Community Reacts to Living Near Wind Turbines

on the other hand, they want to put 4 more offshore where they won't be near any homes but the government wont give them the permits.

 

This seems to be a 2005 article. It is a valid concern, but there has been less apparent talk on this issue in recent years, suggesting it is not as significant as once thought?

 

My first, ex, spouse worked in the power plant/oil refinery industry. He traveled, mostly throughout the midwest, in new construction and renovation/repair of said plants.

It is absolutely amazing how many coal-fired plants, oil-fired plants, and refineries are plunked right in population centers.

The U of M has/had a coal-fired power plant right in the middle of Minneapolis (on campus), on the Mississippi river (I got to "tour" this plant). There is/was a huge oil refinery in South St Paul, with the attendant pipelines and trucks running through surrounding populated areas. (I include "was" as the last time I was there was 12 years ago, and, hell, things change. Though I think they are still there)

The city of Montecello, MN, just a short drive up the freeway from Mpls - about 25 miles - has a small nuclear plant about a mile from city center. I used to live there - always called it "ground zero" - because he was working on new plant construction for a coal-fired plant that was about 10 miles from there.

The St Cloud, MN penitentiary has a power plant inside the walls (I think. Seems to me I remember this one...). How many prisons have their own power plants? How many of those are close to cities and towns?

Yes, we are surrounded by sources of heavy metals and particulates. Personally, I'll take as many wind turbines, wave turbines, and solar panels as can be safely/effectively crammed into an area!

 

anyone heard of solarcity? they are pushing 25 year, nothing down solar residential lease with lower than current electric payments. and they take care of regular maintenance.

 

The reason for this is the smoke stacks are generally high enough to sweep the contaminants to New Jersey, so that's an acceptable trade-off. Just kidding about sacrificing NJ, but not kidding about the smoke stack pollutant transport to rust belt.

 

In North America, the West Side of town is usually nicer than the East Side, because the prevailing winds tend to blow the smoke East. Nicer areas and higher real estate values are generally found 'upstream' of the industrial districts.

 

Yup. Some of my neighbors just had a 3kW system installed by them. They're in 9 states including CA and CO. Don't know what the others are, but I'm guessing NJ is one of them.

 

There is a power plant in downtown austin. We stopped using it in 1989 because it was outdated and inefficient. It was built before people had air-conditioning and newer bigger plants had been built. I don't remember it spewing huge amounts of pollution, and don't think that had anything to do with shutting it down. I'm sure it did spit some pretty nasty toxic stuff in the 50s and 60s before pollution control devices were added.

My wind is not in my back yard, because it blows harder (heh heh) in the west, cables carry the power. This is one prime thing about wind. There was a massive campaign by the rich to demonize wind in Massachusetts. I would like to know if there is any truth to the claims though. I think the wind mills in California and West Texas are kind of beautiful art, and would not mind one in my back yard. There is no way I would want a refinery or a nuclear plant there. We need refineries and people choose to live by them. I don't really think we need any new nukes.