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Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Banks

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AndrewJMcGee
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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby AndrewJMcGee » Fri Jan 04, 2013 7:09 pm

So when I'm kiting in Hatteras now it will feel more like NY! Home sweet home.

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chemosavi
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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby chemosavi » Fri Jan 04, 2013 7:32 pm

I agree, studies need to be done. Here in the northwest we have a lot of trees over 150' high. I think they're messing up the wind big time. Specially at my launch site.

Basic premise of post title; threatened screwy northeast wind patterns at present choice kite spot affecting minuscule portion of the population.

Pretty sure you'll find the wind gigawatt will do more in the long run for your kite spot than the coal. In spite of any downwind turbulence.

"I'm all in favor of green energy, just not in my backyard."

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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby gazxtreme » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:33 pm

I think it would be pretty obvious that trees of 150' would create wind disturbance unless you are over 1050 feet away or approx 7 times the height of the object. I'm no expert but having lived in an area that has 3 extremely large windfarms 7 miles out to sea in what are predominantly onshore winds I can say there is no effect that concerns my time on the water. What I do suspect is that windfarms and green energy in general has experienced growing support and maybe a lot of supporters are sailors, windsurfers and kitesurfers.
Right so how do windfarm objectors get windsports people to be concerned about windfarms ? easy, some spin doctor in an office decides to spread unfounded rumours to the windsports world that them pesky windfarms are going to ruin the wind therefore your sport and feck me some of you are falling for it.
Do we deserve to be living in between power stations run by a process that once finished with cannot be disposed of in a proven safe way and will undoubtedly be a problem for our children to have to deal with ? wise up, next one will be that solar panels fry your brains slowly orsomething totally mythical. Problem is that if green energy becomes more efficient and used by us all the governments of the world will have multi billion pound nuclear power stations standing redundant and they wouldn't want that would they ? Hence the bullshit about windfarms disturbing the wind for a distance that common sense and science tells us is a much smaller distance.

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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby SSK » Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:32 pm

Right so how do windfarm objectors get windsports people to be concerned about windfarms ? easy, some spin doctor in an office decides to spread unfounded rumours to the windsports world that them pesky windfarms are going to ruin the wind therefore your sport? Hence the bullshit about windfarms disturbing the wind for a distance that common sense and science tells us is a much smaller distance.
I know everyone wants a conspiracy theory, but I do not see it. Maybe I am the only one geeky enough to read the technical studies and there are a lot available on line. But I have not seen any "spin doctors" or windfarm objectors suggesting we should be up in arms that our sport is going to be ruined. In fact almost everything posted about downwind effects are from people in the wind industry or supporters of wind energy looking to improve the industry and limit the downfalls. I have not come across any "objectors" use this argument. Their objections focus on cost, scale, and reliability. One of the biggest concerns for the wind industry is siting a large multi-billion dollar farm on a leased ocean lot. They definitely want to know what the effects are of being downwind of a neighbor farm. A developer wants to design the turbines, space the turbines, and shape the field to have minimal effects on their farm and the surrounding environment. So that is where a lot of studies are from. The study on upwelling was done by a Danish meteorologist, and pointed out both possible positive and negative benefits. The other studies from NOAA are real interest into possible downstream climatic change. But almost all of these studies show that there is still a lot of unknowns, and as farms get bigger and bigger they need to be understood.
The time is right for this kind of research so that, before we take a leap, we make sure it can be done right. We want to identify the best way to sustain an explosive growth in wind energy over the long term. Wind energy is likely to be a part of the solution to the atmospheric carbon dioxide and the global warming problem. By identifying impacts and potential mitigation strategies, this study will contribute to the long-term sustainability of wind power.
The scientist seem to be suggesting the opposite, that the downwind effects may be bigger than our "common sense" would let us believe and that it needs to be understood and mitigated.

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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby bigwave » Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:48 am

I am a little more concerned with the road and the bridge. Lots of work to be done now and in the near future.

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chemosavi
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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby chemosavi » Sat Jan 05, 2013 2:09 am

I think we're onto something big here. This turbulence stuff.

After we cut all the trees down and level the cities we should start on the mountains.

And I swear every time a flock of those Canadian geese go by my kite hindenburgs. Damn birds.

More studies!

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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby snobdr » Sat Jan 05, 2013 3:22 am

Ive kited tug hill right in and around big wind turbins without noticable turbulance or wind loss.
Also on the aircraft vortices, the size of the vortice depends more on the weight of the aircraft then the speed of the aircraft. With the low blade loading on a wind turbine any disturbance from the blade tip would be minimal.

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Bille
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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby Bille » Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:00 am

At 6 miles away, the effect on the wind from a rotating blade
is Definitely gonna be Minimal at best, at any wind-speed.

In East winds at Mohave, there is a 2 thousand foot high mountain range
about (4) miles up-wind, and East winds are our smoothest of All
directions.

And i am with --Chemo-- in this one , i will put up with a bit
of turbulence for a cause as GOOD as Green energy !!

OK-- let's say that was a coal-fired electric plant 6 miles up-wind ...
just the Friken Smell would be enough to make me wanna go
kite somewhere else .

Now if that wind-farm was a mile away & up-wind, the effect on surface winds
could be quite pronounced, ( to the point that i would NOT wanna land my
hang glider) ; but even then, i'd keep quiet about it , because
energy from Wind is a Good thing , and i'd simply go land somewhere else instead.

Bille

Now That was the edited version of what i think on this subject, here is the
Unedited version :

Anyone that would complain about a Wind-Farm that's gonna be 6-miles away
and up wind of his kite-spot, is a bit self-centered and really couldn't
care about anyone else living on the planet other than himself.

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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby whiteout » Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:08 am

i was figuring on riding in between and directly behind the wind farm but mabye not after viewing that photo.

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Vin Stefanelli
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Re: Offshore wind farm may wreck NE winds for the Outer Bank

Postby Vin Stefanelli » Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:35 am

this is almost as entertaining as the revelation about the new anti-USA-energy moovie "the Promised Land" where $$ funding for the flick came from the United Arab Emirates, specifically Qatar $$ of the emirates


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