Wind Turbine Resistance

It begins! The resistance I predicted that would come to the Grand Rapids Water Departments desire to put up two commercial size wind turbines on their lake front facility property has begun!

Not in my backyard! Give me a break!

In the Wednesday edition of the Grand Haven Tribune, a Letter to the Editor is expressing dismay concerning noise and light flicker issues. The couple that signed the letter mention that these machines make noise and we should be very concerned about that.

The couple that has expressed this concern live in a $2,000,000 lake front home just north of Lake Michigan Drive on the west side of Lake Shore Drive, south of Grand Haven, Michigan. Their home will be approximately 4000 feet away from the installation site for these two wind turbines. They will have no view of the turbines from their home as there is a small rise with large oak trees between them and the water treatment plant. The turbine site is at a lower elevation south of the water treatment plant.

One study published by the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts (www.ceere.org/rerl) recommends a wind turbine noise study be completed and published if there will be residences within a distance of three times the blade tip height of the site of the turbine. For this particular installation that would be a distance of 900 feet. My guess as to the likely site described in the press release would put the closest home at further than 2300 feet from the turbines. Almost three times the distance above what would be recommended for a study.

Some other considerations for this resistance is the ambient noise that will exist at this site. The roadway that runs north and south on the west side of the water treatment plant has a 55 mile per hour speed limit. At times such as normal going to and coming home from work there is considerable traffic on this road. Truck traffic is restricted to minimal use on this road by the Grand Haven Township.

The most significant source of ambient noise at this site, that would cancel any and all noise generated by these wind turbines, is the sound of Lake Michigan's waves coming ashore on the beach. This wave noise results in a roar that can be heard for quite some distance from the beach. The location of this particular couples home is within 100 feet of the beach. Noise generated by waves and the wind blowing unabated from the Lake results in a roar that would drown out any downwind sources of the magnitude generated by these wind turbines.

Another issue they complain about is "light flicker". This is a result of the light from the sun shining at a low angle, such as sunrise and sunset, through the blades causing a flickering shadow striking a residence. This can be very annoying for the home owner. There are three homes to the east of the proposed site that may have a "light flicker" problem. I don't have the capability to determine if this will be a problem at this site. The homes are approximately 2300 feet away, at minimum, and the wind turbines will be approximately 300 feet tall. From very rough calculations, the sun would be lower then 7 degrees above the horizon to cause a shadow to fall across these homes. With the local vegetation and the lake front dune, which at this area is not very high, this may or may not be an issue.

What really amazes me is the resistance to wind turbines with little or no experience or thought as to other noise or environmental issues.

Vehicle travel on Lake Shore Drive is especially heavy during the summer months. This is especially of greater concern during these months as windows are more likely to be open. The current popularity with Harley Davidson motorcycles is one of particular concern. The term "Rolling Thunder" is one that is applied with particular pride by the motor cycling crowd with regard to these machines. The louder the better. They even use the argument that it is safer if they are loud because more people are aware of them. Where is the resistance to this noise? Are current noise regulations enforced concerning these vehicles? Obviously not!



The current season brings to the fore front another annoying noise. Leaf blowers! The prevalence of these extremely loud devices and their constant use by landscape maintenance crews and home owners is much more of an issue then the wind turbines.



This area has an excellent example of what the wind turbine installation is trying to mitigate. We have the Consumers Power Campbell Coal Fired Electric Generating facility just south of the GR Water Treatment Plant. This plant is a 1440 MW base load generating plant. The base load designation means that it is running the majority of the time. This facility has provided the area with many millions of dollars of taxes to provide services for the people living in this area.

The generating facility is almost hidden behind the mountain of coal that is burned at this site.

Unfortunately, this generation process burns coal. Lots of it! Over 5 million tons of coal every year. This results in long trains running through the city of Holland that most people that live in this area have experienced. Consumers Power has spent millions of dollars to reduce the amount of effluent going out the smoke stacks. This does not reduce the carbon dioxide resulting from the process. Additionally, the stacks are built very high to distribute the particulate matter and other effluents over a greater area. Is this what we want, more of this?



