He Was Right...Again!

[jay68802]

Just south of my home town, there is a farm that relies on wind energy. The "windmill" is a different design. It does not use the classic "propeller" design. It instead uses a cylinder design. The "blades" are perpendicular to the ground. This is located less than a mile from the Platte River. Large amounts of waterfowl, eagles, and other birds around. He has never had a duck, goose, or large bird of prey killed there. There has been some common birds, such as sparrows and black birds killed. He has to fill out a report every so often and sent it to some government agency. My point is that the way this is designed, it prevents a lot of accidents from happening. The size of this plant was designed to produce about 90% of the electricity needed. This is because, if he would produce more energy than he uses, the extra would have to go somewhere. And in Nebraska, that energy would also go to the Neb. Public Power District. They would not pay him for it. In other words, they would get free energy to sell. He would also have to pay to get the extra energy into the power grid. I will try and get a photo of this today, I just might be in that area.

[Inner Dirt]

I wonder how much the bird death preventative measures are and what they cost?

[xtb]

Originally Posted by jay68802

Just south of my home town, there is a farm that relies on wind energy. The "windmill" is a different design. It does not use the classic "propeller" design. It instead uses a cylinder design. The "blades" are perpendicular to the ground. This is located less than a mile from the Platte River. Large amounts of waterfowl, eagles, and other birds around. He has never had a duck, goose, or large bird of prey killed there. There has been some common birds, such as sparrows and black birds killed. He has to fill out a report every so often and sent it to some government agency. My point is that the way this is designed, it prevents a lot of accidents from happening. The size of this plant was designed to produce about 90% of the electricity needed. This is because, if he would produce more energy than he uses, the extra would have to go somewhere. And in Nebraska, that energy would also go to the Neb. Public Power District. They would not pay him for it. In other words, they would get free energy to sell. He would also have to pay to get the extra energy into the power grid. I will try and get a photo of this today, I just might be in that area.

Wind, solar and hydro power usually produce excess electricity at times that cannot be efficiently stored for later use. I think we should be looking into producing hydrogen from the excess electricity of wind/solar farms and hydro electric power plants.

With the cost (both economically and environmentally) and availability of lithium the way it is, unless an alternate type of battery is developed, I don't see how battery powered electric cars will be viable in the future.

Dodge is developing combustion engines that run on hydrogen while hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are already in production.

[MargieRose]

So many interesting and informative comments in this thread. Excellent!!

[HalvOnHorseracing]

Originally Posted by MargieRose

https://youtu.be/OyAer8SCvcw
https://youtu.be/TDamoLPGfrk

Company Pleads Guilty After Wind Turbines Kill 150 Eagles, 92 In CA

For your viewing pleasure. Very endearing and relaxing to watch...

About the nest: The nest is located at Big Bear Lake, California. It is about 145 feet up in a Jeffrey Pine tree. The nest is the current home for Jackie and Shadow, a local bald eagle pair. The chick's name is Spirit.
https://youtu.be/B4-L2nfGcuE

Trump is correct that in most places, wind blows off cycle. (that means at night or not during the highest usage time of day). Annually, about 681,000 birds are killed by wind turbines, and they are not all raptors. Eagles, Hawks and Owls are pretty smart birds, and there are very simple ways of keeping them away from turbines, like painting one blade black. That has cut bird deaths by 70% in some places. 681,000 sounds like a lot until you find out the real killers of birds are cats. That's right, when you let your cute kitty out at night, they shift from sweet, purring little sleepers, to the cold blooded killers of 2,400,000,000 (2.4 billion) birds a year. That doesn't include mice or other small creatures.

One really good thing about wind blowing off cycle is that they can replace the electricity from a power plant that is used at night. It's not unusual for big farms to spend over $100,000 worth of power plant electricity to run their irrigators. Windmills can save them most of the money spent on power plant electricity, and in theory the price of their crops should drop. One other big issue is that ranches and farms are paid very nice amounts by the electric companies for the land they use. One rancher told me that because if the annual payments, his ranch is essentially drought proof.

