Developers To Clear 850,000 Sq M Of Virgin Forests On UNESCO Nature Reserve To Make Way For 700-Foot Turbines

The days of an open welcome to “environmentally-friendly” wind parks in Germany are over.

When the turbines were small-scale and novel, people were generally open to them. But now that they have reached skyscraper dimensions, have proven to be unsightly, and have demonstrated poor performance, they are not welcome anymore.

Palantinate Forest

German developers plan to install 60 wind turbines, each 700-foot tall, in one of Central Europe’s last remaining untouched regions, the Palantinate Forest, a UN designated natural monument. Photo beauty-places.com/palatinate-forest

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the picturesque southwest German region of Palatinate, where the online Die Welt here reports on the mounting fierce opposition that wind turbine developers are facing. The developers have their sights aimed at the hilltops of Germany’s fairy-tale-like Palatinate forest…an area that has been designated by UNESCO as a natural treasure and biosphere reserve. Here they hope to install wind parks with skyscraper-dimensioned turbines. Die Welt writes of the area:

It was the first cross-border natural reservation of this type in all of Europe because it also includes the Alsatian mountain range. Not very many Germans know that it is the largest uninterrupted landscape in Central Europe. Whoever wishes to see it, had better hurry up.”

850,000 sq m of virgin forest to be cleared

According to Die Welt, hungry wind park developers with deep pockets plan to install 60 wind turbines, each 209 meters (700 feet) tall in the area. Unsurprisingly this looming large-scale green industrialization of this particularly idyllic landscape has become too much to take, even for the most avid climate activist groups. Die Welt writes that for the first time all ten local environmental groups have closed ranks against the project, says Bernd Wallner of the Pfälzerwald-Verein (Palantinate Association). Opponents are rallying, calling it a matter of “homeland defense”.

Die Welt provides the technical details of the monster-size turbines: Each blade is 60 meters long and they will need elaborate roads to allow their transport to the site where they are to be installed. Each turbine will require 3000 tonnes of concrete and 100 tonnes of steel. In total 200,000 tonnes of concrete and 130,000 cubic meters of gravel will have to be hauled in by 60,000 trips by heavy cargo vehicles, which will involve the burning of 600,000 liters of diesel fuel and the clearing of 850,000 square meters of virgin forest.

Like putting turbines on Ayer’s Rock!

Environmentalists are fuming. Opponents accuse the wind turbine developers and the local and state authorities of covering up the environmental costs and impacts of the project and misleading the public. Critics say the senselessness of the project is tantamount to putting wind turbines on Ayers Rock.

Unrealistic profit projections used to “bait the public”

Opponents also accuse the wind park developers of putting out overly optimistic figures for expected wind turbine performance in order to bait the public. Die Welt writes:

Ernst Gerber believes the promises of profitability, with which investors and local representatives are being baited, are estimates from a naïve milkmaid: ‘Despite the subsidies, things are moving towards the lower limits of profitability.'”

Die Welt itself characterizes the promise of profitability made by the wind park developers as “rotten”, and that the region is one that is “low in wind”.

Threat to wildlife…violates the law

The wind park opponents also say that the monster turbines are a threat to wildlife and birds. What’s more, turbine critic Rainer Becker thinks they would violate the law, “The construction of the wind parks are clearly in violation of the existing laws and the international species protection act“.

Other opponents claim that big business and power companies in Luxemburg are ramming the projects through and ignoring the wishes of the local inhabitants, Die Welt writes.

 

38 responses to “Developers To Clear 850,000 Sq M Of Virgin Forests On UNESCO Nature Reserve To Make Way For 700-Foot Turbines”

  1. alex

    And how many birds will fall victim to these monsters created by heartless money mongers??

    1. BobW in NC

      Here is one lead that may give you some info…

      “Bird conservation group challenges feds over wind farm eagle deaths” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/02/bird-conservation-group-challenges-feds-over-wind-farm-eagle-deaths/

      …and solar farms appear to be no better: “Death by solar farms: 71 species of birds killed, ‘entire food chains’ disrupted” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/11/death-calif-solar-farms-71-species-bird-found-enti/

    2. sokorny

      Any how many birds live around coal power plants? Humans aren’t allowed within a few kilometres of them because of health issues. How many birds are displaced by the coal mines, the huge trucks that transport the coal, etc. etc. Wind turbines can install devices to deter birds … the coal industry just destroys their habit so no birds can live nearby.