The resistance expressed in the Letter to the Editor appears to be a reiteration of ignorant self serving resistance to any change. The demand for electricity is growing daily. Do we want to do everything possible to implement alternative generation systems or do we want to build more coal burning plants?

The policies that have been adopted by the city of Grand Rapids to investigate and implement any alternative that proves feasible to get to 100% renewable energy sources should be celebrated and supported, not vilified for effects that are not relevant.

Thank you Grand Rapids for your efforts! An information and comment meeting will be held at the Grand Haven Township Hall on November 30, 2009 at 6pm to 8pm.

The Hilly Hundred

John Muir told us: "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you... while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

Well, we didn't exactly hit the mountains but we found some steep hills in southern Indiana. A friend, Tim, the owner of Rock & Road bike shop, and I, loaded up his VW Euro-van and headed south Friday evening. We had heard all about a ride near Bloomington, in Elletsville, Indiana, called the Hilly Hundred. It is a two day event with a fifty mile loop on Saturday and a different fifty mile loop on Sunday.



Along with several other regular riders from the Grand Haven area, we decided to make a weekend of the trip. Since the rides were "only" fifty miles there would be college football to watch in the afternoon on Saturday (& beer).

The start of this great adventure did not go so well. The trip down was made in torrential rain for almost the entire trip. The deluge stopped just south of Indianapolis. Our arrival at the venue required us to watch a safety video and check in. Tim and I were going to camp at the Ellettsville High School, where the rides would start on both days. We completed the check-in and proceeded over to our camp site. To say the ground was wet would be misleading, to say it was flowing would probably describe it better. We managed to find spots that were not completely underwater and pitched out tents. I mentioned to Tim I hoped my Thermorest mattress would float me above the wetness. As it turned out the tents did a great job, it was only our feet in the bike shoes that suffered. Why do those things have holes in the bottom?



The Saturday ride turned out to be a challenge in more ways then the hills. More rain moved in Friday night and it was still misting at 9am when we launched on the ride. Since it was raining I did not bring my camera. I was also a little nervous concerning the advertised gradient of the hills we would be riding. In the Grand Haven area, the maximum grade we encounter is about 9% on 5-Mile Hill. We would see 18% on Saturday and 23% on Sunday. My bike has a 39-26 low gear. Most people rode with a triple crank set.



The Saturday ride starts out with a short hill with a 12% grade. This was wet and covered with leaves. Twice I came to an abrupt halt when my back wheel spun out on the slippery surface. Once we got over that hill, conditions improved, at least the roads were a bit cleaner.

Both days have rest stops and lunch at 10-15 mile intervals. This is way generous! The food was great at all rest stops and fried chicken was served for both lunches. You could have made a real pig of yourself, but then you would be hauling more "stuff" up over the hills.

After lunch, Tim and I got hooked up with a group of 6 college students from Indiana University doing the Hilly Hundred as a training ride. Great fun, riding up and down the hills as a group. We were really moving along averaging about 40kph on the flats and stomping up the hills.

The last big climb of the day, Water Tower Hill, did me in and I was spit out the back of the group. This is billed as a 0.8 mile 17% grade climb. It was! I did manage to catch the group on the back side as they slowed near the end. I thanked them for dragging the "old man" around on their ride. What fun!

We spent our afternoon and evening in Bloomington, Indiana, watching football, University of Michigan and Penn State and fueling (& beer) for the next day. Unfortunately, Michigan was pummeled by Penn State.

The camping Saturday night was much better then the night before, as the deluge had subsided. The stars were out but we were tired so went to bed by 10pm. I was awakened in the night by some coyotes howling at the neighborhood dogs.

Sunday dawned nicely, with a bit of clouds and a great sunrise. Our group managed to get together at 9am for the start.



Along with 5500 of our best friends and bike riders.



