When we left off in the 1960s, what few wind power efforts that existed had largely stalled. Commercial manufacturers that supplied wind power to rural customers disappeared as electrical grids and transmission lines were extended to reach them, and research efforts were cancelled or scaled back as conventional electricity prices continued to fall. Focus was placed on nuclear power as the next generation of electricity technology.
It's interesting to contrast the history of wind and nuclear power. Wind power scaled well. Larger wind turbines were cheaper per unit of power, more reliable and more efficient. Nuclear power scaled poorly. Larger plants were much more expensive to build as they grew larger and made it harder to control the damage of a catastrophic failure. We seem to have roughly topped out on wind turbine size, at least for land based turbines, with limits on construction and transportation of components. Meanwhile, we're seeing a next generation of smaller, modular nuclear plants that might make it easier to control costs and deal with failures.
Estimates of up to a million or more birds a year are killed by turbines in the US but that is far exceeded by collisions with communications towers (6.5 million); power lines, (25 million); windows (up to 1 billion); and cats (1.3 to 4.0 billion) and those lost due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change (American Bird Conservancy, Nature). Even if there were twenty times more wind turbines, enough to supply the US with electricity, the number of birds killed, assuming no improvement in wind turbine design, would be about 10 million--still far less than most other causes of bird deaths.
The estimates for glass windows in suburban homes are similarly high. They don't even have to be big plate glass windows. The birds can't seem to figure them out. Plate glass windows on taller buildings are an even more serious problem. I agree that turbines can kill lots of birds, just like neighborhood cats, and let's not even talk about the eagles who kill larger birds like our friend's chickens.
The good news is that there is a lot of experimenting with ways to help birds avoid turbine blades. They'll probably be painting wind turbines in a way so that birds can see them better as they figure this out. They paint spirals on jet engine intakes to remind humans to avoid the indraft. (Those little owl decals on windows don't seem to do anything, and we have no idea of what to do about outdoor cats.)
Let make this abundantly. Owls, eagles, hawks, and falcons do not get killed by kitty cats or communication towers. They do get killed by windmills. There are studies showing this would not happen as much if the blades of the windmills were painted purple as they keeps insects and their predators away.
Heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and strontium emitted in coal smoke did a pretty good job. Those toxins work 24/7/365 for decades after the coal was burnt.
It's interesting to contrast the history of wind and nuclear power. Wind power scaled well. Larger wind turbines were cheaper per unit of power, more reliable and more efficient. Nuclear power scaled poorly. Larger plants were much more expensive to build as they grew larger and made it harder to control the damage of a catastrophic failure. We seem to have roughly topped out on wind turbine size, at least for land based turbines, with limits on construction and transportation of components. Meanwhile, we're seeing a next generation of smaller, modular nuclear plants that might make it easier to control costs and deal with failures.
Engineering is fascinating.
Yes Noah Smith (noahpinion) wrote a great article a while back on why Nuclear can't scale the same way!
They don't fit the grid and they still kill off large birds, (unlike cats)
From Sierra Club:
Estimates of up to a million or more birds a year are killed by turbines in the US but that is far exceeded by collisions with communications towers (6.5 million); power lines, (25 million); windows (up to 1 billion); and cats (1.3 to 4.0 billion) and those lost due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change (American Bird Conservancy, Nature). Even if there were twenty times more wind turbines, enough to supply the US with electricity, the number of birds killed, assuming no improvement in wind turbine design, would be about 10 million--still far less than most other causes of bird deaths.
https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/wind-turbines-and-birds-and-bats
The estimates for glass windows in suburban homes are similarly high. They don't even have to be big plate glass windows. The birds can't seem to figure them out. Plate glass windows on taller buildings are an even more serious problem. I agree that turbines can kill lots of birds, just like neighborhood cats, and let's not even talk about the eagles who kill larger birds like our friend's chickens.
The good news is that there is a lot of experimenting with ways to help birds avoid turbine blades. They'll probably be painting wind turbines in a way so that birds can see them better as they figure this out. They paint spirals on jet engine intakes to remind humans to avoid the indraft. (Those little owl decals on windows don't seem to do anything, and we have no idea of what to do about outdoor cats.)
Confusing what I am referring to. There is a difference between a small bird compared to an owl with a 3 to 4 foot wingspan.
Let make this abundantly. Owls, eagles, hawks, and falcons do not get killed by kitty cats or communication towers. They do get killed by windmills. There are studies showing this would not happen as much if the blades of the windmills were painted purple as they keeps insects and their predators away.
Houses and cats both kill birds just fine.
Nothing kills bald eagles, falcons, hawks and owls like a windmill does.
Heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and strontium emitted in coal smoke did a pretty good job. Those toxins work 24/7/365 for decades after the coal was burnt.
True, those are particularly charismatic species. But what's the exchange rate between owls and songbirds? According to one estimate, cats kill billions of birds per year, while windmills kill less than a million: https://www.statista.com/chart/15195/wind-turbines-are-not-killing-fields-for-birds/
Nobody cares about Robins as they multiply plenty. The cats are irrelevant .
Yeap, Gigantic Green Quisinarts for Flying Vertebrates.
Great overview of wind power history. I now understand better how the wind industry developed, and displaced some interesting misconceptions.