Wind farms aren't economically or environmentally sustainable
I WAS delighted to read that the county council is to review the excessive number of wind farm proposals in Lincolnshire (January 24).
It is true that we in Britain need to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, to ensure our fuel security, and it is equally true that renewables have to be part of the solution. But wind farms fail to meet the basic tests of economic and environmental sustainability. They absorb a large amount of energy in their construction, installation and connection to the grid, and deliver an intermittent trickle of power in return.
We saw in the recent cold snap how a large high-pressure area resulted in low winds across Britain, leaving wind turbines idle just when we needed them most. Nothing could better have demonstrated their futility. The Renewable Energy Foundation says: "We must remember that wind turbines are garden ornaments, not power stations."
Wind farms are the worst kind of gesture politics. They salve the consciences of the chattering classes while doing little for the environment, and adding double-digit percentages to our electricity bills. And they blight homes and lives and local communities.
ROGER HELMER Conservative MEP for Lincolnshire.
3 Comments
by Pensioner, Immingham
Tuesday, March 17 2009, 1:36PM
“Joanna,
I worked in the power industry for 28 years and before that worked in the chemical industry. I am well qualified to comment on the vagaries of wind turbines.
Simplistically they are total failures of the most expensive kind.
Joanna consider these points:
Do you understand the wind power cube law? For example if a turbine was running at rated generation and the wind speed decayed to half....the turbines output reduces to one eighth!
At best the wind is only able to power the turbines fully for about 15 days in every hundred! The remaining 85 days often result in abysmal generation.
Joanna, do you want to use electricity to suit you and life's scheduled events or are you willing to wait for limited power on unpredictable days.....of course not. You want to watch TV, have a shower, see in the dark, have your town lit up at night, in fact live the life of a modern person. Even your gas central heating must have power for the circulation pump!
So Joanna ask yourself, how do you manage when the wind doesn't blow.....you rely on fossil fuelled and fission fuelled power generators that have established availability and reliability, not relying on the vagaries of the fickle wind! For every watt of wind power there must be an installed watt of conventional power. A conventional power station cannot start up and shut down to match wind variations. It takes many hours to start up event a gas turbine powered generator due to thermal fatigue cycle problems. The only way wind power can be backed up is to have "spinning reserve" fossil fuelled generators able to cycle up and down as the wind varies. So as you can see wind turbines cause unwanted fossil fuel stations to emit pollution even when the wind turbines are operational. Wind turbines equal pollution and massive cost burdens to the UK.
Not one single privately funded wind turbine would be built because they are so inefficient and intermittent. Intermittancy is just not desirable in an electrical generator supplying public demand. All current wind farms are using stealth subsidies (ROCs), in the order of billions of pounds via taxes and elevated electrical tariffs.
Since the beginning of 2009 how many days has the wind been productive? The answer would make you wince when you researched the astronomical cost of building and subsidising these fraudulent white elephants.
Don't take my word for it, just google a few things:
Danish wind power, wind turbine failures etc. Denmark is absurd in that they have the worlds biggest wind generation system (that the UK is emulating) and yet they are building more fossil fuelled power stations as backup, so producing more pollution than before wind power. They have one of the most expensive electricity costs in Europe.
Joanna use google, do your research and agree that wind power is causing massive cost escalation and pollution to our energy profile.”
by joanna heselwood, Nr Horncastle
Monday, February 02 2009, 3:43PM
“What Mr Helmer fails to say is that he believes himself to be more qualified and knowledgeable than virtually all of the planet's scientists - he disagrees with them that we are causing climate change. So, whatever he says has to be taken with a large dose of scepticism...”
by Richard Williams, Orange City Florida
Thursday, January 29 2009, 9:03PM
“Disappointment and disenchantment with wind turbines not a surprise. I hoped Mr Helmer,MEP, Lincolnshire would provide some operating cost information on the turbines. Here in Florida, Fl Power and Light built a 3,750 Megawatt natural gas electircity generation plant for $i.8Billion. Great Plains Energy in Kansas in process of constructing wind turbine generating facility, It would take 2,083 wind turbines to generate 3,750 megawatts. AND that's assuming a steady wind stream 24/7. At $3.2 million for each wind turbine cost would be $6.7 Billion. That's startling enough but not enough known yet about maintenance cost for wind turbines. That's where I hoped your article would reveal some actual figures. Consider: servicng and repairing a wind turbine involves climbing each one individually, hoping all the parts and tools needed are in your napsack. I don't know what goes on the fritz with those things, but attending to 2,083 is going to cost more, a lot more than just maintenace of three gas generating turbines which are on the ground and in a building. Access with mobile equipment is easy, as well as six men on the job in a minute. Please try to get some maintenance cost figures. Thanks, R. Williams, Orange City, FL”