Beware missionary Zeal over wind farms....
READ LATEST NEWS on Wind Farms at http://www.wind-watch.org/news/category/locations/europe/uk/
| "wind represented an illusory technology - a cul-de-sac that would prove uneconomic and a waste of resources in the battle against climate change" The recent Times article on Nobel Prize winning speaker at the Royal Society, Jack Steinberger |
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The RSPB now recognises that windfarms are a danger to raptors. The page about windfarms' threat to such birds , will attempt to catalogue the problem for threatened birds, including golden eagles whose grouse prey could be scared from the area affected by turbines.
Extract from last years The Guardian January 10th
- "...the government's and other agencies' promotion of wind turbines came about because of lobbying by industrialists, and not because of straightforward science or economics. Wind turbines are designed to last about 25 years, after which they must be dismantled. Within that time they will be profitable for the industry and investors only because of renewables obligation certificates (ROCs), which are part of a system that obliges electricity supply companies to progressively source more of their energy from "renewables". This means turbine investors can "earn" up to twice as much from selling ROCs as from selling electricity. We pay for both through our increased electricity bills..." Read in full Kevin Forbes, director of the Center for the Study of Energy and Environmental Stewardship at Catholic University, Washington DC is also quoted: "Wind energy gives people a nice warm fuzzy feeling that we're taking action on climate change....the reality is that it's not doing much of anything."
Wind farms will be a monument to an age when our leaders collectively went off their heads
- Article by Christopher Booker on the "quite incomprehensible obsession with windmills"
- "....For these white elephants can never produce more than a fraction of the electricity we need, and by no means always when we need it - as we saw last winter when, for weeks on end, they were scarcely turning at all.
Do politicians never look outside the windows of their centrally-heated offices to see how often the wind is not blowing?
The Government has now shovelled so much money in hidden subsidies into the pockets of the turbine companies that the 'wind bonanza', promoted on a host of fraudulent claims, has become one of the greatest scams of our age.
But if and when our lights do go out, it will be important to remember just why we got carried away by such a massive blunder.
Left with a land blighted with useless towers of metal, we shall look on those windmills as a monument to the age when the politicians of Britain and Europe collectively went completely off their heads."
"... There is overwhelming evidence that wind turbines cause serious health problems in nearby residents, usually stress-disorder type diseases, at a non trivial rate."
"Properly Interpreting the Epidemiologic Evidence About the Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines on Nearby Residents" pdf - A paper by Carl V. Phillips, PhD- "... There is overwhelming evidence that wind turbines cause serious health problems in nearby
residents, usually stress-disorder type diseases, at a non trivial rate. The bulk of the evidence
takes the form of thousands of adverse event reports. There is also a small amount of
systematically-gathered data.
The adverse event reports provide compelling evidence of the seriousness of the problems and of causation in this case because of their volume, the ease of observing exposure and outcome incidence, and case-crossover data. Proponents of turbines have sought to deny these problems by making a collection of contradictory claims including that the evidence does not "count", the outcomes are not "real" diseases, the outcomes are the victims' own fault,... The attempts to deny the evidence cannot be seen as honest scientific disagreement, and represent either gross incompetence or intentional bias..." Read in full
Gear Oil.
- Graphic and rather terrifying photographs show what happens when transmission failures occur in wind turbines. No gear oil has yet been invented to withstand the pressures produced within these transmissions.
February 1 2012 ~ Written Answers - Energy and Climate Change: Wind Power (30 Jan 2012)
- http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-01-30a.92407.h&s=wind+turbines#g92407.r0
Charles Hendry: The approach taken to *wind turbine* development in the
UK is to assess the potential impacts of proposals on a case by case
basis. Such assessments will include, for example, possible impacts of
noise and shadow flicker on dwellings in the vicinity of the proposed
development, and will be informed by Government guidance. An independent
study commissioned by DECC and published in March 2011...
Written Answers - Energy and Climate Change: Wind Power (30 Jan 2012)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-01-30a.92618.h&s=wind+turbines#g92618.q0
Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate
Change what guidance his Department gives on payments to *wind turbine*
owners when they are ordered to shut down by the National Grid during
periods of high *winds*.
Written Answers - Energy and Climate Change: Wind Power: Birds (30 Jan 2012)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-01-30a.92305.h&s=wind+turbines#g92305.r0
Charles Hendry: .../registe rs/ministermtgs/ministermtgs.aspx My
officials meet regularly with countryside bodies and other
organisations, such as the statutory nature conservation agencies, to
discuss the impacts of *wind turbines* on the environment, including
potential effects on migratory birds.
February 3rd 2012 ~ ".. wind power is shown yet again to be an expensive folly that empties our wallets in return for providing a miniscule fraction of our energy needs."
- From the always interesting Blog, Autonomous Mind
- " All too often on frigid days like these the wind tends to drop away. Driving past a wind farm this morning proved the point as all could see the turbines were barely turning - most likely they were consuming power to turn the blades so as to prevent the mechanisms from freezing up.....
Despite the billions of pounds of ‘investment’ and the determination to bring about a renewables revolution to reduce our reliance of fossil fuels, when power is most needed, the turbines are failing to deliver. ....
people ignore the fact that nuclear can provide the most reliable baseload energy - and will be needed to do so as coal fired power stations are closed down without being replaced, increasing population drives up energy demand, and more technology increases the need for electricity - while on far too many days of the year wind power contributes virtually nothing to the grid..."
February 1 2012 ~ Wales MPs do not want Wales to have power over energy
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Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards hoped to introduce a bill in Westminster which would give the Welsh Government powers over energy generation in Wales .
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"Mr Edwards argued that the proposal would lead to equality with Scotland and Northern Ireland and that it would allow Wales to better fight fuel poverty if we had responsibility for our own resources.
His proposal was defeated by 239 votes to 44 after Labour and Conservative MPs teamed up together against the Bill..."
February 1st 2012 ~ "even the major trunk roads through Powys cannot cope with two-way traffic when turbine-transporting vehicles are using them.."
- A letter in the Western Mail 27 January 2012
- SIR - Anyone who attended the recent meeting in Newtown on the effect on the Mid-Wales road infrastructure of the transport and construction of 600 wind turbines will be left in no doubt that the Welsh Assembly not only has no efficacious plan for coping with the unprecedented number of journeys by vehicles with abominably large loads, but is, according to the local authority, putting extreme pressure on the council to comply with such demands.
We are informed that even the major trunk roads through Powys cannot cope with two-way traffic when turbine-transporting vehicles are using them as these vehicles take up around two-thirds of the width of such roads; and that there will be around 150 days each year for five to seven years when this will happen.
This, of course does not take account of further wind development proposals, nor the retrieving of damaged turbines or those past their sell-by date, unless, of course they are going to leave these as scrap on our beautiful mountainsides..."
January 29th 2012 ~ "don’t expect help from academia, mainstream media or the public service...."
- From an article by Maurice Newman, former chairman of
Deutsche Bank, the Australian Securities
Exchange and, most recently, the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.
- ". rather
than
listen
to
their
constituents,
politicians
are
lending
their
support
to
oligopolistic
insiders and, in so doing, are destroying
the
property
rights
of
the
very
people
they
have
pledged
to
protect
But don’t expect help from academia, mainstream media or the public service..they are members of the same establishment and worship together at the altar of global warming.
By ruthlessly perpetuating the illusion that wind farms can somehow save the planet, they keep the money flowing. All the while the poor become poorer, ever more dependent on welfare - and colder in winter.
The conclusion is clear. Our once independent public service is no longer servant but master! Sir Humphrey is firmly in control."
January 28th 2012 ~ the turbines had delivered "a miserable and unnerving experience"
- A member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering and a technician with 30 years' experience, Robert Rand, was working for a philanthropic donor wanting to investigate why wind turbines were causing so much concern. He turned up to work in Maine, in the US northeast, in April to investigate the impact of wind turbines.
Mr Rand told The Australian that his experience had been unexpected.
- He had measured the noise from wind turbines on many previous occasions without difficulty but, in testimony to the State of Maine Board of Environmental Protection in July, Rand said the turbines had delivered "a miserable and unnerving experience".
When indoors, Rand and long-time colleague Stephen Ambrose, also a Member of INCE, experienced "nausea, loss of appetite, headache, vertigo, dizziness, inability to concentrate, an overwhelming desire to get outside and anxiety, over a two-night period from Sunday, April 17 to Tuesday, April 19".
"I know personally and viscerally what people have been complaining about," he says.
January 28th 2012 ~ "prescribed anti-depressants to help him cope with noise of a nearby wind farm"
- A farmer who lives just a few hundred yards from the Fullabrook Wind Farm in North Devon now
needs anti depressents because he has been feeling so ill - even to the extent of bursting into tears - because of the constant thudding noise. He lives alone at the farm with his two dogs. He says ( see news.uk.msn.com)
- "I have been made to feel like a prisoner in my own home, which is wrong. I go up to Bath to see my daughter and I don't want to come back here. And this house was my dream. It is affecting my health. I am in pain. I bought the bungalow because it was in a beautiful location with beautiful views. I bought it for the tranquillity and that has been destroyed."
January 22nd 2012 ~" the risks of expanding the reliance on renewable sources like wind before necessary grids, storage and other technologies are established to handle their intermittency and volatility."
- An article in the New York Times concerns an incident when the thousands of windmills dotting Denmark and its coastline generated so much power that Danes had to pay other countries to take the surplus.
- "The incident was the first of its kind, and lasted only a few hours. Low temperatures were an aggravating factor, because Denmark’s combined heat and power plants were also running full bore and generating a lot of electricity.
Since then, there have been just two more instances.... the incidents have highlighted the risks of expanding the reliance on renewable sources like wind before necessary grids, storage and other technologies are established to handle their intermittency and volatility...."
January 20th 2012 ~ Cross-party MPs' group formed to fight wind farm expansion
- Sunday Telegraph:"... Chris Huhne wants a major expansion of onshore wind farm development to help Britain meet green targets.
However there is increasing opposition to the form of green energy, with critics claiming that they are inefficient, expensive and a major blight on the landscape..."
The new All Party Parliamentary Group has been set up by Chris Heaton-Harris, Conservative MP for Daventry.
He is quoted: "Ministers need to look at this policy again. It is an inefficient technology, it adds to the bills of consumers, it harms the balance of the National Grid, it is the wrong renew¬able for the UK. We need a change of policy." That about sums it up.
The Sunday Express headline: MPs' bid to halt hot air Chris Huhne's Wind Farms. Extract: "Backbench MPs ...will urge Ministers to re-think a policy which will add £280 to the annual energy bill of hard-pressed homeowners by 2020."
January 19th 2012 ~ Heartfelt rant on letter page of Northumberland Gazette on "useless Alnwick turbines."
- Yesterday, The Times reminded its readers that "dozens of onshore facilities were paid £25 million last year", (a substantial increase on 2010) - payments made by the National Grid to compensate them when they stopped operating because the Grid cannot cope with the amount of power being fed into the system when it is very windy. Today a letter from an exasperated taxpayer near Alnwick castigates DEFRA for these " taxpayer-funded white jumbos, built by a bankrupt company called Proven Energy"
-
"...
They should never have been built.... The design was clearly flawed and the manufacturer has gone bust.
So, the taxpayer will have to pay for the repairs? Have we lost all touch with reality? The taxpayer doesn't have any money, the Government spent it on bailing out the banks. (As an aside you could use them as gallows - to string up Goodwin, Applegarth et al, but I digress).
Ask yourself, if the turbines were yours, would you have them repaired? They are yours - you paid for them.
.... Here's what you do, Defra; flog the land with the turbines on it and put that money towards paying down the public debt. See if any private developer will take on the risk that these windmills will ever work, my bet would be no. The lucky purchaser could then sell them off for scrap and redevelop the site..... Alnwick is a pretty market town with some good businesses trying hard in a very tough environment. Shop rents are far too high and the parking charges are a disgrace - if Northumberland County Council gave tuppence for the future of Alnwick, they would scrap them..."
January 17th 2012 ~ the fate of Allt Duine "the turbines will be very visible, in what for a lot of people is a wild and untamed place"
- The Allt Duine development, 31 wind turbines, each 410ft high, is proposed by a subsidiary of the German electricity company RWE npower renewables, who maintain that the site is located in the "Highland Council's preferred area of search for wind farms"
Officers of the Highland Council have recommended that the scheme should go ahead but the council delayed a decision on the scheme before Christmas so that councillors could see what effect the windfarm would have on the famous view.
19 members of the council's South Planning Applications Committee will take the train to the top of the Cairngorm Plateau 3,600ft up, and look westwards across the valley of the River Spey to the Monadliath Mountains. Opponents say that that view, along with many other panoramas, will be spoilt. Matthew Hawkins, the Cairngorms National Park's Senior Heritage Officer, is quoted in the Independent today
- "....One of the things people enjoy most about this area, and that makes it so wild, is that you can't see man-made artefacts, and the major concern is that the turbines will be very visible, in what for a lot of people is a wild and untamed place."
January 17th 2012 ~ Which? says "Smart" meters have the potential to further undermine consumer confidence as well as cost consumers millions more than the initial estimate.
- The idea behind smart meters is to give almost real-time information about gas and electricity use in the hope that householders will use appliances more efficiently. However, Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?www.which.co.uk says:
- "Which? believes that the roll-out is flawed as it has the potential to further undermine consumer confidence as well as cost consumers millions more than the initial estimate. The government must not write a blank cheque on behalf of every energy customer, especially at a time when millions of people are struggling to pay their bills.
The Energy Department should stop and review the smart meter roll-out before it becomes an £11 billion fiasco.' ."
- "....an estimated cost of £11.7 billion, is both challenging and subject to significant uncertainty..Consumers will benefit from smart meters only if they understand the opportunity to reduce their energy bills and change their behaviour. So far the evidence on whether they will do so has been inconclusive. Otherwise, the only people who will benefit are the energy suppliers.....the energy market does not currently operate as an effective competitive market "
January 13th 2012 ~ Vestas shares have fallen more than 90 percent since peaking at 692 kroner in 2008
- The Danish wind-turbine maker announced plans for 2,335 layoffs- about a tenth of its worldwide work force, slashing costs by $190 million before the end of 2012. Vestas' Chief Executive Ditlev Engelissaid at a news conference in Copenhagen: "I can certainly understand if employees as well as people outside Vestas consider us to be in a state of crisis." (More at the Guardian)
January 13th 2012 ~ "I believe water is coming from cracks in the dam and we need to keep pushing." John Etherington
The sales of John Etherington's
"The Wind Farm Scam" are such that the monthly Times' magazine, EUREKA, for January has listed it as number nine
of the top ten "Inventions and Technology" books. It is now in its fifth printing. He hopes that an updated second edition may be possible now that three years have passed since its first printing. As he modestly wrote recently:
- "Despite my book's age, the monthly Times' magazine EUREKA for January has listed it as number nine
of the top ten "Inventions and Technology" books. EUREKA has a circulation of near
half a million and readership of well over a million.
The book has proved to be an efficient way of reaching many eyes and brains. Long may this go on....I believe water is coming from cracks in the dam and we need to keep pushing."
Enormous thanks and congratulations to John Etherington.
January 10th 2012 ~ "You will be aware that local opposition to the project is virtually unanimous, with a local action group, local councils and heritage organisations combining to condemn what amounts to an act of desecration on a hugely important and valuable historical site."
- Roger Helmer MEP writes to Eric Pickles "....If ever there were a case for the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to intervene and make a stand, this is surely it.
I am especially concerned that the proposal runs directly counter to the ideas of localism which the Conservative Party has done so much to promote. Our localism policies will be greeted with ironic laughter as long as these men from Whitehall can overturn the settled will of local people, without debate and without appeal. Whether or not you accept the pressing need to reduce CO2 emissions (and more and more scientists doubt it); whether or not you think that wind turbines can contribute to that objective (and the evidence points against it); surely an historical site of this importance demands special protection?..... We ignore the damage to local residents, lives, homes, families, villages. Are we also to abandon our historical heritage to the renewable obsession?..." Read in full
January 9th 2012 ~ "Yet again, overwhelming local opposition to a wind-farm proposal has been bulldozed aside by the government's planning inspector, making a nonsense of promises of localism."
- In December 2010 Members of the Stop Kelmarsh Wind Farm action group had reacted with joy when Daventry District Council's planning committee threw out Eon's plans. The Stop Kelmarsh Windfarm group had been working for over three years to defeat the scheme and had gained huge local support. Today's Telegraph reports on the overturning of the verdict forbidding an array of 415ft turbines overlooking the site of the Battle of Naseby, the decisive clash of the English Civil War.
Heritage groups and nearby residents, as well as Chris Heaton-Harris, the Conservative MP, opposed the huge turbines and the local council refused permission for the project. However, the
- "German-owned firm E.ON appealed their verdict to a government-appointed planning inspector, who has now overturned it, even though he acknowledged the scheme "would detract from the significance of the battlefield and harm its setting".
- "This time, it's on a particularly sensitive site -- the Civil War battlefield of Naseby, Northamptonshire, in my East Midlands constituency. This is a site of huge historical importance, and the local Naseby Battlefield Project aims to develop visitor facilities which should attract tourism to the county. Hopes for the Naseby site are -- literally -- overshadowed by the prospect of seven egregious, giant 400 foot wind turbines which will tower over the area. This comes despite officials admitting that the development will "harm the setting".
Yet again, our irrational obsession with futile attempts to solve an entirely speculative problem is destroying our heritage. Yet again, a coalition of local councils, local residents and heritage organisations were virtually unanimous in their opposition, yet their objections were swept aside.
Preposterously, one excuse given was that "the turbines will only be there for twenty-five years". That's a quarter of a century, for heaven's sake! It's a whole generation."
January 9th 2012 ~ Anti-wind "Cranks" versus Pro-wind "wishful thinking and unproven assumptions"
- The Institute for the Study of Civil Society, Civitas, uses information from a Dutch report, published at the end of last year by retired physicist Dr C le Pair which confirms the worry:
- "...that Britain is in danger of producing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than necessary if the grid relies too much on wind.
Wind turbines only produce energy around 30 per cent of the time. When the wind is not blowing - or even blowing too fast as in the recent storms - other sources of electricity have to be used, mostly gas and coal...."
- "You keep having to switch these gas fired power stations on and off, whereas if you just have highly efficient modern gas turbines and let it run all the time, it will use less gas. If you use less gas in a highly efficient gas turbine you use less carbon dioxide than having wind backed up by gas."
