Wind farming isn't feasible here
www.roanoke.com 16 June 2011
Wind farming Appalachia is a bad idea. Windmills are ugly. They look like a very tall weed growing up from the mountain forest, like something outer space brought here from the movie “War of the Worlds.” The construction alone will destroy the mountainsides like strip mining.
Where is the public outrage? Are we so money hungry? Do we not care what our mountains look like?
The public is being deceived. In 2006, the wind energy industrial complex left the Roanoke Valley. Its studies revealed wind farming was not feasible here. So, why is this issue mysteriously returning?
Forcing a wind farm on the taxpayers of Roanoke County will result in higher utility bills for electricity, paying for the investment of the wind energy industrial complex. The Danes were led to believe wind farms were good. Now, knowing differently, they are protesting them.
I worked on large alternators/generators for 41 years. They will eventually mechanically fail. Hydroelectric and ground-mounted generators are not a problem. Here in the mountains, on top of a 278-foot tower, meltdown of molten metal and plastics will burn the mountains. Like the Danes, we will suffer the consequences of our deception.
NOAH TICKLE
ROANOKE COUNTY
No good reason for a wind farm
There has been a lot of propaganda from both sides relative to the proposed Poor Mountain wind farm project, or any other wind farm for that matter. Since there are existing wind farms and have been for many years, it would seem that if they were viable it should not even be arguable. The only conclusion is that they are unproven at best and a total failure at worst.
A logical process is simply to list all of the reasons for a wind farm, reasons against, and make a decision. So here goes. Reasons for: 1. Federal government subsidies and a temporary benefit to the local economy as the project is completed. 2. The contractor makes big bucks.
Reasons against: Every other possible aspect of the project, including long-term maintenance, noise, airplane flight patterns, destruction to the environment, unreliable and dubious source of power still requiring traditional backup and any other issue having anything to do with the actual performance and viability of the project. And this is being debated?
M.J. SMITH
ROANOKE
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/16/wind-farming-isnt-feasible-here/