Any Colour You Like

I have now finally finished my intensive module on wind-power (except the stack of coursework I have to do for it obviously). It was all very stimulating and worthy of debate. It is even potentially an area I would like to work with in the future. But probably the most interesting part of the week was the biological issues surrounding wind turbines that cropped up from time to time:

(1) After only 9 months of operation, the efficiency and electricity output of wind turbines will have reduced by 45% due to the number of bugs that have stuck to the blades (nasty way to die in my opinion). The goo and carcasses mess with the aerodynamics.

(2) The resistance of the blades to bird-strike is tested by firing a 7kg frozen turkey at them at a speed of 20m/s.

(3) Wind turbines are designed to conduct electricity and pass it on to the ground so that they can survive being struck by lighting. Unfortunately this has the offshoot of electrocuting lots of cows that like to stand around under the turbines. Farmers then get very annoyed at this.

So there you have it – think twice before voting ‘yes’!