Wind turbines can help preserve land, but need a facelift

I'm going off the conservation subdivison topic today.

Wind turbines provide one possible funding source for landowners looking for ways to conserve land that also offer a monetary benefit. And wind energy is important to our energy independence. But wind turbines can be really ugly on a rural landscape.

In the article “Wind turbines are green, but their design blows”, Detroit Free Press travel writer Ellen Creager asks why can’t they make wind turbines more visually pleasing? Why do they have to be so ugly?

Creager says “Wind turbines have all the personality of a radiator fan.” I tend to agree with her, there may be better ways. Read the article.

That being said, I’ll take current wind turbines over a conventional subdivision any day. I think our members at LandChoices would agree. What do you think?

Tags: conservation, energy, land, wind

8 Comments

Comment by Jeff Smith on May 29, 2009 at 7:49am: A windmill, like all of our energy choices today, is a transitional technology. In 100 or 200 years we will likely have something different, something better. As such, in evaluating today's technologies, we must put a great deal of weight on what kind of legacy they will leave us. Coal: global warming and decimated mountains. Nuclear: waste that's dangerous for hundreds of years. Oil: wars caused by our being held hostage by the most unstable place on the planet. Wind: we dismantle the towers and ship them to a smelter, no cleanup other than removing a cement footing. If visual pollution is the greatest and worst thing we have to bear in moving to a cleaner environment and more secure nation, it is a burden we can shoulder and should shoulder, for ourselves and for those who are coming next.

Comment by Kirt Manecke, LandChoices on May 29, 2009 at 8:35am: Hi Jeff,

Great solution my friend. I think wind energy is great and critically important, but Ellen's article got me thinking about better ways to blend them into landscapes. I agree 100% with you, we need to shoulder this investment for current and future generations. Thanks for the comment and for offering a very efficient solution to those who may oppose wind turbines due to looks alone.

Comment by Eric Hughes "The Green Home Designer" on May 29, 2009 at 12:59pm: I do not think they are ugly especially compared to electrical and telephone poles and towers.

Comment by Kirt Manecke, LandChoices on May 29, 2009 at 1:07pm: Hi Eric, great point and comparison. Thank you!

Comment by Eric Hughes "The Green Home Designer" on May 29, 2009 at 1:15pm: They can put large wind tower up without clear cutting hundered of miles of trees!!!!

Comment by Kirt Manecke, LandChoices on May 29, 2009 at 1:24pm: Another great point! Thank you Eric.

Comment by Christian Cook......Bringing residential wind power to Western Michigan on May 29, 2009 at 1:44pm: As a dealer in small turbines I may very well be bias but I do believe they offer a portion of the solution. The new high efficiency residentials essentially make no noise and aren't large enough at 8 feet or less to create much shadow or strobe. I have had 2 on my lodge (right on Pere Marquette Highway for thousand to see every day) and have had nothing but positive feed back from the community. In fact I am certain that some of my inquiries have been based solely on the fact that they want to display "green stewardship" on their homes. Sort of a "keeping up with the Greens" I suppose.

Comment by Kirt Manecke, LandChoices on May 29, 2009 at 2:06pm: Christian, I agree with you 100% that they offer a solution. Thanks for the terrific insight from someone in the know. Good to know the community supports them also and that people just want to be "green". Thank you again.

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