"Green Energy" No Matter the Cost?
Saw this interesting STORY on the FoxNews website:
Wind Farms Disrupting Radar, Scientists Say
Quote:
Originally Posted by FoxNews
Wind farms, along with solar power and other alternative energy sources, are supposed to produce the energy of tomorrow. Evidence indicates that their countless whirring fan blades produce something else: "blank spots" that distort radar readings.
Now government agencies that depend on radar -- such as the Department of Defense and the National Weather Service -- are spending millions in a scramble to preserve their detection capabilities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxnews
"Look there’s a radar here -- one of our network of Homeland surveillance radars -- and [if you build this wind farm] you essentially are going to put my eyes out in the Northwestern corner of the United States,” Beloite related during a web conference in April.
Spinning wind turbines make it hard to detect incoming planes. To avoid that problem, military officials have blocked wind farm construction near their radars -- and in some cases later allowed them after politicians protested.
Shepherd’s Flat, a wind farm under construction in Oregon, was initially held up by a government notice that the farm would “seriously impair the ability of the (DoD) to detect, monitor and safely conduct air operations."
Then Oregon’s senators got involved.
...
In addition to the cost of the radar development, taxpayers are on the hook for more than $1 billion in subsidies for the construction of the Shepherd’s Flat wind farm, according to a 2010 memo from Larry Summers and two other White House economic advisors.
I'm not necessarily against wind farms or other alternative energy sources. However, I'm not really keen on US taxpayers subsidizing private energy operations. Especially with wind farms that really don't produce an economically viable source of energy at the present. Not to mention when we're on the hook to a couple of bankrupt alternative energy firms to the tune of well over a half a billion dollars.
And when it comes to jeopardizing national defense capabilities and the ability of the NWS to offer accurate radar data, I'm pretty much gonna be on the side of "build it somewhere else".
Quote:
Originally Posted by FoxNews
“It all comes down to money and who's going to pay for it,” he noted.
Meanwhile, top radar scientists are working on developing a fix that works for weather radar.
“It's slow progress, and they say it's extremely difficult -- that they need more money and more time. The solution, I would say, is probably five years down the road, Ciardi said.
Doesn't it always come down to more money when the .gov is involved?
