Editor:
The power blackout of Oct. 9 was a wake-up call for Humboldt County (“County Officials: Prepare for Days Without Power,” posted online Oct. 8). People scrambling to get basic supplies, waiting in gas lines for hours and those with medical conditions requiring power to run their oxygen machines or refrigeration to keep their medicines cold, panicking. And we got off easy. Early predictions said that the blackout might last several days. This is just the beginning of these climate change crisis related episodes.
The outage in Humboldt County wasn’t necessarily due to red flag conditions here but because we are dependent on two transmission lines that go through areas where they had to deenergize the lines due to high wind conditions. The thing is that we are an energy island, we don’t generate enough of our own power and have to import electricity from other parts of the state, so if transmission is shut down somewhere up the food chain, we’re out of luck. In order to deal with this problem, we must become more energy independent. We need more renewable energy generation right here where we need it. The Humboldt Wind Project is a proposed wind farm that will be looking to get a permit from the county this year.
It is essential that we let the board of supervisors know that we want these projects to be built to supply us with local, renewable power.
Mary Sanger, Manila
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This article appears in BLACKOUT.
Wind Power???? If many more homes and businesses had solar power, like Blue Lake Rancheria had, we would be helped a lot more!!!!!!! Wind power pales beside all that solar can do, and not only that, but solar can go on rooftops and in areas which cannot be seen, just thin of all the rooftops it can cover!
Industrial wind turbines constructed in our windy locations require more and more transmission lines to connect them to the grid. The fire danger from transmission lines in high winds is the reason PG+E shuts off the power. Industrial wind turbines produce no power during low wind conditions so we still must maintain backup generation equal to everything we maintain now. They also have to be shut down in extremely high wind conditions to prevent failure. When they malfunction the turbines themselves turn into incendiary devices located in our forests that can’t be extinguished, due to their height, the materials they’re constructed from and hundreds of gallons of lubricating oil that they contain. They destroy the ecosystem around the installation by killing off the bats, birds, insects, and earthworms. The vibrations produced by these machines (the newest ones are 853 feet tall with a propeller 722 feet in diameter moving at 200-300 miles per hour) are audible and sub-audible and can travel over twenty miles under some conditions and have serious consequences for people and animals living in the area. The flashing lights atop the towers run day and night to prevent airplanes from colliding with the turbines. The strobe effect that the blades create when the sun is behind them makes life a misery for anyone unfortunate enough to be in their shadow. Their construction, installation, operation, and maintenance is an industrial project on a scale that dwarfs anything most locations have ever been asked to tolerate. To try and apply existing zoning laws to these massive industrial installations that can run day and night 24/7 is ridiculous. These are just some of the problems. They are a developing technology that may have a place in the energy picture but based on results their flaws make them more of a problem for the environment than a solution. Local rooftop solar panels, for electric and hot water, is a better answer. The following links are interesting reading:Industrial Wind Turbines
https://www.change.org/p/paul-swift-stop-a…
https://kymkemp.com/2019/06/02/farmland-ow…
http://www.aweo.org/problemwithwind.html
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/health/…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6xoKmnYq…
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/realiti…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu8z7dyQA9…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qIGfth8zg…
https://www.marinij.com/2019/05/29/microgr…
http://ontario-unwilling-hosts.org/
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/prope…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lc_dlVrg5…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-j68Qs1b-…
https://windmillskill.com/blog/wind-energy…
http://wiseenergy.org/technical-informatio…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaVsemfn_H…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/sc…
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/cutti…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyOImGHyJt…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOd5tSZF3A…
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ma…
https://windmillskill.com/blog/wind-turbin…
https://stopthesethings.com/2019/04/22/the…
https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/453_win…
http://www.windconcernsontario.ca/
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/do…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWNx3OJyu…
http://wiseenergy.org/economic-information…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHXk_IzdFh…
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/testimo…
http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/
http://wiseenergy.org/more-about-awed/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-jBCjtJ8…
http://epaw.org/about_us.php?lang=en
http://wiseenergy.org/winning-the-wind-war…
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/health/…
https://blackburnnews.com/london/london-ne…
https://windfarmrealities.org/?p=32#more-3…
