Grid Chatter

 "If you are against coal, nuclear and wind turbines, where do you get electricity from?"

-- Gerd Müller, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany

With all the hype of the climate crisis for the past week....Müller sat down with some German youths....asking the question and waiting for them to truly answer this.

Coal and nuclear power are generally on the 'bad-boy' list for obvious reasons.  Wind generators?   In the past decade....it's reach the 'bad-boy' list as well, for several reasons.

First, for those who didn't realize it....there's a bird strike problem, and maintainers for the generators will admit one of their tasks as they visit once or twice a week....is to walk around the generator and pick up the dead birds.  Pro-bird enthusiasts are pretty bitter and negative about wind energy.

Second, getting wind generators built anywhere near a village now (say with two kilometers or 1.2 miles) is nearly impossible.  Locals will put up a huge fight.  The accusation?  People say the wind generators put off a 'hum'.  Science proven fact?  Well....no.  Various people suggest they have had nausea occur since the generators have been put up near their house.  Loss of hearing?  Another accusation, but never proven.  Sleep disorders and dizziness?  Still never proven.  

Third, the natural look enthusiasts.  Here in the Rhein Valley....we had the episode where folks were all fine on the south of the river (the Pfalz region), but the minute that the suggestion came up to put wind generators on the north side (Hessen).....all 'hell' broke loose, and various 'clubs' were invented to fight the evil 'wind-lobby' people.  Arguments centered on things staying as a natural-look, to affecting the mice and forest animals (back to the dizziness and sleep disorders for animals).

Müller has a point here, and the teenage enthusiasts don't have a grasp of how these electrical production 'systems' deliver to the grid.