West Virginia wind turbines destroy a mountain top and the view – note the land surrounding the base of the turbines, now picture a grape vineyard
We think putting up huge wind turbines on land overlooking the scenic vineyards and farms of North East township is a terrible idea, no surprise there, but what about the supporters of big wind projects? What do they think?
T. Boone Pickens, billionaire Texas oilman and several years ago, strong proponent of building a wind energy facility with over 2000 wind turbines in the central United States, was interviewed about the project by Fast Company magazine.
Fast Company: And you’ll do all this on your beautiful 68,000-acre ranch?
Pickens: I’m not going to have the windmills on my ranch. They’re ugly. The hub of each turbine is up 280 feet, and then you have a 120-foot radius on the blade. It’s the size of a 40-story building.
Often overlooked in the debate over wind turbines is how few of the proponents live near them. Some of their strongest political backers vigorously fight wind projects within sight of their own homes, but they’ve also found, the promise of money can put blinders on many eyes in small rural communities when developers want to move in. Of course, they don’t really move in, they’re just passing through, leaving a huge ugly mess behind.
Pickens didn’t want them on his ranch, even though he had huge amounts of room and could place them far away from his house. He knew what an eyesore they would be, even the smaller ones being proposed then. The 500 foot tall monsters the developers want to build here and locate much closer to people and property than anything Pickens would have had to contend with, are even bigger than what he had in mind. Big isn’t beautiful, they’re ugly, plain and simple. No amount of lipstick will dress up these pigs.
tony says
I once went sailing on Long Island Sound. I enjoyed the scenery of the islands, the distant shoreline. Then i saw in the distance a giant oil fire power plant . It was a horrible eye sore that got worse and worse as i sailed closer. It was a horrendously ugly huge structure. It also pollutes a lot. … compare to this.. I was once on the North Shore of Hawaii’s Oahu. On one side the ocean with its crashing waves and the distant horizon. Looking on the other side i saw the majestic mountains. On top of these majestic mountains were several towering wind turbines- turning slowly in the wind. It all looked beautiful and harmonious to me. I did not see the “eye sore” in it that i often hear people ( or is it mostly corporation?) complain about wind turbines. Sure beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. but to those who think wind turbines are ugly… are they uglier than a giant oil fire electric plant? How about a coal fire electric plant? How about instead of having wind turbines on mountains, having those mountains removed for coal mining and all the water around it turn toxic and acidic? If your against artificial power production all together; if you want to live like people did several hundred years ago, then that’s great. However, i doubt you do.. I feel quite certain you enjoy electricity and mechanical power. So what is your solution?
Paul Crowe says
I don’t know if any power plant of any sort is truly beautiful to look at, though I personally find nuclear plants to have a certain engineered beauty to them, some types of power plants, though, are far more intrusive than others, but your comment about turbines is much the same as those from people who are driving across the country and see turbines off in the distance. They often use words like “peaceful” and “serene” to describe them. But if you put one of those 500 foot tall monsters up close to your home, where it’s not far off in the distance, but making noise you can hear and feel, where it can cast moving shadows across your house during sunrise or sunset, depending on which side you’re on, and where it can actually put you at risk if the setbacks are not sufficient, then you may very well have a different opinion of their beauty.
The other point to consider is that one of those “ugly” conventional plants can produce enough power by itself that it would take hundreds, actually more like over a thousand, wind turbines to produce an equivalent amount of electricity, and they would only do that when the wind was blowing and at a sufficient speed.
The comparison of turbines OR coal mines on every mountain is a false one, no one is proposing extra coal mines, just the ones we already have. They are, however, proposing wind turbines on mountains and hills and fields and property close to towns where nothing like that exists now. Besides, wind turbines do not replace any conventional power plants, they need conventional plants to back them up when the wind isn’t blowing. So you’re not eliminating any of the “ugly” conventional plants, you’re just adding wind turbines all over and relying on the conventional plants, too.
The best conventional power sources instead of wind are natural gas and nuclear, both far cleaner than coal, dramatically more efficient than wind and able to produce massive amounts of power on demand, continuously, reliably and far more cheaply than wind.
Thanks for stopping by, Tony.
Chloe says
Yeah but it’s clean energy, so. Plus they aren’t THAT ugly I mean.
Derek R. says
The problem is that they produce very small amounts of energy. I was just at a wind proponents’ presentation, and by their own admission, if you covered every bit of Lake Erie with turbines, it would barely make a dent into the the daily energy used in the state of Pennsylvania.
Median says
Wow
maxx says
All of the morons saying ( wind turbines ) aren’t ( UGLY ) have never seen an actual wind farm!
I use to be a long hall driver…. Thats coast to coast,boarder to boarder,I have seen skylines ruined by – THOUSANDS – of those horrendous “peaceful” turbines….. All packed along a former beautiful desert ridge or river bank in a FORMER beautiful canyon !
All you idiots ever see,are the BS pictures in a magazine or perhaps a BS poster at a trade show booth. One that a hippy setup with 2 maybe 3 turbines on a rolling hill covered with sun flowers and rivers of chocolate flowing. Oh and lets not forget the rainbow !
Well guess what. I have been to those shows,and when you ask the green tree hugger. Hey why don’t ypu have a poster of what the wind farms really look like ?
Like these pics on my cell phone, the ones with turbines missing blades. Turbines fallen over… Rusty,peeling paint or over crouded skylines … And what about all of the scrap parts laying around ?
Or wait, audio of what it sounds like to have just one squeeky eye sore built near ur community let alone a farm of them ! The tree huggers all react the same way…. Mouth open in shock,no comments.. Horrified I actually have those pictures. And why ? Because I actually saw these places long after the ribon cutting and press conference. If you need more proof,just take a drive out close to a real wind “farn” !
I would take 1 nuclear power plant far away from anyone. Or hell in my back yard. Over thousands and thousands of turbines that it would take to match its power output !