Windmills are not healthy for bats, eagles and other flying things.


The giant Bird Cuisinarts are at it again. Only this time they’re killing bats. Well, a bat, but an endangered bat.

Windmills stopped at night after bat death

Thirty-five windmills at a western Pennsylvania wind farm have been silenced at night since a bat that belongs to an endangered species was found dead under one of the turbines.

The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown is reporting the farm shut down the windmills overnight after the Indiana bat was found Sept. 26.

Shut it down at night. That’s a terrific idea. Wind’s main problem is that it is inconsistent, intermittent and generally unreliable. So where is our green energy going to come from at night?

Solar. At night. Really.

A solar energy plant generates power through the night

This is accomplished by redirecting the heat from the sun and storing it in a tank. In order to keep the plant going 24 hours, the engineers used molten salt instead of oil to product pressurized steam in the turbine, which is apparently more efficient.

Molten salt?

Back to wind energy and its detrimental effects on flying creatures: If you’re an oil operator and your operations accidentally kill a (non-endangered) duck, you can be criminally prosecuted, regardless of whether you’re negligent. But since wind energy is “environmentally friendly”, who cares if a few endangered bats or protected eagles become, um, collateral damage?

Absurdity aside, this prosecution is all the more remarkable because the wind industry each year kills not 28 birds, or even a few hundred, but some 440,000, according to estimates by the American Bird Conservancy based on Fish and Wildlife Service data. Guess how many legal actions the Obama Administration has brought against wind turbine operators under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act? As far as we can tell, it’s zero. At the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area Northern California, some 5,000 wind turbines each year kill scores of golden and bald eagles, which are highly protected under federal law. There have been no federal prosecutions, though NextEra Energy Resources has agreed to purchase new turbines that are less likely to harm birds.

The wind industry is even seeking a formal legal waiver to shield it from the type of criminal or civil action that the oil companies now face.

[Emphasis added.]

The BP spill killed some 6,200 birds, and pictures of oiled pelicans were probably the #1 image, in terms of emotional impact on the average media consumer. With sympathetic media and an environmental movement willing to look the other way, we’ll not be seeing dead bats or birds on the nightly news any time soon.

By the way, wind energy provides about 2% of current electrical generating capacity, and less than 1% of our total energy budget.

H/T dennism

Cross-posted at stevemaley.com.



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18 Comments Leave a comment

Wind turbines are hideous.

usadying (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 5:49PM EDT (link)

I traveled in Germany last year, and the beautiful southern farmland was full of the ugly things. Half of them weren’t working. It would be one thing if they provided a lot of energy, but between the unreliability and their inefficiency, they are a worthless alternative. They only line GE’s pockets.

there's a good chance the ones that are turning aren't wired to the grid

Next93 (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:57PM EDT (link)

Here in minnesota, the dems in the legislature made a deal with the power company to allow them to store more spent nuclear fuel, in exchange for putting up windmills across the state. Thing is, the agreement didn’t say anything about wiring them.

Rumor in the EE community is that only a handful are wired to the grid, the rest are just for show. Since I first heard that, i’ve been looking for the kind of wires that carry high voltage levels coming into windmills, and i’ve yet to see any (and no, you can’t bury high voltage lines)

Obama was The One in 2008.
He’ll be a BIGGER one in 2012.

 
 

WasAginIt ThenForIt NowAginItAgain

notpropagandized Wednesday, October 19th at 5:57PM EDT (link)

Admittedly, very conservative, and don’t like wind turbines swatting raptors out of the air. Cease! Raptor reproduction is not strong enough to justify the kill-off, and twice annual migration creates big exposure to those long-armed wind turbines.

But not so concerned about bats. Their numbers and habitat are huge.

 

On the other hand er wing

altexas Wednesday, October 19th at 6:01PM EDT (link)

Think of the damage these nasty little flying rodents and the remnants of the failed dinosaur regime do to those peaceful green wind generators. Let evolution teach them who is superior.

 

Solar will certainly occur at night.

wennejunk (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:02PM EDT (link)

Once the molten salt spills cause some other kind of environmental fiasco, we’ll simply begin importing all our solar energy on transmission lines from the other side of the world during the night.

Lessee….probably have to come through Russia and the Aleutians , probably originally from the Gobi desert or maybe from Australia across the Pacific.

I got it! We can import it all from the deserts of the middle east!

No worries. At least we wont be using those horrible, incredibly efficient fossil fuels and then Gaia’s blood will finally be safe from the parasitic vermin known as man.

