By the way... if these things do go up... which way are they going to be blowing the wind, WHEN, there is wind to blow ?? Away from, or towards Tyrone ???sandstone wrote:The amount of oil consumed in the transportation of coal from mines to coalplants is a miniscule fraction of the total oil consumed in the USA. Using your logic, we'd also need to consider the oil used to transport the industrial wind turbine nacelles and gears from Spain, the masts from Bucks County, and the blades from Ebensburg.banksy wrote:No effect at all? Are there any coal fueled elecricity providers in PA? How do those providers get the coal from the mine to the generation plant where it is burned to produce electricity.sandstone wrote:Industrial windplants will have no effect on our consumption of oil. Windfarms produce only electricity. Less than 2% of the oil used in the US is used to produce electricity. The US actually exports more oil than it uses to produce electricity. Industrial windfarms will have no effect on our consumption of oil, foreign or domestic.SMOKEJUMPER wrote:at what point do we say enough is enough. with the price of gas increasing,natural gas going up when do we say we had it with corporate greed. all we do is complain about the prices but are willing to do nothing about it. to me if we are not willing to some consesions we will be at the mercy of the rich oilmen.
The huge ecological costs of converting Ice Mountain into an industrial windplant far exceed the puny benefits that this windplant would provide. The ecological costs consist of direct mortality to birds and bats (in forested settings, each industrial wind turbine kills 50-100 bats annually), forest fragmentation (Ice Mountain is designated as a County Natural Heritage Area of Exceptional Significance in the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory done under the direction of the Blair County Planning Commission), and the inducement of avoidance behavior in wildlife (Ice Mountain is part of the Allegheny Front, a major migratory corridor that was designated as an Important Bird Area by the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, a scientific body that provides impartial advice to the Commonwealth's conservation agencies).
With 30 industrial-scale wind turbines, the electricity produced by this windplant will be minscule: each turbine is rated at 2 MegaWatts, but land-based windplants east of the Mississippi River have been unable to exceed 30% of their rated capacity, so the total power output of this windplant consisting of 30 turbines spread over 5-8 miles will be a mere 20 MegaWatts. Compare this to the 2,300 MegaWatt Limerick nuclear power plant that occupies 200 acres just outside Philadelphia. Pennsylvania has 5 nuclear power plants that are able to provide a combined 10,000 MegaWatts of power.
Please re-read all of the previous post above this post. Please click on some of the sites within some of the posts. There is some very good information concerning the pros and cons of this situation. Most are not in favor of this. On down the road, if they put these things up, they are going to find out that this was a HUGE mistake !!! Solar power is going to be the thing of the future. California is already doing it without any problems. Also, the Pentagon is now, doing a new study concerning a satellite system that collects gigawatts worth of solar power and beams it back to earth... it's a fantastic new idea and it is working !!! They just have to iron out some kinks. With solar power you don't have to count on the "wind" and the sun doesn't have to be shining. You don't have to cut down trees from a mountainside or build gigantic roads. Once solar power is in place, it will cost us nothing for our power/energy.... sunshine is free... what more could we ask for ???
Do you realize in order to put up just one of these wind turbines.... ENORMOUS roads have to be built in order to get the main body of the windmill itself into the area that it is to sit..... then an ENORMOUS area has to be cleared away for each turbin to stand. The cost of this project is going to be outrageous... and it's going to be personified politics at it's utmost. If there were a national disaster (heaven forbid) at the right time, in the right place... would you want those windmills blowing that contaminated air your way ??? When all is said and done, in about 10 years, these things are going to be a thing of the past and we are going to be left with an eyesore!!! Yes, we need to do something... the world needs to do something. Sunshine is free... solar power is the future.