Minnesota Windmills Don't Spin In Cold Weather, Confuse Residents

Windmill

First Posted: 04/07/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:25 PM ET

The New York Times:

For those who suspect residents in places like Minnesota of embellishment when it comes to their tales of bitterly cold winter weather, consider this: even some wind turbines, it seems, cannot bear it.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

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John Mainstream
I'm a Clinton Democrat that is now an independent.
09:51 AM on 02/09/2010
What is the cost per MWH when using hemp? Or would anybody really care...
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John Mainstream
I'm a Clinton Democrat that is now an independent.
09:49 AM on 02/09/2010
Hemp is green.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mountainweb
Conservative Commonsense
08:19 AM on 02/09/2010
So, the "green jobs" are people standing around with their thumb in their mouth, how productive....
07:28 AM on 02/08/2010
Would they have worked up in Cape Cod by the liberal Kennedy compound? Oh wait, they can't be built there because they would be ugly. By the way, when will Obama unemployment go down? I am waiting for the millions of magical green jobs.
10:23 AM on 02/08/2010
Nope. You cant have wind turbines wherever wealthy librals live. Not west coast. Not east coast. Just wait til they try to put in solar farms on austin or santa fe. They wont allow those either. The MN turbines the CA celebs had taken down because they were unsightly.
06:16 PM on 02/07/2010
The next big bubble and financial failure: subsidized "Green" energy.
02:53 PM on 02/07/2010
cost of 1 megawatt produced by coal.....$5 cost of 1 meg by wind..........$600 figure it out
06:18 PM on 02/07/2010
Huge subsidies for "green" energy because it uses more resources, produces less energy and causes more pollution.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
rougebaisers
11:12 AM on 02/07/2010
One would think that someone living in that brutal wind chill climate 4 months out of the year would have thought about testing them under those extremes. I still cannot figure why the things must weigh so damn much...does that not require more wind to move them?
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Chopin
Multiply the truth. Speak truth through power.
08:42 PM on 02/06/2010
Why is that even news? Anybody can tell you that at extreme low temperatures surface moisture condensation can change the physical viscosity of metal surfaces of moving parts. Besides, physicists can tell you low surface temperatures can change the surface physical characteristics of the metal itself. So it's no surprise at all that they tend to have greatly increased frictional forces jamming up the moving blades. If you consider that news, it must be a really slow day at NYTimes and Huffpost.
10:57 PM on 02/06/2010
Umm. The point the article made was that northern turbines worked fine. The SoCal imports, rejected by palmsprings celeb whackos, did not.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PlayTOE
Morals evolved due to cooperative group living
07:45 PM on 02/06/2010
oops ..gotta put a heater on the gearbox? I think not.

Try changing the lubricating fluid to one suitable for the climate. There are plenty of choices available.
02:52 PM on 02/07/2010
no
02:29 PM on 02/06/2010
Banned, fanned.

Hemp could provide us with power: it could either be converted into ethanol or feed into a biomass electric generator. It could also produce our paper products and cloth; both products would be far superior to wood pulp paper or cotton fabric.

Animals fed hemp are healthier than animals fed grain. The crop takes little nutrient or water to produce life sustaining materials and foods.

Legalize all hemp in the United States. Give the American farmer a way to remain financially solvent.
02:32 PM on 02/06/2010
Sounds great. More freedom for farners
06:15 PM on 02/06/2010
Hemp is a great crop, great rope, cloth, feed.

When that cloth wears out, it's great rag for paper,

when the paper wears out,

it's great feed for waste Bio Fuel.
06:42 PM on 02/06/2010
And then it goes around again!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
BannedNBoston
Is hemp legal yet?
02:02 PM on 02/06/2010
Lubricate the bearings with organic hemp seed oil.
04:00 AM on 02/06/2010
Looks like it might be a bad time to lose the heat, the technology will get there, hopefully not too far in the future.
10:30 PM on 02/05/2010
Of course the article leaves out a key piece of information - "WHY" were the turbines moved from southern california? Haha! The librral celebrities thought they were an eyesore and a hazard to birds!!!!
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DocSkull
My questions aren't rhetorical.
10:17 AM on 02/06/2010
Are those the same liberal celebrities who voted for Reagan and Schwarzenegger?
10:23 AM on 02/06/2010
Umm. No. They are the ones who voted for Moonbat jerry brown.
09:01 PM on 02/05/2010
Wind turbines work in Antarctica, so they should work in Minnesota.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Dangerous Dan
Because I can!
04:52 PM on 02/05/2010
Even if the mechinism were kept warm, the blades are too brittle in the cold weather to withstand the forces that operation would require.
Oh, snap.
10:18 PM on 02/05/2010
Unsubstantiated claims.