However, an article on Jan7th by the ever vigilant Christopher Booker, echoes Tim Worstall who noticed that the optimistic government model so beloved of Chris Huhne "relies on wishful thinking and unproven assumptions".
- "....The report babbles on, for instance, about how we will have "zero carbon homes" and a "zero carbon waste economy" and how we will build "33 gigawatts" of zero carbon nuclear power and "45 gigawatts" of wind power (without, of course, pointing out that 45GW refers to the capacity of the windmills, not the 15GW or less they might actually produce, due to the intermittency of the wind)...."
January 7th 2012 ~ Technical Advice Note 8 (TAN8). led to the ‘turbine landscapes' of Mid Wales It is time for a Review
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The Cambrian Mountains Society has called for a new review of TAN8 after it analysed the public's response to government consultation.
The society has been invited to give evidence at a meeting of the Environment and Sustainability Committee
at the Senedd on January 12 when society trustee John Morgan will speak alongside a representative for
the combined groups in Montgomeryshire.
Last week the society announced the results of its ‘comprehensive analysis' of responses to the Welsh Government's public consultation ....only 10 per cent of respondents supported the draft TAN8 in what they say could be the largest number of responses to any Welsh Government consultation. The society said.
- "Remarkably the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) was not involved until the public consultation stage. Thus areas which CCW classifies as outstanding landscape quality are categorised in TAN8 for turbine developments and a future as ‘turbine landscapes'.
Even a prospective wind turbine developer's response was to express unease about turbines being
proposed ‘very close to the nationally acclaimed Pumlumon range'.
"This has caused a great deal of public anxiety about the policy."
- "This is analogous to constructing a reservoir without any consideration of where the main water pipes have
to go."
January 7th 2012 ~ 15ft-long turbine blades flew off three structures in 112mph winds on Thursday night
- In the high winds of the past few days three turbines have been wrecked near Huddersfield. The three turbines had been sold individually by the company Evoco to landowners to generate their own electricity and sell any excess back to the National Grid.
They are located, all within a mile of one another, in West Yorkshire on. The Mail's photographs suggest that local people are right to be concerned about safety.
The one in Windmill Lane in the village of Upper Cumberworth lost one of its three blades, and another in the same village lost two. Christine Smith, a local Conservative councillor, is quoted:
- "‘This shows they can be very dangerous, these blades could have fallen on someone's car or home. They are lucky someone was not walking nearby. Wind turbines are flawed, they don't work when it's too windy, and don't work when it's not windy enough. There are much better alternatives to use less energy such as under-floor heating and insulation."
December 29th 2011 ~ " these reports are from real people, living with real problems, often with no recourse"
- A new paper by Barbara J Frey, BA, MA (University of Minnesota) and
Peter J Hadden, BSc (Est Man), FRICS (pdf here)
- "The paper begins with a review of the acoustic impact of wind turbine noise reported by families and communities in the UK as well as similar cases in Japan, Australasia, the United States, Canada, and throughout Europe. This first chapter collates and details some of the evidence of recent reported cases and the extent of discomfort, distress, and health problems suffered by those families with prolonged exposure to wind turbine noise...."
23rd December 2011 ~Australian state launches world's toughest wind turbine laws
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The New South Wales Government has proposed the world's toughest laws on wind turbines, with a plan to give all residents within 1.25 miles a veto over new projects.
. Telegraph "NSW planning minister, Brad Hazzard, said the measures were "some of the toughest wind-farm guidelines in the country, possibly the world. One hundred per cent of neighbours have to be happy within that two-kilometre zone," he said.
Though the state has committed to a 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, it has shown little enthusiasm for wind farms. Existing turbines have angered rural communities which say the noise is excessive and causes sleep loss and stress."
16th December 2011 ~ "We, the people of Fife, must be in charge of what is acceptable and where is acceptable for these industrial structures to be sited."
- In West Fife, Labour leader Alex Rowley is calling for a community-led discussion and examination of appropriate locations for wind turbines.
- "This must not be dictated by where the profiteers want to put them."
December 14th 2011 ~ "Only a handful of people at the meeting were in favour of the turbine, and 95% were against it," - but the community council in Anglesey voted by three votes to two in favour of the 71-metre turbine at Ty Fry farm.
- See report at the Bangor and Angelsey Mail. Owain Evans, of pressure group Anglesey Against Wind Turbines, said the council's decision had been "absolutely disgraceful".
December 14th 2011 ~ " no prospect that renewable energy will be able to provide a substantial amount of Britain's energy needs."
- The government is spending enormous sums of money on renewable energy. A new report (pdf) from the Adam Smith Institute assesses the economic and energy security cases for renewable energy subsidies, and finds that there is no prospect that renewable energy will be able to provide a substantial amount of Britain's energy needs. It argues that the renewable energy roadmap for 2020 is hugely
overambitious - the target has already been reduced but current
renewable power generation is still 28% short of meeting it. Extract from the Briefing Paper:
- "....Back-up, dispatchable power plants must always
be available to supply demand and balance the grid for the
demand for power that the wind is not producing. Winter
peak power often coincides with very large, slow-moving anti-cyclones, which bring extremely cold weather and
almost no wind; therefore little or no wind power output is
possible.
Not only does wind power need under-utilised backup generators for continuity of supply, but their operators also receive constraint payments to switch them off when their output is not needed....
...Wind turbines are also subject to considerable stress, which can lead to failure of blades or other components. Gearbox failure is also not uncommon..... " Full report here
Wind power only delivered 3% of UK electricity in 2010.A "high and rising rate of local resistance" is illustrated by refusals of local (democratically elected) councils to provide building permits for new, mostly very large, onshore wind turbines. Read report.
December 13th 2011 ~ "No wind-farms will be built if there are no subsidies, and the purpose of this petition is to reduce or end the subsidies."
- John Hatt writes:
- "In the North West, I have been associated with FELLS, who have also been doing wonderful work, and recently helped prevent some horrific developments.
However, there now seems to be so many planning applications for wind farms, that we need action at the centre. No wind-farms will be built if there are no subsidies, and the purpose of this petition is to reduce or end the subsidies.
The petition has been going very well so far, and within less than a week we have overtaken 198 petitions on the Department of Energy website to become their second most popular petition
When we have reached the target of 100,000, which we definitely think is now achievable, our petition becomes eligible for a five-hour debate in the House of Commons , and we reckon that we have found some MPs willing to help with that."
December 12th 2011 ~ Ultra-green Denmark has no idea what to with a mountain of old and broken wind turbine blades.
- Wind turbine blades are predicted to have a lifecycle of around 20-25 years. The question is what to do with them afterwards.
Professor Henning Albers from the Institut für Umwelt und Biotechnik, Hochschule Bremen, calculates that at current growth rates by 2034, there will be a mountain of 225,000 tonnes of unwanted rotor blade material waste. Since 2004, most European Union (EU) member states have passed laws forbidding landfill disposal of carbon fiber composites - while incineration of plastics is discouraged because of the potential release of toxic byproducts.
As the wind becomes a central part of energy supply in Denmark, a huge waste problem is growing with similar speed. As the blog co2insanity.com reports:
- "... Denmark has 6,000 wind turbines serving a population of 5.3 million and when the wind conditions are just right wind produces around 19 percent of its electricity. Yet despite huge financial investment no conventional power plant has yet been shut down while Danish electricity costs to consumers are the highest in Europe, according to research by energy researcher, Dr. Vic Mason.
Turbine blades routinely exceed 60 meters in length and nearly all are manufactured from thermoset plastics that cannot be recycled once their useful life has expired. The special plastic is the only material currently known that meets reliability standards due to their relatively high strength and low weight properties. ." See entry at co2insanity.com
December 11th 2011~ There have been 1,500 accidents and incidents on UK wind farms over the past 5 years - i.e. almost one a day
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The figures have been released by RenewableUK. They include four deaths and a further 300 injuries to workers. A dossier of incidents, compiled by the Caithness Wind Farm Information Forum publishes accidents - backed up by media reports - on its website.
The figures include cases where blades, each weighing as much as 14 tonnes, have sheared off and crashed to the ground.
The Sunday Telegraph today reports:
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"....Residents living near a wind farm have reported sheltering in their homes when lumps of ice were thrown from blades from a 410-ft high turbine near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
One manufacturer of wind turbines admitted one of its models had a defect - understood to be caused by a faulty braking system that meant the blades could fly off - that led to hundreds of turbines being ordered to be shut down in September by the Health and Safety Executive. ... The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said last week it was "extremely difficult" to assemble a "complete picture of reported incidents at wind farms" because accidents are not recorded by industry type. ... An HSE spokesman said wind turbines were classed as machines rather than buildings or structures and that there was no obligation to report mechanical failures..." Read in full
December 11th 2011 ~ "As our present Government seems hell-bent on covering the country in wind turbines, these are a particularly poor example..." Alnwick Town Councillor.
- An Open Letter to DEFRA and sent to the Northumberland Gazette yesterday by an Alnwick Town councillor, Sue Allcroft:
- "I am extremely concerned about the turbines at the Defra building in Alnwick, Northumberland - when will they be working again?
.... This entire building was built with public money - my money as a taxpayer in this country - and the most obvious sign of the 'green' features appears to be a complete waste of money (I would be interested to know what the cost of buying and installing these turbines was originally).
I would like an explanation please - if the turbines are broken why have the repairs not been expedited?
As our present Government seems hell-bent on covering the country in wind turbines, these are a particularly poor example." Read in full
December 8th 2011 ~ A turbine in a North Ayrshire wind farm caught fire today in very strong winds
- The BBC's photograph is dramatic. The turbines were "all off today because of the high winds". See BBC report.
(Richard North seems to have rather a neat solution to fuel poverty on the EUreferendum Blog: "The solution has been there, right in front of us all this time - the answer to fuel poverty. We burn windmills.")
December 7th 2011 ~"....future generations being left with thousands of useless wind turbines dotted around the countryside"
- Chris Huhne is proposing to build up to 32,000 new wind turbines with many thousands more transmission pylons as the Government, apparently unaware of the chasm under its feet, struggles to meet green targets.
At present, there are about 3,000 onshore wind turbines with a few hundred offshore. They generate only 1-2% of the nation's power.
Sunday Times leader Extract:
- " "What will future generations think when they look at decisions made early in the 21st century to guarantee future energy supplies and cut carbon emissions? Will they regard us as rational and far-sighted? Or will they wonder at our reckless folly in erecting tens of thousands of wind turbines that
will soon become obsolete?
.... The current generation of wind farms may quickly become outdated and remain as expensive reminders of a rush to invest. New, more effective and less intrusive energy technologies are on the way. The risk is that the door is closed to them if the government throws in its lot with wind farms. For reasons of cost as well as aesthetics, we must avoid falling into that trap."
December 4th 2011 ~ a fairytale?
- From the always clear-sighted EUreferendum Blog
- "Imagine a future in which Europe derives virtually all its power from thousands of windmills and other sources of renewable energy. Meanwhile, smart electricity grids and refitted buildings prompt such big gains in energy efficiency that overall consumption falls even as the economy grows. These virtuous developments, in turn, lead to a reduction in the proportion of energy Europe imports, from more than half to less than 40 percent.
Does that sound like a fairytale?
Apparently not if you work for the EU commission. This is the gist of the scenario painted by the Energy Roadmap 2050, to be published later this month. We are truly doomed."
November 22nd 2011 ~ "Here is what looks like an outrageous case of government - the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - actually putting pressure on climate "scientists" to talk up their message of doom and gloom in order to help the government justify its swingeing climate policies" Telegraph
- James Delingpole in the Telegraph does not mind swimming against the tide and does so today with gusto, quoting an email from "Humphrey" at DEFRA.
- <2495> Humphrey/DEFRA:
I can't overstate the HUGE amount of political interest in the project as a message that the Government can give on climate change to help them tell their story. They want the story to be a very strong one and don't want to be made to look foolish.
November 21st 2011 ~ "Wind farms are useless, says Duke of Edinburgh"
- Telegraph
- The Duke of Edinburgh has made a fierce attack on wind farms, describing them as "absolutely useless"....He also criticised the industry's reliance on subsidies from electricity customers, claimed wind farms would "never work" and accused people who support them of believing in a "fairy tale".
The Duke's comments will be seized upon by the burgeoning lobby who say wind farms are ruining the countryside and forcing up energy bills.
Criticism of their effect on the environment has mounted, with The Sunday Telegraph disclosing today that turbines are being switched off during strong winds following complaints about their noise. ..."
November 15th 2011 ~" It is a shame that we rush headlong into this new tech, more often than not because we can - rather than asking ourselves if we should."
- It is good to see that the paper "Properly Interpreting the Epidemiologic Evidence About the Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines on Nearby Residents" pdf by Carl V. Phillips, PhD has been publicised by blogger Black Rose today. He writes: " I am interested in the dangers of wind turbines and the detrimental effects they have on surrounding country side."
Little by little, the word is spreading among those who question the received wisdom on green technology. So many of us now regard it as more destructive than helpful. Are we approaching a tipping point where sanity could even prevail? As the tireless Christopher Booker wrote last month:
- "Of course, we are compelled to waste £140 billion on those wind turbines due to our commitment to the EU that by 2020 we will generate nearly a third of our electricity from "renewables". But among the countless practical aspects of his job that Huhne clearly doesn't begin to understand is that the more turbines we build, the more we will need new gas-fired power stations of the same capacity, just to provide instant back-up for all those times when there is insufficient wind to feed more than a derisory amount of power into the grid.
So we will have to build those gas-fired stations anyway - at vast expense, to be kept wastefully running all the time, emitting more CO2 than anything notionally saved by the wind farms - just to indulge the babyish dreams of Huhne and the EU...." The Sunday Telegraph, 2 October 2011
November 13th 2011 ~ "a timely debate, having regard to the KPMG report Thinking About the Affordable published this week". House of Lords debate on Wind Farms (9th Nov)
- Extract:
- Lord Thomas of Gresford: ".... I do not share the gleam in the eye of those who try to tell us that turbines are a thing of beauty. It is all a question of proportion. The countryside can absorb a certain number of these structures. Indeed, in Dulas valley near Machynlleth, the first community-owned wind turbine in the United Kingdom was erected in 2003 and serves the local population, who own it, very well. But 800 turbines in the area proposed will be completely and wholly out of proportion. If localism means anything at all to this Government, the ruination of the hills should be taken by bodies that are accountable locally...."
Lord Howie of Troon: "...the scale that we are talking about. ..if you took the Thames array-an offshore assembly that is no longer called a farm but an array-it would stretch from the House here in one direction as far as the Tate Modern and in the other direction as far as King's Cross railway station. We are talking about covering large swathes of the country with wind turbines, or windmills-call them what you like.
Speaking as an engineer, I would not mind that if they actually produced the energy that they are thought to produce. However, they do not. If one looks back to the coldest day of the winter in December last year, wind power produced 0.04 per cent-I repeat, 0.04 per cent-of the energy required to heat the homes of this country on that day. That figure is derisory. The idea that wind power, which is intermittent, can replace any other form of electricity production is a miasma at best. In order to make up for the periods when windmills are not producing electricity, there has to be a back-up. I refer again to Milford Haven. If we had had the 2,000 megawatts of wind power in Wales that failed, as it happened, last year, one would still have needed Milford Haven power station as a back-up. One would not have replaced it. The idea that windmills will help us is an illusion.
I shall conclude by drawing to attention to a book published two years ago by James Lovelock. It is entitled, The Vanishing face of Gaia. He was a guru of Greenpeace at its beginning, but is now thought of as an apostate. We need 70 gigawatts of electricity. He said that the footprint of a nuclear power station producing 1 gigawatt is 30 acres. The footprint for 1 gigawatt of wind power is 1,000 square miles. I tend to giggle at that thought...."
November 10th 2011 ~ the futility of ruining our countryside with giant wind turbines
- The KPMG Report, Thinking About the Affordable, published this week, says wind farms are too expensive and should be shelved. It argues that the UK can save £34bn by ditching renewable energy plans. (The report actually says that they should be shelved in favour of nuclear and gas-fired power stations) It points out that wind farms do not operate to full capacity for most of the time. See article at www.powerengineeringint.com
November 7th 2011 ~ With the deaths of nearly 500 birds at the Laurel Mountain wind facility recently, three of the four wind farms operating in West Virginia have now experienced large bird fatality events, according to American Bird Conservancy (ABC).
-
The headline at www.wildlifeextra.comis "Wind farms kill thousands of birds" Extract:
- "
There were three critical circumstances that tragically aligned in each of the three West Virginia events to kill these birds.
Each occurred during bird migration season, during low visibility weather conditions, and with the addition of a deadly triggering element - an artificial light source. Steady-burning lights have been shown to attract and disorient birds, particularly night-migrating songbirds that navigate by starlight, and especially during nights where visibility is low such as in fog or inclement weather. Circling birds collide with structures or each other, or drop to the ground from exhaustion.
At the Laurel Mountain facility in the Allegheny Mountains, almost 500 birds were reportedly killed after lights were left on at an electrical substation associated with the wind project. ... At the end of September, at the Mount Storm facility in the Allegheny Mountains, 59 birds and two bats were killed in one evening. Thirty of the dead birds were found near a single wind turbine that was reported to have had internal lighting left on overnight. This incident stands in stark contrast to industry assertions that just two birds per year are killed on average by each turbine..."
October 2nd 2011 ~ "So lost is Huhne in his green dreamworld..
- "..that he somehow imagines that we can centre our future energy policy on building thousands of wind turbines. Faced with the discovery of vast reserves of cheap gas, any minister who knew his job would say:
- "Forget about those ludicrously expensive, inefficient and unreliable windmills, and go flat out for building enough gas-fired power stations to keep Britain's lights on in the years ahead, when we will lose 14 coal-fired and nuclear power stations that currently supply 40 per cent of our average electricity needs."
September 22nd 2011 ~ E-ON have released a Press Release saying they have decided not to proceed with the 8-9 turbine application just outside Kirkby Lonsdale (Longfield Tarn)
-
Also, Community Wind Power have withdrawn their appeal against the refusal of their application
for 13 x 415ft turbines on Claughton Moor, 6km inside the Forest of Bowland AONB.
The Pre-Inquiry meeting scheduled for next Tuesday has been cancelled and the file closed.
We are advised that the application and appeal are therefore now 'dead'.
No reason for their withdrawing the appeal has been given.. Two small victories.
September 21st 2011 ~ " we need to invest an absolute fortune to meet the range of environmental targets that the government has put in place."
