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RE: alternatives



In Message Mon, 1 May 2000 17:02:30 -0500 (CDT),
  Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at> writes:
>snip>
I have seen single wind turbines for instance in Denmark, <snip> The noise
was terrible. <snip> The worst
>experience is anyway the operation at the southern point of the Big Island
>of Hawaii. In a peaceful landscape one suddenly is confronted with a very
>big area covered with big wind wheels, causing a hardly standable noise and
>squeeking, rotors lying on the ground, indicating that it probably does not
>pay to repair the devices. This is environmental pollution and not the
>attocuries of I-131 per cubic-kilometer caused by nuclear power plants.

Dr. Schoenhofer's comments on wind generators is certainly true.
However, the problems he mentions are trivial. We can live with
ugliness and noise.  We urban dwellers already do.  The main
problem with wind generation is that of scale.  The same applies to
solar.  All of the solar and wind electrical plants in existence so
far are demonstration plants producing a minuscule amount of power.
To produce a significant amount of electricity (say 100's of
megawatts) requires a substantial increase in scale.  Do this and
you will significantly decrease the heating of the ground (solar)
or the local wind velocity (wind).  Has anybody determined that
this would not impact the local weather, thus the climate?  I have
my doubts.  Having lived through the flooding of an el nino and the
drought of a la nina, I am very concerned with any scheme that may
change the weather patterns of the Earth, even slightly.
**********************************************************************
William G. Nabor
University of California, Irvine
EH&S Office
Irvine, CA,  92697-2725
WGNABOR@UCI.EDU
mailto:wgnabor@uci.edu
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