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/testimo…
https://www.change.org/p/paul-swift-stop-a…
http://www.windaction.org/posts/49514-wind…
http://wellingtontimes.ca/ontario-gothic/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw4S98SYHi…
http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/Accide…
https://video.newyorker.com/watch/the-back…
http://turbinesonfire.org/dark-side-of-gre…
http://wiseenergy.org/key-documents/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuW0iB_I1h…
http://wiseenergy.org/carteret-wind/
https://stopthesethings.com/2015/06/15/sa-…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYnNQoTcsH…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_utFV2ukOt…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continu…
https://www.illwind.org/
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/02/15…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-jBCjtJ8…
http://en.friends-against-wind.org/health/…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9A-hqQODy…
https://windfarmrealities.org/?p=2028
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/there…
http://turbinesonfire.org/fanning-the-flam…
https://abcbirds.org/bird-smart-wind-energ…
https://abcbirds.org/wind-energy-threatens…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCvW0B4eqk…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7b4fGoK4X…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvwdjZF_a-…
https://howgreenisthis.org/mmwtwg-response…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/06/12…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/06/12…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/04/11…
https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/gove…
https://www.wind-watch.org/faq-size.php
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/01/10/win…
https://evilnoisypeople.wordpress.com/2016…
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_que…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_CZIfiFPw…
https://www.amarillo.com/news/20180509/wts…
https://www.goodnet.org/articles/offshore-…
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/re…
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/re…
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/re…
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article…
http://www.windtaskforce.org/page/adverse-…
https://tuluwatexaminer.wordpress.com/2019…
https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-…
https://reneweconomy.com.au/the-real-energ…
https://www.solarinspain.com/en/article/57…
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B05gCaWS6…
https://www.stopfw.com/
https://www.stopfw.com/get-involved-now
https://www.stopfw.com/get-informed
https://www.stopfw.com/resources
http://www.windaction.org/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/nyregio…
https://soundcloud.com/kmudnews/terra-gen-…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continu…
https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt…
https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/juniper-f…
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/07/wi…
https://www.nptelegraph.com/opinion/todays…
http://www.windaction.org/posts/50050-wild…
https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt…
https://ajmarciniak.wordpress.com/2019/07/…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/08/01…
https://www.wind-watch.org/pix/displayimag…
https://www.wind-watch.org/pix/thumbnails.…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshelle…
https://capecodwave.com/falmouth-town-turb…
https://www.facebook.com/NoWindFarm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshelle…
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/29/col…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/08/08…
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/re…
https://stopthesethings.com/2015/05/27/ham…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/a…
https://the-law-is-my-oyster.com/2019/08/1…
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B05gCaWS6…
https://www.bigcountryhomepage.com/news/ta…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/09/06…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/09/21…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPB2u8EzL…
https://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2011/t…
http://betterplan.squarespace.com/?SSScrol…
http://betterplan.squarespace.com/todays-s…
http://betterplan.squarespace.com/todays-s…
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759376113/u…
https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/solar-ho…
http://theconversation.com/wind-costs-more…
https://falseprogress.home.blog/2016/08/29…
https://falseprogress.home.blog/2018/01/24…
https://www.stopfw.com/get-informed/articl…
http://www.windaction.org/posts/49607-nake…
https://www.lexenergy.net/blog/
http://www.windaction.org/posts/49625-cour…
https://www.livingstonenterprise.com/conte…
https://www.fastcompany.com/90415303/to-ke…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/10/05…
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/12/03…
https://www.observertoday.com/news/page-on…
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/silen…
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/silen…
https://stopthesethings.com/2019/10/10/bou…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3…
http://www.bccrwe.com/
https://gatehousenews.com/windfarms/in-you…
https://gatehousenews.com/windfarms/home/
https://weather.com/science/environment/ne…
Be careful what you ask for. Industrial wind turbines are a new technology most people have no experience with. Their builders know this and paint a glowing picture and make billions of dollars doing it. Here are accounts written by people who know them up close and personal : https://gatehousenews.com/windfarms/in-you…