January 3 2015 - Wind Turbine Collapses in Northern Ireland

I didn't see this make the news anywhere in the US, or maybe I missed it.

We can't have bad news about wind power generation floating around in the media can we? If a similar situation presented itself during drilling or fracking we all know it would be covered and smothered on every "news" channel.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-30667411

At least no one got hurt.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Lilli on January 7, 2015 at 7:47pm
I spent my first three years at PSU in NUCE Then transferred to a different college to study AME. I do still have a love for nuclear science and the industry and wish we would do more on that front. I believe with the brilliant minds around the world, someone can figure out how to make it work and manage waste.

We are still in the infancy of passive energy collection (solar, wind tidal, etc) so, I don't think the first two are efficient enough to be considered direct replacements for fossil. If you hold a jar of gasoline or liter of nat gas, you realize you just can't replace the BTU's any other way and convert it to work (run cars, mowers, chainsaws, tractors etc) any more efficiently right now.

I have a personal experience with one individual who invented the Fracking material for a very large Petro chemical company. I trust the stuff is not as bad as the activists make it out to be but acknowledge some of the pitfalls. Again though, we gotta eat, we gotta move around this country and we must grow and the most efficient way right now is to consume fossil. I also don't think we need to solve the worlds problems in eight years. God knows my father's generation left us with some problems ($18T worth and $100T un unfunded liabilities) no doubt we will leave our kids challenges too (although I have no kids).

My concern at the sunset of my life is, life is getting more and more complicated and expensive, the time I should be getting ahead, I seem, now with taxes and all the new regulations and restrictions placed on our society, To be falling behind rather than get ahead.

We have a lease with a gas company (a really bad one) that I hope will yield me a modest stipend some day. The O&G industry was a god send to the northern Central part of PA. I Trust that there are a lot of smart people in the industry and guys like yourself will help the industry stay careful and safe.
Permalink Reply by Dan Warner on January 7, 2015 at 10:11pm

Thanks for the support.  I was feeling a bit beleaguered.

The Clampetts are 'all riled up and lookin' fer a feud'.

But seriously, the events I'm relating here are only the highlights.

I've struggled all my life to stay here in rural WV; to raise my (6) kids here.  I grew up in industry, working in forestry, trucking, construction, and yes, O&G.  I understand that there's no going back, only forward.

I also know of the deception and corruption that has been a part of O&G since they were discovered.  I grew up listening to my father tell of the company reps coming around, post-depression, waving $100 bills under the noses of farmers like his father, many of whom hadn't seen paper money for years, and locking them into what amounted to a life-long lease for next to nothing.They then proceeded to pump tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of O&G, sending thelandowner a check for 10-12 dollars every 6 months.

I've stood by while a landman lied to a landowner, then laughed about it after he walked away.

In my experience with shale, I was first called Landowner when the abstractors found me.  When I didn't respond quickly enough for them, my name became Defendant.  So I became Lessor, and recently, while on a visit to the Assessor's office for some maps, it was changed again, this time to Taxpayer.

If anything is "filthy" it's O&G, both literally and figuratively.

As to the nuclear option (pun intended), I believe that it has a future, but from a construction point-of-view, I worry about cost-cutting.  I believe,as you do, that the reactors could be built to be fail-safe, but competitive bidding scares me to death.

One project that comes to mind is a suspension bridge that was being constructed across the Ohio River.  It was (is) a four-lane bridge a mile long.  More than halfway through the project, it was discovered that the contractor was found to be using under-rated suspension cable.  Fortunately, it was discovered before the bridge was opened, averting unimaginable loss of life and property, but it was nevertheless catastrophic for the area. Completion of the much-needed bridge was set back by ~ a year, not to mention the extra cost of removing the cable already installed.  A definite down-side to competition.

I'm not an idealist, but I can't stand a sell-out either.

Permalink Reply by Thomas Lilli on January 8, 2015 at 5:24am
Isn't all that human nature though. There's not bad people in every walk of life, their just people and people are flawed.

On thing that confuses me though is, knowing all this, seeing it first hand, some still believe (hope not to step on toes here) that, if we just empower government enough, they will fix things for us so we won't have to worry about it.

It confounds me because I dont, for the life of me, understand why anyone would believe that, once people become elected officials, they automatically become virtuous. They're not, in fact, I think that elected officials corrupt much more easily than an industrialist. Anyway, I think the answer lies in people solving problems sans the heavy hand of big brother. We still have the best legal system in the world giving the individual rights that exists no where else on the planet (for now). We just have to somehow take a longer view about so many things.

