When the spring winds blow, the howling through the trees and the chimes of the patio bells drown out the call of the garden so that I can listen to the world's discussions on many matters, including -- wind! Wind power, to be precise, and wind farms.
I had no idea that those scatterings of wind turbines on the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco were called farms. When a new turbine is installed they even call it a planting. Altamont is the wind farm I am most familiar with, but now I've seen photos of much more beautiful and even brilliant settings for these harnessers of wind energy, such as tulip fields in The Netherlands.
Turbines neatly lined up along a canal or placed here and there among what is primarily a tulip farm don't impress me the way they do when spread over hills that would ordinarily be drab without them. In those cases, like the slopes in California that in summer turn golden brown -- or a brown that is just plain dull -- the wind turbines grace the slopes with dynamic art.I haven't taken the time to exit the freeway and drive to a good vantage point, but I think that one man who did got some lovely pictures that capture the beauty. The most artistic photographs cost more than I'm willing to pay for permission.
Several colorful photos are on the Pattern Energy site, gorgeous shots of their turbines at installations in Manitoba, Nevada, California and Texas. And some of these pages I'm linking to tell the stories of wind farm controversy in more depth than I will, so you might like to visit them for that reason, too.
The problem with the turbines is that they kill birds. The ones on the Altamont Pass kill more raptors than any other wind farm in the world, including the protected Golden Eagles, of which the world's largest breeding population lives in this area.
This article explains that worldwide the deaths from wind turbines are a small fraction of total bird deaths from run-ins with manmade structures such as office buildings, power lines and our houses; who hasn't experienced the dismay of hearing a small bird hitting - whack! - against a window? Even nuclear and fossil-fuel plants kill more birds than these converters of wind energy.
But it has been found that the more modern wind turbines, which are taller and slower, kill a much smaller number of raptors. So the old ones are being replaced. Bird and bat mortality are the topics of this site, annoyingly formatted but with useful links and an explanation of why Altamont wind turbines have been particularly deadly for birds.
Driving along Interstate 5 in California, we more than once have passed a truck carrying one turbine blade. These things are huge! Here is a photo of a "re-planting" of a turbine.
6 comments:
Those pictures are lovely, with rectangles of colourful growing tulips! ♥ Yes, I am sad to hear about these wind turbines and know they kill birds, I think there are better ways of harnessing energy. From the sun, especially! My husband would really like to get some solar panels.
I also think they are beautiful in a rather slim-line, modern way -- elegant and tall. I don't like whole clusters of them though. There was a bit stink in W.Va. about them, and I think there has been a brouhaha here in eastern NC also. Nobody seems to want them in their own back yards, so to speak. I've heard that they are rather loud. I wonder if that's true? The fact is, there's no easy or free source of energy; all forms have a price.
Hubby and I went through a wind farm when driving through Colorado a couple months ago. Fascinating. The tulip fields in all their glory are beautiful, but so's the brown background with the white art forms.
We have wind farms all over eastern Washington, and as we drive by them they cause me to think of an invading army. Huge, and alien. The size of the wind turbines is deceptive when they are seen from afar, but when you see a truck parked at the base of one you realize how truly huge they are.
The wind turbines pictured near the tulip fields is awesome. The tulip fields look afar like colorful quilts.
Some of the most striking wind turbines I have seen were in Spain across the southern countryside. Such modern structures in an antique country made a lasting image. Wind turbines were recently rejected here in Guam because cost, upkeep, and location were too overwhelming compared to the amount of energy they would produce.
These look similar to the ones we saw in Oklahoma. Similar country, too. They are starkly beautiful but are scary, too. They look so unnatural sticking WAY up high over the landscape. I much prefer the old style ones in Holland.
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