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Old 05-03-2007, 12:18 PM   #1
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Default Wind farms useful but may threaten birds

AP - Wind farms could generate as much as 7 percent of U.S. electricity in 15 years, but scientists want to spend more time studying the threat those spinning blades pose to birds and bats.

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Old 09-23-2007, 11:00 PM   #2
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Way to make wind turbine more feasible found...

Novel methodology that makes wind power really green
Sept 23, 2007 : A team of Danish researchers have devised a novel method for mapping and mitigating the negative environmental impacts of wind turbines, which considers the future removal and recycling of these offshore powerhouses by 2050.
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Wind turbines are considered one of the most effective ways to harness renewable wind power. But an assessment of the finite lifespan of wind turbines and the need to replace and recycle them ought to be taken into consideration to make wind energy more feasible, the scientists say.

In their study in the current issue of International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, the trio of Per Dannemand Andersen, Mads Borup and Thomas Krogh have combined the life-cycle assessment of wind turbines and future developments in this area of renewable energy. They hope their methodology will help the wind power industry minimize any potential negative impact of their use.

"As the wind-turbine industry is relatively young, there is only a limited amount of practical experience on the removal and recycling of wind turbines. It is likely to take more than 20 years before a substantial amount of practical experience regarding the dismantling, separation, recycling, disposal, etc., of wind-power systems is gained," said Dannemand Andersen.

The present study has developed an interactive and process-oriented method for investigating the environmental impact of wind turbines removal and recycling. The team hopes that the industry will adopt their approach and so find ways to reduce any negative impacts of wind power.

Novel methodology that makes wind power really green

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Old 01-08-2008, 10:51 PM   #3
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China moving to the front in wind energy...

China seen surging to top wind turbine maker in 09
Wed Jan 9, 2008 - China will leap to be the top wind turbine producer in 2009, transforming an already fast-growing renewable energy sector, a leading wind power industry official said.
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Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), said wind could supply 12 percent of world electricity needs by 2020 against just over one percent in 2007 in a shift that would help curb climate change. "We'd expect that the domestic Chinese manufacturers will have an annual production capacity of about 10 gigawatts per year...by the end of 2009," he told Reuters on Tuesday. GWEC represents more than 1,500 wind firms in more than 50 nations.

Ten gigawatts would be more than half of the current world market -- in 2007, 17-19 gigawatts of wind energy capacity were added worldwide, raising the cumulative total to above 90 gigawatts. Denmark's Vestas is now the biggest wind turbine group. Other major producers include Spain's Gamesa, U.S. company General Electric, India's Suzlon and Enercon of Germany.

"The world total will rise well above 100 (gigawatts) in 2008 for sure," Sawyer said. Wind now provides more power than other renewable energies such as solar or biofuels. Renewables are attracting investments in a shift from fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases linked to rising temperatures, more droughts, floods and rising seas.

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Old 02-03-2008, 03:02 AM   #4
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New wind turbine design?...

470' Tall Aerogenerator Turbine Can Produce 9MW of Power
February 1, 08 - It may resemble a giant rotary washing line, but it might just help Britain meet its hugely ambitious new wind energy targets. At least that's the claim of the company developing a novel "vertical axis" wind turbine dubbed the Aerogenerator.
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The 144-metre high V-shaped structure would be mounted offshore and capable of generating up to 9 megawatts of electricity, roughly three times as much power as a conventional turbine of equivalent size. Switching to such a design could ensure that thousands fewer turbines would be needed in order to meet the government's new wind power target, says Theo Bird, founder of Windpower, the Blyth-based firm behind the new turbine. As unique as it may sound, the Aerogenerator is in fact just the latest addition to a family of wind turbines that generate power through a rotating vertical shaft as opposed to the horizontal shafts of the more familiar windmill design.