Oh well, it's off to work I go and as for vitriol, In my little town, from an industrialist prospective, I get tons of it when I try to advocate something that erks the environmentalists. I think there is enough to go around. no one is pure.
Permalink Reply by David Perotto on January 8, 2015 at 5:41am

Citing tax subsidies is simply not accurate. One place to see these accounting rules here:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/oil-subsidies-renewable...
These 4 billion in tax rule breaks are more than offset by the extraction taxes this industry pays. The oil and gas industry trial taxes pays is enormous and to say otherwise is a misrepresentation of facts. Solar and wind are recipients of true subsidies.

Permalink Reply by Dan Warner on January 8, 2015 at 5:14pm

Smoke and mirrors; creative accounting.

Article

Permalink Reply by craig on January 8, 2015 at 5:25pm

"Smoke and mirrors; creative accounting."

This is even more true with 'alternative energies'.

Permalink Reply by Dan on January 8, 2015 at 6:32am
"Whales communicate infrasonically, so do submarines. Guess they gotta go, too."

Whales......Not under coastal wind turbines they don't. Shipping lanes have been moved to ease the under water noise from passing ships so marine life isn't harmed, but then the idiots put windmills in the water that is way louder and never stops making noise unless the wind stops. Water transmits sound way better then air.
Permalink Reply by Dan Warner on January 8, 2015 at 5:02pm

"...there are discrete benefits to wind turbines for marine life. The presence of wind turbines would most likely provide “safe havens” for marine life in the sense that commercial fishing (or nearly any boat traffic) would not be permitted in wind turbine fields. So, when compared to the amount of repair vessels used on the turbines, marine life in these areas might actually be safer in terms of colliding with ships."

Article

Permalink Reply by Dan on January 8, 2015 at 11:23pm
"Few studies have measured the short-term effects of wind farms on marine life and none have measured their long-term effects. However, there will be one such study later this year. The study will occur off the coast of Maryland, where microphones will be anchored to the ocean floor and record two years worth of whale sounds. The hope is to use these recordings to create better strategies for eliminating manmade noise that disrupts communication between whales."

same Article

Aside from wood and early coal, what energy source has been harnessed in America that first hasn't had numerence impact studies done. It is pure ludicress that windmills that are known to produce noise over great distances are accepted and permitted because they look pretty and make for warm fuzzy feeling pictures. I drive by mountain ridge wind farms in WV several times each year. Hardly see them spinning and in storms when the brakes are working the sound is far greater. If you get close enough the signs warn of the flinging ice danger. It's not just breaking parts that can hit you, every ice storm creates a possible danger. Quite some time ago someone posted pics they took of the Allegheny wind farm in PA as they were flying over asking what caused the massive brown and black staining in the snow that traveled down wind of each windmill for several hundred yards. No one ever had an answer. Doesn't seem you can grind up that many birds in the winter with one. My guess is the dirty secret of windmills is the amount of petroleum based grease that every windmill spews out each year to keep it lubricated. I guess it's worth it to add 4.5% to the grid even though the coal plant was burning full speed ahead and the 4.5% wasn't used anyway. Makes for great calendar pictures, even goes with hot air balloons cuddly bears.
Permalink Reply by Dan Warner on January 9, 2015 at 1:34am

I'm sorry, I don't see your point, regarding the excerpt.  

Impact studies in the 1800's - that's a hoot.

"In Canada and other cold locales, the turbines have heating elements because they anticipate the cold,"

Are you on public property when you are in the 'ice kill' zone? Plenty of danger signs around wells, etc.  

The mills don't "grind up", the critters, they just kill' em.

Grease?  The environmentalists would never notice that would they?  Wouldn't it be evident from the ground?  Despite Mr. Walker's characterization of them, they tend to have a squeaky clean appearance.  If it's 'spewing ' lubricant, it'll be running down the side of it.  

Could it be they were seeing bare earth where the wake of the rotors scrubbed the ground?  

The offshore projects could as much as quadruple the nation's output.  (I'll regret that one)

Article

In Texas; how embarassing.

 

Permalink Reply by Dan on January 9, 2015 at 8:30am
Permalink Reply by Dan on January 9, 2015 at 8:34am

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