Wind farms are unlike traditional methods of generating electricity in that they are outrageously inefficient. But they are similar in that both are said to cause allegedly deleterious warming:

Researchers at the State University of New York at Albany analysed the satellite data of areas around large wind farms in Texas, where four of the world’s largest farms are located, over the period 2003 to 2011.

The results, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, showed a warming trend of up to 0.72 degrees Celsius per decade in areas over the farms, compared with nearby regions without the farms.

“We attribute this warming primarily to wind farms,” the study said. The temperature change could be due to the effects of the energy expelled by farms and the movement and turbulence generated by turbine rotors, it said.

Fortunately we don’t need to worry too much about ice caps melting, causing the seas to rise, everyone to drown, and worse yet, the sacred man-eating polar bears to be inconvenienced. Wind farms will only be around for as long as the government subsidies last. Since the nation will go bankrupt within a few years if grownups aren’t put in charge of government spending, the inefficient and noisy bird-killing eyesores will soon be history.

On tips from Steve T, Stormfax, Wingmann, and G. Fox.

8 Responses to “Wind Farms Cause Warming”

1. TED says:

   April 30, 2012 at 1:02 pm

   Oh no! A liberal tells the truth.
2. TDOM says:

   April 30, 2012 at 1:13 pm

   Oh lord, now you’re really tilting at windmills.
3. Sam Adams says:

   April 30, 2012 at 1:13 pm

   On a related note:

   http://www.eastoregonian.com/free/oregon-asks-to-kill-salmon-eating-birds/article_44c2ab88-9024-11e1-a2d5-001a4bcf887a.html

   Oregon asks to kill salmon-eating birds

   GRANTS PASS — Oregon officials were successful in getting permission to kill sea lions that feed on protected salmon trying to swim upriver to spawn. Now they want federal approval to shoot a sea bird that eats millions of baby salmon trying to reach the ocean.

   In an April 5 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by The Associated Press, Oregon Wildlife Chief Ron Anglin says harassment has “proved insufficient” in controlling double-crested cormorants, and officials want the option of killing some of the birds.

   Oregon needs federal approval to start shooting double-crested cormorants because the birds are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

   Anglin wrote that the birds are threatening restoration of wild fish protected by the Endangered Species Act, as well as hatchery fish important to sport and commercial fishing.

   The letter was a formal request to add Oregon to the 28 states authorized to kill cormorants to protect public resources, such as game fish. The Fish and Wildlife Service is updating the authorization, which expires in 2014.

   Oregon also is preparing an application to shoot enough cormorants at the mouths of the Rogue, Umpqua and Tillamook rivers to reduce nesting colonies there by 10 percent, said predatory bird coordinator Lindsay Adrean.

   So the folks in Oregon want permission from the Feds to kill protected birds to increase the numbers of protected fish.

   Maybe Oregon just needs so more windmills, despite the risk of warming the earth.
4. KHarn says:

   April 30, 2012 at 1:32 pm

   Also, factor in the SHADE TREES that were cut down to make room for the “wind farms”.

   “Sam Adams says:April 30, 2012 at 1:13 pm”

   That deserves one of THESE:

   http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hYJkXle_FJg/TsMtyvOrgbI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/NnVScJp4K2Y/s1600/godzilla_facepalm.jpg
5. Reaganite Republican says:

   April 30, 2012 at 1:52 pm

   The guest on Fox just called them a ’13th century technology’ that has never been economically viable

   Also said that Europe’s chasing this tech as a solution to the imaginary threat of ‘global warming’ will go down as the most foolish debacle of the century
6. TonyD95B says:

   April 30, 2012 at 4:20 pm

   RE: Reaganite Republican at April 30, 2012 at 1:52 pm:

   “The guest on Fox just called them a ’13th century technology’ that has never been economically viable”

   I did not see the Fox interview RR is referring to, but whoever said that has a point.

   Wind power had it’s place. It was a popular way to run mills and pump water hundreds of years ago, and in certain niche applications can still be useful.

   Contrast wind power with an equally old technology – hydropower.

   Why did the water wheel evolve into the modern water turbine and continue to serve civilization well, yet the windmill got left on the scrap heap of history?

   Very simple – we can build reserviors and dams, and create a controllable, predictable store of potential energy that will provide consistent, clean mechanical and electrical power.

   Not so with wind power.

   When I worked in the power transmission industry (for a globally known producer of gearboxes for gas and steam turbines as well as wind and water turbines), we used to have bumper stickers that said, “Hydropower – the Doable Renewable”

   Pseudoenvironmentalists just LOVE wind power – but they oppose every hydropower project that comes along……which is exactly the opposite of what a rational, sane person that understood the technology would do.

   The Left is at war with science, technology and reason. It’s all about “feelings, nothing more than feeeeeeelings…..” and the truth be d#mned.
7. wingmann says:

   April 30, 2012 at 6:54 pm

   HAD ENOUGH YET ? ? ?
8. chuck in st paul says:

   May 1, 2012 at 6:50 am

   “No amount of science and technology will ever overcome fear and superstition.” – anon.