Wind Turbines Cause Bats to Explode

Wind projects have been encountering a pesky problem – exploding bats. (Not kidding). The environmental sciences have come up with an ingenious solution – shut down the wind turbines! (Really, I’m not kidding). So now that we’ve solved that problem (saving bats by shutting down wind turbines) we’re all set to mandate more wind energy. (Huh?) Here’s the article:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/23/wind-turbine-advocates-test-a-solution-to-explodin/

Personally, I'd prefer the bats over the windmills - at least bats are useful in that they eat bugs. But what the story really exposes is the disconnect between legitimate environmentalists (those trying to save the bats) and the illegitimate environmentalists (those trying to peddle windmills.)

Wind power, like solar power, in the power industry, is considered a joke; it only generates energy around 15% of the time in the best of circumstances (whereas power customers expect 24-hour service) and almost never during the period of peak demand, and is many times more expensive than conventional energy sources (gas, coal, hydro, nuclear, etc.)

So, as the engineer for a non-profit cooperative, whose main concern is to provide the best service to my customers for the least cost, it galls me to be asked (or worse, forced) to buy unreliable but expensive energy and then in turn force the members of my cooperative to pay extra for it. It is simply immoral.

As for creative painting, my experience is that paint doesn't stick to steel poles very well, so it's much better to leave them either plain galvanized or self weathering. I'm attaching a photo that I took of a power line with steel poles to illustrate that very point. As you can imagine, not very many people are volunteering to get up on the steel pole between the wires, energized at 345,000 volts, to repaint the structures.