Out of reach

One of the problems with horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) is that the generators and gearboxes tend to be in an inaccessible position at the top of the structure's tower. This makes them difficult and costly to maintain, says Bird. Such designs also require gearing mechanisms to ensure they are always facing into the wind. By contrast, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) can harness the wind from any direction, allowing them to run more efficiently without the need for such mechanisms.

The idea for VAWTs has been blowing around for decades, but despite many advantages the technology has so far attracted little interest. That is about to change, according to Bird. Invented by aeronautical engineer David Sharpe, the Aerogenerator is an adaptation of the egg-whisk-shaped Darrieus wind turbine that solves a number of problems originally posed by the technology.

Not least is the ability to build giant turbines, says Neven Sidor of architectural firm Grimshaws - Windpower's collaborator and the company behind the Eden Project. A Darrieus turbine becomes unstable above a certain height. The biggest HAWTs are capable of producing 6MW of power and stand just short of 200m tall, but if you try to make them any bigger they start to become less efficient.

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Old 02-03-2008, 10:22 AM   #5
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Further studies must be made about the hazards this pose to the birds. Getting cheaper and environmentally way to generating electricity is good, but not at the cost of causing the extinction of a whole species.
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Old 02-03-2008, 12:34 PM   #6
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Perhaps they could put some sort of shield that would let the wind in, but not the birds. I think sometimes, however, that we don't give the animal kingdom enough credit. Birds are pretty smart and would no doubt adapt to their new surroundings, rather than wind up extinct IMO.
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Old 02-08-2008, 08:32 PM   #7
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China developes wind energy technology...

China's wind power generation grows phenomenally
8 Feb. `08 - China's wind power sector has generated 5.6 billion kilowatt of electricity in 2007, registering a phenomenal growth of 95 percent, the China Electricity Council has said.
Quote:
According to Zhang Guobao of the National Development and Reform Commission, China has wind power facilities with a combined installed capacity of 6.05 million kw at the end of 2007, increasing from 2.67 million kw a year earlier.

The country ranks fifth in the world in terms of installed wind power capacity. World's top wind power producer Germany has an installed capacity of 20.62 million kw.

China plans to increase its wind power equipment to a combined installed capacity of 10 million kw by 2015 and to 30 million kw by 2020.

China's wind power generation grows phenomenally
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Old 03-29-2008, 12:53 AM   #8
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Wonder if they'll get to keep it if it becomes profitable?...

Navajos to go into wind business
March 28, 2008 -- The Navajo Nation could play host to hundreds of windmills on its Arizona reservation near Flagstaff under a renewable energy plan.
Quote:
The Arizona Republic reported that the windmills, standing 400 feet tall, would be erected as part of an agreement between the Navajo Nation and Citizens Energy, a Boston company. The Dine Wind Project would be the first commercial wind farm in the Grand Canyon State, the newspaper said.

The agreement resulted from negotiations among Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., other key tribal officials and Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph Kennedy II, a former member of Congress.

Shirley said in a statement that the wind farm will "bring prosperity for the Navajo people and build our energy independence while providing jobs and other benefits for the Navajo Nation."

Navajos will have "a significant ownership stake" in developments, reaping $60 million to $100 million over the project's lifetime, the tribal statement said. The operation is planned in the Gray Mountain area, about 50 miles north of Flagstaff.

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Old 07-09-2008, 07:15 AM   #9
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T. Boone Pickens gets behind wind power...

Oil Man Champions Wind Power
July 08, 2008 - T. Boone Pickens: Oil is "one emergency we can't drill our way out of."
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Nobody can accuse T. Boone Pickens of being some wild-eyed environmentalist. He calls himself "a Texas oil man," the chair of a private equity fund called BP Capital Management. He puts his net worth at $4 billion, and he's often at the top of various lists of investment gurus. But he's been all over the media -- his name was the ninth-most-searched term on Google -- because of this: PickensPlan.