- Spectator "From Citigroup estimated last September that we need to invest about €229 billion (about £200 billion) in the energy sector this decade. That is far more than any other major European economy. We have a particularly ambitious renewable energy target and are relying on a particularly expensive and unreliable source to meet it - offshore wind." Read in full
September 11th 2011 ~ "Wind farms: the monuments to lunacy that will be left to blot the landscape" Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph
-
Please do read in full Extract:
- ".....we can forget any last vestiges of local democracy.....our Government will do all it can to meet its unreachable target and force through the building of thousands of turbines, capable of producing a derisory amount of electricity at a cost estimated, on its own figures, at £140 billion (equating to £5,600 for every household in the land).
... The sole beneficiaries will be the energy companies ... Instead of putting up turbines on the fields of Northants, E.On should be building the grown-up power stations we desperately need. But government energy policy has so skewed the financial incentives of the system that the real money is to made from building useless wind farms.
Sooner or later, this weird policy will be recognised as such a catastrophic blunder that it, and the colossal subsidies that made it possible, will be abandoned. That will leave vast areas of our once green and pleasant land littered with useless piles of steel and concrete, which it will be no one's responsibility to cart away.
If the Government really wishes to make a useful change to our planning laws, it should insist that every planning permission to build wind turbines should include a requirement that, after their 25-year life, they must be removed at their owners' expense. Alas, by that time the companies will all have gone bankrupt, and we shall be left with a hideous legacy as a monument to one of the greatest lunacies of our time.."
September 11th 2011 ~ "Now Bagmoor wind intend to appeal the decision again, requiring further public funds and investment of time to consider an application that is clearly unsuitable." RSPB
- An application for a 14-turbine windfarm at Stacain, Argyll and Bute was submitted in April 2005 by WPR Wind Ltd.
Following a public inquiry the application was refused by Scottish Ministers in October 2009 . The rejection was justified under a European precedent known as the Basses Corbiere judgment, related to the protection of wildlife habitats. In this case it was said of the the area proposed for the Stacain windfarm that falls within an area in mainland Argyll formally proposed as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for golden eagles under the EU Birds Directive. Those in favour of the windfarm had challenged this on the grounds that the pair of eagles sometimes seen on the fringes of the area were "elderly" and had not produced a chick for something like 15 years.
In April 2010 this decision was overturned in the Court of Session, which described as "fundamentally flawed" the Scottish Government's decision to reject an application.
The Scottish Government maintained that the installation would indeed be a threat to the eagles and the project again rejected.
WPR Wind Ltd's continuing appeal after consent for the proposed has been refused twice for a wind farm has been described as "wholly irresponsible, and damaging to the industry's green credentials.
See report in forargyll.com "It is also a huge waste of money and a drain on precious public resources that are already under pressure."
September 7th 2011 ~ "a stretch of Yorkshire's coastline is facing up to its biggest ever challenge to preserve it from the multi-billion pound off-shore wind farm industry.."
- Yorkshire Post:
- "...The world's largest off-shore wind farm is due to be built nearly 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast at Dogger Bank to generate up to 10 per cent of the nation's electricity.... conservationists say that the environment must not be sacrificed.
.. A summit meeting next week will discuss strategies to protect the 40 miles of coastline between Redcar and Filey. Next week's meeting of the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Coastal Forum is seen as the most important in its nine-year history. The Marine and Coastal Access Act, which was introduced in 2009, is now shaping how conservation is handled off the UK's coast... the impending arrival of the off-shore wind farm industry is seen as perhaps the biggest challenge. .. The wind farm, which is expected to include about 2,600 giant turbines each up to 400ft tall, will stretch across an area of more than 3,300 sq miles - equivalent to the size of North Yorkshire, England's largest county. While the first turbines are not due to become operational until 2016, major environmental surveys are already under way off the coast and planning applications could be submitted as early as next year..."
September 6th 2011 ~ "Just two months ago, Mr Huhne described calculations by researchers at Cambridge University that the Coalition's reforms would increase bills by 32 per cent as 'rubbish'.
- Telegraph:
- "... the Government's move to increased nuclear power, wind turbines and other measures will add 30 per cent to the average family's annual energy bill of £1,069 by the end of the decade.
Mr Cameron is said to be "very worried" about the figures in the paper, written by Ben Moxham, his senior energy adviser who was recently brought in to beef up the Prime Minister's policy unit.
The private note, seen by The Daily Telegraph, is titled "Impact of our energy and climate policies on consumer energy bills". It was sent to Mr Cameron and offers a blunt assessment of how Coalition energy plans, in particular a series of green policies, will affect householders.
It concludes: "Over time it is clear that the impact of our policies on consumer bills will become significantly greater." Rising energy bills represent a problem for the Coalition at a time when wages are being squeezed and inflation is high. Mr Cameron has vowed to bring down energy prices by giving the regulator Ofgem tougher powers, but this year he has had to watch as energy companies increase their prices.
The disclosure that Mr Cameron's own policies are likely to add "significantly" to the burden on householders will anger voters. Just two months ago, Mr Huhne described calculations by researchers at Cambridge University that the Coalition's reforms would increase bills by 32 per cent as 'rubbish'....".
September 1st 2011 ~ "Several billion pounds of investment thus provided next to no electricity ..."
-
For those who understand graphs and tables, it has been pointed out that
http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm
forecast that the 3696 MW of installed wind capacity monitored by the National Grid would yield almost no generation during the Settlement Periods of August 31/11. This forecast proved to be correct.
The National Grid monitors 3696 MW of installed wind power.
At about a million pounds per MW capital cost this would be a total of £3.7 billion at 2011 prices.
According to Renewables UK we now have a total of 5740 MW of installed wind power so "wind farm UK" will have cost at least £5.7 billion.
For almost 24 hours yesterday and early today (Sept 1) the monitored 3696 MW generated about 60-70 MW.
Several billion pounds of investment thus provided next to no electricity (total UK generation averaged about 36000 MW during the corresponding 24 hours).
See also: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-2008055/Energy-giants-want-billions-windfarms.html Extract: -
-
"Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, said renewables, such as large-scale wind energy, were intermittent and
required back-up generation, a role gas was uniquely qualified to fill."
But as power stations that operate only intermittently would not be financially viable, Laidlaw said: "The building of new gas-fired capacity must be incentivised so that gas can fulfil its role as a bridging fuel."
Dr John Etherington is author of The Wind Farm Scam - 5th printing now available. See: http://www.stacey-international.co.uk/v1/site/product_rpt.asp?Catid=297
September 1st 2011 ~ Rolls-Royce is to test a turbine that will create electricity from the tides as it makes its first big move into renewable energy
- From The Times Aug 29th ".....Tidal power can be generated by exploiting a drop in the tidal level or from the tidal stream. Rolls' turbines will sit 100ft below the sea surface and its 60ft blades will be turned by the tidal stream, rotating at up to 17 revolutions per minute and turning to face the tide when it changes direction.
Rolls is not the only company developing tidal energy projects but it believes that it has overcome one of the main problems with the technology.
The harsh conditions, remoteness and strong tides make maintenance very difficult, but Rolls has developed a turbine that floats. This allows the turbine to be detached from its stand and it can then be towed away in less than 20 minutes."
August 26th 2011 ~ Swindon protesters say Honda plant wind turbines would be too large and noisy.
-
See BBC Honda and Ecotricity say they now want to erect two turbines, rather than three but protesters living near to the planned wind turbine site at the Honda plant in Swindon say they will continue their fight against the development.
- "Planning officers at Swindon Borough Council said the changes to the scheme would lead to a six-week delay over the application while a new public consultation took place. "
August 26 2011 ~ The Wind farm Conference - England and Wales
-
Are our current renewable energy policies and the localism agenda compatible or in conflict?
An opportunity for real debate - a chance to influence current political agendas
Tuesday 13th September 2011 at Nunsmere Hall Hotel, Cheshire.
Registration 9.30 - 10 30am until tea served at 4.15pm
Chairman - Lord Carlile of Berriew QC
Speakers
- Emeritus Professor Michael Laughton, FREng
The Right Reverend John Oliver
Dr John Constable
Sasha White - Planning Barrister, Landmark Chambers
August 21st 2011 ~ "wind turbines are not even lasting the planned twenty years - most requiring expensive gearbox repairs after 5-7 years."
- Eureferendum today: "...This explains why that, despite a 200 percent subsidy, wind operators are still looking for more subsidy, and it is highly likely that the offshore operators will be hit by massive repair costs to keep the current generation of wind farms running. But then, how mad is it parking highly complex and sensitive machinery in one of the most aggressive and dangerous environments in the world?"
August 21st 2011 ~"The BBC steadfastly avoids the facts about the wind farm scam," says Christopher Booker
- On excellent form in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Booker wearily points out:
- "....The Government talks of building 10,000 windmills capable of generating up to 25,000MW of the electricity we need. But when it does so, it - like the BBC - invariably uses that same trick of referring to "capacity", without explaining that their actual output would be well below 30 per cent. (Last year, onshore turbines generated just 21 per cent of their capacity.) In other words, for all that colossal expenditure - and even if there was the remotest chance that two new giant turbines could be built every day between now and 2020 - we could only hope to generate some 6,000MW. This is not only way below our EU target, it is only a tenth of our peak demand during those cold, windless weeks last winter, when wind power was often providing barely 1 per cent of the power we needed.
To keep the lights on during such times, for every new megawatt of wind capacity we build it will be necessary for to build a megawatt of capacity from gas-fired stations, kept wastefully running 24/7, chucking out carbon dioxide..."
August 20th 2011 ~ Wind farms: 'The question is, who will pay?'
- "£150 billion to build these windfarms in less than ten years. Given the state of our economy, I doubt if it can in fact be afforded," says Professor Dieter Helm. "Have they put their eggs all in one basket and is it cost effective? It is STAGGERINGLY expensive."
VIDEO
"This week, BBC News is taking an in-depth look at offshore wind farms, and the challenges, costs and construction of these sea giants.
Here, science correspondent David Shukman talks to Professor Dieter Helm, an economist from the University of Oxford, who believes that while the UK government should invest in more green power generation, offshore wind farms are far too expensive."
August 14th 2011 ~ "PRECIOUS PLACES" IN POWYS UNDER THREAT.
- See www.penmon.org
"Beautiful landscapes to be decimated.
Wildlife habitats to be destroyed.
Proposed sites;
-
Tirgwynt & Mynydd Waun Fawr
Rhyd Ddu
Carnedd Wen & Llanbrynmair
August 10th 2011 ~ Scottish Highland Wind Farm activity - to May 2011
- See pdf from the Highland Council.
- " The Druim Bà Wind Farm Application for 23 turbines with maximum blade height tips of 149.5m
was submitted.
RWE npower Renewables submitted their application to the Scottish Ministers for a site at Allt Duine, north of Kincraig.
The 93MW proposal of 31 turbines with blade tip heights of up to 125m did not get support from the nearby Cairngorms National Park Authority. Glenkirk was recalled, due to objections by CNPA, to be considered along with Tom nan Clach. Carbon Free eventually applied for 20 turbines with blade tip heights of around 126m near Moy.
Scotrenewables have sought a Review of the Refusal of their second Hill of Lieurary application. SSE Renewables have requested Scoping Opinions for large projects, either side of Loch Ness, one at Balmacaan and the other at Stronelairg.
Over 100 turbines of 135m tip height are being suggested for each site.
SSE Renewables are Scoping at Glencassley, again a major project."
August 8th 2011 ~ Is it really OK that the BBC Trust Review says that the BBC should ignore global-warming 'deniers'?
- A letter in yesterday's Sunday Times (behind the paywall) from Tony Edwards, extract:
- "Andrew Turnbull is rightly worried by Professor Steve Jones's recommendations about how the BBC should report science
("Even Darwin and Galileo would fail the BBC's latest science test", Think Tank, last week).
Doubtless, Lord Reith himself would be too. Reith recognised the danger of the BBC being suborned by propagandists.
That's why he insisted its royal charter should contain strict safeguards....if the BBC carries through the Jones report,
the enemies will be the grandees of modern science. ...
In the 20 years in which I made science programmes for the BBC, the editorial guidelines on impartiality were sacrosanct: "to resist the temptation ... to accept consensus or received wisdom as fact or self-evident" and "to remain independent and distanced from [external bodies'] agendas". These are noble rubrics designed to prevent the Orwellian nightmare that the Jones report would create. ..Consensus implies dogma, and dogma is for religions, not science. The publicly funded BBC has a public duty to remind scientists of that."
August 8th 2011 ~"..the current hysteria over global warming is not about climate at all, but rather about freedom". Professor Bob Carter to Czech President Klaus
- "The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Global warming has become a symbol, and example of this clash. The one politically correct truth has already been established, and opposing it is not easy.." wrote President Vaclav Klaus.
Professor Bob Carter has given a speech in Brisbane, thanking President Klaus for his lecture tour in Australia- " sharing your wisdom with us in such a powerful and entertaining fashion." Extract (see www.quadrant.org.au)
- " ...I ask those of you who may be doubtful that any present threat exists to Australian democracy to consider the following. First, that leading broadcasters Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones are both enmeshed in current court cases that aim to curtail their on-air and written opinions. And, second, that Green, Independent and Labor politicians are united in calling for an enquiry into the freedom of the press; an enquiry, moreover, that seems to have as its main intention the hobbling of the so-called Murdoch press.
Against this background, Mr President, your visit to our country, and the views that you have expressed, could not have been more timely... the message that you have conveyed - which is that the current hysteria over global warming is not about climate at all, but rather about freedom. Fellow Australians, I am counting upon you to use the insights that you have gained from the President's magnificent speech today to help retrieve our precious democracy from the parlous depth that it is currently swimming at...."
August 3rd 2011 ~ Acoustic trauma: How wind farms make you sick
-
Andrew Orlowski suggests in an article posted on www.theregister.co.uk
that "industrial wind installations are creating a serious health issue, and comprehensive research is urgently needed". He quotes a former Professor of Public Health.
at the University of Alberta,Carl Phillips in a paper published in the Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society
:
-
"There has been no policy analysis that justifies imposing these effects on local residents. The attempts to deny the evidence cannot be seen as honest scientific disagreement, and represent either gross incompetence or intentional bias. There is ample evidence that turbines cause a constellation of health problems, and attempts to deny this involve claims that are contrary to proper methods of scientific inference
Industrial wind installations produce audible and non-audible noise, and optical flicker. But campaigners are fragmented, and face a daunting alliance of big eco-business and government. The academic establishment, which is quick to leap upon public health issues, is strangely inert."
July 29th 2011 ~ America: " US federal agency, the Fish & Wildlife Service, is currently debating whether or not there will be national wildlife rules for industrial wind energy..."
- Anthony Watts' influential blog, "Wattsupwiththat", publishes a letter from John Droz, jr.
physicist & environmental advocate
- "... if they adopt strict mandatory rules, it could severely restrict wind energy in every state in the country.
For the first time, this agency is asking for public input. If you want to wade through the technical details look at <http://www.fws.gov/windenergy/>
"Send your comments in a simple email to "windenergy@fws.gov". They will only be accepted until August 4, 2011.
The gist of the debate is that AWEA and the wind industry want loose, voluntary, guidelines. Citizens concerned about the environment are asking for tight, mandatory, rules. We are also advocating that a wind developer make a substantial upfront payment ($5000± per turbine) for the state/federal government to hire independent experts to assess wildlife impacts. (Right now the developer hires his own experts, so you can guess what they conclude.)
Please submit something to the USF&W on this most important issue — and pass this request on to your [readers]." (i.e. in the US)
July 28th 2011 ~ "But the most important conclusion from the study is that wind energy is not "a cost effective solution for reducing carbon dioxide…"
- See Forbes.com A New Study Takes The Wind Out Of Wind Energy
an article by by Robert Bryce that quotes some of the findings of an exhaustive new study, released on July 19th, by Bentek Energy, a Colorado-based energy analytics firm.
- "Rather than rely on computer models that use theoretical emissions data, the authors of the study, Porter Bennett and Brannin McBee, analyzed actual emissions data from electric generation plants located in four regions: the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Bonneville Power Administration, California Independent System Operator, and the Midwest Independent System Operator. Those four system operators serve about 110 million customers, or about one-third of the U.S. population."
- "The wind energy business is the electric sector's equivalent of the corn ethanol scam: it's an over-subsidized industry that depends wholly on taxpayer dollars to remain solvent while providing an inferior product to consumers that does little, if anything, to reduce our need for hydrocarbons or cut carbon dioxide emissions."
July 24th 2011 ~ "The real scandal of the BBC's coverage of climate issues is that, journalistically, it has been so unprofessional."
- Christopher Booker today in the Sunday Telegraph: "....The little group of environmental correspondents most obviously responsible for pushing the BBC line inhabit a bubble in which they only report what they are told by other supporters of the orthodoxy.
To anything outside that increasingly claustrophic bubble they remain oblivious, and thus have missed out on one of the most important scientific stories of our time. In this way they reinforce the folly of our politicians, bent on policies so misconceived and so costly that they threaten the country with an unprecedented act of economic self-destruction.
The BBC will doubtless use Prof Jones's report to justify its betrayal of the core principles both of science and of responsible journalism. ..." Read in full
July 23rd 2011 ~ Danish test centre for giant wind turbines threatens last forest habitat - Large spontaneous protest surprises police.
-
On Thursday morning (July 21st), the local Danish police gave up trying to remove activists who since Friday, 15 July have been preventing the cutting down of forest to make room for the planned national test centre for 250 metres high windmills. The test centre is intended to be sited between a protected birds area and a Natura 2000 area. The Danish Society for Nature Conservation says the EU habitat directiveis being violated and has brought the case before the EU Commission. The EC has requested a detailed statement from the Danish government. An open letter from the Association for Improved Environment was published today requesting the Minister to stop the work.
- "We find it very problematic that you, as the government's representative, wants to force through a very controversial test centre for windmills, as the most basic investigations of the negative impact on the surroundings have not yet been made"
July 22nd 2011 ~ During the week of July 18th, 2011, nine peer reviewed articles have been published in a scientific journal regarding health and industrial wind turbines
- They can be seen at http://bst.sagepub.com/content/31/4.toc (although the website listing and linking to the articles will be undergoing a routine upgrade and may not be accessible on Saturday 23rd July)
July 22 2011 ~ Grim news. The Friends of the South Pennines have lost a five-year battle to keep Todmorden Moor free of giant wind turbines.
-
Coronation Power now has all the permissions it needs to build five 125m turbines on the moor above Cloughfoot village, west of Sourhall.
