Windmills: Why Are They All White With Three Blades?

Slate :

The federal government has green-lighted the nation's first offshore wind farm, to be built off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass. Opponents claim that 130 white, three-bladed turbines will detract from the natural beauty of Nantucket Sound. Why do all modern windmills look the same?

Read the whole story: Slate

Comments

[RockyMissouri]

10:00 AM on 05/01/2010

Environmentalists are quite godly- you freak! The universe is directing us right to these big, beautiful electricity-producing creations---what a marvel.! Now, let's get our asses in gear and get with the program...we have to put these puppys EVERYWHERE--and not a drop of oil to kill anything!

[VoteThemAllOut]

04:25 AM on 05/01/2010

Sorry folks, I just don’t understand what all of the consternation is about. As far as I am concerned paint them ‘polka dot’ – in fact, let all of the gangs put their graffiti on them. That would really upset the Clan Kennedy. They would have to look at the same spray painting the average person does from their ‘compound’ on the Cape – love it.

[ssfahrer]

12:26 AM on 05/01/2010

Actually it is but an imitation of the Triune God-- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. White because White is associated with purity. It is environmentalists trying to be "right with God"; however Jesus would say that we shouldn't worry about such things as providing electricity (or saving the environment, see Matthew 6: 25 - 27: "5"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Therefore, environmentalists are pagan, wrong and unGodly, and anything they want should not come to pass. Amen!

[reasonshouldrule]

10:20 PM on 04/30/2010

Very nice explanation! I think the windmills are beautiful.

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

10:09 PM on 04/30/2010

Great explanation. The vast majority of noise from a propeller-driven airplane or a helicopter is from the propeller (or rotors). As for the white paint, that's up for debate. If designers wanted the turbines to less obtrusive, they would paint them light pink. When the Department of Defense hired Lockheed to develop the F-117 Nighthawk, Lockheed found that light pink was the best color for the airplane to have it blend in with the sky. But the DOD would have nothing to do with that!

[kmeccat]

09:59 PM on 04/30/2010

I think the windmills a lovely, but I hope they will improve on the design and make them bird/bat friendly
Along the coast, and in the Great Lakes, I think wave technology is the way to go...clean, efficient and unobtrusive

[research]

09:17 PM on 04/30/2010

off shore is the ideal place for wind turbines.

[Sumocat]

07:10 PM on 04/30/2010

If we want to get conservatives on board, just paint the blades red, white, and blue and call them freedom fans.

[fxtrade]

01:56 AM on 05/01/2010

Funny, great post. Maybe we can serve freedom fries when manufacturing them.

[2CLEVER]

07:04 PM on 04/30/2010

bigots?

[Mark Harker]

05:41 PM on 04/30/2010

The hilarious thing was finding out environmentalists sued the wind mill makers to make them less deadly to birds.

Environmentalist's causes conflict don't they? birds or clean power?

[rollingrock]

05:53 PM on 04/30/2010

They sued to make the windmills safer to the birds, not to get rid of them. I don't see any conflict there.

[Debbie338]

06:38 PM on 04/30/2010

Because, sir, windmills are threatening to drive numerous species of birds and bats to extinction. There is a safer alternative called the turbine wind generator, but as usual, everyone is jumping on the windmill bandwagon to make a buck.

[rollingrock]

05:34 PM on 04/30/2010

Well these windmills are 100 times better looking than those big unsightly offshore oil rigs that's for sure.

[flossophy]

04:43 PM on 04/30/2010

Windmills are unsustainable.

The future will look back and giggle at us for trying to use them so vigorously.

[quillsinister]

05:21 PM on 04/30/2010

Would that be before or after they curse us for wrecking their future through overuse of fissil fuels?

[Debbie338]

06:44 PM on 04/30/2010

Probably at the same time. As I pointed out to the other guy, windmills are wiping out hundreds of thousands of birds and bats. The safe alternative, the turbine, is being largely ignored by those interested only in money.

[quillsinister]

05:22 PM on 04/30/2010

Ack. Fossil. iPhone keypad strikes again.

[anthonyparker80]

04:11 PM on 04/30/2010

Guess they gotta be painted for looks, seems if they were unpainted they would be lighter and more efficient

[anthonyparker80]

04:09 PM on 04/30/2010

...And you know, how many 100 ft rotating white things are on a runway ? Not many.....means get out of its way !

[anthonyparker80]

04:08 PM on 04/30/2010

I knew the three blade was quieter, i assumed the white paint ( primer ) was cheaper