Both days amazed me that there can be that many people in one place all riding their bikes at the same time. At almost no time on these fifty mile rides were you out of sight of many others. This was a truly eclectic group. All manner of bike, gear, clothing and ages and gender.



One of the longest climbs, is the Bean Blossom Hill. This one goes on for about 2 miles and has a 17% maximum. Most of the hill is a much more reasonable grade.


This is the view at the climax of this hill.

There is a screaming downhill after this climb. This downhill was the one really scary part of the ride, not so much the downhill itself, but one rider in the group I was in went off the edge of the road at around 35mph. He did a great job of keeping it under control and getting back on the road in an upright manner.

Lunch came at about 28 miles on Sunday.



Does this bagel make my face look fat?


The crowds at the rest stops and lunch were much heavier on Sunday, probably due to the improved weather.



Our group rode together for a while after lunch in anticipation of the crux move of this tour.

The Mt. Tabor climb.

This is a short wall billed as 0.2 mile and 20%, with 23% on the inside of the turn at the top. It was that and there was traffic, bikes and cars. The lead up to this climb has a nice down grade for several miles so I was flying along not really thinking about this climb. All of a sudden, the road ducks into some woods and seems to go straight up.

I geared down and started cranking. People were falling out all over, this bad boy was steep. I got into the surge forward, then pedal rhythm, until a car from behind and a car ahead tried to do the hill at the same time. The car coming up from behind passed me, then the car coming down, which had stopped at the top, all of a sudden started down the barely two lane road filled with, I am guessing, about a hundred riders and now two cars. The car that was going up that just passed me, decided it needed to get over for the downhill traffic, so it just made a turn to the right, placing it at about 45 degrees across the road and stopped. This left me with about 12 inches between the ditch and the bumper to get by. If I had stopped at that point it would have meant walking the rest of the way up. I was not going to do that! I did make it by and then took the path right up the center so that would not happen again. Success!

Holy crap, that thing was steep. I made it up onto the grass at the top of the hill to take a photo of Tim coming behind me, while my heart rate dropped below humming bird speed.


Tim is sneaking by in the left side of the photo on the orange/black Giant.

After this climb we rode along a ridge until just before Stinesville. This was great fun flying down the hill into this little village. The turns were mostly 90 degree and they had placed hay bales on the outside of the corners to cut down on the carnage. I loved it. I was chasing Tim down this hill right on his tail as we flew through the corners, free of the big crowds we had been riding in most of the day.

In a nice little park adjacent to the stream that runs through Stinesville, was the last rest stop. We took a short break here to replenish our water and a poddy break. Right out of the chute is Mt. Carmel Road hill. That was tough after stopping, then having to start climbing right away.

The last ten miles was into the wind and kind of rolling. That was tough. Tim and I did manage to grab on to a small group and do a pace line rotation into the wind.

The last big effort is a re-do of Water Tower Hill. Yep, you have to do that twice! It is a definite challenge, especially after two days of this stuff for us flat-landers. I was getting tired but managed to keep the tempo going and surprised myself getting over the top nicely.

The rest of the ride, as they say, is all down-hill. Well, not really, but its not bad.


I made it back to the campsite and sat down for a nice break.

This is a great ride in a very nice area of the country. The organization was superb, the food was great (need coffee at the rest stops) and the company was a lot of fun.

I love scampering up and down those hills, when you feel the need for speed, you have to get up before you get down.

For those who care to see the pain that was generated graphically, check out my GPS tracks at: Saturday: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17116641 and Sunday: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17116631

Lies!

Either these companies think Americans are stupid or they are incredibly naive.

Why does a study by the insurance companies, that they funded, conclude that the cost of insurance will go up if the Congress passes a Health Reform Bill? Because the exact opposite is probably true! They are trying to scare people into opposition of the Bill.

Why does a Petroleum Institute of America media campaign called EnergyCitizens.org claim that, if the current climate bill passes Congress, energy costs (oil) will go up and jobs will be lost? Because the exact opposite is probably true! They are trying to scare people into opposition of the bill.

