Saturday, June 14, 2014

Windmill Observation

 If you go to Rudesheim (just west of Wiesbaden).....there's a big hill overlooking the Rhine River and the valley below.  Everything on your side of the river is Hessen (formerly Nassau), and the other side?  The Rheinland Pfalz area (another state).

In recent months....a heated debate has come up on the Hessen side....over the placement of windmills.  As long as everyone was peppy over climate change and how we needed to put windmills up to save humanity.....things were fine.  Once we got to the point where we were actually doing it, and people figured out the change to landscape and scenery.....attitudes (especially in Hessen)....changed overnight.

So, this brings me to the hill overlooking Rudesheim.  From this vantage point yesterday....looking over into the Pfalz.....I could see a pretty good distance on a clear day (figure at least twenty kilometers).  And I could count up a minimum of five windmill farms on the Pfalz side of the river.

You can figure at least six to ten windmills in each farm.

I didn't stand around to listen into conversations and maybe ninety percent of the Germans visiting didn't really notice the windmills.  But I'm guessing a few would notice them and get negative about this change to the landscape.

Right or wrong?  Doesn't matter.  Once you made saving the Earth a priority.....the rest of the negativity over landscape or intruding into the German 'look' doesn't really matter.

The Rhine Valley has this one big plus.....wind flow.  It would not surprise me to return in ten years and find another forty windmills on the Pfalz side.....and maybe some starting to appear finally on the Hessen side.

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