Pere Marquette River Flats

 
I was out and about doing errands this afternoon, and I stopped to take some pictures at the Pere Marquette River flats. This is the local name of the area where the river empties into Pere Marquette Lake. It's really, duh..., flat.



The river splits into two segments slightly upstream from here and meanders through this monoculture cattail marsh. This picture is on the south side of the south fork at the boat launch site. It was a nice day and the water sure looked blue. I just liked the broken reflection in the ripples.



Looking up, more blue, but split by a fast-moving plane.



Then I drove to the north side of the north fork. There's an observation platform where you can see the extent of the marsh. From there you can hardly see any open water. You can see something else, though. Here's the horizon line. Does it look a little fuzzy or maybe twinkly?



That is because you can see at least 34 of the 54 wind turbines in the county from that location. I managed to count 34, and it was hazy.




In other news:
I worked till 1:30, then did errands including spending a pile of money. More on that another day. Came home and did a whole list of odds and ends. Revised a short story yet again and sent it off to a contest. I would do more of that, but it costs money to enter most of them. Only 1st place gets a cash prize. I wouldn't mind being that person, but I suspect it's unlikely. Not that I think my writing isn't good enough; my philosophies just don't seem to align with what judges are looking for. No writing except on the short story. And I can't write now, because I have cookies to bake before going to bed. Better get busy!

	See another picture of the flats
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Windy

 
Most everyone in this entire area of the country has been experiencing some pretty hefty winds recently. It took three days for them to blow themselves out and equalize the air pressure. We didn't have a power outage, but we lost one fascia cover on the house. I'll need help to get that back in place, I think.

Every once in a while the atmosphere is just right to see some of the wind turbines quite clearly from my house. Tuesday night was one of those times.



At night I can count 17 red blinking lights, but with trees and haze and distance they don't all show up in the daytime. These are about five miles away.

I'm still undecided as to whether I'm really in favor of them or not. I do think their life span is too short relative to the cost of installation.

	See Pinwheels on Pink
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Pinwheels On Pink

 
Although I know perfectly well that I can see 17 of the county's 56 wind turbines from my house, I tend to forget about them because they aren't really obvious, especially when the leaves are on the trees. However at night when I can see the 17 blinking red lights I don't feel so fondly toward them. But this afternoon, from a slightly different perspective on my walk, the silhouettes against the late afternoon sky were somewhat appealing.



Keep in mind these are about five miles away, on the other side of the river!

In other news...



What? You don't see anything wonderful and marvelous? Well, I am about to tell you why this is a great accomplishment. The plastic fitting that holds the drawer slider to the back of the cabinet broke over a year ago. I took it to the kitchen department of the lumber company, and they identified the maker, but said I'd have to go through their web site, if they still even made the part. OK.

The web site had a form to fill out that you had to send with $15 and the broken part, if it was under warranty. The warranty lasts 7 years, but the cabinets are 23 years old. Can you believe that? I can't. This is a new house. At least to my way of thinking. But companies don't think your kitchen should last 23 years any more, I guess.

I miss my old plain wooden farm kitchen cupboards that held a TON of stuff, two rows deep with no space-limiting, stupid, pull-out shelves. O wait, I'm getting grumpy, and this blog is supposed to be positive.

OK. So at the very least I was going to have to pay $15 for a piece of plastic about 1" x 2" x 2". I jury rigged it by mounting it backwards. The drawer didn't close the final inch, but not bad. That lasted about six months.

Then, last fall, of course 15 minutes before the arrival of the first actual company we'd had in forever, my "fix" let loose. The plastic is just too old. So the drawer has been sitting on the kitchen floor since September. Today, I went to the web site again, but just couldn't talk myself into the cost of even finding out if the part was still made.

I said, "There must be some other fix for this!" So, I emptied the cupboard underneath, took out the remains of the broken part and cogitated. Well. I fixed that puppy with a screw and a piece of cord. And if the cord breaks in a few months... I have more cord.

Thus, I am very happy to show you a properly closed drawer that works just fine, thank you very much! If you aren't familiar with the Dickens' children's story The Magic Fishbone, I highly recommend it. Today, I very much felt that I was able to “snip and stitch and cut and contrive.”

	See Today in My Backyard
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Wind, and Inspired by Stew

 
The wind was brutal today. I didn't look up the windchill, but my ears were still tingling an hour after I got home (and that's with wearing a hood). How does one show the wind in a still photo?

This one might work.



This one for sure.

How about this one? And this is where I begin to be inspired by Stew. He showed us Views Around the Valley, which included some big snowbanks they still have. Here's one of ours. This is a road that drifts completely shut unless they bring in front end loaders to keep scooping the snow up into piles.



No wind obvious in this one, but Stew also pictured an apple orchard. Here's one from me. This isn't the picture I want to show you, but the only really good vantage point I've found for that is on the freeway. I may have to stop anyway if the light is right next time I go by. Despite the snow and cold, the twigs are beginning to get reddish- a sign of spring. And the farmers were out today, pruning the branches. Have to keep the trees trimmed just right so they can be picked by machine.