      More birds are killed by cars each year … do you similarly want to remove motor vehicles from our roads?

  2. Onlooker from Troy

    They’ve unleashed a monstor, and now they protest. Fools

    1. sokorny

      Mmm … not sure environmentalists were asking for them to be built in high conservation areas. Yes terrible that people wanted us to have less air pollution, less reliance on coal monoplies and a diversitiy of energy resources.

  3. DirkH

    Every time I hear a Green say something it’s about the right to pick your gender at will, and about how we need to import more Muslims because they’re not safe in Islamic countries. And why we need to pay the debts of all other EU countries.

    They’ve stopped talking about the environment years ago. Because they’re in charge in many lands now, including Rhineland-Palatinate, where they now bulldoze nature reserves and kill Red Milans. The wind turbines are their vehicle to pump their Mao suits full of taxpayer cash.

  4. John F. Hultquist

    In many USA cities one encounters a formidable array of disincentives before getting a dispensation to remove a tree of some designated size. Councils and experts can spend hours discussing a single tree. See here for an example:
    http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/news/ellensburg-city-council-considers-changes-to-tree-removal-policy/article_60150698-bc88-11e1-bdee-001a4bcf887a.html

    Your Palatinate Forest overlords could sell individual “tree rights” to thousands of interested people, such that a developer would have to engage in thousands of negotiations and court cases for placement of towers and roads. Or is the Gov/owner in favor of this plan?

    In contrast, where there are no trees, none get harmed in the placement of towers:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/pugetsoundenergy/3987612369/
    View is looking west; Mt. Rainier in the distance; seen behind the blades — irrigated farms in the valley, near Ellensburg, Washington, USA.

    See the Fast Facts section, below —
    http://pse.com/inyourcommunity/kittitas/Pages/Wild-Horse.aspx

    1. DirkH

      “Your Palatinate Forest overlords could sell individual “tree rights” to thousands of interested people”

      They who make the rules are never prosecuted for breaking the rules.
      All those trees are already protected – it’s a NATURE RESERVATION – the presumably holiest place for a Green, no? The protection is explicitly being lifted to be able to destroy the forest to save it.

      Well, the people in NRW, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Wuerttemberg had it coming – they elected the Greens, they will get it up to the eyeballs. Now they will get to understand what WATERMELON means.

      1. sokorny

        You did read the article didn’t you?

        “the first time all ten local environmental groups have closed ranks against the project”

        In Europe forests are managed by communities, so there is a different system of reservation than in countries like USA and Australia.

  5. oebele bruinsma

    All these issues are so politicized, therefore why not infiltrate power exerting political parties (I mean main stream) and debate with high intensity all these green wet dreams. The science and thus the data are with ” us” .

    1. DirkH

      You’ll spend the rest of your life debating Green lard asses who have all the time in the world because they’re working for the state; and they will make liberal use of their journalist friends to denounce you as a Nazi until the AntiFa has burned down your car five times.

  6. Mikky

    Don’t forget the cables that would be needed to make use of any electricity generated, but am I being naive to think that that is the main purpose?

    The problem in Europe is the massively unfair power Greens have thanks to being in coalition govts, all of which give in to any Green demand in order to stay in power. What is needed is an Anti-Green political party ready to step into coalitions whenever Greens threaten to throw their toys out of the pram.

  7. Not Even the UNESCO Nature Reserve is Safe from Wind Turbine Destruction! | the Original "Mothers Against Wind Turbines" TM
  8. Bob Baker

    All promoters of wind power development should cease to exist.

    1. sokorny

      Why? In the right location, under the right conditions with the right situation they can be highly effective and reduce costs.

      In Albany, Western Australia, not only do they produce energy but are a tourist attraction.

  9. Holly KELLER

    To Commenter John Hultquist: The turbines at Wild Horse Wind Farm are ‘only’ 221 ft tall!

    1. John F. Hultquist

      I’ve been on the tour. I live 15 miles away. Except for a few trees near us, I would be able to see them from the front door. If we had 700 ft. tall towers maybe I could see them over the trees. We have the same sort of thing in the other direction and, again, trees block the view.
      The Wild Horse area ridge top can get 100 mph winds. The solar array was built on a fixed support structure — does not track the sun. Calculations indicated a tracking set up would not survive.
      The vegetation type is sage brush -steppe. Only several inches of precipitation per year.

