Repairing or replacing them is throwing good money after bad. Of course, if it is someone else´s money, the "green" thieves find it really easy to spend.

Yet another false economy that is kept afloat by government subsidy. Left on their own, without tax dollars, they would be a colossal FAIL.

That´s interesting, because the wind farm near Montfort, WI is now 12 years old... and a couple of years ago, one of them threw a blade. I bet that was exciting to watch!

Buy Chinese?

Kind of like this, #3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yIjK9sCjlI

Is anyone else as shocked as I am?

A socialist company would lie to get on the fat, never ending government teat? I´m shocked...shocked I tell you to find out this is going on right under our rulers noses.

FTA: He added: ‘I strongly believe the bigger turbines are proving more difficult to manage and more likely to interfere with one another.’ He said the data was verified by a statistician at University College London.

The supposed decline in output with age didn´t make sense. But if they over-build such that new turbines steal the wind from old turbines, you would see a decline. More importantly, replacing the turbine would not return the output. In sailing, this is called stealing your wind. Stop installing wind turbines and use the natural gas in your trapped in your shale.

Soooooo....... What this really means is that the "investment" costs to the US taxpayer will be at least double current costs with half the promised power output.

Wish I could say that I was surprised and that I hadn´t predicted this years ago.

Blade failure? Weird.

First gen turbines 20+ years ago failed with bad bearings and bent shafts (sounds painful). And they all have electronics which can fail, will fail.

I still think the three-skinny-blade design is a gross design failure in the first place, but that´s just me.

Gee taxpayers, guess what? These green Energy windmills are going to cost twice as much as we thought.

As brainiac Gomer Pyle would have said, "Suprahz, Suprahz, Suprahz!"

#5, it would have been slower, probably less dramatic looking but far more dangerous. The ones by Montfort are a little over 300´ tall, with blades a little over 100´ long (from memory). One of them sat idle for quite a while with 2/3 of one of its blades snapped off. It had to cost a mint to repair.

Looks like the speed controls in No 5´s example failed with spectacular results.

Must be because of global warming.

This is so pathetic. In CA, over half of the windmills in Palm Springs and Livermore (Altmont Pass) stand idle. The ones in PS were there when I was a kid 30 years ago and defile the land scape and rarely work because of no wind.

The entire "green" mentality is nothing but a total scam to get goven´t money for free.

What I do not understand why the feds do not prosecute the chalatan CEOs, etc. They go after Wall Street with a vengence (traders), but so absolutely zero when it comes to gross negligence to fraud and theft with these failed businesses. Don´t the investors review business prospecti, balance sheets and tax filings?

I bet if you looked into the wind turbine CEOs, you´d find favored political bundlers getting their redistribution money.

Other than the fact that they only last half as long, cost twice as much to maintain and provide half of the projected 4% of our total energy needs, what are you all complaining about? Get back to work and help pay for a few more of them.

#9 and 18 post my thoughts exactly. Rule of thumb for any program government pushes: cost - add 100%. Benefit: divide by 2.

Tip speed at optimum wind for the really big commercial towers is 300 m/p/h, which explains piles of dead birds underneath and catastrophic failures such as in post #5.

I wonder if anyone has verified the statement that, "windmills through their life never produce the total energy spent building and placing them?"