Permission to construct turbines and roadways on Todmorden Moor common land was given after a public inquiry at Todmorden Town Hall in May. The boundary of the common will now be changed.
A spokesperson for the objectors is quoted at Todmorden News. She says that nothing will save hundreds of tonnes of recovering peat moorland from destruction.
"That, and the loss of the quiet beauty of the moor enjoyed by so many people, is the saddest thing of all"
July 22nd 2011 ~ "The developers are not taking communities' concerns seriously"
- The first glance at the photo on the St Francis Chronicle wind farm feature reminds its readers of why the area is a tranquil destination for those tourists who love peace and quiet. Tourism is vital to South Africa's economy and theSt Francis Bay region is a pristine place of natural beauty.
-
"We cannot be a tourist and energy hub," says Bridget Elton a St Francis Bay resident - "It's one or the other."
As with all such windfarms, it is the energy consumers who end up paying for the massive subsidies awarded when such turbines are built.
Another opponent of wind farms, who also happens to be resident in South Africa, wrote to us recently to say, that - quite apart from all the arguments about inefficiency, cost and lack of necessary infrastructure to get electricity to where it is needed - :
- "The dangers of wind turbines need to be exposed more to an unsuspecting public and also the lack/shortage of research done on stresses experienced by extra large wind turbines prior to their installation resulting in tower cracks and breakages. Fancy manufacturing a gearbox for a large industrial wind turbine without the necessary gear oil having being invented yet!"
July 20th 2011 ~ Turbine protesters confront Carwyn
- From Wales Online
- "..Carwyn Jones was waylaid by angry opponents of wind turbines as he toured the Royal Welsh showground yesterday.
Mr Jones, architect of the controversial Tan 8 policy that earmarks eight areas of Wales for wind power development, was confronted by a group led by farmer David Jones of Kerry, Newtown.
"Come up to Montgomeryshire and see for yourself what is proposed," said Mr Jones, one of thousands protesting against turbine developments that will require a 20-acre sub station and 100 miles of pylons."
July 16th 2011 ~ Yes 4.32% No 94.44% Don't know 1.23%
- At the last count, the poll at Welsh Icons was unequivocal.
To the question" Does Wales need inshore wind farms?" a HUGE majority gave the thumbs down to more turbines. It was impossible to vote more than once.Our attention has been drawn to this A3 printable car poster. It can be downloaded here if you would like to express its sentiments.
July 3rd 2011 ~ "... a ludicrously expensive, self-defeating joke"
- Christopher Booker continues to be one of the lone voices drawing attention to the Emperor's lack of clothing. In the Sunday Telegraph he wrote:
- "... 20 per cent of the EU's fast-soaring, trillion-euro budget may soon be spent on "fighting climate change"....
Centrica and other energy companies last week told DECC that, if Britain is to spend £100 billion on building thousands of wind turbines, it will require the building of 17 new gas-fired power stations simply to provide back-up for all those times when the wind drops and the windmills produce even less power than usual.
We will thus be landed in the ludicrous position of having to spend an additional £10 billion on those 17 dedicated power stations, which will be kept running on "spinning reserve", 24 hours a day, just to make up for the fundamental problem of wind turbines. This is that their power continually fluctuates anywhere between full capacity to zero (where it often stood last winter, when national electricity demand was at a peak). So unless back-up power is instantly available to match any shortfall, the lights will go out..."
30th June 2011 ~ Powys council unanimously supported a motion urging the Welsh Government to request a moratorium on all wind farm applications.
-
The voices of at least 1,500 anti-wind farm protesters were heard before the council meeting at Welshpool livestock market yesterday.
The council unanimously supported a motion urging the Welsh Government to request a moratorium on all wind farm applications.
It means the authority will now officially ask for a review.
See BBC explains:
- "....Speaking after the vote, Peter Ogden, director of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, said: "The voice of the people has been heard, it's as simple as that. One would hope other authorities that are affected will take note of what has happened in Powys and follow suit and say,' this could happen in our area'. There's got to be a resounding 'no' against the principles of this sort of development in rural areas."
June 29th 2011 ~ Hundreds of protesters arrive at Powys wind farm vote
- They are demonstrating today ahead of a special Powys council meeting calling for an immediate review of windfarm development policy. If all plans were to be approved, more than 600 turbines will be added to the 216 already there.
Carwyn Jones announced an "upper limit" of turbines to be allowed in Tan 8 areas. The BBC quotes
a retired barrister, Neville Thomas, who says he is not comforted by the first minister's announcement.
- "I can see the chap is in trouble and I can see how he's looking for some sort of breathing space But to offer an assurance of an upper limit, when that upper limit is the object of everybody's hatred, is no consolation to anybody at all."
June 29th 2011 ~ Wind Farms. DEFRA says" there is little or no evidence of a significant impact on birds." But consider the weasel words in that Parliamentary Answer yesterday
- Hansard for yesterday:
- "significant" - i.e it depends how much bird death "signifies" an unfortunate problem
- data from "a number of existing windfarms" and "the majority of locations" and "little or no evidence"- i.e some windfarms data shows some locations are causing an impact on wildlife - but even the data that exists comes from only a "number of existing windfarms"
- "the majority of studies - mortality rates PER TURBINE are low" - i.e a minority of studies may well show that mortality rates are not low. Only rates per individual turbine are mentioned here..
If the research undertaken into wildlife mortality had shown genuinely insignificant results, the official answer would have been very different and unequivocal.
Finally, a "strong possibility" does not mean very much in terms of factual evidence. " if wind farms are located away from major migration routes there is a strong possibility that they will have minimal impact on wildlife" This implies that unless windfarms are built far from migration routes many bird deaths are likely. Even away from migration routes there will be deaths and the word "minimal" is unlikely to be of much comfort to those birds sliced up in the blades. (See also raptors.html) An email reminds us that Gregory Barker failed to answer the question asked - which was about night flying birds. Curlews and lapwing for example.
-
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effects of onshore wind farms on night-flying autumn migrant birds. [62791]
Gregory Barker: I have been asked to reply. A considerable amount of research has been undertaken, both within the UK and elsewhere, to determine the significance of any impacts of wind farms on wildlife. Data collected from a number of existing wind farms have indicated that, for the majority of locations, there is little or no evidence of a significant impact on birds. Careful site selection is important to avoid potentially significant impacts, and within the planning process environmental impact assessments are prepared for proposed wind farms. The RSPB has noted in its own reports that "the majority of studies indicated that (bird) collision mortality rates per turbine in the UK are low"
and that
"if wind farms are located away from major migration routes there is a strong possibility that they will have minimal impact on wildlife".
June 25th 2011 ~ "this lunatic scheme will do little to help us meet our fanciful EU target of 14GW, which we haven't the faintest hope of meeting, anyway."
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph:
- "Just when you think our Government's obsession with wind power could reach no further heights of absurdity, we learn that it now plans for us all to shovel billions of pounds into the pockets of the Irish wind industry.
The idea proposed by Chris Huhne and Charles Hendry, our energy ministers, is that the Irish should build thousands more onshore and offshore windmills, heavily subsidised by British electricity users, to help us to meet our EU commitment that, within nine years, we must derive 32 per cent of our electricity from "renewables"...."
June 22nd 2011 ~ "Oh, joy unconfined ... my gas bill is going up by a paltry 54%"
-
Letters, The Herald, 21 June 2011
-
"THERE has of late been some unexpected good news on the health benefits of energy price rises.
Those who criticise ScottishPower for its average price rise of 19% for gas and 10% for electricity are not grasping the full beauty of what is being done for the nation.
The act of unselfishly spending £15bn on wind turbines and the like shows the public good is being looked after.
Anybody who thinks that ScottishPower/Iberdrola are only doing this due to the whopping subsidies they get, or that the consumers are actually paying the £15bn is mistaken ("Irish Sea earmarked for one of worlds largest windfarms?, The Herald, June 17).
Health benefits will accrue not just from clean energy, no matter how expensive, but also from the effects of price rises ('Energy rises undermine fuel efficiency measures', The Herald, June 18).
At the weekend ScottishPower sent me a communication outlining the actual price rises:
l Electricity, first 225 kWh used each quarter, current 16.404p/kWh, new 20.893p/kWh ;
l Gas, first 670kWh used each quarter, current 4.853p/kWh, new 7.469p/kWh.
The arithmetically minded will immediately note that these equate to a rise of 27% for electricity and a miserly 53.9% for gas. How the company will ever make a profit for its shareholders is beyond me.
However, the health benefits from the rises will be that there is no escape for the poor; the huge rises are front-loaded so that using less power, or insulating your home is no escape.
Thus the poor will just have to eat less cake, so nullifying the obesity epidemic among the less well off.
And if a few more pensioners fail to heat their homes next winter it will all be for the greater good, apparently.
Dr Ronnie Gallagher,"
Cold killed Ross-on-Wye pensioner afraid of heating bill
June 17th 2011 ~ The Welsh Government has announced measures to limit windfarm developments in mid Wales.
- BBC
"First Minister Carwyn Jones said planning guidelines on the number of windfarms should in future be regarded by local councils as an upper limit.
Officials said the Welsh Government would ask the UK government to devolve the powers to impose a moratorium.
Hundreds of people protested against power and wind energy plans in mid Wales outside the Senedd last month. Carwyn Jones said:
- "My government would not support the construction of large pylons in mid Wales and my ministers are pressing this case with National Grid Transmission and with Ofgem.
This situation amply illustrates why consents for major energy infrastructure projects must be devolved to Wales.
We cannot accept a position where decisions made outside Wales will lead to inappropriate development for the people of Wales."
- "For me it's hugely welcome news - it's all I could have hoped for.
It's clear that the first minister and the Welsh Government have listened to the people of mid Wales.
I have now all the ammunition I need to continue this fight in Westminster, and have sufficient encouragement to feel that the people of mid Wales are going to win this battle to protect our uplands."
June 16th 2011 ~ "alternative technologies to oil will take a long time to develop and deploy at scale"
-
In public, politicians have consistently played down what the end of cheap energy might mean for agriculture, for business and for the population - all so dependent on cheap oil that it has seemed an enduring and unalienable right in the lifetimes of all of us. Now, thanks to the determination of Lionel Badal, an English research student,
a report by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
on the risks and impacts of the coming oil crunch is finally and reluctantly published,
- "...if peak oil happened before 2015, this would have significant negative economic consequences for some of the main importers of UK goods and services resulting in a negative impact on the UK economy in the longer term." and that "alternative technologies to oil will take a long time to develop and deploy at scale" ...."
- "...It would take 50 solid years of supply from either 32,000 (1.65Kw) wind turbines, 4 Three Gorges Dams, or 92 million solar PV panels (2.1Kw), to match the energy we consume from the cubic mile of oil we use each year. Scaling up any of these technologies in anything like the time frame needed is inconceivable."
June 14th 2011 ~ "Why is Mid Wales being massacred for such a miserable output?"
-
Western Mail - Letters - 14 June 2011
Why we protested at the Senedd
- SIR - As the organiser of the Mid Wales wind farm rally protest at the Senedd on May 24, I feel that your readers
should be aware as to why 2,000 people from Mid Wales protested last month.
Mid Wales is planned to have an additional 700+ super turbines where wind farm developers under the current Technical Advice Note Tan 8 can apply to build wind farms.
This ill conceived and badly thought out policy was introduced in 2005 by the then environmental minister - namely the current First Minister Carwyn Jones.
Tan 8 effectively gives licence to developers to apply and hence the 700+ currently in the planning process although none have yet to come to a planning meeting.
Consultants Capita Symons were commissioned by both WAG and Powys CC to study the transportation issues. Their report published in October 2008 stated that the "scale of the planned development is unprecedented and will be the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in the principality".
At no stage were the people of Mid Wales consulted and this badly flawed policy did not take into account the following:
-
Each turbine will need transporting from the costal ports at Ellesmere in the north and Swansea in the south.
Each turbine will have to be split into seven sections, each being an abnormal load with police escort at front and rear.
Due to safety reasons transportation will have to be in daylight hours and will involve 4,900 abnormal loads clogging up our roads at the rate of one a day for 13 years (if all are allowed to go ahead ).
Each of these super turbines requires a massive concrete base and will involve an additional three million lorry movements.
On top of this, National Grid will be building a hub power station on 19 acres from which a 400kV line will constructed to take power over 40 miles to Shropshire.
In addition a further 100 miles of pylons (132kV) will be built from individual wind farms to the hub power station.
It is now proven, with the transportation footprint ( 90% of material imported) plus the construction, peat extraction, traffic chaos, due to volatility of wind energy turbines will require 75% fossil fuel back up, that the whole project will increase CO2. All this for what ?
This £2bn+ project will yield a annual output from 700+ additional turbines of 200MW at present efficiency levels ... equivalent to around a tenth of the output from a conventional power station .
Why is Mid Wales being massacred for such a miserable output?
That is why we took the fight to the Senedd in the largest ever protest at the Assembly.
First Minister Carwyn Jones has not got the guts to discuss any of the above and is refusing to review Tan 8
The people of Mid Wales will never forgive the Welsh Government, which has recently been given greater powers by the people it is supposed to represent.
This will be the first instance when our own Government can decide the future of its fellow citizens - Carwyn Jones, remember you are First Minister for the whole of Wales.
RICHARD BONFIELD
Kerry, Mid Wales
June 12th 2011 ~ Wind turbines pick up £2.6m for standing idle
- Jonathan Leake and Mark Macaskill in the Sunday Times today
- "....four energy companies were paid to switch off turbines on 16 occasions in May.
The most expensive shutdown occurred on May 24, when seven wind farms came off-line for a total of 69 hours at a cost to the grid of £613,000.
The 52-turbine Hadyard Hill wind farm in south Ayrshire was affected more frequently than any other. Its operator, Scottish and Southern Energy, was paid a total of £1m to shut the site for the equivalent of six days in May.
Scottish Power was paid about £720,000 for shutting three wind farms, including Whitelee in Ayrshire, the largest onshore wind farm in Europe. RWE npower renewables was paid about £573,000 and Falck Renewable more than £246,000.
On one occasion infrastructure problems meant Scotland needed to buy energy from England while - perversely - two Scottish wind farms were paid about £34,000 to power down. The payments raise questions about whether thousands of new onshore turbines planned for Scotland can be justified. National Grid defended the £2.6m payments, saying wind farm operators were paid to shut down as their output could be more easily managed than other energy providers, such as nuclear plants. John Constable, of the REF, said: "It is clear the grid is struggling to integrate the existing wind farms at reasonable cost to the consumer. There appears to be an expensive mismatch between political rhetoric and engineering reality."
June 8th 2011 ~ The giant turbine - underneath it the cattle look like ants
- Artists Against Wind Farms uploaded some dramatic photographs on June 3rd 2011. They can be seen on the group's Facebook page here.
June 7th 2011 ~ " supporters say they are really quite beautiful additions to our countryside, and will help save the planet by allowing us to switch from fossil fuels. So what's the big deal?..."
-
It's bad enough that these turbines spoil the landscape, but they don't even work, writes Philip Johnston in the Telegraph.
He points out that "if developers get their way, in a year or so there will be 16 wind turbines, each of them 415 feet high - taller than St Paul's Cathedral" south of Bude on the A39 where the twin peaks of Brown Willy and Rough Tor rise out of Bodmin Moor.
-
"... there is one fundamental difference between the great transformative projects of the 19th century and today's wind turbines: the latter don't work. The impression is given that since wind is free, plentiful and doesn't produce CO2, then it must be the answer to our renewable-energy conundrum.
If this were true, then it might be worth sacrificing a few views: but it isn't. To produce the same amount of electricity as one coal-fired power station, you'd need a wind farm the size of Greater London. And when there is no wind - or even when there is too much - the power produced is minuscule or the turbine has to be switched off while fossil-fuel stations take up the slack. They can be useful in powering a collection of farms, or a small industrial site, but that is about it.
So to see remote tracts of countryside that, by and large, survived the industrialisation of the landscape now threatened with defilement for no good reason is scandalous. A conspiracy of vested interests is seeking to bludgeon communities into accepting what has become a money-grabbing free-for-all masquerading as an environmental panacea."
June 6th 2011 ~ Scores of protected golden eagles dying after colliding with wind turbines
- The Daily Mail reports on the situation in California where
- "attempts to switch to green energy have inadvertently put the survival of the state's golden eagles at risk.
Scores of the protected birds have been dying each year after colliding with the blades of about 5,000 wind turbines.
Now the drive for renewable power sources, such as wind and the sun, being promoted by President Obama and state Governor Jerry Brown has raised fears that the number of newborn golden eagles may not be able to keep pace with the number of turbine fatalities...."
June 6th 2011 ~ "Wind energy illusion based on a fallacy," says John Owen
- His letter in the Western Mail is one of several on the same theme - that giant wind turbines are not the way forward for Wales to go because of the enormous financial and aesthetic costs when compared to the net energy return.
May 15th 2011 ~ From the Westminster Hall debate on May 10th "What sense can it make to erect up to 800 new turbines in mid-Wales when they will be 30 to 50 miles from any connection to the national grid?"
- (Glyn Davies, Conservative member for Montgomeryshire, who secured this debate, came in on crutches following a back operation. He said "...my surgeon is most displeased that I am here this morning. He instructed me to rest at home, but this morning was such a valuable opportunity that I would have allowed myself to be carried in by stretcher." )
The debate can be read in full - Hansard. Extract from Mr Davies' preliminary remarks
- "The people of mid-Wales are a reasonable people. If the proposal were essential to the national interest, or if it was necessary in some way to accept the destruction of our environment for some overwhelmingly greater good, we would in all probability accept it with traditional stoicism. We would be deeply upset, of course, but we would accept the responsibility to our nation. However, that is obviously not the case; the development is all for no good purpose.
I will not go into detail about the utterly pathetic performance of the onshore wind sector in Wales, but each day we read new reports of how poorly its performance compares with what is claimed for it when new proposals are put forward. The Renewable Energy Foundation tells me that its most recent figures show that Welsh wind farms have a load factor of just 19% - the lowest ever recorded.
We also know that there is a need for back-up energy generation to cover periods when the wind is not blowing, or is blowing too strongly. Little is heard about that when onshore wind developers extol the virtues of their proposals and sell their wares. The truth is that onshore wind simply does not deliver what we are told it will; it does not do what it says on the tin.
