Farming the wind

**Miulang** · April 3rd, 2005, 08:36 AM

Maui and the Big Island are leading the push to harness the wind to produce some of the electricity needed by residents. This will help reduce slightly each County's dependence on fossil fuel.

The latest project, at Ukumehame near Lahaina, will cost $65 million and provide 30 wind-powered turbines which will produce about 9% of the energy requirements on Maui.

If this project is successful, will someone step up and put something like this in on Oahu, too?

Miulang

**pancakes** · April 4th, 2005, 10:44 AM

What my Chemistry teacher taught us about those wind turbines was that the energy it produces in it's lifetime will never equal the amount of energy that went into creating the turbines. Wind turbines are a good idea, but the amount of energy that goes into building these things are not worth it.

**Glen Miyashiro** · April 4th, 2005, 10:49 AM

Aren't there wind turbines in Kahuku already? What happened to that project anyway?

**craigwatanabe** · April 6th, 2005, 01:42 AM

One of my friends is an engineer for HECO and he told me one of the experimental windmills lost one of it's blades and when it separated from the windmill's hub it went flying about a 1/4-mile into the mountains. I'm told one of the surviving blades is the one that is mounted vertically at the Ward Avenue facility. Urban legend? I dunno, just reporting what one HECO Engineer told me.