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ -C. S. Lewis

Molten salt is near 1500 F. Can't imagine that to be an engineering challenge. nt

Steve Maley (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:19PM EDT (link)

&

The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.

Who is nuttier,

Flagstaff (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 9:56PM EDT (link)

the greenies or the spineless politicians who won’t stand up to them?

Buffett Rule #1: “Tax rates don’t matter if you don’t pay your taxes”
– Unnamed tax adviser to Warren Buffett, Leavenworth, KS, 2011
Buffett Rule #2: “A parrot in every pot and two Volts in every garage”– Jimmy Buffett, at a seance in Margaritaville, 1977

 
 
 

Party of Death

Crash71234 Wednesday, October 19th at 6:07PM EDT (link)

Liberals love to kill…anything. Birds, bats and babies.

I disagree with liberals.

 

They're all over west Texas,

texas214 (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:09PM EDT (link)

and sitting still during the summer when it’s 105* and not a breath of wind in site. The most useless things in the world when we have the highest need for electricity.

Same thing happens in wintertime after a blue norther blows thru & winds go dead calm. nt

Steve Maley (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:18PM EDT (link)

*

The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.

OTOH, in some storms, you may see this:

streetwise (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:55PM EDT (link)

http://youtu.be/T2x7u4GAqPc

 
 
 

Caution, this windmill killing bird is disturbing

Common_Cents (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 6:11PM EDT (link)

http://youtu.be/jwVz5hdAMGU

Democrats, the party of cold blooded killers.

“Fathom the hypocrisy of a Government
that requires every citizen to prove
they are insured…. but not everyone
must prove they are a citizen.”
-Ben Stein

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”[especially in DC] – Friedrich Nietzsche

 

my green energy investment

Next93 (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 7:02PM EDT (link)

I’m heavily invested in hamsters.

Actually, I only have two, but if you know hamsters, you know that that’s a potentially HUGE investment.

Best thing is, they’ll work for popcorn, so you can use the same fields for ethanol production and hamster power.

Obama was The One in 2008.
He’ll be a BIGGER one in 2012.

I'm fond of solar-powered ham sandwichs.

Xasteius (Diary) Thursday, October 20th at 12:49AM EDT (link)

If you think I’m nuts, try growing a pig without the sun.

Don’t leave the party, hijack it back!

The only poll that counts is the one at the ballot box.

I don’t want to be Reagan. I want to be a Chance/Soros hybrid.

 
 

And we are building a brand new windmill farm in Anchorage..

snowshooze (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 7:13PM EDT (link)

On fire island. A few years ago, I was interested in doing the maintnance through my company, I did my homework and found out the whole project was sealed up tight… no local vendors… everything from the German firm who would handle the sale, installatoin and maintnance.
Nothing for the local Native guy…
All sewed up.
So, soon, we should be processing Bald Eagles.
If those guys think they can pull into town, run the whole game and head on out with the money in their pockets, I will be the first to film our Eagles being blended. Minced. Diced…. whatever.
But the big thing is… it is a stupid project. The only guys making money are the Germans in this case.
That our Native Corporation fell for it is insanity. They’ll hemorrage money all the way untill the removal and environmental reclamation is complete, and not a single windmill remains…
I guess they don’t call us dumb natives for nothing.
Kill the Fire Island Windmill Project.

I like windmills because they kill birds

kyle8 (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 7:15PM EDT (link)

filthy flying rats.

“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle

 
 

Perspective

Return to Revolution (Diary) Wednesday, October 19th at 7:52PM EDT (link)

>>Absurdity aside, this prosecution is all the more remarkable because the wind industry each year kills not 28 birds, or even a few hundred, but some 440,000<<

Now some perspective from a recent wapo article on the topic:
Wind farms currently kill far fewer birds than the estimated *100 million* that fly into glass buildings, or up to *500 million* killed yearly by cats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/wind-farms-under-fire-for-bird-kills/2011/08/25/gIQAP0bVlJ_story.html

The stupidity of the left is beyond staggering.

Out of hand Constitutional fetishist

 

I say fire'em up and let evolution take it's course...

anotherindyfilmguy (Diary) Thursday, October 20th at 1:29AM EDT (link)

Eventually the birds and bats will figure out not to run into those things the way squirrels and deer around my neck of the woods have figured out that cars will kill them…

Seriously, any greenie/lefty/darwinist should be all for evolution moving forward… otherwise they’re hypocrites in my opinion…

Razz Etc!
“Best Poker book written ever!!!” – Author’s unbiased opinion…