The most important industry in mid-Wales is seriously under threat because of the proposals. In my constituency alone, the local tourism alliance estimates the value of tourism at £360 million per year, and 6,300 jobs depend on it. Tourism dominates the economy, but the beautiful landscape of mid-Wales will be sacrificed on the altar of a false god. What sense can it make to erect up to 800 new turbines in mid-Wales when they will be 30 to 50 miles from any connection to the national grid? That makes no economic or climate change sense whatever; it is almost as if the plan was drawn up with no consideration of where the national grid was.
The carbon impact of the development can never be compensated for by any possible carbon benefit. There is the cost of importing materials over such a large distance and over a road network that is totally unsuitable for such traffic; huge investment will be necessary just to get them to the wind farms that are to be built. There are also other environmental costs, such as the destruction of the peat bogs and much else..."
- "The massive public subsidy that onshore wind is swallowing up is just as damaging to the future of renewable energy, which will be crucial to our energy supply over the next decades....Thousands of pounds have been poured into onshore wind, restricting the development of forms of renewable energy that the public would actually welcome."
The proposals that so horrify Mr Davies and others envisage the granting of permission for the erection of between 600 and 800 huge new onshore turbines in mid-Wales - over and above all those that currently exist and those that already have planning approval. The development would include a 20-acre electricity substation and about 100 miles of new cable, much of it carried on steel towers 150 feet high. Read the debate.
May 15th ~ "If politicians in Cardiff are going to destroy this part of Wales, I want them to know we will never forgive them." MP Glyn Davies
- BBC article by Roger Harrabin,
their Environment analyst, says that there is an "apparent contagion of antipathy among people who have previously supported wind power" and quotes Philip Pryce, who runs a holiday park at Dolgead Farm near Llanfair Caereinion.
- "I agree with the need to get clean energy and make sure we've got different energy sources. But it's the scale of all this that's taken everyone aback. There's a consultation underway, but we don't feel we've been consulted."
- "....But now the community is suddenly and dramatically divided over plans for a massive expansion including many hundreds of new turbines whose output will overwhelm existing cables.
This will require new overhead cables criss-crossing the landscape, a sub-station covering almost 20 acres and either pylons or underground cables leading the cable connecting the Wylfa nuclear station in Anglesey with the North and the Midlands..."
May 14th ~ Artists Against Windfarms
-
Two amateur videos that demonstrate the reality of wind turbines being brought through towns and along roads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO6iuW6M71k&NR=1
Ilfracombe's Windills are Marching in to town (annoying music warning, advice is to watch with sound off)
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzbtGKC_okU&NR=1 Wind turbine parts arriving through Braunton. Sections of the 110m turbines transported by lorry from Avonmouth and Immingham to Fullabrook Down near Ilfracombe.
May 13th 2011 ~ BBC Two WINDFARM WARS - "acts of vandalism, angry scenes and tears of frustration and disappointment..."
-
Episode 1
is on BBC 2 today, 19:00
Spalding Today
- "....Jane and Julian Davis are to appear in the four-part documentary Windfarm Wars (in episodes two and four)
The couple claim their family suffered severe sleep deprivation and were forced to move to rented accomodation in Spalding as a result of the noise generated by the turbines.
....
This summer, they will take their case to the High Court in what is thought to be one of the first private nuisance cases brought against a wind farm..."
May 11th 2011 ~ "Our entire region, the beauty of the landscape of mid Wales, is going to be sacrificed at the altar of a false god." Glyn Davies MP
- BBC Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies was leading a Westminster Hall debate in London about windfarms in the region.
...
complaints have grown since plans were unveiled for a 19-acre substation and pylons.
Mr Davies claimed there were plans for between 600 and 800 wind turbines in his north Powys constituency.
He said he was concerned about their impact on the landscape, on the tourism industry and on property prices in his area.
He claimed they would "totally destroy the place we love by industrialising the uplands with wind turbines and desecrating our valleys with hideous cables and pylons", adding that the scale of it was "almost impossible to comprehend".
.....
The National Grid has said the electricity infrastructure needs upgrading..."
May 8th 2011 ~ Next Tuesday (May 10th) Glyn Davies MP (Montgomeryshire) has secured a 1.5 hr debate on 'The impact of wind farm development on Mid Wales'.
-
His constituency is facing at least 800 turbines in upland areas and a massive new Grid infrastructure
of one, possibly two, transformer sites of 20 acres
This could mean a huge network of 132KV and 400 KV pylon lines that will impact on over 40% of Montgomeryshire. "Nothing short of total industrialisation and devastation of a stunningly beautiful, tranquil and completely rural area and its economy."
There is also a very serious flooding issue for those in the Severn, Wye and Teme valleys whose rivers rise near areas set to be filled with concrete turbine bases.
Transport problems are such that the county is facing 10 or more years of complete disruption with thousands of abnormal loads and millions of lorries carrying concrete etc and taking out timber. Anyone who cares about this might consider asking their MP to attend the debate and support Mr Davies.
May 6th 2011 ~ "Fancy manufacturing a gearbox for a large industrial wind turbine without the necessary gear oil having being invented yet!"
An emailer writes:
- "The dangers of wind turbines need to be exposed more to an unsuspecting public and also the lack/shortage of research done on stresses experienced by extra large wind turbines prior to their installation resulting in tower cracks and breakages. Sheer madness."
May 5th 2011 ~ Germany: "We lack the necessary power lines to transmit wind-generated electricity from the north. This could lead to massive problems in the grid, even power outages."
- Extract from BBC News Berlin
reporting on Angela Merkel's decision to review energy policy. She has ordered Germany's oldest reactors to be shut down immediately, and perhaps permanently.
-
"... right in the heart of the country, protest groups are raising their voices as they realise that rejigging a country's energy industry means redirecting the transmission lines through their picturesque backyard.
The difficulty is that many of the threatened nuclear power stations are in the south..
If these southern nuclear generators are decommissioned, the idea is that wind farms in the north might take up the slack. But that implies new high-voltage cables with very high pylons to match.
As Johannes Teyssen, chief executive of the huge energy company E.On put it: "We lack the necessary power lines to transmit wind-generated electricity from the north. This could lead to massive problems in the grid, even power outages."
To avoid that, a new grid of high-voltage cables is proposed..
The route goes through the Rennsteig, the beautiful ridge of deep-green, forested hills that stretches for more than 160km (100 miles) down the centre of the country. It is where Germans come to hike in what they feel is the idyllic embodiment of their country, a part of the essence of Germany.
...
On top of the objection to power lines in the region, there is also concern about animals like the black stork, the red kite and the crane, all of which nest in or migrate through areas likely to have more pylons and high-voltage cables, into which they might fly and be killed. .... The difficulty is that emotions now run deep - emotion against nuclear power, but also emotion against coal. And emotion against disfiguring the green hills of central Germany with pylons carrying electricity from wind farms."
May 1st 2011 ~Scotland - companies were paid £900,000 to stop producing electricity - (the wrong sort of wind, again)
- Because high winds and heavy rain in Scotland during the nights of 5th and 6th April had overloaded the National Grid network, Scots windfarms were paid cash to stop producing energy. The surplus energy being created could not be transferred to England because the grid network could not absorb all the energy generated, so generation had to be cut. Payments costing up to 20 times the value of the electricity were paid.
Details of the payments came from research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF).
The largest payment was given to Whitelee windfarm in East Renfrewshire, owned by Scottish Power, which was paid £308,000 in April. BBC:
- Spokesman Stewart Larque said: "One of our key roles is to balance supply and demand for energy. On the evening of the 5th into the 6th of April, the wind in Scotland was high...."
Mr Larque said a transmission fault in the system meant the surplus energy could not be transferred to England and so generation had to be cut.
He also confirmed that the National Grid spent £280m balancing supply and demand."
April 28th 2011 ~ Groups involved in the Stop Davidstow Windfarm Alliance are joining forces to present their case at the Inquiry in August
-
We see on the www.thisiscornwall.co.uk website that the groups involved in the Stop Davidstow Windfarm Alliance are the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Stop Turbines in North Cornwall (STINC), the Camel Valley and Bodmin Moor Protection Society, the Group Against Windfarm Proliferation and the Cornwall Windfarm Action Alliance.
- "The Alliance has been granted Rule 6 status by the Planning Inspectorate, meaning it will appear at the inquiry as an equal participant alongside the developer, Community Windpower, and Cornwall Council to present the case against constructing 20 turbines 126.5m (415ft) high.
If allowed, the turbines will be in close proximity to the Cornish landmarks of Rough Tor and Brown Willy on Bodmin Moor, highly visible from Bodmin Moor and from many views along the AONB North Cornwall Heritage Coastline, including Pentire Point and around Tintagel."
The Cornish Alliance, Stop Davidstow Windfarm Alliance or SDWA, is hoping to raise money to pay for the expert opinion needed at the Inquiry. Details at the bottom of the news article
April 28th ~ Letter in the Scotsman from 6 experts presents a powerful case
- The Scotsman Letter: Powerful case against renewables stance Extract:
- ".....The pretence that our electricity can in future be supplied from renewables, mainly wind and marine, has gone on too long. These matters are not a question of opinion; they are answerable to the laws of physics and are readily analysed using normal engineering methods. All of these energy sources are of very low concentrations and intermittent; they are and will remain inherently expensive and no amount of development will have more than a marginal effect on this conclusion.
Nor can wind and marine energy sources be relied on to provide electricity when it is needed; a recent analysis has shown that for over 30 per cent of the time the output from wind farms has dropped to below 10 per cent of their nominal output and during extremely cold weather has fallen to virtually zero. ..."
Read in full
April 19th 2011 ~ "You may feel we are making a fuss over nothing, but in reality, there is a real risk of turbine creep by default.
- .. as no councils seem inclined to refuse
these 'small' applications: A policy review is clearly urgently needed..." From the latest Fells (Friends of Eden, Lakeland & Lunesdale Scenery)
Newsletter (pdf)
April 16th 2011 ~ Miliband scorns SNP 'fairy stories' on green energy
- Scotsman
"Ed Miliband has accused First Minister Alex Salmond of dreaming up "fairy stories" over a controversial SNP pledge to find 100 per cent of Scotland's energy from renewable sources.
In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Miliband, a former energy secretary, said Mr Salmond's plan to power the country from renewables by 2020 "stretches credulity", insisting politicians have to be "realistic" about the future of energy use...... The cross-party report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said that a commitment under Mr Miliband to source 15 per cent of the UK's energy from renewables by 2020 had been made without "clear plans" for how to do so..." Read in full
April 14th 2011 ~ Renewable energy targets not met despite billions in investment - Scotsman
-
"BILLIONS of pounds in grants to the wind industry have failed to assist the UK in meeting its renewable energy target for 2010...
A study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) - a long-standing critic of subsidies to the wind power sector - claims the UK fell well short of its 10 per cent renewable electricity target, with just 6.5 per cent coming from green sources last year.
Although air currents were unusually calm in 2010, the foundation says the target still would have been missed by a substantial margin even if winds had exceeded the highest annual average of the past ten years...." Read in full.
April 8th 2011 ~The Conservation charity, the John Muir Trust (JMT), says turbines are producing below 10 per cent of capacity for more than a third of the time.
- Although the wind industry and government have regularly claimed that turbines will generate on average "30 per cent of their rate capacity over a year", the new report (which can be read here) points out that for extended periods, "all the wind turbines in Scotland linked to the National Grid produce less than 20MW of energy - just enough power for 6,667 households to boil their kettles."
April 7th 2011 ~ "Normally the people most busily pushing these bird-chomping, bat-crunching, taxpayer-fleecing monstrosities on our magnificent landscape are those who claim, ludicrously, to be green."
- James Delingpole in the Telegraph calls attention to a new report on wind farms - "Thank you, John Muir Trust (pdf report), for reminding as that being "green" doesn't necessarily have to include economically suicidal schemes to destroy perhaps our greatest national asset: the British countryside."
- Here's its summary:
PRINCIPAL FINDINGS in respect of analysis of electricity generation from all the U.K. windfarms which are metered by National Grid, November 2008 to December 2010. The following five statements are common assertions made by both the wind industry and Government representatives and agencies. This Report examines those assertions.
-
"Wind turbines will generate on average 30% of their rated capacity over a year."
"The wind is always blowing somewhere."
"Periods of widespread low wind are infrequent."
"The probability of very low wind output coinciding with peak electricity demand is slight."
"Pumped storage hydro can fill the generation gap during prolonged low wind periods."
Average output from wind was 27.18% of metered capacity in 2009, 21.14% in 2010, and 24.08% between November 2008 and December 2010 inclusive.
There were 124 separate occasions from November 2008 till December 2010 when total generation from the windfarms metered by National Grid was less than 20MW. (Average capacity over the period was in excess of 1600MW).
The average frequency and duration of a low wind event of 20MW or less between November 2008 and December 2010 was once every 6.38 days for a period of 4.93 hours.
At each of the four highest peak demands of 2010 wind output was low being respectively 4.72%, 5.51%, 2.59% and 2.51% of capacity at peak demand.
The entire pumped storage hydro capacity in the UK can provide up to 2788MW for only 5 hours then it drops to 1060MW, and finally runs out of water after 22 hours.
April 5th 2011 ~ Stop UK Wind Farm Development Petition text:
- "In light of the many wide ranging concerns being raised by citizens and action groups across the UK, and the irrefutable international scientific evidence of the flawed technology,we, the undersigned, demand that the governing bodies of the United Kingdom (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales) declare a UK-wide Moratorium on further wind farm development." http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43355/sign.html
April 5th 2011 ~ A white-tailed sea eagle introduced to the Killarney National Park from Norway just three years ago has been found dead below a wind turbine near Kilgarvan
- This is an area "designated as suitable for wind farms in the Kerry county development plan" These areas are likely to be reviewed now in the light of their effect on the introduced birds, which have low reproduction rates. There will also be a series of recommendations for existing wind farms See .full story
April 3rd 2011 ~ "we will have to pay for all the Government's other "green" dreams, such as the £100 billion it wants spent on 10,000 giant wind turbines, plus another £40 billion to hook them up to the grid."
- Christopher Booker says (Sunday Telegraph) "... The 100 per cent subsidies for onshore wind power and 200 per cent subsidies for offshore will add further billions to our bills, in return for what will still be only a fraction of the electricity we need. lready we have seen one estimate, from analysts at Matrix Group, that Mr Osborne's new "carbon tax" will so skew the economics of coal-fired electricity that four of our larger French- and Spanish-owned power stations at Kingsnorth, Didcot, Tilbury and Cockenzie will have to shut down by 2013, even earlier than their forced closure under the EU's Large Combustion Plants Directive. This will knock such a hole in our generating capacity that we can look forward to the first of those long-predicted power cuts and blackouts...Among those already hinting that Osborne's tax could lead to plant closures and the loss of thousands of jobs have been Welsh MPs, conscious that one of South Wales's biggest employers is Tata Steel, with 7,500 workers. Tata itself has warned that Osborne's tax will cost its British operations £20 million a year by 2020, representing a "potentially severe blow to the sustainability of UK steelmaking".
David Cameron's response to this is that, on the contrary, he is "hugely heartened by the fact that Tata is putting more investment into the UK". But what is the main proclaimed purpose of that investment? To make the blades for those useless windmills. Alas, Mr Cameron could not begin to understand what this tells us about the babyish little green dreamworld in which he and his Government live. ." Read in full
March 22nd 2011 ~ The wrong sort of wind?
- See Interim Results for the six months to 31 December 2010 Renewable Energy Generation Group (REG) which operates 10 wind power sites, has blamed "abnormally low wind speeds" across the UK for the losses. (Losses before tax rose to £1.9m, up from £400,000 in the corresponding six-month period a year ago). As we read at www.theregister.co.uk
- "... the wind industry remains vulnerable on Government kindness, in the shape of feed-in tariffs (FITs). FITs are a form of wholesale price-fixing, introduced to stimulate investment in new energy sources. If consumers' desire for cheap energy was allowed to be met by the market, it would lift millions of poor people out of fuel poverty. But then wind farms wouldn't be economical at all.
It's a uniquely inefficient technology. Windmills must be shut down if the wind blows too hard. And, quite often during the December cold snap, wind plants used more electricity than they generated - just when the electricity was needed the most. (Electricity is drawn from the grid for yaw control, lighting, de-icing, pumps and to power the control mechanisms.)
.... generosity can't go on forever... even as a method of reducing CO2 emissions, wind remains singularly hopeless. Denmark has been the biggest European investor in wind energy, yet still gets half of its electricity from coal-fired power stations - as much as it did before.... Not all renewables are quite as harmful to humans or the economy, it should be stressed, as wind turbines..."
March 21st 2011 ~ "Wind and solar power have raised household energy prices by 7.5 percent in Germany, and Denmark has the highest electricity prices in the European Union."
- Canada Free Press "the Netherlands is reducing its targets for renewable energy and slashing the subsidies for wind and solar power. It has also given the green light for the country's first new nuclear power plants in almost 40 years. Why the change? Wind and solar subsidies are too expensive. Holland thus becomes the first country to abandon the EU-wide target of producing 20 percent of its domestic power from renewables. (1)
Italy's government passed a decree to stop solar energy and deep cuts in wind energy due to their high costs to consumers and technical problems integrating these sources into the existing infrastructure. (2)
Lawrence Solomon reports that December 2010 was a bad month for subsidies (3):
Spain slashed payouts for wind projects by 35% while denying support for solar thermal projects in their first year of operation. This latest round of Spanish cuts followed announcements in November that payouts for solar photovoltaic plants would be cut by 45%.
France announced a four-month freeze on solar projects and a cap on the amount of solar that can be built. These measures and others continue a retrenchment that saw industry payouts cut twice last year, and that will likely continue as opposition grows to France's rapidly using power tax on electricity...."
March 15th 2011 ~ a landmark conference, Meeting: 'Climate Change? Who is Paying? And for What?' - March 19, 2011
600 million years of temperature and carbon dioxide March 01, 2011, Cambridge, UK. Press Dispensary. "The price of misjudging the global response to climate change theories could be catastrophe: economic for developed nations and life-threatening for the world's poorest people. One prevailing scientific view of climate change dominates world policy-making, leading to radical law-making of seismic significance. But is this view proven beyond reasonable doubt or is it just one theory among many, driven by vested interests? And if wrong, at what cost is it being followed ... and who will pay? "
Expert speakers at 'Climate Change? Who is Paying? And For what?' include: Professor David Bellamy OBE, botanist and environmentalist; James Dent FRMetS, CMet CEnv, hydrologist and meteorologist specialising in flood defences; Roger Helmer MEP; Philip Foster MA, author of 'While the Earth Endures: Creation, Cosmology and Climate Change'; Fay Tuncay BSc, coordinator of 'Campaign to repeal the Climate Change Act'; Professor Stephen Bush, UMIST Professor of Engineering; Professor Nils-Axel Mörner Ph.D., former head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics Department at Stockholm University and expert on world sea levels; Piers Corbyn, solar physicist and director of WeatherAction long-range weather forecasting; and Austin Williams, Future Cities project and author of 'The Enemies of Progress'.
