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Fields of red lights southeast of Wichita


FloridaMan

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  • 2 years later...

Damn, I haven't encountered windmills until last week when we flew from Dayton to Cumberland. There must be tens of thousands of them in WV alone and a large percentage aren't windmilling. How much did that cost us taxpayers? Who pocketed the $$? They can't be cheap to produce and certainly not cheap to install or maintain. 

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If you look behind the curtain, you'll find a slew of gas generators that fire up to pick up the slack when the wind dies down or the wind turbine is "off line" (broke).  Each windmill costs 3-4 million dollars to construct, plus the cost of land/lease and infrastructure.  Can they ever pay for themselves?  

http://www.windpowerengineering.com/policy/environmental/8-6-mw-natural-gas-powered-generator-plays-well-wind/

http://www.windustry.org/how_much_do_wind_turbines_cost

I've flown over them a few times on long trips and the first 500 or so are really neat to see, but then it becomes just miles and miles of blight.  Hopefully they're green enough to justify/recoup the cost.

 

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In answer to the OPs question-

All wind farms flash in synchronous at  night. This is the only synchronous wide area pattern in the book right now.

It sure cuts down on scud running though!!!!

On the other hand, try finding anything abut the financials of wind farms. How to invest and what the profitability is is information not published.  You won't find it anywhere. I've been searching for years. Someone is keeping it quiet.

 

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