Electricity from windturbines? No thanks!

A report by the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change says a huge expansion of green energy is planned, with up to 32,000 new wind turbines and many thousands of transmission pylons as it struggles to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets.

This news report got me thinking.  Obviously it would be wonderful if Bessler's wheel could be part of the energy supply sysytem - but that is but a possibility glimpsed in the future, at this time.  So in the mean time we must have the windturbines - apparently.  So, how efficient and how green are these wind turbines?

"Passed by millions of drivers a year, it is one of England’s best known wind turbines. It is also one of its most useless. According to latest figures, the 280ft generator towering over the M4 near Reading worked at just 15 per cent of its capacity last year. And although it generated electricity worth an estimated £100,000, it had to be subsidised with £130,000 of public money.  Since it was switched on in 2005, it has been given £600,000 in public subsidies while working at an average of 17 per cent of its capacity."  Not very efficient then and certainly not cost effective.  (Daily Mail)

When we drill for oil or mine coal, the fossil fuels obtained result in a net profit to the energy companies because more energy is created than is used to obtain the fossil fuels. They make a profit because the consumer places a certain value on a gallon of gas; he pays for the fuel to drive 20 miles, instead of walking, bicycling or riding a horse.

That is not the case for wind turbines. The energy they create does not even pay for the costs of obtaining that energy, therefore they do not create energy. Each dollar represents a certain amount of energy. A 2MW turbine costs $3.5 million dollars according to wind turbine sources.  The lifespan of turbines is estimated to be about 20 years. If you financed the entire $3.5 million at 7% it would be require a payment of $330,000 per year. This does not include the cost of maintenance, transmission line or back-up conventional power plants to balance the fluctuating output.

If we construct the 2MW turbines in a favorable position it will produce about 30% of 2MW or .0.6MW over the entire year. There are 8760 hours in the year yielding a production of 5300 MW-hours. Multiply by 1,000 to convert to kWh's and the yield is 5,300,00 kWhs. Each kWh is worth about 5 cents wholesale for a total production of $262,000 per year, yet the owner will have to pay $330,000 per year to cover capital costs. A rough estimate reveals at least another $70,000 per year to cover maintenance, landowner leases, local government kickbacks, transmission lines and extra costs of conventional power plants backup. Generally there is approximately 1 full time worker for every 4 turbines. Even using the gross under-estimate of $70,000 per year of ongoing costs the investors would need to spend $400,000 per year to yield only $262,000 in electricity payments.

Where's the money?  Where is the profit?  The profit for the investors comes from Government subsidies and tax credits which ultimately means you and me!  But hey, no worries - wind turbines are green!

From a local residence point of view they are harmful to wildlife such as bats, songbirds, and raptors such as golden eagles; they ruin the views and hurt tourism; they cause noise and light pollution; and diminish real estate values.  There is also the NIMBY factor (Not In My BackYard), and I wouldn't want one in mine.

Also, many sites for wind farms are far from demand centres, requiring substantially more money to construct new transmission lines and substations.

The performance of wind mills depends on wind, weather and geography. Wind is a fluctuating, unpredictable source of energy and is not suited to meet the base load energy demand unless some form of energy storage is utilized (e.g. batteries, pumped hydro).

The manufacturing and installation of wind turbines requires heavy upfront investments – both in commercial and residential applications.

Wind energy, compared to solar panels, requires greater maintenance due to moving parts and the bearings of the turbine require changing once every 5 years.

In the process of reducing emissions, people are building sea-based windmill parks to harness energy from the wind. The question remains as to how these windmill structures, which rise out of the sea, will affect the marine ecosystem. Will seals and porpoises be disturbed by these structures? How might other parts of the marine ecosystem be affected by these windmills, and how might impacts on invertebrates and fish affect marine mammals? 

Havas and Colling (2011) wrote a paper entitled: Wind Turbines Make Waves: Why Some Residents Near Wind Turbines Become Ill. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 31(5) 414–426.

People who live near wind turbines complain of symptoms that include some combination of the following: difficulty sleeping, fatigue, depression, irritability, aggressiveness, cognitive dysfunction, chest pain/pressure, headaches, joint pain,skin irritations, nausea, dizziness, tinnitus, and stress. 

These symptoms have been attributed to the pressure (sound) waves that wind turbines generate in the form of noise and infrasound. However, wind turbines also generate electromagnetic waves in the form of poor power quality (dirty electricity) and ground current, and these can adversely affect those who are electrically hypersensitive. Indeed, the symptoms mentioned above are consistent with electro-hypersensitivity. Sensitivity to both sound and electromagnetic waves differs among individuals and may explain why not everyone in the same home experiences similar effects. Ways to mitigate the adverse health effects of wind turbines are presented.

June 13, 2012.  For years doctors at Women’s College Hospital, in the heart of Toronto, have been diagnosing patients with environmental sensitivities that include multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EMS). They have a long waiting list and if you sign up it will take 9 months to a year before a doctor has time to see you.  Some of these cases have been attributed to the close proximity of wind turbines.

BUT, that's not all! In China, the true cost of Britain's clean, green wind power experiment is Pollution on a disastrous scale

"A toxic lake is poisoning Chinese farmers, their children and their land. It's what's left behind after making the magnets for Britain's latest wind turbines... and is merely one of a multitude of environmental sins committed in the name of our new green Jerusalem.  On the outskirts of one of China’s most polluted cities, an old farmer stares despairingly out across an immense lake of bubbling toxic waste covered in black dust. He remembers it as fields of wheat and corn.

Vast fortunes are being amassed here in Inner Mongolia; the region has more than 90 per cent of the world’s legal reserves of rare earth metals, and specifically neodymium, the element needed to make the magnets in the most striking of green energy producers, wind turbines. But there is a distinctly dirty truth about the process used to extract neodymium: it has an appalling environmental impact that raises serious questions over the credibility of so-called green technology.

The reality is that, as Britain flaunts its environmental credentials by speckling its coastlines and unspoiled moors and mountains with thousands of wind turbines, it is contributing to a vast man-made lake of poison in northern China. This is the deadly and sinister side of the massively profitable rare-earths industry that the ‘green’ companies profiting from the demand for wind turbines would prefer you knew nothing about. Hidden out of sight behind smoke-shrouded factory complexes in the city of Baotou, and patrolled by platoons of security guards, lies a five-mile wide ‘tailing’ lake. It has killed farmland for miles around, made thousands of people ill and put one of China’s key waterways in jeopardy. This vast, hissing cauldron of chemicals is the dumping ground for seven million tons a year of mined rare earth after it has been doused in acid and chemicals and processed through red-hot furnaces to extract its components.

Rusting pipelines meander for miles from factories processing rare earths in Baotou out to the man-made lake where, mixed with water, the foul-smelling radioactive waste from this industrial process is pumped day after day. No signposts and no paved roads lead here, and as we approach security guards shoo us away and tail us. When we finally break through the cordon and climb sand dunes to reach its brim, an apocalyptic sight greets us: a giant, secret toxic dump, made bigger by every wind turbine we build.

The lake instantly assaults your senses. Stand on the black crust for just seconds and your eyes water and a powerful, acrid stench fills your lungs. For hours after our visit, my stomach lurched and my head throbbed. We were there for only one hour, but those who live in Mr Yan’s village of Dalahai, and other villages around, breathe in the same poison every day." Thanks to http://www.dailymail.co.uk and various other sources.

JC

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