More detail at britain-watch.co.uk
March 7th 2011 ~ "Onshore wind can pay its way," says Transport Secretary. Not so, say Booker and Neil (and many of the rest of us)
- "When is a turbine subsidy not a subsidy?" asks Andrew Neil today on his political blog, Daily Politics
- "....under the government's Renewables Obligation electricity companies must buy power generated by onshore turbines at twice the market rate.
This 100% higher price is then passed on to the rest of us in higher electricity bills. (The price for offshore generated power enjoys, I'm told, an even higher officially-mandated mark up).
So it's not so much a subsidy in which government doles out billions of our money to keep the turbines going. It's an artificially high price they are empowered by law to charge to keep them going, which is then passed on the rest of us. Otherwise, as I understand it, the turbines would be uneconomic. You may conclude that is as much a subsidy as a straight taxpayers' grant.
That, I emphasise, is my understanding. It's a complicated business and Mr Hammond (or Mr Huhne at Energy) may be able to correct me. I know Whitehall departments read this blog so I look forward to the replies of either the Hammond or Huhne departments, whose responses we will of course publish..." Read in full
- " the media mindlessly parroted a claim that its 240 turbines will be able to generate 1200MW, "enough to power 820,000 homes". In fact, thanks to the intermittency of the wind, their actual output would average little more than 300MW, equivalent to the needs of only 125,000 homes. Yet for this we will be paying three times the market rate, including a subsidy of £250 million a year.
For the same capital cost of £3.6 billion, we could build enough gas-fired power stations to generate 15 times the amount of electricity, continuously, without a penny of subsidy and without ruining the views off the Jurassic Coast, which is a World Heritage Site for its natural beauty."
March 5th 2011 ~ Nant y Moch "the character of this place will be annihilated ".
www.guardian.co.uk "...There is no human sound or presence. On the far hillside I can just make out white shapes of Cerrig Cyfamod Owain Glyndwr - the covenant stones of the warrior-chieftain, the first victory in whose great uprising was gained here in 1401, against massive odds. Hyddgen! - a name as significant in Welsh history as Hastings is to its English counter-narrative.
Perhaps this is the last time I shall come here. For plans are at an advanced stage to site along the skyline ridges of Hyddgen a wind factory of 64 turbines up to 146 metres high. Unless protests succeed - and there is a march near Nant y Moch reservoir tomorrow - the character of this place will be annihilated. Surely there are more fitting and expendable places for the schemes of those sensitive ones who would save the planet?"
February 27th 2011 ~ Save the outstanding landscape of Nant y Moch in the Cambrian Mountains
- The petition can be signed here "We, the undersigned, request that Scottish and Southern Energy plc drops its plans for a wind power station at Nant y Moch and that the Infrastructure Planning Commission listens to local and national objections and declines permission for such a development.
We also request that the importance of this scenic landscape is recognised by the Welsh Assembly Government by dropping it from the wind energy target areas."
February 27th 2011 ~ "..the system of financial incentives for renewables, all paid for by the electricity consumer, ensures that windfarm companies make huge profits"
- See www.no-tiree-array.org.uk "Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables says companies are investing in wind power "because it works", ("Locals in line for a £2.5m windfarm windfall", The Herald, February 23) . Well, they do produce some unreliable and uncontrollable electricity which isn't much use to any modern society nor to the national grid, which is responsible for providing a dependable supply. However the system of financial incentives for renewables, all paid for by the electricity consumer, ensures that windfarm companies make huge profits. It would be more accurate to say they are investing in windpower because it gives them the best return on capital invested...
... Cumbrian fishermen say;
- "…
Ron Graham, chairman of the North West Region of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisation, said there was to be an announcement soon of £3.9m of European funding to shore up the fishing industry between Silloth and Ravenglass.
But he added: "Any more turbines would devastate the industry and we would have no need of that money." James Mitchell, who fishes out of Maryport, said that any more turbines in the south west of Scotland would amount to "a two-finger salute to Cumbria by the Scottish Government."
February 23 2011 ~ "Our natural resources of landscape, forests, green hills and valleys
- which provide for a fading tourist industry but are still worth currently £4bn a year, are being recklessly squandered. Tourism is a massive employer; wind farms are not. .."
Read a letter today in the Scotsman from Professor Anthony Trewavas FRS FRSE
February 23 2011 ~ "Since Britain struggles to produce two per cent of its energy from renewables, we are only at the beginning of the great wind farm boom."
- Article by Clive Aslet yesteday's Telegraph:
- ".....Whatever their environmental benefits, wind farms are pushing energy bills up. Their profitability depends on a hidden subsidy that is paid for entirely by you and me in our electricity bills. By 2020, this subsidy could amount to as much as a third of the whole bill. Big industry is beginning to wake up to the fact, and complain. Individual consumers haven't generally noticed.
In 2007, Tony Blair, making a grand European gesture in the knowledge that he would not be around to pick up the tab, committed Britain to producing 15 per cent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. This meant building wind farms, the only green technology ready in time (broad smiles on the faces of our German and Danish fellow Europeans who are supplying much of the hardware). How would this be funded? Step forward the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, who produced a system to which the word "byzantine" hardly does justice.
Every supplier of electricity to consumers was set a green energy target. Those that failed to meet the target were to be fined. But they could avoid the fine by buying renewable obligations certificates (ROCs) from green generators such as wind companies. This initiated a trade in ROCs that makes wind energy much more valuable than it would otherwise be in the marketplace. While a megawatt-hour of electricity may only be worth £40, an ROC for the equivalent amount of green energy might be £50: total price £90 - the whole of which can be charged directly back to the bill paid (perhaps unknowingly) by us, the consumers. Today's cost of £1.4 billion is expected to rise to £5 billion by 2020....
...Lord Spencer has been lambasted for his plans to build 13 turbines, each higher than the dome of St Paul's, in the gloriously unspoilt Vale of Avon Dassett, where residents are already fighting the line of the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham. Off-shore, plans are being made to build around 250 mega-turbines off Dorset's Jurassic coast: this would eclipse the 100-turbine wind farm off Kent to become the world's biggest. At Burton Wold, permission for another 10 turbines, in addition to the 17 already built or planned, is being sought. To meet the European target, we would have to set up three or four times the number already built.... "
February 23 2011 ~ Inspector backs council decision to reject Mynydd y Gwair wind farm
- Western Mail "...scheme to site a wind farm high above Swansea has been rejected by a planning inspector.
The inspector backed Swansea council's rejection of a plan by RWE npower Renewables for 19 turbines, each 216ft tall, at Mynydd y Gwair. Swansea Civic Society, the Open Spaces Society, various community councils and the Gower Society were among objectors to the scheme.
They said the giant turbines would kill rare birds including red kites, spoil views from the Gower Peninsula and the Brecon Beacons, and only produce intermittent power. .... Glyn Morgan, of Save our Common Mountain Environment, said the decision would
- "save the outstanding natural environment surrounding Swansea
This land is an outstanding resource for upland farming and fantastic amenity for Swansea. It should never be industrialised."
February 22 2011 ~ "if we kill the magic of Cumbria by driving four hundred foot steel stakes into the heart of our landscape, we lose more than sentiment." Rory Stewart MP
- In The Herald, Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart writes, "My opposition to wind-turbines used to be merely theoretical. I understood that they were an inefficient way of generating energy and
that companies pushed them into inappropriate places, against the
wishes of communities, because of extravagant subsidies.
But Britain desperately needed clean energy. I knew struggling farmers, for whom turbines could bring enough income to save a family farm. And friends told me I was out of date and that was not taking the environmental problems seriously. And so I was confused.
I am no longer. ..
...if we kill the magic of Cumbria by driving four hundred foot steel stakes into the heart of our landscape, we lose more than sentiment. For a start, we will lose money. Tourism is the largestincome earner and employer in the constituency and the landscape,which we will be wrecking, is what the tourists pay to see. They comenow to visit one of the last upland areas, in which it is possible tosee how Britain looked before the wind-turbines.But what moved me most on Saturday above Reagill, was not the hills,or tourism but the fierce commitment of the anti-wind farm campaignersthemselves. Once you have met them - grasped the time they have given,the research they have done, the opportunities which they have passedup - the way they live their lives- you would not call them nimbys.
When they talk about the skyline, or point to the birds on WinterTarn, or discuss their support for the fights of other communities from Shap to Stainmore, they are neither sentimental nor selfish.
They are people whose lives are concretely absorbed in their landscape: aware of its shape, its heft, its space. They loved it - as millionsof others loved it - and will love it. I know people will struggle tounderstand why we should make this a turbine-free constituency. But the best reason to block the developers is the love of suchcommunities for their own place." Read in full
February 17th 2011 ~"People do not want any more onshore developments," Tony Cunningham MP
- Cumbria News and Star: quotes the MP for Workington:"We have done our bit. The balance is shifting too far against the environment and the development of tourism and in favour of onshore wind in small clusters, which do not make a huge difference.
The people of west Cumbria have plans for other forms of energy. They are simply saying that enough is enough."
February 17th 2011 ~ The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) has drawn attention to the fact that the "financial benefits" of the average wind farm reflect only about 0.5 per cent of the total annual income.
- The average turbine receives income of about £500,000 a year. So, for a typical turbine, the community benefit of £2,300 a year will be paid out from an income of about £500,000, or roughly 0.5 per cent. Dr John Constable, director of policy and research said:
- "The wind farm industry is taking our money with one hand and expecting us to be grateful for the small change offered with the other. Many will perceive community benefit of this kind and scale as adding insult to injury, and the plan seems unlikely to be persuasive." See Scunthorpe
Telegraph
February 17th 2011 ~ Revealed: how energy firms spy on environmental activists
- On Monday, an article appeared in the Guardian, revealing that three large energy companies have been carrying out covert intelligence-gathering operations on environmental activists
-
"The energy giant E.ON, Britain's second-biggest coal producer Scottish Resources Group and Scottish Power, one of the UK's largest electricity-generators, have been paying for the services of a private security firm that has been secretly monitoring activists.
Leaked documents show how the security firm's owner, Rebecca Todd, tipped off company executives about environmentalists' plans after snooping on their emails. She is also shown instructing an agent to attend campaign meetings and coaching him on how to ingratiate himself with activists. ...
....
intrusive operations include posing as activists on mailing lists and infiltrating full-time agents into campaign groups over many years.
February 14th ~ Residents brand West Cumbria wind turbines inquiry a farce
-
"Campaigners who have spent three years fighting plans to build wind turbines near their homes at Westnewton, near Aspatria, have been left disappointed after a planning inspector ruled that they could be built.
Proposals put forward by Broadview Energy Ltd in 2008 for three 350ft wind turbines at Warwick Hall Farm were initially rejected by Allerdale council, but the firm appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.
Following a five-day public inquiry in December the inspectorate announced on Friday its decision to grant planning permission.
Residents formed the Westnewton Action group in 2007 to oppose the plans and voiced their concerns at the inquiry.
John Ryden, Westnewton Parish Council chairman, who is part of the action group, said:
- "We are disappointed and shocked at the decision.
Just about every democratic group opposed them, including all the parish councils in the area, Aspatria Town Council, Allerdale and the county councils and their planning officers.
We are only a small community and that is why they are picking on us.
This will set a precedent for others who want to build wind farms in the area."
February 14th 2011 ~ Cumbrian windfarm will be built despite 2,000 objections
-
A decision to stop a windfarm being built near Cockermouth has been overturned by a Government inspector despite 2,000 objections.
Plans were thrown out by Allerdale council last September for six 100m turbines to be built at Tallentire Hill. (see also below)
But the company behind the scheme, Renewable Energy Solutions UK, lodged an appeal against the decision and following a seven-day government inquiry held in November, a planning inspector has now allowed the scheme to go ahead.....
The plans resulted in an army of protesters from Cockermouth, Oughterside, Aspatria, Plumbland and Gilcrux joining forces with those from Tallentire to fight the proposals.
Two thousand letters of objection were submitted to Allerdale Council and following a development panel meeting last September, it seemed that the protesters had won the battle when the scheme was thrown out.
.. Disgusted Workington MP Tony Cunningham said: "There was always a balance between creating energy and the detrimental impact on the environment and tourism - and that balance has long gone. By sticking a small number of turbines in a field to generate little and to blight the area is nonsense." Read article in Cumbria News and Star
February 10th 2011 ~ Holland says it cannot afford to be Green any more. Wind and solar subsidies are too expensive.
- We see from the Register that Holland has become the first country to abandon the EU-wide target of producing 20 per cent of its domestic power from renewables.
- "This is a remarkable turnaround from a state that took the Kyoto Agreement seriously and chivvied other EU members into adopting renewable energy strategies. The FT reports that instead of the €4bn annual subsidy, it will be slashed to €1.5bn....."
February 9th 2011 ~ One wonders where the money will come from as we get poorer and poorer..
- The Government has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020, and by 80 per cent by 2050. In an answer to a PQ from Conservative MP Philip Davies, Charles Hendry (Energy Minister) said the Government had spent £2.2 billion supporting wind power between April 2002 and March 2010 - but he could not estimate how much
of taxpayers' money would continue to be spent before wind power became economically viable
- and estimating this was "not feasible".
The government plans to erect up to 20,000 wind turbines and put millions of electric cars on the roads.
Guardian (4th Feb)
- "People are frightened of criticising wind farms. It is politically incorrect to do so, for wind farms are hailed as powerful weapons in the battle against global warming. ........there is as yet no economic way of storing electricity; and since turbines generate it only when the wind is blowing, and this isn't necessarily when demand for electricity is high (as during last December, when the weather was freezing but there was very little wind), the old fossil fuel generators will have to be kept going to keep supply and demand in balance.....A recent article in the Sunday Times also highlighted the disastrous environmental pollution caused in northern China by the extraction of neodymium, a metal needed for the magnets on which wind turbines depend.....
"
February 3rd 2011 ~ "Lack of wind raises fears for future of green energy "
- Times ".. on December 30, an exceptionally still day, Britain's 3,000 operational wind turbines produced only 0.04 per cent of the country's power.
The Energy Minister Charles Hendry told The Times that the figures proved the urgency with which other forms of low-carbon generation needed to be developed.
.... The fleet of turbines, onshore and off the coast, are thought to be capable of producing 4 per cent of Britain's electricity needs. Data obtained by The Times from the National Grid's Elexon unit reveal that for long periods in the summer wind farms produced less than 1 per cent of the country's electricity. That was repeated again in November and December. .... Mr Hendry said the data underlined what his department was trying to achieve in its electricity market reforms, which will be contained in a White Paper in the spring."
January 29th 2011 ~ Wychvon District Council planning committee rejected the plans by Scottish Power Renewables to put five turbines on land at Bishampton Bank in the Lenches, near Evesham.
-
www.worcesternews.co.uk
- "Planning officers had recommended the plans for refusal because the turbines would cause "unreasonable" noise,
pose an "oppressive" view to nearby residents and were simply not in keeping with the rural landscape.
Officers had made their recommendation "notwithstanding the importance of renewable energy"...."
As Lorne Smith, Chairman of the ASWAR Action Group(Against Subsidised Windfarms Around Rugby) says, it is important to give the lead in exposing the Windfarm Scam, when the country's deficit is growing by the day, it is a scandal that Chris Huhne's Government energy policy is subsidising inefficient windfarms which only benefit landowners and developers, while increasing fuel poverty and destroying jobs in the productive economy."
January 20th 2011 ~ The UK has huge wind power potential. "Development of even a small percentage of it would overwhelm their electric grids with variable, intermittent wind power."
- When, on Wednesday, Lord Donoughue asked
- " if wind turbines continue to operate at their current rate of capacity, how many will be required to deliver their target of supplying one third of electricity from wind by 2020; and what would be the estimated cost of subsidising the installation of that number of turbines by 2020?
One wonders how far those figures take into account the need for the UK's ageing National Grid to be updated enough to cope with the technical difficulties of carrying intermittent, variable supply from wind turbines to where that supply is needed. We read at theenergycollective.com for example:
- ".. With increased penetration of wind power, grid operators found that increased CO2 producing spinning reserve capacity is required. In fact, that capacity needs to be much larger with wind power penetrations of about 5% and up."
- "The UK (England, Wales and Scotland) and Ireland have huge wind power potential. Development of even a small percentage of it would overwhelm their electric grids with variable, intermittent wind power. Robust inter-connections with the European mainland are needed to spread this power over much larger grids. The grid may also be connected to the hydroelectric plants in Scandinavia to allow more power storage. The grid is expected to cost some 30 billion Euros. Europe aims to have 20% of its electricity from renewables by 2020."
January 17th 2011 ~ RSPB expressed opposition to the proposed wind farm only when Save Our Swans read out the Queen's letter at a public meeting
- (paragraph being written now)
January 16th 2011 ~ "Britain is becoming less windy, raising doubts over Government's wind farm strategy"
-
Andrew Gilligan's article in the
Sunday Telegraph
Extract:
- "According to Britain's politicians, covering the landscape with wind farms is still the future. Last month Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, promised a "seismic shift" to wind and other non-carbon forms of generating electricity......as the rhetoric has climbed ever further up the Beaufort scale, the wind itself has moved in precisely the opposite direction. New figures published by The Sunday Telegraph show that 2010 was, by one authoritative measure, the least windy year since 1824.......
The failure of the country's massive wind industry to generate almost any electricity whatever at the time when it was most needed - during last month's extreme cold snap - has been widely reported. . ..
On the coldest days of last month, when the need for power was at its greatest, there was virtually no wind, Britain's 3500 wind turbines were largely idle and almost no electricity was generated by them.....
it may, in fact, be the wind advocates who risk flat-earth syndrome..... Quietly, beneath the Government's pro-wind rhetoric, there does appear to have been something of a recalibration..."
January 15th 2011 ~ Proposed Davidstow Windfarm: developers will attend Tremail Sunday School Rooms at 7.30,on Monday 17th Jan
- Cornwall's biggest windfarm will be built at Davidstow if council planners still give it the go-ahead after Davidstow councillors voted overwhelmingly to scrap Community Windpower's plan to erect twenty, 413ft-high turbines. (See below).
