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By Miriam Raftery
View our full investigative report here.
January 23, 2013 (Ocotillo) -- Videos shot by award winning photojournalist and engineer Jim Pelley suggest that the Ocotillo Wind Express Facility is thus far not living up to projects made by Pattern Energy, which claimed in early December that "with wind forecasts looking favorable" it expected to power 125,000 homes, News 8 reported.
It takes sustained winds of 8 to 10 mph before wind turbines are productive. Thus far there is little evidence of any such sustained wind speeds in Ocotillo during the first seven weeks of the wind facility's operations--not even on a day when high winds were forcecast for the region. View videos below. Such underperformance is not unusual, an ECM investigation has found. Watch for more details soon.
Dec. 5 Wind farm goes online – but there is no wind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bico5ub2wtM
Dec 7 – not a single turbine spinning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJsZo8hBrho
Dec 9 – 4-8 mph, turbines not spinning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jvF5RzLBL4
Dec 10 – 90 turbines installed, not a single one turning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXgHsF7_6EE
Dec. 11 4-8 mph, turbines not spinning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1SQzqToYZs
Dec. 12 anenometer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e9weS-HRUY
Dec. 12 8-10 mph wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGkahJensCI
Dec. 17 no wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWM_6COr7JM
Dec. 19 no wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMDnbBbk3c
Dec. 20 no wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXVlvPD3508
Dec. 22 No wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F63BghKQ02I
Dec. 22: Wind turbines spinning backwards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxQRF5qmbtM
Dec 28: dead calm “monuments in the desert is all they are” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yOao4jzax0
Dec 29: turbines not moving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV4Ol57R1rs
New Year: Jan. 1 2013 No wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69cblyFw32Q&feature=youtu.be
Jan. 3, 2013 – no turbines spinning – this was a day when high winds were forecast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI1elrMBJos
Jan. 3 2013 later in the same day, wind turbines turning very slowly,” I doubt if there is a load on them probably just free spinning,” engineer Jim Pelley says, estimated wind speeds 5-9 mph
January 11, winds spinning in two directions at once:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UapSlQG7HrE&feature=youtu.be
January 13, no wind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-T8ztI_ZTo&feature=youtu.be
January 14 – no wind-which way is the wind blowing? 4 mph, moving different directions! (Wind changes directions frequently)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JCUdha0tmw
January 15 – 2 mph wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7N1TNtINc&feature=youtu.be
Jan 16 – not one turbine turning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVLHt8NLI4k
January 18 - 1 mph winds in Ocotillo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opj_ggi1GYg&feature=youtu.be
January 19 – no wind – 1 mph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECquoDQX1BU&feature=youtu.be
Jan 20: 2 mph:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v5Vodrhe-Q&feature=youtu.be
Jan. 21 no wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZSu3qDb-JU&feature=youtu.be
Jan. 22: 2 mph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6YthuKDkTI&feature=youtu.be
Jan. 23: no wind, red-tail hawk on project site:
Comments
Ocotillo Wind
Good work Jim. I visited the area on a late December morning and could have lit the candles on a cake. It will be interesting to see what happens when there's a real windy day or night. Will there be problems? Failures or fires?
Good question, since a wind farm blew apart in a storm
in Campo when it actually had wind, exploding in a giant blue flash: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/2734 They had to replace all 25 turbines and all 75 blades, yet Pattern Energy claimed that project as a ""success" in its application to the Califiornia Public Utilities Commission.
Well, as the old saying goes:
Well, as the old saying goes: "If at first you don't succeed, redefine success."
Reality
I reject your reality and substitute my own - A. Savage
I drove to Ocotillo to view the International Space Station a few weeks earlier and saw the same conditions that Jim documented, one turbine at about 2 rpm,
the rest were in stasis mode.
Tom
Zillions of dollars spent and
Zillions of dollars spent and countless, prescious acres destroyed. All for nothing. Nothing but the satisfaction of progressive wish lists and insatiable political vanity.