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Re: wind power

From:

Tim Boucher

Reply-To:

Tim Boucher

Date:

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:41:16 -0500

It does help in the sense that it helps birds. It is effective. That isn't
the problem.

The problem - sorry, I thought I'd explained it clearly, but I guess not -
is that it is not economically feasible to turn off the turbines for all
those nights. It also is a problem in that people rely on a steady supply of
power so it can be difficult to rely on wind - as I said, if there isn't
enough wind or if there is too much wind, there won't be any wind-generated
energy and it has to be supplied from another source. 

So for both these reasons they have to minimize the amount of down-time. 

It would be difficult to use existing radar systems to narrow the times when
turbines would need to be feathered to prevent avian mortality, because
NEXRAD doesn't tell us altitude (I think, I'm not sure) and the kind of
radar that is used to determine altitude, which is ground-based marine
radar, would have to be deployed at pretty much every wind farm where
flights can be expected on any given night. And both would require real-time
monitoring. Expensive and difficult.

I think I am explaining this clearly but maybe not, so to avoid irritating
other readers, why don't you e-mail me off-list if you want to continue
discussing it? My e-mail is 

Ellen Paul
Chevy Chase, MD 20815