He's out to get America free of imported oil, he says, and he wants to do it with the things environmentalists dream about -- wind turbines for electricity, which would free up natural gas to run cars and trucks. He'd throw in nuclear power too, but only in the long term. "I've been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of," he says on the website. "But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil. "On January 20, 2009, a new President gets sworn in. If we're organized, we can convince Congress to make major changes towards cleaner, cheaper and domestic energy resources."

He has some unlikely allies -- for instance, Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club. "I certainly never expected to be inspecting wind operations with Pickens or to be hearing his scorn for the current political notion that we can somehow drill our way out of the oil-price crisis," writes Pope on his blog. "He's certainly likely to draw an audience that a green wind-power advocate from the Sierra Club could never command." Pickens gives a simple-looking chalk-talk in a video on the Pickens Plan website, but there's nothing simple going on here. Pickens subscribes to the idea of "peak oil," the notion that our ability to find enough will dwindle. He says the peak passed in 2005.

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Old 07-10-2008, 12:49 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by NF Reporter View Post
AP - Wind farms could generate as much as 7 percent of U.S. electricity in 15 years, but scientists want to spend more time studying the threat those spinning blades pose to birds and bats.
HAHAHA! Can we say "Darwin's Law?" Birds and bats are not so totally stupid that these "spinning blades" are going to be threat. These are not exactly jet engine turbines. I think somebody smells grant money in the air. Our monoculture crops like the millions of acres of corn grown for ethanol are a far greater threat.
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Old 07-16-2008, 06:33 PM   #11
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Post Wind Farms, Photovoltiac Solar Panels, Nuclear Fusion

Humans have the questionably-beneficial capacity to conceive of what does not and cannot exist. They also have the dubiously-laudable capacity to conceive of what does exist but cannot be completely comprehended and understood.

To conceive of what does not and cannot exist involves an illogical misalteration or misappropriation of what does exist. For example, to errantly state that the Sun is made of green cheese has the components of the Sun (which does exist) and green cheese (which also does exist) - but combining them into an obviously faulty proposition is clearly absurd. Similarly, to state that "God" had no beginning and will have no ending is possible semantically for a human to utter, but to understand what cannot be measured as to no starting and no finishing is not only impossible but irritating if there is persistent-enough attempt to comprehend such an incomprehensible fact.

The question of which came first: the chicken, or the egg? - is logically an easy one to answer, being that the egg is a entity of reproduction and not production. When weighing the importance of whether philosophy of religion or religion of philosophy is more important, it should be clear that religion is of supreme importance over not only philosophy but all forms of changeable-theories science:

1Co 2:15 The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called science.

Pertaining to contemplating the actual source of all origins in the scientific search for all possible and reasonably-credible references to such Source, the genuine scientist eventually discovers what is contained in the contents of The HOLY BIBLE pertaining to the source of entity origins:

Ps 14:1 . . .The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good.

Why does David call atheists, agnostics, and Darwinian evolutionists: "fools?"

First of all, he calls them fools because the entity of someone they purport to not believe in (i.e. God) is [religiously!] being suggested by themselves to exist! As Jesus put it:

Mt 26:25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Is it I, Master?" He said to him, "You have said so."
Mt 26:64 Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Mt 27:11 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so."

Second, he calls them fools because of the logical necessity of intelligently-designed entities by default having been brought into existence by an Intelligent Designer, and obviously-created phenomena of necessity having been brought into existence by - logically - a Creator:

Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Ex 20:11 for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
Isa 42:5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it
Isa 45:12 I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
Isa 45:18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Ro 1:20 Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;
Col 1:16 for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him.
Heb 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.
Re 4:11 "Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created."