	See Where the North Begins and the Fine Fruit Grows
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Today in My Backyard

 
I finished the mowing today... until the next time, which I'm sure will be coming right up. Meanwhile, the yard (and field beyond) was a busy place.

Today the light and clouds made it easy to see the wind turbines that are visible from my house. I can see 7 of the 56 in this wind farm. With the trees fully leafed out, they aren't too visible. Fine with me.



This little buck is determined to own my space. Tonight, at least, he didn't come right up to the house. He faces off and stamps at us. Very cheeky! I've never thought you could tell one deer from another, but I'm thinking this might be one of the twins that were born late 2011. The shape of his nose is odd- sort of curved down- Roman. You can compare with the second picture at Twin Trouble if you want to form an opinion. The black spot over the fawn's eye is not there, but that could have been anything, and not permanent.



Late in the day, there were storms south of us, and then the sun came out. It's always nice to see a rainbow.



And, the piece de resitance... a new activity, never performed in this yard before...



Loretta is playing in a small charity tournament on Friday, and she wanted to get in some practice!

And, if you'd like to see what I did yesterday... Filling Two Deck Planters with Succulents

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Local Wind Turbines 4

 
Today's topics are the mandates and the methods.

I'll bookend this post with two views that startled me considerably when I first noticed them. These are the wind turbines that I can see from my yard!



Tonight I went to a forum sponsored by the local environmental group. It was a debate on the proposal that's on the Michigan ballot about wind energy. It was excellent in terms of information and respectful disagreement.

Mandates:
This proposal says that 25% of Michigan's energy must come from renewable sources by 2025, and it will be locked into the state Constitution so that no one can weasel out of compliance. To protect consumers, it says that rates cannot rise more than 1% per year. But there is no plan for how to do this, and the energy companies had no voice in the feasibility.

What the TV ads don't seem to bring up is that there already is a mandate in Michigan that says 10% of Michigan's energy must come from renewable sources by 2015. This plan was worked out in 2008 by a bipartisan committee with input from energy companies. Proponents of the new proposal say the switch to renewables is not happening fast enough.

Those who wrote the 2008 legislation say that the plan will be reviewed in 2015 when it expires, analyzed to determine what worked, what didn't, etc, and a new goal will be set.

I learned so much tonight (and I thought I already knew a lot about this issue) that I'm tempted to go down several bunny trails, but I realize most of you aren't nearly as interested in this as I am.

Methods:
So far, the only commercially viable renewable energy source in Michigan is wind. That's why this proposal is being generally interpreted as wind turbines.

I did learn something I didn't know at all. All of the components of turbines CAN be made in Michigan. The proposal, however, does not require that this be done. Interesting, eh?

I thought this next point was true, and it was verified, that most of the traditional generation plants in the state are past (some are WAY past) their expected lifetimes, and need to be replaced. Most are coal-fired, but are likely to be replaced with natural gas. Michigan has ample natural gas (no jokes please).

Even if a lot of wind power comes on line, the regular plants will have to be replaced because they are more reliable than wind. People expect electricity whenever they want it, and what if a high-use day is also one with no wind?

Both presenters at the forum agreed that it will take about 3100 more wind towers in Michigan to reach the 25% goal. The proponent tried to make it sound like that wasn't much. He said "that will place turbines on about 6% of farmland in the state." Wait, what? That would mean that every rural county in the state would have about as many turbines as Mason County, or more. There would almost have to be some placed in Lake Michigan. There would be nowhere at all without turbines in view. Six percent of farmland is a HUGE amount of space.

OK, I think I'll stop there. Not sure if I'll continue this another day. There are things I could say, but I'm probably boring everyone not from Michigan to death.

I'm trying to avoid saying stuff that can't be demonstrated, such as significant jobs will/won't be created.

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Local Wind Turbines 3

 
Tonight's topic is lifespan reality check, and some other stuff related to costs.



First, I'll relate an anecdote from a friend who recently traveled through Minnesota. That state has invested heavily in wind power generation. However, he noticed that very few of the turbines were in motion. He did some asking around, and here's what he was told.

The wind turbines only have an overall lifespan of 20 years, and there is a huge amount of wear-and-tear maintenance on each one. Because of this, the power companies keep them braked (not in motion and generating) unless there is a shortage of power from their traditional generation sources.

The cost of putting up each commercial turbine is $3-4 million,¹ and can generate 2 MW. The lifespan is 20 years. The full environmental impacts aren't completely understood yet, which is to say there is still a lot of debate about them.

