This picture recently posted online by Bloomberg’s correspondent in Venezuela Anatoly Kurmanaev is from the La Guajira wind farm in Northwest Venezuela (built as a joint venture with Argentina). It was inspected last April by no other than Nicolás Maduro himself.
According to Kurmanaev, locals have told him that since Maduro’s visit no major works have been done in the area, and that not a single wind turbine there is actually working. None of the promised 75,6 MW for the local electric grid are being produced so far.
But hey, at least they’ll give the guy something to tilt at, am I right? #ItsSomething
Caracas Chronicles 
*Northwest Venezuela.
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Fixed, thanks.
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My bad! (And to think this was my backyard)
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The project was already successful. The money was appropriated, the kickbacks and commissions have been paid. Actual equipment was imported and even installed. All of the important parties have met or exceeded their goals for enriching themselves. That is it… What? You want actual electricity generated? Whatever for?
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I wonder if this is a no-go for the moment because it cannot connect to transmission lines… one of the country’s biggest electric power issues is not enough transmission lines.
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I’m sorry chaps; my tiger already has its maximum stripe-load. You’ll have to look for another one and quickly: tigers with remaining stripe-room are en endangered species in this neck of the woods!
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neddie,
I don’t know this expression. I sort of have an idea of what it means from context, but would appreciate a better explanation and the literary reference, if there is one.
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¿Que es otra raya para un tigre? “What’s another stripe for a tiger?” and similar variants implies that, in the prevailing circumstances, the episode, matter, event or whatever is at issue is nothing unexpected at all at all. My take there was that, after so many boringly frequent dreadful occurrences, we are kinda in danger of running out of tigers!
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Got it. Thanks for explanation. El ingles no tiene lo mismo dicho.
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I am lern something.
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Wind and solar projects are nothing but wasteful and corruption-plague white elephants anyway (hang on, that’s a racist term! heh). Politicians love to be seen as “helping the environment” (they don’t) and be supporting big projects they can pretend create energy and jobs (they don’t). In Spain they have wasted so much on solar, that the government owes power companies $26 billion and have begun taxing and punishing those Spaniards who built their own solar at home to save on electric bills.
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I guess you are right. But, aren’t they pretty? http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/11/12/kyocera_solar_power_plant_after_fukushima_japan_finds_beauty_in_renewable.html
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And, on top of them being an economic boondoggle, they are really wiping out bird and bat populations:
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-08-28/national/35269438_1_wind-turbines-wind-farms-wind-power
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Well, every power generation source has environmental impact. Hydroelectical power has killed much more than birds and bats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam_failure
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Granted, but wind power has been touted as being environmentally friendly. Facts prove that the promises are false.
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Coal is currently reported to cause the death of ONE MILLION people per year around the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_the_coal_industry
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That figure of coal causing a million deaths a sounded unrealistic to me, so I followed up.
The link says “coal particulates pollution are estimated to shorten approximately 1,000,000 lives annually worldwide”. That does NOT mean that it kills 1,000,000 people. I would also point out that being without electricity and heat would also shorten peoples lives. You should be more careful with your statistics.
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Correct- “caused the death”, as in “if the coal pollution had been absent, they would not have died in the same time and manner”. Sorry if I implied that a million people a year a are crushed by coal piles, but my point is to highlight the tremendous amount of damage from coal, which is often ignored.
I kindly request that in the future you attack the idea, not the person.
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Sorry to get technical, but in the steady-state that means every year 1 million die due to coal health effects. “Shorten the life” sounds like kil to me – is a public health guru willing to chime in?
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I’m not gonna dispute this one, but, so are cats!! Useless expensive bird killers i mean!
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