Not-So-Green Energy

About twenty years ago, the landscape in north central Oregon began to be decorated with windmills. Not the traditional type of windmill that you see at an old farm but giant industrial windmills with turbines around 100 feet in length. These windmills were supposed to be the new age of electricity production, replacing the “outdated” methods of generating electricity: hydroelectric dams, coal plants, and nuclear facilities.

At the time, I was rather unimpressed. They looked kind of ugly and with as many as they were putting up, you couldn’t look any direction without seeing several of them detracting from the majestic scenery Oregon is known for. Back then, I read an article, which stated that such windmills were nothing more than a feelgood attempt to cajole people’s ecological tendencies. The highly visible eyesores drove home the point that our generation was being more responsible by going with clean energy.

But, with the cost of production, transportation, installation, and routine maintenance, (not to mention the amount paid to the landowner) it could take approximately twenty-five years for a windmill to break even. Trouble is, the life expectancy of the windmill is also about twenty-five years. So, the entire effort is a wash, and that’s a best-case scenario.

There are other inherent problems as well: sometimes it’s too windy to operate the windmills, they do not produce enough to power—unless you have a hundred or so of them running, which is why we have more windmills than trees, and since that type of electricity can’t be stored, the windmills do not operate on a continuous basis—only when the power they generate can be immediately used.

They do have one redeeming feature, namely, as previously mentioned, landowners are paid very well to host the windmill. So, people in the area, as long as they are landowners, have done fairly well since the big white monsters have taken over. And of course, that has translated to a boost to the local economy. As a result, most people have a favorable view of the windmills, or at least not a drastic negative view. However, that may change soon.

The other day, we had a fire that began along the road to my job. That’s nothing new; we have fires a lot. But this particular fire, which burned out a mile and a half of railroad tracks, including a couple of trestle bridges, was caused by, you guessed it, a windmill.

According to eyewitness accounts, a windmill began to spark, and then started throwing a shower of fiery sparks. These descended to the ground where the dried weeds were waiting to catch fire. Thankfully, the fire was extinguished with nothing besides the railroad property being lost.

While the railroad is already busy repairing the rail line, and trains should only be down a few days, the bigger issue that people are starting to realize is, we have thousands of these windmills, all aged roughly the same, which now apparently seem to pose a fire hazard—in a very dry climate. That’s not a good combination.

Okay, I know this post missing my usual lighthearted humor with a slight twist of irony. Let me try to remedy that. Although I hate to revel in anyone's misery, there is a certain satisfaction derived from the recent events. See, normally, in the course of my job, I can expect to wait on a train once or twice a day—sometimes ten minutes, sometimes half an hour or more. They pull back and forth, changing cars, sometimes stopping only a few feet from clearing the crossing, then going the other way before again stopping a few feet short—all with no regard for traffic. It's very annoying, especially when they could go a few more feet, and sometimes literally inches, to let traffic pass while they are hooking or unhooking. It wouldn’t even cost them any more time. So, as I said, although I hate to revel in anyone's misery, and although I’ve always held the view that the windmills were a rather useless endeavor, I haven't had to wait on a train for a few days! ~

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, The Lana Denae Mysteries, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook at www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS and paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million.