Wind Turbines and Corn

"No matter how inefficient and expensive wind energy is, we are leaded pell-mell into this mess." 

Anyone who has taken a drive through southern or western Minnesota as of late has probably seen the same thing. Miles and miles of picturesque corn fields, dotted with the the most ugly bird killing wind turbines one could imagine. And there are more of them all the time. No matter how inefficient and expensive wind energy is, we are leaded pell-mell into this mess. 

We were on the road last week and had some observations. First the good news. Even though the crop forecast is down just a tad from the August estimates, the corn still looks wonderful. In fact, some fields looked so good, the corn almost looked artificial. For the life of me, I don't understand the hybrid science which allow farmers to have such bountiful harvests. It is simply amazing. And fields which did not have corn, most had very healthy fields of soy beans.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, about two hours outside the Twin Cities, we saw the most interesting thing. There must have been twenty or so trucks lined up to a processing facility. Each truck was loaded with potatoes. A truck goes up to the dumping station, dumps its load, and then the next truck enters. For a mile or so once we passed, all we could smell was the aroma of potatoes.

Now the bad news. Those damn wind turbines. I really do hate them. From what they do to birds and bats, to the strobing, to inefficient energy production, to being just plain ugly. They are a blight on the landscape. We passed a company in some small town that had a hundred or so unassembled wind turbines. Just waiting to join the already cluttered landscape. 

Randy Simmons, a Professor at Utah State University, recently penned an article about how expensive wind power is. It is all the tax subsidies which go unreported which makes wind power so non-competitive with other sources of power. But - because it goes unreported, the cost of wind power (as reported) looks competitive with coal and gas. Plus - if the wind does not blow for a while, a back up power source is needed.

Soon the harvest will start in earnest. After it is over, all those wonderful fields of corn and soybeans will once again just be empty fields. Empty that is, except for those butt ugly wind turbines.