Keith Addison wrote: > Hello Thor > > >>I really think that this issue is largely a red >>herring. > > > I think so too, and thanks for the refs (and to Darryl). > > >>Wind turbines can kill birds and bats; even the larger >>models produce wing-tip speeds over 100mph. > > > Bats too? Really? I'm surprised. I remember reading a report of some > tests with captive bats using a fan, just an ordinary domestic > cooling electric fan, though quite a big one. They managed to get the > bats to fly through the fan, which they did without any trouble, > using their inbuilt hi-tech radar gear to time it right and avoid the > blades most unerringly. The researchers turned up the speed, the bats > still avoided the blades, turned it up again, still no problem, but > at the fastest setting the bats were beaten - but not injured: they > flew over the fan rather than through it. Maybe the 100mph+ wing-tip > speed of a big wind-turbine is a different matter, but I don't quite > see how.
This is a tangent, but one of my favorite stories about bats concerns the development of the F-117 stealth fighter. If the planes weren't going to be flying on a particular night the crews had to make sure to close the hangar doors. If they didn't then the next morning they'd find dead bats around the airplane, because the same shapes that defeat radar also defeat the bats' sonar. They can't echo-locate the plane, and they fly right into it. > Any chance of wind farms killing red herrings? That'd be nice. What'd be nicer is wind farms killing trolls. AP Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