Wind will always be a niche generator of electricity until there is adequate battery storage. I would see solar being a much larger and more effective renewable energy source.

[tucker6]

Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing

That's right, when you let your cute kitty out at night, they shift from sweet, purring little sleepers, to the cold blooded killers of 2,400,000,000 (2.4 billion) birds a year. That doesn't include mice or other small creatures.

There are upwards of 430 billion birds in the worlds, so the mortality rate from cats may be as little as 0.5%. Considering that garden variety birds live 2-5 years, 0.5% is essentially just noise as 20-50% of the birds will die that year anyway.

[mostpost]

Originally Posted by jay68802

Yep, they are very special to us. The whole place is. A couple of other photos. One is about 250 Geese sitting in the river and a sunset photo of Chimney Rock from the blind.

If they were blind, how did they know where to point the camera?

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing

That has cut bird deaths by 70% in some places. 681,000 sounds like a lot until you find out the real killers of birds are cats. That's right, when you let your cute kitty out at night, they shift from sweet, purring little sleepers, to the cold blooded killers of 2,400,000,000 (2.4 billion) birds a year. That doesn't include mice or other small creatures.

I am sure small domestic cats aren't killing the same variety of birds as the turbines. A house cat isn't winning a battle with an eagle or a hawk. My cat who I keep in the house seems to have no interest in birds. Anything that gets in the house, quickly dies, even a 4 foot black snake. He just watches the birds out the widow, if a lizard is outside close by he goes insane trying to get out.

[MargieRose]

After accidentally being knocked out of the nest, this little eaglet miraculously survived overnight, while clinging to a small ledge.

YouTube (Short URL)

The parents returned to the nest a couple hours after this video was posted, and the eaglet has been fed! You can watch live here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC1-E0WHbfI&feature=emb_logo

[xtb]

Onondaga Lake was once the most polluted lake in the country. As a kid I remember when driving near it the smell was terrible. It has been cleaned up and is now one of the cleanest lakes in the country. I was at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge a few months ago where the Bald eagle re-population program was started and they said one weekend in January, there were over 100 Bald Eagles at the south end of the lake.

YouTube

[xtb]

YouTube

[MargieRose]

Originally Posted by xtb

Onondaga Lake was once the most polluted lake in the country. As a kid I remember when driving near it the smell was terrible. It has been cleaned up and is now one of the cleanest lakes in the country. I was at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge a few months ago where the Bald eagle re-population program was started and they said one weekend in January, there were over 100 Bald Eagles at the south end of the lake.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZHomK2rkE

Lots of young eagles here. Their majestic heads don't turn white until they're about five years old. Nice videos!

[lamboguy]

https://www.google.com/search?q=bald...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[MargieRose]

(Ref: Live nest cam...post #1)

Big Bear Lake, CA Bald Eagle *Spirit* fledged on May 31, 2022.

"Spirit will spend 4-12 weeks in the territory following [mom] Jackie and [dad] Shadow around, then disperse on her solo Grand Journey. SoCal fledglings are seen as far north as British Columbia and as far east as Yellowstone."

Music/Song "I want to fly" by Steve Smith of Dodge-N-Bullets. Steve is a viewer, inspired by Jackie, Shadow and Spirit's journey.

YouTube (Short URL)

[Richie]

Originally Posted by MargieRose

(Ref: Live nest cam...post #1)

Big Bear Lake, CA Bald Eagle *Spirit* fledged on May 31, 2022.

"Spirit will spend 4-12 weeks in the territory following [mom] Jackie and [dad] Shadow around, then disperse on her solo Grand Journey. SoCal fledglings are seen as far north as British Columbia and as far east as Yellowstone."

Music/Song "I want to fly" by Steve Smith of Dodge-N-Bullets. Steve is a viewer, inspired by Jackie, Shadow and Spirit's journey.
https://youtu.be/X6214VXb9Y8

thanks for posting that