  10. Developers To Clear 850,000 Sq M Of Virgin Forests On UNESCO Nature Reserve To Make Way For 700-Foot Turbines | Cranky Old Crow

    […] Developers To Clear 850,000 Sq M Of Virgin Forests On UNESCO Nature Reserve To Make Way For 700-Foot…. […]

  11. François GM

    If I’m not mistaken 850 000 sq meters is less than one sq km.

    But still, I think they are inefficient and an eyesore.

  12. John F. Hultquist

    Consider the person, otherwise with a good looking (or handsome) face, with a 27 cubic mm clump of coal implanted on the tip of her or his nose –
    The purpose is to prevent the use of the coal, not produce more CO2, and save the atmosphere from heating up and boiling the oceans.
    Great plan!

  13. William Martin

    the headline states ‘850 000 square Km’ , the next figure is ‘850 000 square m’ ——- sloppy journalism !!!!!!!!!!

  14. V8

    You have to remember that this whole climate change, turbines, panels and those tesla golf carts are all solely about money, nothing else, just money.

  15. Twan Hendriks

    Merker needs to be removed from power ASAP. She is clearly no longer in het right mind.

    She has pushed this Energiewende nonsence for to long, to far. Clearly she has no intention of stopping even when confonted with the enormous impact and devastation her plans have.

    She’s determined to destroy the German economy and German nature.

    1. DirkH

      Merkel tries frantically to get herself a UN or EU job. She wants out. German industry told her, you’re on the wrong team. Our business is with Putin.

      So don’t worry, she’ll be gone.

  16. Ellin

    http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/7273/2014/acp-14-7273-2014.html
    A paper in Atmosphere Chemistry and Physics points out that human created CO2 from fossil fuels can be measured because it is just plain CO2 not Carbon14-O2 or Carbon13-O2. As that, they get 15 ppm, well below the nearly 300 ppm increase in CO2 which is so worrying. Where comes the other CO2? Land use changes, deforestation, ocean outgassing and volcanos are all contributors. So please go plant some plants, don’t leave bare earth, don’t carve into this forest to build anything. Someday they’ll find out that the problem was cutting down all the redwoods and half the Amazon – not the cars and power plants (which yes all need to be as efficient and non-emitting as possible).

  17. stan stendera

    If it’s just one square meter it’s too much.

  18. sokorny

    I liked the comment about Ayres Rock (Uluru) as I am an Australian. Ironically Australia already have uranium mines in Kakadu National Park, and just approved the largest coal mine in Australia on the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef (and guess where the ships travel to transport the coal out of the region).

    So it may not be that far fetched to see a wind farm on Uluru … although solar farms with geothermal storage are more likely in the Australian deserts.

    1. DirkH

      “although solar farms with geothermal storage”

      Thermal storage for solar power makes no sense.
      Solar-thermal technology has been rendered obsolete by falling PV prices.
      Thermal storage for electric energy has about 30% efficiency.

  19. NikFromNYC

    All for a now proven scam:

    http://s6.postimg.org/jb6qe15rl/Marcott_2013_Eye_Candy.jpg

    That’s the latest hockey stick sensation being used to promote green boondoggles, in a single glance debunked.

  20. Walter Horsting

    Green Energy’s waste stream of rare earth elements tosses away yearly enough of the super fuel thorium that can power the entire planet without emissions. REE processing plants’ tailing ponds can be recycled for Thorium and burned in Molten Salt Reactors, that can’t blow up, melt down and are walk away safe.

    Nuclear energy is 1 million times denser than fossil fuels and another 5 times over renewables. Wind turbines have very negative impacts on electrical grids due to harmonics and intermittent power, they are not green at all.

  21. Climate Scientologists (and Wind Developers) destroy nature in order to save it | Quixotes Last Stand

    […] This article about a plan to destroy a forest in Germany makes that point better than he ever could. It seems that a developer plans to erect 60 giant wind turbines in an untouched forest that is the pride of the region of Palitinate. […]

  22. More Proof, that “Climate Scam” was Never Intended to Improve Our Environment. | the Original "Mothers Against Wind Turbines" TM

    […] This article about a plan to destroy a forest in Germany makes that point better than he ever could. It seems that a developer plans to erect 60 giant wind turbines in an untouched forest that is the pride of the region of Palitinate. […]

  23. Henry

    850,000 sq m ~= 210 acres or ~= 1/3 square mile

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. More information at our Data Privacy Policy

Close