Comments on: NIMBYism Kills 45% of Clean Energy Projects

By: Community Wind Power - CleanTechnica

Community Wind Power - CleanTechnica — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:54:18 +0000

[…] almost any new development can run into NIMBYISM these days, and wind power is no exception. Wind power projects across the country, and the world, get stopped in their tracks simply because […]

By: 10 Signs It's Time to Leave Your Town from Racial Segragation to Religious Intolerance | EcoSalon | Conscious Culture and Fashion

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:17:32 +0000

[…] often stifled by the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). Nearly half of all renewable energy proposals are stifled because of local opposition, and while not all of the protests lack validity, it can be incredibly frustrating to see a […]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Thanks for the comment. For sure!

I guess it’s sort of ironic when it comes to clean energy since so many people support clean energy on surveys…

But you seem to explain it well.

By: Davies

Davies — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:23:00 +0000

As a company that has clients in clean and other energy including solar, coal, offshore oil, nuclear power, and wind farms across the country we know that NIMBYism does not discriminate solely against clean energy. As the article states, lot of concerns stem from a lack of understanding of the sector and at the root people are fearful of any change.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:26:00 +0000

NIMBY is “Not in MY backyard”. “Put it in someone else’s backyard.”

If someone has a different objection then they aren’t pulling a NIMBY. For example, if someone objected to wind farms because they kill birds (which they don’t) then that would not be a NIMBY, but a concerned (misinformed) environmentalist.

I don’t have a derogatory term for developers. Some are fine people and some are greedy jerks. I try to differentiate between them.

If you live in a non-windy place and want to build a wind farm should you build it there because it’s your backyard or should you build it somewhere the wind blows?

By: Rednest1

Rednest1 — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:34:00 +0000

And that’s a healthy dialogue that isn’t helped by knee-jerk labeling of one side as NIMBY no matter the reason for their opposition. What’s your derogatory term for developers? They would seem to more accurately merit the NIMBY term, since it’s always someone else’s backyard that they’re targeting.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:55:00 +0000

NIMBY played a part in Denmark moving largely to offshore wind. Stronger wind at different times of day played a part as well. Moving wind offshore and away from where people live makes sense to me, but other people don’t want it offshore.

Whatever one wishes to do will likely meet with resistance from someone.

Want to build a new building? Someone will likely complain over using bare land. Want to tear down an existing building and turn in into bare land? You can get resistance over that as well.

Want to build high speed rail? NIMBY. Want to tear out an old unused railroad? People will protest. (Happening right now in CA.)

Fact is, we much change the way we generate electricity. If we do not we will screw up everybody’s life.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:33:00 +0000

The point is that the Danish people stopped onshore development. It was their opposition that forced developers to go offshore. The opposition was based on experience (with relatively small turbines compared with those being erected now).

The article here calls for FITs and community development as in Denmark. That doesn’t cure the ill effects of giant wind turbines in the neighborhood.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:30:00 +0000

“Electricity from wind farms in Texas climbed to 7.8 percent of the power consumed in the state last year, up from 6.2 percent in 2009, the state grid operator said in a report.

Overall, electric use in the Texas market jumped 3.5 percent in 2010 to 319,097 gigawatt-hours for the year, boosted by extreme cold in the winter and hot weather in the summer, said the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/11/us-utilities-ercot-idUSTRE70A7F720110111

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:22:00 +0000

What’s your point?

Denmark has better offshore wind resources than onshore wind resources. A few years ago offshore wind technology reached a point to make offshore workable. When that happened Denmark started building more offshore than on shore.

The same will likely happen along the eastern seaboard of the US. There’s not a lot of good on shore wind, but excellent offshore wind. The western US coast will largely wait for floating turbines to mature except for a few select locations.

Lots of the interior of the NA continent does not have offshore potential. In those places we will continue to build on shore.

Ontario could probably put some turbines out in Lake Superior, but it wouldn’t give them much ‘offshore advantage’, being on the windward shore.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:57:00 +0000

Like the report of Texas’s “record-breaking” 15.2% from wind? Where in that report is the information of how long that lasted, or what is average?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:56:00 +0000

Cut out 2002, i.e., since 2002: virtually new no onshore wind.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:32:00 +0000

And you win today’s prize for best cherry picking.

Well, someone my ace you out if they report that Ontario’s solar panels were producing 0% of demand last night at 2AM….

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:30:00 +0000

From 2002 to 2010 the percentage of electricity produced by wind in Denmark grew from 14% to 22%. Installed capacity rose from 2890 Mw to 3810 MW.

At least 416MW of that 920MW increase came from two offshore wind farms.

I suppose one might say that the Danes learned the value of getting turbines offshore into stronger, cleaner wind.

We’ll also get turbines offshore where they can power coastal zones. But unlike the Danes we’ve got tremendous wind resources in the center of our country and it’s a shorter haul to get power from there to our interior cities than to bring it all the way from the coast.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:34:00 +0000

Ontario wind power was generating at 216 MW in the last hour: 1.3% of demand. That hardly seems worth the landscapes and lives destroyed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

The Danes are so involved that they’ve virtually stopped onshore wind since 2002. Perhaps they’ve learned something we haven’t yet.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:26:00 +0000

yeah. hope so, too.

amazing how much trouble one or a few people can cause.

By: yosh

yosh — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:52:00 +0000

In Ontario, we are all about FIT, and it indeed gets people involved, in a good way. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of NIMBYs crying the blues, and due to the size of turbines, it brings them in as far as the eyes that can see the turbines. Hopefully a lot less than 45% of projects are being stalled.