MidAmerican Energy Company - From the Ground Up: Building our energy future, one turbine at a time
I don't know that I like these giant wind turbines. It's all very nice that we're getting electricity for 'free', but that is a big, expensive piece of equipment. You would need to generate a great deal of electricity to pay for such a big machine. I supposed they work out eventually, I mean once you set them up they don't require a great deal of attention, so in ten or twenty or a hundred years they should pay for themselves, assuming of course they generate enough electricity to pay for the interest on the loan. Interest rates are low these days, so maybe now is a good time to build them.
A second problem is you are still getting your electricity from a giant soulless corporation and you are going to be subject to all the problems you get with that arrangement, like blackouts and brownouts and getting your power shut off because you failed to pay your bill. On the other hand, all you have to do is pay your bill. No fussing with generators and wind storms and construction contractors.
The last problem is birds. There was some noise about birds getting killed by older, smaller wind turbines. Then we got these big ones and people said that it wouldn't be as big a problem because look how slow they are turning. Yes, the RPM's are low, but the speed of the tips of the blades is still very high, maybe even higher than the old ones, so I could see how there could still be a problem. But maybe all the stupid birds have been killed off so now we only have birds who are smart enough to avoid these things.
Via Posthip Scott.
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