delusionofgrandeur

Revd Philip Foster wrote:-

Wind Turbines, the warmists’ solution to all the world’s ills, are a
total waste of space and a huge waste of taxpayers’ money who have to
fully subsidise these monstrosities. Everyone is paying right now
twice over for the ridiculously expensive wind generated electricity
through their monthly utility bills and through their taxes. The
‘British Wind Energy Association’ is at the centre of this fraud.

To replace one standard gas fired generator of 500-megawatts, would
require 2000 (yes two thousand) 750-kilowatt wind turbines. They cost
a minimum of £2 million each! 2000 wind turbines will cost £4 billion
pounds. Each wind turbine needs about 75 acres of space. That means
only ten turbines per square mile. Therefore 2000 turbines would
occupy 200 square miles or 520 square kilometres. The Gas turbine
generator would occupy only a few acres of land and can be sited well
away from beauty spots, cause no danger to wild life, and burn cleanly
making little to no pollution. CO2 emmissions are not pollution - but
a life giving gas for plants. SO2 (sulphur dioxide) can be, but gas
powered turbines produce almost zero SO2 and even coal fired
generators can keep their emmissions virtually SO2 free.

Now, if you do your sums, you might think I’ve got my figures wrong.
But no. Turbines are always (deceitfully) rated at their maximum
hypothetical output. But this never happens in real life. When the
wind doesn’t blow and when the wind blows too much - (we’ve seen what
can happen then!) they cannot produce any electricity. Even in the
best locations this makes every turbine off-line for 66% of the time.
Then, for every KW of power they do deliver, there has to be
conventional back up available instantly. So as well as 2000 wind
turbines consuming huge areas of often the most beautiful landscape,
there has to be built - you guessed it - a 500-megawatt gas fired
generator! This has to be permanently running on standby so as to be
available instantly. It makes no kind of economic or environmental
sense to have both. And since wind turbines alone are not an option
why start in the first place? Because of course of the huge amounts of
money the makers of these turbines can extract from governments and
the utility companies (who are forced to buy the wind energy) which
means you and me. Nice work if you can get it.

Oh, and for the bird lovers amongst us - wind turbines are the best
bird slicers around - making raw paté out of geese, ducks, swans,
ospreys, sea eagles and anything else that flies their way.

A shame to take some facts and adorn them with such utter garbage.

Agreed, as a rough estimate, a turbine will produce an average of around 35-40% of it’s rated maximum output when charted over a year. If correctly placed, it will operate for at least 95% of the time, exceptions being still air (rare at hub altitude) and excessive gusts.

Taking an example of one turbine connected to a discrete power system, then you do need a spinning reserve. Returning to reality, an interconnected grid system of turbines spread over a large area (country-wide) will provide damn near constant power, requiring a small fraction of total output as a reserve to cope with fluctuations.

They are not subsidised in any way! The power industry is obliged to invest in renewables through such schemes as the renewables obligation and carbon credits/trading. These are businesses, do you think they are throwing money into a black hole just to upset people?

Nice to see the bird slicer rumour again, have you seen the size of a turbine blade? You could walk up the middle. And do you think creatures that have been blessed with flight and other fantastic abilities (turn, soar, hunt) cannot avoid a turbine blade? You may as well rail against TV masts and tall buildings.

If CO2 is not a pollutant, then why is the concentration in our atmosphere rising? From which corrupt/war torn nation do you intend to buy the gas to drive your little power plant?

If you have the ability to look at things with an open mind, research Denmark’s power system.

Windmills are not the answer to all our energy needs, I’ll accept that. They are the most effective option we have currently, and will continue to be so for the coming years.

Dear Sirs,
I agree almost entirely with what Revd Philip Foster writes. You only have to read about the facts and you will find that the whole wind turbine issue is based on fantasy. But this does not mean we should cease to search for better turbines, with both more efficiency and less weight. Many people around the globe are working on these issues and who knows, may be one of these days a breakthrough brings us a real solution to a real problem: one third of mankind goes without any electricity and to compensate this lack of a clean energy source they burn everything they can lay their hands on. Burning oil or wood in individual homes is a very inefficient way of using fossil fuels. This has been studied by UN specialists and there is a fine report on this problem in the web. We need wind energy, only someone must develop better turbines. I think this is the only way to go.

G’day,
couldnt help myself……I am assuming that the replys to this article are infact from accross the pacific (USA) where you guys have Utility taxs etc etc (im not even going to pretend to know anything about ur tax system) it is basically the opposite to what we call pay as you go tax so you dont get slugged at the end of each annum….but back onto the story….yes wind farms cannot reach anybetter then 60% of the wind that blows through thier blades……yes i love gas powered stations, they are the most effiecent and the cleanest way to produce energy today….even moreso then Nuclear…(that on average 13rad penetrate the saftey of its concrete bunker…which are mainly gamma particles that are absobed by the lungs the digestive system and the skin….not to be confused with alpha particles that are only absorbed by the lungs)….but i am a strong follower of both unrenewable and renewable energies….well i should be im making a carreer out of it soon enough….so im posting to say that i am officially on the fence………i had to laugh though…..Revd Phillip hit the most rediculous thing that they do with renewable energies today…they stick a bloody great big gas or coal powered turbine there …running constantly for the backup….no load but still produces atleast a 1/4 of the emmisions that it would under full load….

but it is easy for me to stand at the side line and speculate…in Australia we hold the worlds supply of uranium, coal and natural gas. in our local area alone there is enough coal to sustain the already 25yo 2,500 mWatt power station for the next 300 years……there are 10 gas fired turbines averaging 450mWatts within a 400 km radius..these will be supplied by cheap coal seam gas for the next 150 years……..the uranium mines in south Aust have currently exumed .00000002% of its capacity after 40years of opperation…..where do you think the U238 for the bomb that saved Australias bacon came from. tons and tons were smuggled past japanese subs through the pacific to supply the manhatton project……

NOW THAT WAS A SECRET!!!!

it involved 5 nations and no one spilt the beens…..impressive…..

why does there need to be a war on terror….the terror is the cheque book balanc at the end of the month…..both our nations alone not counting the brits spent over 20trillion dollars on the war on terror…….ok sadam was a prick…but wat were they planning on doing shooting him with a gold platted platnum sniper rifle that shot solid gold projectiles that where cased with silver instead of brass…then after he died carry him with road workers that are payed quadrupal time and a half just to show up for work then lay him in silk gowns strewn from some amazing place and then placed in a solid gold coffin and burried him 5,000 meters under the dirt and filled the hole with oil…….

all of that is worth around 10trillion dollars…..they could have saved money…what do you rekkon…..

or they could have just killed him…not have sent 12,000+ troops to thier deaths (i am not subtracting from them because i know what its like, and you want to be sent just to get a taste)

that money could have been spent on…hmmm…50milllion wind turbines..=37,500,000mWatts……..or……..2,000,000 gas powered turbines(350mW)..=700,000,000mW…….

makes you think doesnt it……

if they can afford to go to war and throw money away….