Watch the videos on EnergyCitizens.org. The real meaning of EnergyCitizen is EnergyHog! Continue to do as you please. Use it now before someone else uses it up.

These tactics are so transparent as to be ridiculous.

I am tired of them.

If you cannot come up with a valid solution, slam the ideas presented by others. Don't try and work together to make things better for all, consider only yourselves. Short term greed is much better then long term prosperity.

Grand Haven Township Wind Turbines

In the Wednesday edition of the Grand Haven Tribune, an exciting announcement was made concerning a new alternative energy installation. The Grand Rapids Water Filtration plant has contacted the Grand Haven Township administration about installing two 1.5-2 MW wind turbines at their facility about 5 miles south of the city of Grand Haven. Their intention is to use these machines to provide an alternative energy source of power for the filtration plant.

Grand Rapids owns approximately 48 acres of land on the south east corner of Lakeshore Drive and Lake Michigan Drive. The installation of the two turbines would be about a half mile from either of these roads. The area is one of forested rolling land with a small creek on the southern border. The visual impact of the turbines, which would stand about 300 feet tall would be minimal in this location. The turbines would be visible from either road but the overall impact would be minimal as far as sound and shadow from the operation of the machines.

Unfortunately, there will be resistance to this project. In the recent past there have already been letters to the Tribune editors, expressing reluctance to having this type of activity going on "in their backyard", and questioning the effectiveness of alternative energy in general.
Wind turbines do not run at full capacity 365 days a year. But neither do conventional energy plants. In countries like Denmark, wind already meets one-fifth of the population’s total energy needs – and Denmark has achieved this using less than 20 percent of its actual wind resources. On very windy days, Denmark gets all of its electricity from the country’s 5,000 wind turbines.
If this type of application of alternative energy can be used to reduce the need for additional fossil fuel power plants, the amount of greenhouse gases and effluents put into the air can be reduced. We have three huge coal-fired plants within 10 miles of Grand Haven. The Campbell plant, to the south, burns 5 million tons of coal per year, the Cobb plant, to the north, burns 1 million tons of coal per year and additional natural gas, and the Grand Haven plant burns about 200,000 tons of coal per year. That is an amazing amount of effluent and CO2 into the air just in this immediate area. We have all noticed the huge stacks that are associated with this activity. Another impact on this immediate area is the water from Lake Michigan, the Grand River and Muskegon Lake that is used to cool these facilities. What ultimate impact this has on our supply of drinking water can only be guessed.

The question is not if CO2 emissions should be reduced, but how. Fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas produce CO2, while other technologies leave behind hazardous waste for future generations. Coal and nuclear power plants require large amounts of clean water – already a diminishing resource.

Do we want more of this?

Wind is clean. It doesn’t produce CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. And it doesn’t use up our already scarce drinking water. It just produces energy.

We have an opportunity to participate in the reduction of our dependence on fossil fuels. The wind is everywhere. There is an unlimited supply – and it’s free.

Wind power is a sustainable, predictable and clean source of energy. Michigan has a base of manufacturing that can easily participate in this modern energy market. Our demand for energy is greater every day.

Will we embrace this concept or fight against it? I hope we fully embrace and encourage the growth of alternative energy!

Chrysler Fiat

I just finished reading an article by Tom Krisher of the AP in the Grand Haven Tribune.

Mr. Kirsher discussed the problems that the new Chrysler Fiat alliance must over come to be successful. One of the issues was the Americanization of any models that may be used imported or produced for the US market based on Fiat models.

He mentioned that Americans are put off by the "stiff" suspensions, "firm" seats and not enough cup holders. This is one reason small cars will never catch-on or be popular in the US.