A large hydroelectric project (big dam with generation plant) can last 100 or more years, but there are big environmental impacts. These generate more than 10MW.²

A small hydroelectric project (small dam or partial diversion of water flow) can also last 100 or more years, which much smaller environmental impacts. These generate less than 10 MW.²

A coal-fired generation plant lasts 30 years, and can cost $2 billion or more to build.³ Of course there are huge environmental impacts. I won't even bring up "clean coal" since there are impacts from mining which may offset any reduced emissions. (Not getting into that here)

Nuclear plants can cost $5 billion to build, but have much lower operating costs than other plants. The lifespan is 30-40 years. Problems are safety risks and waste disposal issues.⁴

Solar power isn't a commercially viable option yet in most places.

Actually, the only way to compare costs is the production cost per kW hour. Here's a little table. I've left out a bunch of variations on the options. This supposedly takes in all the costs of construction, maintenance, and fuel costs. Notice that the two sources of info disagree by up to an order of magnitude. So there's a lot of room there for discussion.

Cost of Electricity Production per kilowatt hour
Method	Nuclear Energy Institute 5	Dept of Energy6
Traditional Coal	$0.027	$0.099
Clean Coal	?	$0.112
Nuclear	$0.019	$0.112
Wind	$0.030	$0.099
Hydro	$0.009	$0.089
Solar	?	$0.156

1. Windustry

2. Peter Bowyer research paper

3. Synapse Energy

4. nuclearinfo.net

5. as quoted by Nuclear Fissionary

6. as quoted by Wikipedia

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Local Wind Turbines 2

 
Today's topic is jobs. Wind power is supposed to create more jobs. OK, let's be honest. Any new power generation method is going to create jobs.

These 56 turbines (plus some extras) came to Ludington by train and truck. The bodies were brought in on Marquette Rail, a small rail line. That business certainly had a West Michigan impact. Every tower has four sections and one section fits on one rail car.



There was a huge staging area where the tower bodies, blades, rotor housings, and the nacelle (the big box that holds the gears and generator) were all stored until transport to the construction sites.

That was all done by truck.



Were they local trucks and drivers? I don't actually know, but my guess would be "no." Every truck I ever saw was one of these same plain red ones. There is a name on the door, but I didn't get a good enough picture of one to read it. The reason I think these must be special trucks, with specially trained drivers is because of the problem of moving the blades.

Each blade is two truck-lengths long. Turning corners with those babies was not an average moving job. One morning, doing the paper route, I was held up while they maneuvered blades out of the staging areas and onto the roads. It took numerous back-ups and pull-forwards to turn the corner.



Some of the turbines were taken to Wisconsin on the S.S.Badger ferry. That is definitely local jobs.

See Twin Queens of the Lakes for pictures of the Badger.

Every road where the blades were taken had to have the corners widened, so there was loose gravel and orange barrels at each of those for the summer. I presume local construction crews did that work.

Now, where did the parts come from? Well, that company name on the tower section is Vestas. That's a Danish company. They do have plants in the United States, but not in Michigan. As you can imagine, there are not many companies that make these specialized machines.

And where is this power going to go? It will stay in Michigan, but is being sent to the other side of the state.

(With the usual lack of common sense often applied to problems, electricity used here which is generated by wind comes from the east side of the state.)

And, there was quite a lot of disruption of local business. Almost everyone I know was held up at one time or another waiting for the trucks. And those delays were sometimes as much as 30 minutes. That's not good for other kinds of jobs.

	See Wind Power on the Way
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Local Wind Turbines 1

 
Over the next few days I'm going to come as close to being political as you'll likely ever hear me. The topic is political mainly because there is a proposal on the Michigan ballot to require companies to get 25% of their energy from renewable sources before 2025. And the proposal is worded that this requirement be put in as a change to the state constitution.

I'm going to attempt to just present some facts and not tip my hand as to how I'm going to vote. The ads on TV have been so nasty and polarized that it's very hard to tell what's true and what isn't.

Today's topic is the change to the local landscape that wind turbines cause. Although renewable sources also include solar and biomass options, most of the buzz is about wind power.

In March 2011, I took this picture from the highest point in Mason County, looking toward my house (which you can't see- it's in the next-to-farthest ridge of trees).



Here's what that same view looks like now. This picture was taken this summer.



There are now 56 wind turbines clustered in two townships in the southwest corner of our county. As you can tell, this is only a few of them, but they sure do change the looks of the countryside.

I keep being surprised at their visibility. I snapped this picture from the US 31 Freeway at Hart. From this point, the turbines are 12 miles away!



In this next picture, the turbines are only about 5 miles away, but this view is from the east side of the county, looking west. 25 of the towers can be seen from here. Although they don't seem to be visible from Ludington north, they really change the whole southwest quadrant of the county.



Some people think the turbines are graceful and have a beauty of their own. Others think they are out of proportion with the rural character of the fruit farms which they now populate. There are many local people who are quite angry about their presence.

RULES: This could be a hot topic. The big rule is that any comments must be respectful of differing points of view. I have veto power, and will delete any disdainful or nasty posts.

	See Mason County High Point
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