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I agree. Wind machines are a landscape blight, as well as being massive bird choppers. Solar on all south-facing roofs and consideration of altering designs

I agree. Wind machines are a landscape blight, as well as being massive bird choppers. Solar on all south-facing roofs and consideration of altering designs to create nice south-facing roof faces is where renewable should be accomplished. So long serene rolling hills of grass and wheat; hello nasty looking tech.

pjc50 9y ago
> as well as being massive bird choppers This is a fairly minor issue that the planners are usually required to mitigate as much as possible, and the non-renewable sources have a significant cost to bird habitats as well. The various bird protection societies are usually cautiously in favour of wind power provided it's not in a sensitive habitat. It turns out that glass-windowed skyscrapers and domestic cats are far more deadly to birds. Monocultural wheat fields are also a highly artificial industrial landscape, just a more familiar one.
- Animats 9y ago
  Except for Altamont Pass. It's one of the few breaks in the California coastal range, so it's a big migratory bird corridor. It was one of the first big wind farm areas, and it has row after row of small wind machines for several miles. At peak, it had 5,000 wind turbines in a valley that's less than a mile wide. It's a Veg-O-Matic for birds. The little wind turbines are being replaced with fewer and bigger ones, which are less of a hazard to birds.
- specialist 9y ago
  I've read that painting the windmills white attracts insects, which attracts their predators. I dunno if anyone's experimented with other colors, to see impact on avian mortality.
Frondo 9y ago
They aren't massive bird choppers. That's a persistent myth from some very early wind farm that used short turbines with small, faster-moving blades.
- woodandsteel 9y ago
  My guess is the myth persists largely because trolls hired by the Koch Brothers and the fossil fuel industry keep pushing it.

pjc50 9y ago

> as well as being massive bird choppers This is a fairly minor issue that the planners are usually required to mitigate as much as possible, and the non-renewable sources have a significant cost to bird habitats as well. The various bird protection societies are usually cautiously in favour of wind power provided it's not in a sensitive habitat. It turns out that glass-windowed skyscrapers and domestic cats are far more deadly to birds. Monocultural wheat fields are also a highly artificial industrial landscape, just a more familiar one.

Animats 9y ago
Except for Altamont Pass. It's one of the few breaks in the California coastal range, so it's a big migratory bird corridor. It was one of the first big wind farm areas, and it has row after row of small wind machines for several miles. At peak, it had 5,000 wind turbines in a valley that's less than a mile wide. It's a Veg-O-Matic for birds. The little wind turbines are being replaced with fewer and bigger ones, which are less of a hazard to birds.
specialist 9y ago
I've read that painting the windmills white attracts insects, which attracts their predators. I dunno if anyone's experimented with other colors, to see impact on avian mortality.

Frondo 9y ago

They aren't massive bird choppers. That's a persistent myth from some very early wind farm that used short turbines with small, faster-moving blades.

woodandsteel 9y ago
My guess is the myth persists largely because trolls hired by the Koch Brothers and the fossil fuel industry keep pushing it.