- Will the visualisations provided conform to the Highland Council Standard ?
- Which noise/vibration guidelines will be followed ?
- Very disturbing was the conversation with the developers 'Be Green' shop personnel - when asked 'what bird deaths have been factored into this development' ? The answer was - 'Don't know, it happens, that's the way it is'. When asked 'can I quote you on this', the answer was 'yes'.
- When further asked how they feel about 16,000 birds being killed per year, their answer was 'what's 16,000 out of millions, the company has agreed that if bird deaths exceed 250 per day the turbines will be switched off'.
- This raises the question - 'what if 240 birds per day are killed' ? Will that be ok ?
The 'Be Green' shop in Camelford is funded by 'Community' Windpower Ltd and is part of their standard practice across the UK, when seeking to impose their huge developments on real communities and their most precious landscape, in pursuit of profit."
The name of the company, DAVIDSTOW COMMUNITY WINDFARMS is misleading. It is not a local community project. It is run solely by Community Windpower Ltd, a profit making business. The 'project' has no connection with any group or individual in Davidstow. See the website of the local organisation STINC (Stop Turbines in North Cornwall) The Davidstow Parish website at the end of November informed readers that
- "...Stop Turbines in North Cornwall and their Supporters have attended each of the Community Consultations arranged by Community Windpower Ltd from Cheshire. Predictably very little information was provided on the main issues -
January 10th 2011 ~"... freelunch economics are driving the push for renewable energy."
- Interesting article (pdf) entitled "Gresham's Law
of Green Energy -
High-cost subsidized renewable resources
destroy jobs and hurt consumers" is written from the US perspective but might be thought very relevant to all.
- "....The subsidies paid by ratepayers transfer wealth from existing
generators to a chosen few renewable resource owners. One
may like to rail against the existing generators - as many politicians
have - but the long-run implications of such subsidies
will be to destroy competitive wholesale electric markets and
drive out existing competitors. This course of action will cost
jobs because businesses, forced to pay higher electricity prices,
will either relocate, contract, or disappear altogether. It will
reduce the disposable income of consumers, who will forever
be forced to subsidize renewable resources (just as they must
now subsidize corn ethanol producers) - all in the name of
"green energy."...Unfortunately, it is politicians who
are selecting the winners and losers in the renewables game, and
the select few are benefiting at the expense of the many, i.e., the
ratepayers. This is hardly a recipe for economic growth." Read in full
January 8th 2011 ~ "our EU colleagues, who might be talking the talk on greenery.... are investing heavily in coal."
- Interesting blog post from eureferendum.blogspot.com pointing out that the media are beginning to wake up to the possibility that wind farms do not work in the cold - and that Germany is investing high efficiency coal plants, with a conversion factor of 45 percent, "compared to British coal sets which deliver about 38 percent.
Replacing our current coal capacity with high efficiency sets would, therefore, save vastly more "carbon" than the savings that the entire wind estate - current and planned - will deliver..."
December 26th 2010 ~ " we have our Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, hoping we can somehow keep our lights on and our economy running by spending hundreds of billions of pounds on thousands more windmills."
-
"More than once in the past week, as our power stations have been thrashed way beyond normal peak power demand, the contribution of wind turbines has been so small that it has registered as 0 per cent. (See the website for the New Electricity Trading Arrangements: Google "neta electricity summary page", and find the table of "source by fuel type".) At the heart of all this greenie make-believe that has our political class in its thrall has been the hijacking of the Met Office from its proper role. It's no longer just a national joke: it is turning into a national catastrophe."Sunday Telegraph
December 18th 2010 ~ "Any public perception that science is somehow fully settled is wholly incorrect..." Royal Society
- A view of climate change by John Etherington refers to the Times article in May. Extract:
- "...The society has been accused by 43 of its Fellows of refusing to accept dissenting views on climate change and exaggerating the degree of certainty that man-made emissions are the main cause.
The society appears to have conceded that it needs to correct previous statements. It said: "Any public perception that science is somehow fully settled is wholly incorrect - there is always room for new observations, theories, measurements." This contradicts a comment by the society's previous president, Lord May, who was once quoted as saying: "The debate on climate change is over."
The future magnitude of man-made climate change is a matter of doubt, hence the rumbling of discontent from the Royal Society. Attempts to control atmospheric CO2 may well be counter-productive if they unnecessarily deplete financial and physical resources which are currently needed by the underprivileged of the world and may be essential to coping with natural or other climate change in future.
December 2010 ~ Hidden energy bill
-
Western Mail Wednesday, 8 December 2010
SIR - Jonathan T Clark's letter (Dec 2) raised the matters of growing energy poverty and Ofgem's proposed investigation of alleged profiteering by power companies.
He did not mention the already large and rapidly growing covert charge to all of our bills which is made at Government's behest to cover various "carbon taxes" and the Renewables Obligation (RO) which makes uneconomic wind power a money-spinner for its owners.
Ofgem's 2008 fact-sheet "Household Energy Bills Explained" shows charges for "tackling Climate Change" added to an average energy bill and totalling about £80 per year. This leaflet is now out of date and the hidden charges which are not separately shown on the bill will now total nearer £100.
DR JOHN ETHERINGTON
Read More
November 2010 ~ The Scotsman Letter: Wind farm irony
- Letter page
- The approval given by the Scottish Government's energy minister to the Duke of Roxburghe's plan for a 48-turbine wind farm development
on an unspoilt stretch of the Lammermuir Hills maintains a noble tradition.
Whereas Scottish aristocrats used to profit by sacrificing their tenantry for sheep, today they can do so by sacrificing their beautiful moorland - and the nation's landscape - for wind farms.
How ironic that elsewhere windfall profits are liable to taxation, whereas profits that are literally windfalls are not taxed, but subsidised by the taxpayer!
VIVIAN LINACRE
Perth
November 5th 2010 ~ Campaigners have won their battle to prevent the building of a 25-metre high wind turbine on farmland near to Great Corby.
-
See Cumberland News;
"One Wetheral parish councilor said the proposed turbine would have spoiled what he regarded as an otherwise "tranquil" country view.
Carlisle City Council confirmed this week that the application to build the turbine on land at Low Wood Farm, between Burnrigg and Great Corby, has been withdrawn. ...With a proposed height of 24.7 metres and a reinforced concrete base, the turbine would have been visible for miles around..."
November 1st 2010 ~ Cambs: Plans for a wind farm in Linton have been quashed.
-
See www.cambridge-news.co.uk "...Renewable energy developers who wanted to build an eight-turbine wind farm at Little Linton Farm have had their appeal against a council planning decision thrown out.....
Yesterday planning inspector Philip Major, who was appointed to head the inquiry, ruled in the councils' favour. He also granted full costs, so public money spent on the appeal will be reimbursed.
South Cambridgeshire district councillor Nick Wright, planning portfolio holder, said it was an inappropriate place for a wind farm.
"The inspector's award of costs is a massive victory for this council, the local people and the district's residents as a whole."
October 3rd 2010 ~ "The Viking Energy project is a high risk attempt to farm 'subsidy money' by exploiting and destroying Shetland's environment in the process."
- From a heartfelt letter in the Shetland News
- ".....The single most effective thing the human race can do to combat climate change is to stop ripping out the lungs of our planet, i.e. stop destroying our carbon sinks such as the rain forests.
Shetland's blanket bog is an active carbon sink which is even more efficient than rain forest at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Most of Shetland's blanket bog is active and growing due to increased rainfall.
Viking Energy's 'forest' of turbines cannot remove one single molecule of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but the project will actually increase carbon release and accelerate global warming.
So called 'carbon payback' is no more than a theoretical model used by developers to justify the destruction of active carbon sink and has little bearing on reality, especially in the Shetland context. It is ironic that the sheep overstocking in the 1980s was due to EU subsidy on headage and now the environmental threat is from another kind of subsidy farming. Wind farms can only earn money through government subsidy, otherwise they make huge financial losses. The Viking Energy project is a high risk attempt to farm 'subsidy money' by exploiting and destroying Shetland's environment in the process.
I make no apology for using what may appear to him as emotive phrases. We have a duty to preserve and protect a unique and fragile environment. Unlike Viking Energy, its shareholders and directors, I actually care about Shetland, its environment and its long term future...."
October 2nd 2010 ~ The new Canadian film, Windfall, is acclaimed as a "tremendously important documentary, an outstanding piece of independent journalism."
- The film is being shown at the Toronto Film Festival.
The Director says:
- "I went on the internet and realized, 'Wind energy is not what I thought.' I was editing at a place where a guy was doing a tv segment on it as part of green. I told him he should do more research, and he started yelling at me: 'Do you want a nuclear plant?' I realized it was a touchy subject. I became suspicious and thought I would look further.
... a study of a small rural community torn asunder as it is of the pros and cons of the massive turbines which energy salesmen were pitching to the locals. Stop-motion animator Dean Modino brings alive maps, photographs, and, building up over the course of the film's running time, the wind turbines themselves, already cinematic by design. As one relative newcomer to Meredith says,
- "These are not the 50' windmills of Don Quixote. These are 400' high."
September 27th 2010 ~ "From a security of energy supply perspective the key issue is the uncertainty and variability of output and the average load factor is of limited use."
- See
http://www.nationalgrid.com/..._c.pdf
EXTRACT
- 40. A more detailed view of the amount of electricity generated by wind is shown in Figure A.30. This data is based on the wind farms that are currently visible to National Grid through operational metering. These wind farms have a total capacity of approximately 1586 MW. The output varied between 3 MW and 1586 MW with an average of 435 MW. This gives an average load factor of 27% over the period. From a security of energy supply perspective the key issue is the uncertainty and variability of output and the average load factor is of limited use. What can be observed from the data below is two periods of low wind output over several days in early November 2009 and early January 2010. Both of these periods were relatively cold for the time of year and coincided with relatively high electricity demands.
September 27th 2010 ~Denmark's investment.... has not secured dependable energy, has cost a fortune and has not reduced carbon emissions.
- Letter in today's Scotsman:
- "...If only the wind was as constant as the bloody-minded obduracy of those proponents of wind energy, who may be able to act as polemicists for their cause, but cannot - or rather, will not - engage with the facts.
Your letters section on 25 September was more than usually replete with rational arguments pointing out the inadequacies of wind energy and other renewable energy sources, in providing dependable supplies of electricity in the large amounts required.
This followed weeks of other similar letters presenting the facts of the situation. These facts, as the old Doric expression tells, "are chiels that winnae ding".
Yet neither the Scottish Government, the RSPB, FOE, WWF nor Renewable Scotland has engaged with the desperate energy situation that Denmark finds herself in, after massive investment in wind power - an investment that has not secured dependable energy, has cost a fortune and has not reduced carbon emissions.
Further, despite multiple references to it, none of the above has engaged with the information presented in the Neta website and the reality of what amount of energy is actually being derived from wind, hydro and pump storage.
They are also silent about the minuscule part Scotland plays in the overall carbon emission "problem". This silence is as chilling as the silence on a 20 below zero windless day at a wind farm. I challenge them to end it."
September 26th 2010 ~ "The media remain conspicuously silent about the real price we pay for wind energy," says Christopher Booker
- Another article telling the inconvenient truth about most wind technology. Sunday Telegraph
- "In all the publicity given to the opening of "the world's largest wind farm" off the Kent coast last week, by far the most important and shocking aspect of this vast project was completely overlooked. Over the coming years we will be giving the wind farm's Swedish owners a total of £1.2 billion in subsidies. That same sum, invested now in a single nuclear power station, could yield a staggering 13 times more electricity, with much greater reliability.... The latest official figures on the website of Mr Huhne's own department show that last year the average output (or "load factor") of Britain's offshore turbines was only 26 per cent of their capacity.
Due to its position, the wind farm's owners will be lucky to get, on average, 75MW from their windmills, a fraction of the output of a proper power station. ...The total amount of electricity the turbines actually produce will equate to the average electricity usage not of 240,000 homes, but of barely half that number.
A far more significant omission from the media reports, however, was any mention of the colossal subsidies this wind farm will earn. Wind energy is subsidised through the system of Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs), unwittingly paid for by all of us through our electricity bills. Our electricity supply companies are obliged to buy offfshore wind energy at three times its normal price, so that each megawatt hour of electricity receives a 200 per cent subsidy of £100. This means that the 75MW produced on average by Thanet will receive subsidies of £60 million a year, on top of the £30-40 million cost of the electricity itself. This is guaranteed for the turbines' estimated working life of 20 years, which means that the total subsidy over the next two decades will be some £1.2 billion...."
September 18th 2010 ~ ".. the more turbines we have, the more we will need new gas-fired power plants to provide back-up for when the wind drops - emitting as much CO2 as the turbines nominally save..."
- Christopher Booker in the Telegraph. One of the fewwho have consistently pointed out that all the Emperor's expensive clothes have fallen off the line into the mud:
-
"....The Government's flagship "renewables" policy is to spend £100 billion on 10,000 onshore and offshore wind turbines, adding to the 3,000 we already have (which are so inefficient that their combined output last year was equivalent to one modest coal-fired plant). Apart from the colossal cost (suppliers must buy electricity from wind at double or treble the price of conventional power, passed on through our energy bills), there is no way that more than a fraction of the 6,000 offshore turbines the Government dreams of could be built by 2020, since this would require erecting two such huge structures every day for 10 years, when installing just one can take weeks. Even so, the more turbines we have, the more we will need new gas-fired power plants to provide back-up for when the wind drops - emitting as much CO2 as the turbines nominally save.
If all this sounds like pure lunacy, we must recall that two years ago, our MPs voted all but unanimously for the Climate Change Act. This commits Britain, uniquely in the world, to cutting its CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, at a cost of up to £18 billion a year, or £734 billion in total. This is what our politicians have made the law of the land, although in practice it could only be achieved by closing down virtually all our economy. .." read in full
10th September 2010 ~ "large scaling of wind turbines (as I recommend below) may in many ways be counterproductive unless that plan is accompanied by an entirely different economic system and expectations." Nate Hagens
- Interesting second thoughts from an open letter first sent to President Obama just before his election. See The Oil Drum
- ".. The essay touches on principles of natural capital, debt, and human demand drivers and suggested some ways forward for the then President-elect. In retrospect, I didn't understand the intricacies of our debt crisis at that time (as I now believe debt deflation and or currency reform are clearer and more present threats than resource depletion or environmental damage in upsetting the social applecart), and that large scaling of wind turbines (as I recommend below) may in many ways be counterproductive unless that plan is accompanied by an entirely different economic system and expectations. "
We are going to learn to live on less."
9 September 2010 ~ Scotland : Planners want councillors to reject windfarm proposal
- www.pressandjournal.co.uk
"A north-east windfarm plan, which has attracted complaints from more than 100 residents, faces being rejected next week. Councillors have been urged to throw out an application to build three major turbines on land at Auchenten, near Hatton. It has been argued the 276ft masts could cause problems for planes using nearby airstrips. Residents living around the site believe the development would also be unsightly, could disrupt television and radio signals, deter tourists and devalue their properties.
Aberdeenshire Council said it had received 174 letters of complaint from 124 households. Now, local authority planners have also called for the bid to be rejected.
Read more
September 8th 2010 ~ Whitelee wind farm to expand as £164m deal with Alstom is signed
- In spite of the inescapable fact that Ofgem's data for 2009-2010 shows that Whitelee has had a load factor of only 23% - in other words, producing less than one-quarter of its maximum capacity even in strong continuous wind, we read at Herald Scotland that 73 new turbines will be set up at the Whitelee Windfarm near Glasgow, making Whitelee the largest wind farm in Europe.
-
"ScottishPower Renewables has struck a deal with Alstom, the big French engineering group, for more than 70 wind turbines to expand the capacity of its Whitelee Windfarm near Glasgow to 539 megawatts (MW).
A spokesman for Alstom in Paris said the contract is worth about €200 million (£164m). The deal includes supply, transportation, installation, commissioning, and operation and maintenance of the turbines ...."
September 3rd 2010 ~ EU funding and the politicization of science
- "The EU Connection in Climate Research"
by John Rosenthal is Policy Review 162 from the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. It casts a jaded eye over the "politicization" of the EU's funding of climate research and notes the unquestioning assumption that the science is "settled," the debate "over" and that "Skeptics, so to say, need not apply" for any of the fat grants.
- "....That the earth is warming, that the causes are anthropogenic, and that the consequences will be devastating - all these propositions, despite their largely empirical character, are treated as axiomatic by the EU's program and hence placed outside the realm of legitimate inquiry. The program is thus at variance with the very nature of the normal scientific process. ...
....the emissions trading scheme does more than just subject markets to political control. By dictating companies' and countries' need for carbon credits, it actually conjures a market into existence purely by government fiat. .."
September 1st 2010 ~ Denmark's large, state-owned energy firm, Dong Energy, listens to protests
- Denmark's State-owned energy firm, Dong Energy, has given up building more wind farms on Danish land, following protests from residents complaining about the noise the turbines make.
The Danish government's plan had been that 500 large turbines should be built on land over the next 10 years. However, protests by many people have led Dong Energy, to look at maritime options instead. The Copenhagen Post reports the irritation of politicians such as Anne Grete Holmgaard, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Environmental Committee
- "It is rather unacceptable that Dong - which is our large, state-owned energy firm - says goodbye to an investment in wind on land, and that they are doing so after we have cleared the way for a test centre where new types of turbines can be tested."
August 31st 2010 ~ Ofgem's data for 2009-2010 shows that Whitelee had a load factor of 23% - in other words, it produced less than one-quarter of its maximum capacity if the wind blew hard and continuously every day, year-round.
- Extract from a letter from John Etherington to Scotland's Herald about Europe's largest windfarm, Whitelee, located on Eaglesham Moor just 20 minutes from central Glasgow
- "... This means that for many periods during the year the machines quite unpredictably generate less than their maximum output and often give next to no electricity.
The crucial questions and answers are:
Do they make much electricity? Obviously no.
How much does it cost? At least twice as much as conventional wholesale electricity because the Renewables Obligation (RO) subsidy exceeds 100%.
Who pays for this? We all do, as the RO subsidy is transferred unaccounted to all consumers' bills.
Would wind electricity be a marketable commodity without enforcement by the RO, which requires distributors to purchase a set percentage of renewably generated electricity? No - the saleability of all other electricity demands total predictability on a half-hour basis. The noise issue is a quite separate matter and has nothing to do with "humming". Ask those who have been driven from their homes and/or are unable to sell them..."
August 26th 2010 ~ "wind-generated electricity likely won't result in any reduction in carbon emissions - or that they'll be so small as to be almost meaningless..."
