N.J. looking to wind turbines for renewable energy

[ramapo]

"New Jersey is known for the smokestacks dotting its turnpike, the malls consuming its suburbs, and the boardwalks along its shores. But a new vista could be in the state's future."

"Windmills could rise 20 or 30 stories tall in New Jersey's skies sometime in the next five years, with spinning blades rising from the ocean along scenic Cape May or turbines towering over the trees in the mountains of Warren County..."


"The proposals face all manner of obstacles - from ecologists worried that the blades could become bird Cuisinarts, to wealthy oceanfront property owners crying foul over the change in their postcard views."

<http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2NDQ3NDkzJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==>

Sounds like the argument up in Massachusetts...

These farms would be situated at least a few miles offshore. I'd rather see windmills than oil rigs, another nuke, or fossil-fuel burner. NIMBY has to stop at some point.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

1. Bird Cuisinarts?

Please - let's kill this myth once and for all. There is pleanty of good. peer reviewed science that says "avian impacts" are a non issue. What we need to be more concerned with is avian mortality from conventional coal plants. Don't even get me going on cats! Cats kill more birds each year than most other sources combined (my cat is probably responsible for half these...)

The one place that gives wind power a bad name is Altamont in California where they erected thousands of small (30 -60 kilowatt) wind generators adjacent to major golden eagle habitat. Flying throught Altimont IS probably like flying through a meat grinder.

We are involved in wind power development and avian studies in Virginia and I feel confident the results will further support the non-issue of avian mortality. The only thing detractors can really argue is that they think modern wind turbines are ugly. I think they're beautiful - but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

My two cents...

[cprise]

4. The industry has already adapted to this concern

Back in the 70s and 80s, wind turbines operated at a high speed and birds would collide with the blades because they couldn't see them.

All modern wind turbines are descended from a redesign that takes avian visibility into account, changing the operational parameters of the equipment to reduce the blade speed so that birds can see and avoid them.

Roadkill is a bigger problem for wildlife than wind turbines will ever be.

[Maine-i-acs]

2. Postcard views?

A few more coal-burning plants, and a few more blown-off EPA regulations, and those oceanfront millionaires won't even be able to see through the haze. So what if a few asthmatic kids have to die (sarcasm).

If I was in sight of a wind turbine plant I'd be damn proud of it.

[James T. Kirk]

3. I want windmills!

You are right on! We have an ugly power plant up here on Cape Cod in Massachusetts that spews a cloud visible for miles. People are opposed to the windmills becaue of how they will look. I think they will be graceful and beautiful like a bridge or a skyscraper.

[cprise]

5. The affluent can't bear seeing tiny white sticks on the horizon

It would be like putting their lifestyle through a Cuisinart, and what a tradgedy that would be.

[James T. Kirk]

7. Another bonus. Annoy the rich while saving the environment!

I wonder if they could paint the windmills sky blue.

[NNadir]

6. I live in New Jersey...

and I don't know it for its smokestacks. It is a beautiful state in most places. At least some of our smog drifts in from the coal plants in the midwest, something for which our former Governor, the pig Christie Whitman, sold out New Jersey on as soon as she went to serve as Bushie's Environmental Pollution Advancement administrator.

New Jersey would be even more beautiful with windmills off its coast.

We have two nuclear plants here. With windmills added to the equation we would probably have the cleanest power generation system in North America.