Why wind won’t work
Why are governments still mollycoddling wind power?
There is no proof that wind farms reduce carbon dioxide emissions and it is ludicrous to believe that a few windmills in Australia are going to improve global climate.
Such wondrous expressions of green faith put our politicians on par with those who believe in the tooth fairy.
Tax payers funding this largess and consumers paying the escalating power bills are entitled to demand proof.
Not only is there no climate justification for wind farms, but they are also incapable of supplying reliable or economical power.
It is also surprising those who claim to be defenders of the environment can support this monstrous desecration of the environment.
Wind power is so dilute that to collect a significant quantity of wind energy will always require thousands of gigantic towers each with a massive concrete base and a network of interconnecting heavy duty roads and transmission lines. Then when they go into production, they slice up bats and eagles, disturb neighbours, reduce property values and start bushfires.
Finally, to cover the total loss of power when the wind drops or blows too hard, every wind farm needs a conventional back-up power station (commonly gas-fired) with capacity at least twice the design capacity of the wind farm to even out the sudden fluctuations in the electricity grid.
Why bother with the wind farm – just build the backup?
There is no justification for the continuation of mandates, subsidies or tax breaks favouring wind power over reliable and cheaper electricity generation options.
Wind power should compete on an equal basis with all other electricity options.
All of the above statements are supported and expanded in a recent submission to the Australian Senate is entitled: “Why Wind Won’t Work? – It’s as Weak as Water.”
For a summary of the submission see:
http://carbon-sense.com/2011/02/08/why-wind-wont-work/
For the full report with pictures and all the gory and depressing details see:
http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/why-wind-wont-work.pdf
Viv Forbes is Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition, an Australian organisation which opposes pollution and waste of energy, and promotes rational carbon energy policies.
Raoul ……….
excellent.
i have a better idea for wind power.
give everyone free tins of baked beans.
Windfarms actually work very well. They managed in just a few years to raise our electricity charges from 11 cents per kW/h to now almost 29 cents. And the power bills now come on fully recycled paper.
And I’m sure all the windfarm salesmen have fine new houses with biiiig plasma screens and a shiny new beemer for when they don’t need to be seen in the Prius. And the politicians involved in these schemes all have nice big bellies from all the bio wining and organic dining; and nice big green investment portfolios, too.
So don’t you say wind farms don’t work. They’re the next best thing to printing money and selling snake oil for cancer.
Great post, Raoul!
Bravo Viv Forbes.
The wind industry is just all hot air.
I look forward to reading Viv’s submissions on these mountian propellers – they are such a waste of taxpayers money producing intermitent power at exorbitant prices.
We have plenty of low ash high carbon black coal and plenty of gas to convert to LNG to provide affordable electricity generation.
Scrap the wasteful green energy non-solution and invest the money in new nuclear power stations.