse
10) Most of the people pushing it have little knowledge of energy systems.
being a geek engineer, and having done research on wave energy devices in the 1970s-and early '80s, I can tell you the energy denisty of solar based energy generation devices (including wind mills) are very low and you need to cover very large areas with very expensive equipment to generate enough energy. This type of thing is best suited for small remote outposts where the cost per kilowatt can be justified. Most wind mill's don't last too long in the marine climate either. NASA had one on BI in the 1970's and they ended up removing it and putting in a bigger deisel generator. They had a serious fatigue problem in the blades and were concerned about losing one. Further it was noisey as hell. (more so the the generator....)
The best thing about windmills are the fed tax breaks....that is about it.
Just my opinion but if you ever get the chance you should vote NO.