A gust of activity (Galveston, TX off-shore wind farm)

[jpak]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4608324.html

A Louisiana company plans to install the first of 50 wind turbine platforms 10 miles off Galveston Island this week, moving the project closer to its goal of becoming the first U.S. offshore wind farm.

Galveston Offshore Wind, a division of Wind Energy Systems Technologies, plans to install a former oil production platform in about 50 feet of water in the coming days. At first weather-data-gathering instruments will sit on top of a tower some 300 feet above sea level, but by September the company hopes to have its first wind turbine in place.

By 2010 the $240 million development plans to have as many as 50 wind turbines installed, generating 150 megawatts of peak output, or about enough power for 45,000 homes, said Herman Schellstede, CEO of the companies.

While 1 megawatt of power produced by a natural gas or coal-fired power plant can power about 800 homes, the power industry usually estimates one megawatt of wind energy can power about 300 homes because of the variability of wind power.

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[phantom power]

1. I wonder if it's difficult to harden them against hurricanes.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

2. Perhaps they could be retractable.

Hurricane comes, windmills retract to under sea level.

Could be feasible.

[Shallah Kali]

3. Cuba is putting up windmils they can take down when a big storm comes

someone posted it a few days ago here at DU....

[phantom power]

4. However, that's only a small number for a pilot project.

I don't think that solution would work for a wind-farm of any serious size. Too much work, not enough warning.

[Gregorian]

5. Unfortunately many are already being taken down due to bird deaths.

According to someone I know who works in the field, there are alarmingly high numbers of dead birds under these wind generators.

[skids]

6. Get the facts.

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=18167&ch=energy
http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html
http://magazine.audubon.org/features0609/energy.html
http://www.currykerlinger.com/studies.htm

...it's all about location, and the wind industry is getting better at choosing the right locations.

And then there is stuff like this:

http://tmawind.com/turbine.htm

[XemaSab]

8. Location = not in a major migratory corridor

which the whole gulf coast is.

[skids]

9. Had you read the offered links...

TADS was developed to solve a problem specific to monitoring bird collisions at offshore wind farms, in this case the 80-turbine Horns Rev wind farm off Denmark's North Sea coast and the 72-turbine Nysted wind farm in the Baltic. The Danish researchers at Horns Rev and Nysted used visual monitoring and radar tracking, which showed that most birds avoided the farms altogether or flew down the half-kilometer-wide gaps between the wind farms' orderly rows of turbines. But the researchers still could not rule out the possibility that some birds were flying close enough to strike the turbine blades, which spin as fast as 80 meters per second at the tip. Of particular concern were larger seabirds, especially the common eiders that migrate through the area. "We were concerned that these large, rather clumsy birds might not be able to maneuver around the turbines," says Danish environmental institute researcher Mark Desholm, who designed TADS.

and

What makes Altamont Pass so dangerous for birds of prey? The problem, many researchers say, begins with the abundance of small mammals in the area. \u201cAltamont is a ground-squirrel refuge extraordinaire,\u201d says Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. The plentiful mammals, combined with the mild California climate, attract large numbers of migrant and resident raptors; the area also has the highest density of wintering golden eagles observed anywhere in the world. Younger hawks and eagles, eager to hunt and build muscle and thus most enthusiastic about the fine dining available on the ground, seem especially prone to blunder into the moving turbine blades.

So It's not so much migration, as hunting grounds. For bats it is migration, but they have much more restricted patterns.

[XemaSab]

10. The gulf coast is neither Denmark nor Altamont pass

The big concern there is small songbirds migrating at night.

Will these things be unlit or lit? :shrug:

[skids]

11. Well, for planes I am sure they will be lit.

It's for geese and ducks but this paper seems to suggest birds are more cautious about getting anywhere near anything at night:

http://www.bluewaterwind.com/pdfs/Desholm_Kahlert_2005.pdf


This seems to suggest that migratory songbirds in night flight may fly too high up to be affected, however the data is preliminary and more is needed:

http://www.senternovem.nl/mmfiles/Overall_report_baseline_studies_Near_Shore_Wind_Farm_NSW_tcm24-194669.pdf

In any case, if I can do my homework, you do yours: find yourself estimates of the impact of mercury poisoning and climate change on these precious critters.

[XemaSab]

7. Now THAT has all the hallmarks of a bad idea

Virtually all the neotrops in the eastern US come across the gulf. :(