When atheists or Darwinian evolutionists are asked about what lifeforms evolved from, their preliminary answer might be: Mother Earth. But if they are pressed to suggest where "Mother Earth" came from, they might continue on to purport that Earth was a molten-lava spinoff from the Sun, which itself was one of countless fragments spreading out from some alleged "Big Bang" explosion from some supposedly "central" location in the universe. As to a query of where the Big-Bang material came from, their answers frequently consist of either one of two not merely illogical but impossible explanations:

1. What exists has always existed, or
2. We do not know (and do not really care to find out).

Why Explanation #1 is aberrant is that it presumes (not "assumes") that what exists is itself the no-beginning source of what exists, and thus is proposterous and blasphemous idolatry, making out the created as also the Creator, contrary to:

Ro 9:20 But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me thus?"
Ro 1:25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
1Ti 1:4 nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith

Why Explanation #2 is faulty is because there is a scientifically-congruent Sourcebook clearly stating the Source of the heavens and earth and all therein:

Col 1:15 [The Son of God, Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation
16 for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
2Pe 3:5 They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water,
6 through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
Heb 1:1 In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets;
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
8 But of the Son he says, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom.
10 And, "Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of thy hands;

The word "evolution" implies two incorrect deviations:

1) that animate (and by evolutive association: inanimate) entities exceeded their reproductive or source-based parameters and characteristics, which falsity violates:

Job 11:12 But a stupid man will get understanding, when a wild ass's colt is born a man.

2) that animate (and by evolutive association: inanimate) entites became animated (or inanimated) and into existence by themselves....contrary to:

Isa 45:9 "Woe to him who strives with his Maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it, 'What are you making'? or 'Your work has no handles'?
Isa 45:10 Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in travail?'"

In verifiable historical and scientific reality, it should be clear to you the reader that neither 1) nor 2) have ever occurred, are now occurring, nor probably ever will occur......even once!

TO ANY DEGREE NOR IN ANY WAY - whether in large, miniscule, gradual, or sudden form and appearance.

To use contemporary conventional terms, there has never been, is not now, nor ever will be ANY macro-evolution NOR "micro-evolution."

It is at this point that this webpage author must express profound disappointment and embarrassment against some creationist advocates, especially those who refer to Holy Writ in their defense of creationism along with their attack against evolutionism.

Why such partially-faithless and somewhat-cowardly creationists have equated variation and adaptation within different created kinds with "microevolution" (by definition being "incremental minute evolution on an infinistesmal scale") is lamentably pitiful and pathetic. Perhaps they presume that partly patronizing the virulent public-school-authority and Herodian-like legal-nitpicker proponents of evolutionism will get their creationism foot in the door wherever and whenever. As a result, confusion is caused, and NO one is happy. "Micro-evolution" is the WRONG word to use pertaining to within-kinds variations (resulting from new random combinations of genes occurring in lifeform-reproduction offspring but within specie limitations and parameters!), along with within-kinds adaptations occurring in lifeform-reproduction offspring (resulting from new and reproduced characteristics caused by differing environmental factors but within specie limitations and parameters!).

- RONGWIRD
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Old 07-27-2008, 08:41 PM   #12
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The answer is blowin' in the wind...

Wind power: A reality check
July 24, 2008: Plans are afoot to prod the nation into using much more renewable energy. Can it be done, and what's the cost?
Quote:
High-profile personalities have been telling the nation to ditch that dirty fossil fuel and turn to renewable energy. T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oilman, has been hitting the airwaves, pitching a plan to use wind to replace all the natural gas that's used to produce electricity, then using that saved natural gas to fuel cars.

In addition to weaning the nation from foreign oil, Pickens' plan is not entirely altruistic. He's investing hundreds of millions of dollars on a giant wind farm in the Texas panhandle, and his hedge fund, BP Capital, is said to own stakes in several companies that equip cars to run on natural gas. If his energy efforts pan out, he could get even richer in the process.

Then there's Al Gore. The former U.S. vice president and Nobel Prize winner said last week that electricity generation should be completely fossil-fuel free in 10 years. The question is, are these plans realistic or just dreams?

"It's not out of the realm of technical feasibility," said Chris Namovicz, a renewable energy analyst at the government's Energy Information Agency. "But they come with pretty significant price tags." The order is indeed tall.

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