Paco Dennis
SF VIP
- Location
- Mid-Missouri
Do you have windmills in your country?
- Thread starter Bretrick
- Start date
CinnamonSugar
A Quiet American
Taken in Michigan… we have some I. My area, most non-functional now
Bretrick
Well-known Member
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
MoBeans
Member
Our town became the poster child for how not to do wind power. The selectmen ignored the largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the world who said that the proposed units were too large, too close to neighboring houses, too close to the highway where ice could be flung into traffic. When the town said they wanted them anyway the manufacturer refused to sell to them.
So our town went out and bought used ones ignoring all the experts. Long story short this is a photo of one of our wind turbines on it's last day after being decommissioned due to noise complaints and legal action from residents. A court order forced their removal. There was nothing wrong with them, they worked perfectly fine but they cut them down like a tree.
Edit: They tried to sell them but nobody wanted them. By then they were old technology.
So our town went out and bought used ones ignoring all the experts. Long story short this is a photo of one of our wind turbines on it's last day after being decommissioned due to noise complaints and legal action from residents. A court order forced their removal. There was nothing wrong with them, they worked perfectly fine but they cut them down like a tree.
Edit: They tried to sell them but nobody wanted them. By then they were old technology.
Last edited:
Bretrick
Well-known Member
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
Ornamental windmill at Pinjarra.
Warrigal
SF VIP
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
One of my ancestors who emigrated with his wife and 4 children to Australia in 1863 had a small farm in Devon that has a water mill for grinding grain. He left England as the impact of the Industrial Revolution (steam) was looking like his livelihood was about to disappear.
The ship that carried them over the oceans was wind powered, i.e. a fully rigged sailing ship. When the wind dropped, they couldn't sail at speed. For this reason, they were overdue in Australia by a full month but the 3 month long voyage was said to be a "good passage".
When he arrived in Australia he opened a general store in a town on the western side of the Great Dividing Range not far from the goldfields.
Bretrick
Well-known Member
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
I would love to own a property with a watermill.
BJintheUK
Member
- Location
- Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, UK
Several things I noticed about the windmills shown in the photos.
The big old windmills used for grinding grain that you see only work if cloth is put on the wooden sail frames, and none of them have the cloth on them that would allow them to work.
The Southern Cross type windmills in the photos all have their tails turned so that they're in line with the blades. This stops them from turning, as it keeps the blades angled at the same direction the wind is blowing instead of at 90 degrees to it.
Those huge white three bladed fibreglass monsters that are blighting the land have to be started by diesel engines mounted at the top of the pylon of each of them, as the blades are too heavy to be turned by the wind alone.
Also, in the UK the wind doesn't blow all the time, so we end up with intermittent power output from the massive windfarms that the gov't has invested in. So we still need coal or oil and atomic powerstations to keep the national grid working.
As the UK is an island, we are surrounded by seas, and the North Sea and Irish Sea in particular are both infamous for the storms and heavy wave actions in both. This could be utilised either instead of, or as well as the wind farms in order generate massive amounts of power. Furthermore, wave and tidal power is constant, so putting turbines across the Severn estuary (where the tidal change is over 20ft) would be a very good way of generating power without losing any of the aesthetics of the area, unlike the monstrous three bladed propellors that look as though they're trying to lift off vast areas of countryside.
The big old windmills used for grinding grain that you see only work if cloth is put on the wooden sail frames, and none of them have the cloth on them that would allow them to work.
The Southern Cross type windmills in the photos all have their tails turned so that they're in line with the blades. This stops them from turning, as it keeps the blades angled at the same direction the wind is blowing instead of at 90 degrees to it.
Those huge white three bladed fibreglass monsters that are blighting the land have to be started by diesel engines mounted at the top of the pylon of each of them, as the blades are too heavy to be turned by the wind alone.
Also, in the UK the wind doesn't blow all the time, so we end up with intermittent power output from the massive windfarms that the gov't has invested in. So we still need coal or oil and atomic powerstations to keep the national grid working.
As the UK is an island, we are surrounded by seas, and the North Sea and Irish Sea in particular are both infamous for the storms and heavy wave actions in both. This could be utilised either instead of, or as well as the wind farms in order generate massive amounts of power. Furthermore, wave and tidal power is constant, so putting turbines across the Severn estuary (where the tidal change is over 20ft) would be a very good way of generating power without losing any of the aesthetics of the area, unlike the monstrous three bladed propellors that look as though they're trying to lift off vast areas of countryside.