Mark Duchamp writes in with this news from the Lerida, Autonomous Community (state) of Catalonia, Spain:
A judge ordered the removal of 45 wind turbines on the grounds that planning laws were violated. There was no “general municipal plan” establishing a “reserva del suelo” – i.e. the land was not legally declared appropriate for the erection of wind turbines.
Spanish Version:
English Version:
According to another article going back to January 22nd, Spanish architects from the Autonomous Community (state) of Cantabria complained that windfarms will make it impossible to have the southern valleys declared World Heritage Area, despite the many romanesque churches and buildings making them worthy of that designation.
http://www.amigosdelromanico.org/noticia/id_10032.html
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The folks that post here are generally quite bright, yet it hasn’t dawned on anyone’s mind what will actually happen here. The windmills aren’t going anywhere. They will remain on those hills until they decay away. Why? Because the company doesn’t have enough money to take them down.
I base this, not on any facts at all, but on knowledge of human nature (which equates to what businesses do, also). The companies (limited-liability) that put up wind-farms are set up just for that purpose, that is, to build wind-farms. They skim off as much as they can from the subsidies, tax breaks, and investors, and if some judgment like this comes down, the company goes bankrupt. Any extra money has already been secured as salaries and/or dividends. The only collateral that the company owns is sitting on those hillsides.
The way to get around these shenanigans is to force companies to post a bond, set up in an escrow account, that will pay for removal. No wind-farm business owner in their right mind would go along with that, and so very very few wind-farms would actually get built.
Anyone think I’m wrong? Then cite a reference to any wind-farms that have actually been dismantled by the original company that put them up.
reason says: May 18, 2011 at 8:20 am
” there is a joyful rustling within my soul that, somewhere, a house of God took priority over a totem to Gaia.”
Very poetic! s.
Janice, I suspect you’d be right, unfortunately.
KD:
several years ago in california we saw the price of electricity in the san diego area allowed to float.
all of a sudden businesses that had contracted for large amounts of electricity (heat treaters, welding companies……..) found it more advantages to go out of their stated business and sell the electricity that they had contracated for.
once the prices settled out those businesses never went back to the work that they had been doing and industry in the area took a terrible hit.
remember its the dumb little details that will get you.
c
Janice:
the windmills will get torn down and it will be paid for by the local “authorities”.
there are to many “nephews” involved for this mess to fail.
C
The sad thing for me is that this thing turned on a legal/planning issue. It should never had got this far in the first place. If this landscape was so important either visually or on historical/ heritage grounds those values should have been understood and recognised much earlier.
Douglas
Sweet, very sweet…
Janice says:
May 18, 2011 at 9:50 am
[———, yet it hasn’t dawned on anyone’s mind what will actually happen here. The windmills aren’t going anywhere. They will remain on those hills until they decay away. Why? Because the company doesn’t have enough money to take them down.
I base this, not on any facts at all, but on knowledge of human nature (which equates to what businesses do, also). –The only collateral that the company owns is sitting on those hillsides.
The way to get around these shenanigans is to force companies to post a bond, — that will pay for removal—-Anyone think I’m wrong? Then cite a reference to any wind-farms that have actually been dismantled by the original company that put them up.]
——————————————————————————
Janice. How right you are. And no one seems to look further ahead than their own nose. I couldn’t believe that these turbines could have been built in an area such as this in the first place but they were, on the taxpayer’s dime, without producing reliable energy and when decommissioned cannot be removed without the taxpayer stumping up the cash. Where oh where is the leadership?
Douglas
“What happens to CA if your neighbors don’t have any surplus? Are you going to shut down the state for the day if it is cloudy and the wind isn’t blowing? How many power plants could you have built with the loss of the economy for a single day?”
IIRC, San Diego very nearly found out last year, when the City Council vented their OUTRAGE!!!11!1 over Arizona’s illegal-immigration crackdown (SB1070), and moved to boycott any and all things Arizonian. As it turned out, a rather significant portion of the city’s power supply is “imported” from AZ companies.
_____
Scottish – glad you liked!
PaulM says “Huge areas of Spain, that used to be very attractive with mountains and historic hilltop towns, have been ruined by rows of windmills along the ridges, spoiling the views in all directions”.
Yes indeed. I recently drove the whole length of Spain from North to South and the experience was horrendous. These monstrosities have destroyed the tourism industry in much of Spain (as they are now doing in areas of Wales).
Ironically, many of the cafés along the way, now empty of tourists, had names like “Bella Vista”.
That is the most progressive news from Espanya in a long time.
Janice of course is right, these abominations will not be dismantled, other than at taxpayers expense.
Douglas is eight, they should never have been built in the first place.
Kum Dollison must have shares in wind power. I suspect the reasons CA is no longer having brownouts & rolling blackouts is twofold.
1) They import a heap of power.
2) The big power users, (industry,) have already left.
DaveE,
Must sack the proofreader.
right not eight!
DaveE,
Who knew that there was a group of people in this world that would be this excited over a permitting issue simply because it involved a renewable energy source…
You may recall that I was holidaying I Andorra last August and had to ferry family members to and from the Barcelona airport a few times. Leaving the airport we follow the route to Lleida (which is also spelled Lerida, apparently) and turn off about 40km before getting to the town. There are many windmill installations along that route from Barcelona. In the 5 or 6 trips I made I never saw one of them operating despite reasonable breezes on some of the days.
I assumed they were an art installations … not for power generating purposes.
reason:
i forgot about that.
in the los angeles area it was called “San Diego cutting off their nose so that they could more efficiently stomp on their @ur momisugly#$%s.)
C
Wind mills are easy to decommission, one small inexpensive strategically placed charge, then call in the recyclers, including those that crush concrete for reuse. Problem solved.
Beautiful picture. I wonder if the turbines could be declared sculptures?
I’m one of those rare birds (not homogenized by the turbine blades) who likes the aesthetics of the large wind turbines.
Of course they are a complete waste of money. But I still like the aesthetics. At least as long as I don’t have to live in proximity.
I believe that, within 10 years, Ca will be pretty much “out” of
the “electricity from Fossil Fuels”business.FIFY
M Simon
I don’t think you’ve quit grasped the Aesthetic issues. It’s a question of scale, and proliferation. And, if the process continues you will be living in proximity….. As of course we all will be.
fenbeagle,
I’m an engineer, aerospace. I love large scale. 747-400s warm my heart. The skies should be full of them.
De gustibus non est disputandum
Yup. Ya got windmills…
Yer gonna have to spray ta get rid of ’em.