What's white, weighs 250,000 pounds and won't let your car pass?
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff
While giant turbines turning in the wind are one sign of a green energy revolution, here’s another: Traffic tie-ups.
When I was in the Canadian Maritimes this summer reporting a story in today’s Globe (http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/11/17/wind_from_the_north/) about how Eastern Canada is trying to build vast amounts of renewable power to deliver to New England, the most obvious signs of the effort were traffic delay warnings as the enormous pieces of equipment – blade parts can be over 150 feet long - were moved from ports to wind farms.
A wind farm in Vermont (Globe photo) |
Most wind farms are being constructed in rural areas and trucking the enormous pieces to these regions can mean encountering low overpasses and bridges that can’t sustain the weight without stopping other traffic. One wind turbine can have as many as 9 or 10 parts that often need to be carried individually by a truck as an oversized load that not even a bicyclist may safely pass at times.
When I was in Moncton, New Brunswick this summer, traffic delays were warned from late August to mid-September to allow trucks carrying pieces of 32 windmills to safely cross bridges and overpasses.
And recent new stories in Iowa and Minnesota note that drivers are rubber-necking at the huge pieces rumble by them on the road. One AP stories notes that the trucks carrying wind generators can weight almost a quarter of a million pounds – about triple the weight of a normal semi-trailer load.
Like wind farms, some people find the highway shipments fascinating – and some find them annoying. Yet they are a sign of the times in Canada and if many New England environment and energy leaders have their way – the green convoy will hopefully be stopping traffic a lot more often here.
Comment
Permalink
Email
I can almost hear the cape wind opponents suddenly becoming 'seriously concerned' about traffic on the cape...
Rosie O'Donnell?
Another advantage for Cape Wind. The wind generator components will be delivered via barge. No need to truck across the Sagamore bridge when the equipment can travel by water through the Cape Cod Canal. Let's just get on with it.
Another Advantage for Cape Wind! Generator components can be delivered by barge through the Cape Cod Canal. No need to cross the Sagamore Bridge. With everything thats going on right now and with the support of the Sierra Club and Mass Audobon along with a tremendous amount of studies that indicate minimal environmental impact vs. significvant benefits it's time to get on with it. The estates at Oyster Harbor will survive somehow.
Cape Wind may get permited, but it will never be built.
Quality of Life...Cape Wind will not improve anyone's, but it will hurt some people's.
Ugly Ugly. I would much rather have unobstructed natural views of the ocean than see that visual pollution.
By the way, electricity in New England is generated primarily by Natural Gas. ......almost none with oil.
Very interesting article. The good news is that New England will have new sources for power, as demand will almost certainly increase over the next 25 years. The bad news is that many are beginning to realize, the costs of wind power are too high. From the infrastructure (development costs, the very 'un-green' process of building those turbines, destruction of land, massive power lines), to the side effects (flicker, shadow, noise, wildlife ) wind just doesn't add up. If you've ever driven through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, you can imagine how sad it will be in 2020 to take that same drive and see the abandoned hulks rusting in the wind.
Proponents of wind are recommended to search "wind turbine flicker" on youtube, or anything involving wind in upstate New YoYork for more.
Propo
Visual pollution? Quality of life? GET REAL! You people would complain about being alive as it somehow interferes with you personal environment!
As for natural gas, It needs to be drilled as not much of it can be captured in the atmosphere. It also creates the dreaded "greenhouse gases" that are allegedly causing temperatures to rise. Let's not forget the "we don't want any of those LNG tankers in our harbors delivering natural gas to our cities" attitude.
Build the Cape Wind farm and find some other place to sail your boat!
jdjkajf, you forgot to mention coal, as a major fuel for electricity (I just read the coal plant in s. mass is the largest polluter in the Northeast). If you dont want wind turbines, then build a coal power plant on Cape Cod. It shouldn't be turbines or nothing, or course the rich wont want to have anything added. And coal, like natural gas, is not just dirty when its being used to create energy, it ruins the environment to extract it. But, I guess the cape snobs dont care since that happens in Appalachia, where poor people live, not the cape.
The "snobs" will get over their attitude when the natural gas and coal run out, and all that's left to power their homes are wind generators, etc that were built out of their view, and quit possible out of their reach. Too bad, huh?
Visual pollution? Give me a break!
I think the real problem is that the sailboat navigators aren't skilled enough, or possibly sober enough, to navigate through a forest of wind generators in the bay.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
contributors
Recent Blog Posts
browse this blog
by categoryRelated Blogs
Organizations
Information Sources
INside Boston.com