Who wants to drive a small car that handles like a marshmallow so the "ride" is smooth? For years the design concept of "road isolation" has brought us the likes of the Crown Victoria, along with Buicks, Cadillacs, and Lincolns. These cars are perfect examples of living rooms on wheels. These cars are not meant to be driven, they are for riding in. When you turn one of these loosely sprung wonders, you must anticipate the maneuver well in advance so the weight can be shifted smoothly. I remember the first time I drove a new Chrysler Neon (Hi!). I thought I would sink out of sight in the foam seat and the handling was like driving a boat. Wallowing around corners, nose diving under braking, and generally mushy.

Driving a well designed small car with supportive firm seats is a joy. You have confidence that the vehicle will perform what you want it to do even in emergency situations.

I will never understand the un-supportive foam seats that are found in most American cars. These seats do not provide proper seating support for spending time at the wheel and remaining alert. If any maneuvers are attempted that cause any sideways forces, such as entering a cloverleaf highway on ramp, you feel like you are sliding into the door instead of being held in position. I can understand the reason behind the foam seats, they are cheap!

Driving is not a love or a task that is viewed as important. Notice how the average driver is slumped to one side, with their wrist lackadaisically draped over the steering wheel. We have all heard the debate over texting, talking on the phone messing with the iPod, windshield view blocked by GPS. So many things to do other then drive the car.

Americans "love" their cars only because there is no alternative. So we have grown to demand cars that are more like sitting in front of the TV at home. Automatic transmissions, built in GPS so we can be told how to get places, "Sync" systems to more easily talk and read emails, electronic stability control so we don't have to be responsible for maintaining control of our vehicle, and size matters to keep us safe.

It has been mentioned that there has been a "real" change in the buying habits of the motoring American: no more supersize! I don't believe it for a minute!

Ah, traffic!

It always amazes me driving in America!
The standard answer to traffic problems is throw up a stop sign.
No one feels any responsibility to anyone else on the road. "Rush Hour" is a time for snoozing, drinking coffee, talking on the phone, texting, and generally spacing out. I have always been one that thinks its rude to inhibit others on the road! If the speed limit is 55mph try and at least go that speed. If you have thirty cars behind you and you are doing 10 mph under the limit, you are rude!
Another fun one, on the limited access highways, is merging with the brake pedal. You can cannot merge into traffic by slowing down! Its even more amusing when the person next to you in the right lane is also slowing down to let you in! Coming down the entrance ramp, punch it, get up to speed, then try to merge in. Don't think you are going to lazily cruise down the ramp and move smoothly into traffic that is doing 20mph faster then you.
I have always viewed driving as a task that should be "grasped firmly with two hands, and done well". In America its a conundrum, supposedly we love our cars, but hate driving. The truth of this can be seen in the massive SUVs and trucks the vast majority of Americans want to drive and then the lackadaisical manner in which we drive them. The wrist draped casually over the top of the steering wheel is not a position that garners effective evasive action. The same goes for the "rolling thunder" riders with their feet spread out on the cruising pegs, no where near the back brake or shifters.
The responsibility issue goes to all other tasks that driving requires. Not signaling your intentions is a task that has been reduced to optional at best. Oh, yeah, if you are already in the left turn lane, turning on your left turn signal at that point is not telling me anything. Slamming on your brakes and flipping on the turn signal at the same time also does not tell me what you are GOING to do it tells me what you are doing. Your actions have already spelled that out! The turn signal becomes redundant at that point.
My rant for the day is over, be safe out there!

Ludington Invitational CC

cDSC_5210
Originally uploaded by cyoas55

The Grand Haven High School girls gave a great performance at the Ludington Invitational Cross Country Meet this last Saturday. On a brilliant day in mid-September, the team provided the fans and families with a perfect performance, placing GH girls in the top 5 spots to score the minimum of 15 points.
This season has proven to be a real test for the GH girls after losing some very capable seniors last year. All of the girls have just stepped up their training and desire and filled those shoes so far this year.
It is always exciting to watch the girls compete against each other and themselves to grow and improve their confidence in themselves.
As Dr. Seuss once said, "Oh, the places you'll go!"