- The Wall Street Journal:
- "The wind industry has achieved remarkable growth largely due to the claim that it will provide major reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. There's just one problem: It's not true. A slew of recent studies show that wind-generated electricity likely won't result in any reduction in carbon emissions - or that they'll be so small as to be almost meaningless....
Best-case scenario: about 306 million tons less CO2 by 2030. Given that the agency expects annual U.S. carbon emissions to be about 6.2 billion tons in 2030, that expected reduction will only equal about 4.9% of emissions nationwide. That's not much when you consider that the Obama administration wants to cut CO2 emissions 80% by 2050...."
August 25th 2010 ~ Is 14.51% efficiency a high enough price to make up for the permanent destruction of tranquillity and beauty?
- Far Old Park wind farm in Cumbria is a sad monument to broken promises. Residents living near battled for several years to get the noise nuisance reduced - to no avail. The then developer, PowerGen Renewables, Wind Prospect, had promised that "there will be no noise nuisance at any property in the area". Some residents took out second mortgages to fund legal action under the Environmental Protection Act against the owners and operators, desperate for a solution to the noise problem. However, Judge Peter Wallace, district judge at Kendal Magistrates Court, saw fit to exonerate the companies. Residents were further appalled to learn that several turbines had been deliberately constructed outside the area granted by the planning consent.
(More detail)
Latest figures show that Far Old Park turbines have only exceeded 25% efficiency on two occasions during the 38 month period up to the end of May 2010. The average for the last 38 months is currently running at 14.51% of installed capacity.
The following is from "The Wind Farm Scam" by Dr John Etherington
- "In the late 1990s Wind Prospect commissioned the Askam Wind Cluster, Old Park Farm, Cumbria, claiming 18 GWh/y as a
predicted output from 4.62 MW of installed capacity, which would need a load factor of 44%.
The Inspector at a public inquiry into this proposal was sufficiently convinced to write in his letter permitting the development,
"The site is a particularly productive one in terms of its average wind velocity."
August 20th 2010 ~ "The Government might well believe that a few thousand lives rendered uncomfortable or even miserable is a small price for us (that is, for them) to pay for the energy produced.... "
- Mike Hulme has dedicated his own time and money to fighting against the wish of Renewable Energy Systems (RES) to build nine 393ft high turbines in the Den Brook Valley, near Crediton in Devon, causing not only noise nuisance but, as the BBC report puts it, "devastation to a beautiful valley".
Angela Kelly writes of Mike Hulme, "He has persevered, not just for his own sake, but for a principle which could help many others threatened with a wind farm. He deserves our thanks and support." Today, the Western Morning News reports that the High Court has thrown out his latest legal challenge to the plans. Judge Frances Patterson QC , rejected all ten grounds of challenge. Read WMN report
It emerged last December that officials had removed the warnings from the draft report in 2006 by Hayes McKenzie Partnership (HMP), the consultants about the dangerously high sound levels permitted from spinning blades and gearboxes set at 43 decibels . The final version made no mention of this.
The Independent commented on the quiet doctoring or "streamlining" of the report (see also below)
-
"Naturally, there was a cover-up. A request by the Den Brook Judicial Review Group to see early drafts of the report under the Freedom of Information Act was rejected by officials on the grounds the information was not in the public interest..."
August 18th 2010 ~ "Corkscrew" deaths to mammals and fish may have been caused by the crane heavy-duty floating crane lifting and positioning the monopiles for the 88 turbines being erected for the Sheringham Shoal windfarm.
- The photos and comment on coolingclimate.blogspot.com today tell a grisly story. Extract
-
"... This level of environmental damage has apparently been considered acceptable for wind farm construction, but does not sit well with the fact that most fish in the north sea are considered endangered and fishermen who catch just a few boxes more than their quota can be fined thousands of pounds.
The crux of this problem is that Scira, the company constructing Sheringham Shoal, should have been monitoring any impacts the construction is having on wildlife and the environment. A project of this size, the construction of 88 turbines, requires the strictest monitoring of its impacts. This extract from their newsletter suggests that Scira were 'planning' do some monitoring...."
August 17th 2010 ~ "over-generous subsidies mean hundreds of turbines are going up on sites that are simply not breezy enough."
- Daily Mail reportsd today that more than half of Britain's wind farms are operating at less than 25 per cent capacity.
In England, the figure rises to 70 per cent of onshore developments.
- Extract:
- "Britain has 2,906 wind turbines spread over 264 sites. But a further 7,000 are planned for the next 12 years to meet European targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Nick Medic, of Renewable UK, which represents the wind industry, said talk of efficiency was 'unhelpful'..."
August 15th 2010 ~ "How will the Government ensure that the landscape of this country is not disfigured by a rash of ill-planned wind turbines?" Lords Hansard
-
(Last month)
Lord Marland replied:
- "I am grateful for that question. Under the previous Government, 14 gigawatts of onshore turbines were approved, 70 per cent of which is under way. It is our determination that there should be no dramatic increase in this and that the emphasis should be offshore, where the supply of wind is much more reliable. There are of course constraints in the environment, to which the noble Lord referred, and fishing and shipping communities need to be listened to, but offshore is the future for this country."
August 5th 2010 ~ Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has received an order for 22 turbines with total capacity of 66 megawatts for the Fullabrook project in North Devon
-
The deal with Devon Wind Power, a subsidiary of ESB Wind Development UK, includes supply, installation and commissioning of the turbines.
Delivery of the V90-3.0 MW wind turbines for the Fullabrook project in North Devon is scheduled to be completed in April 2011.
August 5th 2010 ~ The three-bladed machines would be the tallest man-made structures in Dorset, higher than the surrounding hills, visible up to seven-and-a-half miles away.
- Villagers at Silton in North Dorset have stepped up their latest campaign against a wind farm plan believed,according to the localnewspaper to be among the most unpopular planning applications Dorset has ever seen. Chris Langham, the chairman of the villagers' group, is quoted:
-
"We hoped that Ecotricity would accept Silton is simply not a suitable place to put monstrous wind turbines. But they don't seem to respect what local people say, so we have no choice but to fight.
The turbines would dominate the area - and they would ruin the landscape.
They would spoil the lives of local people, they would harm the local economy by driving tourists away, and they wouldn't even generate much electricity. Silton has below average wind speeds. ...I ask everybody who cares for this part of the world to write to the district council and tell the planners - this is a bad scheme. Reject it. We don't want it. We don't need it."
August 5th 2010 ~ Consumer Focus, the consumer watchdog, has criticised some energy companies for making compulsory gas and electricity statements unclear and complicated
- The Times quotes
Lisa Greenfield, energy analyst at Confused.com,
- "Steps that have been taken by Ofgem in an attempt to bring clarity to consumers through their introduction of a compulsory annual statement may have backfired, with providers taking a very varied approach to presenting the required information - at worst case making them resemble bills.
Suppliers need to embrace this initiative as an opportunity to help to demystify energy bills. Done properly, these annual statements can work like insurance renewals, prompting customers to review what they are paying and take action to change it for the better."
July 30th 2010 ~ "the self-interest of the powerful lobbyists on behalf of the major international wind turbine corporations... "
- See article in the Halifax Courier 29 July 2010 by Dr David Hill -
- "....The energy minister Chris Hume's announcement that UK wind turbines are set to rise and continue the ill-thought out thinking of the last Labour government clearly shows again that the drive to develop wind farms by government and their advisers is totally lacking in knowledge and information on the critical subject of renewable energy and future economics....
These decisions, fuelled by the self-interest of the powerful lobbyists on behalf of the major international wind turbine corporations, will be a decision that Britain greatly regrets in the future.
.....these turbines only reach maximum efficiency when the wind speed is between 10 and 20mph and where below 8mph these turbines just simply do not produce any electricity at all. Added to these facts is that above 20mph efficiencies go down and when over 33mph most stop producing electricity completely due to cut-out and risk of damage.....
Replacement time and full maintenance costs are also short in the range of 12-17 years. Therefore whatever money is spent today we shall have to spend again in less than two decades' time. Indeed, maintenance costs are definitely at a high premium, as sudden wind gusts (which is the constant situation) wear out components quickly.
.... the real problem is that local planners and the government's advisers do not look further than the very powerful industrial lobbyists and where, if they had done their homework correctly, they would have seen that there are more sustainable low-cost energy solutions out there that cost a fraction in comparison to the wind scam. .... the real losers here will be as always the people themselves.... they will inevitably be the ones paying for decades to come for an inefficient energy system that takes far more money from our pockets than is actually given back to us over time or indeed provided year-on-year..."
July 28th 2010 ~ " the amount of electricity generated by all those turbines put together, at a cost of billions of pounds, is no more than that provided by a single medium-size conventional power station - equivalent to a mere two per cent of the electricity we need."
- Christopher Booker in today's Mail:
- ".....even if Mr Huhne could make his dream come true, that would still supply on average only five more gigawatts of electricity, less than a tenth of our needs.
Meanwhile, to keep the lights on, a whole lot more gas-fired power stations would have to be built - and kept running, pumping out CO2 - simply to be ready to be ramped up to fill the gap when the wind stops blowing.
The Huhne solution to producing Britain's energy is naivete verging on madness.
But, most disturbingly of all, Mr Huhne is so infatuated with wind power that he seems to have convinced himself that, in cash terms, it is 'intensely competitive' with other means of making electricity.
To make such a claim makes me believe that he's never done a moment's homework on the actual cost of wind power. Allowing for the cost of those vital back-up plants, it is twice as expensive as gas, coal or nuclear - while the power from those colossally expensive offshore turbines, costing anything up to £10 million each, is up to three times as costly as that produced by conventional power stations.
If it wasn't for the 100 per cent subsidy we all unwittingly pay to the developers of wind turbines - through a compulsory levy in our electricity bills - no one would dream of building these ludicrously inefficient machines at all. ..."
July 26th 2010 ~ Help to save some of Scotland's hills from the continuous march of wind turbines.
- A public "e-petition" is calling on the Scottish Parliament
- "to urge the Scottish Government to convene an inquiry to consider the process for consenting onshore and offshore renewable energy generating stations and whether the process achieves an adequate cost/benefit and planning developments/environment balance, particularly for those in rural communities and whether its energy and planning policies compete against local communities priorities for land and landscape conservation, tourism and public recreation."
July 26th 2010 ~This talk of wind farms is so much hot air, says Clive Aslet
- Clive Aslet, editor at large of 'Country Life' writes in the Telegraph:
- "... for heaven's sake, is Huhne saying that wind farms aren't subsidised? They are, through higher energy tariffs and ROCs (energy companies need to buy them if they don't meet their renewable targets). I applaud individuals who, in the countryside, erect domestic-scale windmills to power their homes; if the economics and practicalities work, they're making a wise decision. But to rely on wind as a major power source for the nation is barmy.
The Lib Dems' woolly-hatted idealism reminds me of the placards reading "Capitalism is dead, there must be another way" displayed by the protesters camping in Parliament Square. It represents a fine British tradition. But sense has to reassert itself some time. The loonies have been cleared out of the square; Mr Cameron should do the same with his Cabinet."
July 23rd 2010 ~ Davidstow councillors have voted overwhelmingly to scrap Community Windpower's plan to erect twenty, 413ft-high turbines in North Cornwall.
-
Plans for a £55 million wind farm next to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) were thrown out yesterday. The project had been strenuously opposed by local people but had been approved last year - as long as criteria relating to the safeguarding of local bird life and concerns over interference with air traffic control systems were met. They were not. Read article at www.thisiscornwall.co.uk
July 23rd 2010 ~ Powys County Council have rejected a Scottish Power proposal to allow windfarm components for the Garreg Llwyd windfarm to pass through the small historic town of Montgomery.
- www.countytimes.co.uk/news
July 22nd 2010 ~ Bill Cash MP plans to introduce a Private Members' Bill to set minimum distances from residential areas for turbines.
- "He is proposing that no single wind turbine should be installed nearer to a house than 15 times the total height of the turbine, and developers must demonstrate that multiturbine sites do not generate intrusive noise harmonics.
And he says that where a developer of a multi-turbine site is unable to demonstrate freedom from noise harmonics the set-back distance must be increased to 18 times the maximum height of the turbine .
Under the proposed rules a single 127m turbine would have to be set back a minimum distance of 1,905m from the nearest house and a multi turbine site would have to be set back 2,286m. Local authorities could also apply greater setback distances in the case of special terrain factors." Read in full
July 21 2010 ~ Inquiry opens into huge wind farm near Swansea
-
Western Mail
"The visual and environmental harm of a proposed major wind farm outside a Welsh city would far outweigh any benefits in energy production, it was claimed yesterday.
The turbines, at 416ft high, will be almost as tall as the London Eye, but would tower above Big Ben and Wales' highest residential building.
Swansea Council yesterday outlined its reasons for rejecting the vast wind farm, planned for north of the city, at the start of a planning appeal into its refusal by npower Renewables.
The Swindon-based firm plans to establish the wind farm on land owned by the Duke of Beaufort's Somerset estate at Mynydd y Gwair, high above Swansea.
It would be visible from the Gower peninsula and the Brecon Beacons National Park. ...
The Mynydd y Gwair wind farm project has proved hugely controversial, particularly as an environmental impact assessment has made it clear it will affect red kite, golden plover and bat populations. Swansea's Civic Society says: "It is like creating another Port Talbot where an industrial site will be built in an area of natural beauty, something that would not be tolerated in a place like Surrey."
Read in full
July 5th 2010 ~ Primary school forced to turn off wind turbine after bird deaths
- The Sunday Telegraph
reports that Southwell Community Primary School, Portland has been forced to switch off a £20,000 wind turbine because it keeps killing passing seabirds.
-
"The rotary blades on the 30ft (9m) structure have struck at least 14 birds in the past six months.
The turbine, at Southwell Community Primary School, Portland, was installed 18 months ago thanks to a grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
...
It provided six kilowatts of power an hour, but its performance was overshadowed by the number of birds killed - far higher than the one fatality per year predicted by the manufacturer.
Headteacher Stuart McLeod was even forced to come into school early to clear up the bodies before his young pupils spotted them. ...
"We've tried so hard to be eco-friendly but now we can't turn it on. We can't get rid of it either because we bought the turbine we had to apply for grants and the grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change states that it has to stay on site for five years."
The school is now negotiating with Dorset County Council about the future of the wind turbine."
June 30th 2010 ~ The rule that prevents councillors from taking a stance on applications prior to hearings is to be scrapped
- Thanks to the new LibDem
junior local government minister, Andrew Stunell, ( See www.planningresource.co.uk local councillors will now feel able to defend the views of their own constituents.
The legal concept of "predetermination" was intended to ensure that decisions were made without bias- but it has discouraged local councillors from properly representing constituents' views and from getting involved in pre-application discussions on matters such as wind farm applications. They feared that the predetermination rule prevented them. Even when they were highly informed on the subject, the rule made it very difficult for them to engage in dialogues with local action groups and objectors, to speak at meetings or to express their own opinions. Hansard for June 10th reveals that the Standards Board itself is to be abolished. As Andrew Stunell said,
-
"Around the country, there are councillors of every political persuasion deeply frustrated by the fact that the Standards Board remains a burden and a threat to them. It costs £7.8 million, but it dealt with only 1,000 real complaints last year, which is £7,800 per complaint. The sooner we get rid of it, the better. That will be done on a statutory basis through the decentralisation and localism Bill."
June 25th 2010 ~ Rare red kite found dead at a wind farm that had been termed "harmless to wildlife"
-
The Scotsman
reports that a rare red kite has been found dead at the Fairburn wind farm in Ross-shire in the Highlands. It was examined by a Scottish Agricultural College vet and was found to have suffered bruising and fractures consistent with an impact.
- "...The kite was satellite tagged as part of a monitoring project under the Eyes To The Skies project. Its flight path was being logged by RSPB Scotland as well as children from Aviemore Primary School, who adopted the bird and nicknamed it "Tweety Pie".
RSPB red kite community officer Claire Buchanan said: "We had been tracking its progress through its satellite tag and plotting its movements on our dedicated website. It is really sad that we have lost Tweety Pie and, of course, the children have been much saddened about what has happened. Any loss of a kite is serious because the red kite population on the Black Isle is already under intense pressure due to illegal killing."
An informed emailer writes today, "Interestingly, on the continent, collisions with power lines and wind farms are a major cause of death for white-tailed eagles. One German study found 22% mortality from power lines and wind farms. In a Swedish study it was 50% and in a Finnish one it ws 36%. In Norway, wind turbines have caused the deaths of four white-tailed eagles on islands off the Norwegian coast. At a 68-turbine windfarm on the Norwegian island of Smola, 11 eagles were killed within five months and 30 eagles (several species) have failed to return to their nests, although they normally return year on year.. In America they have killed vast numbers and in Spain as well."
June 23rd 2010 ~ "I recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the problems of wind power.."
- ".. and to politicians who, instead of dismissing the evidence should be pressing for well funded epidemiological studies of a potential health threat which can only grow with time. It is of great significance that several critical studies supporting Dr Pierpont's conclusions have been published in the few months since her book appeared. One of these, a peer reviewed paper by Salt and Hullar, 2010 confirms Pierpont's belief that the human ear is sensitive to sound intensities far below audible intensities and concludes that "The concept that an infrasonic sound that cannot heard can have no influence on inner ear physiology is incorrect.". A second compilation by Hanning, 2010 a prominent UK sleep researcher, suggested that the occupants of properties sited within 1.5km of turbines will suffer unacceptable levels of sleep disturbance and potential risk to their health." Part of the Review on Amazon of Nina Pierpont's: Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment
(see posting below) by Dr John Etherington
Author of "The Wind Farm Scam" Read Dr Etherington's review in full
June 20th 2010 ~ Over the past eight years Ecotricity will have received more than £22.6 million - money which consumer electricity bills provides in the end.
-
According to the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), Ecotricity's current plans will, if they come to fruition, bring the annual subsidy close to £25 million.
The subsidy is known as the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) system. It was put in place by New Labour to encourage energy companies to invest in renewables. The subsidy is thought by opponents such as the REF to be disproportionate to the quality and usefulness of the power produced. It is encouraging a rapid growth of wind turbines in some of Britain's loveliest stretches of countryside. (See Sunday Telegraph)
June 20th 2010 ~Firms paid to shut down wind farms when the wind is blowing
- Because of the inadequacy of the National Grid to get "green" electricity to where it is needed, we now have the extraordinary situation in which Britain's biggest wind farm companies are to be paid not to produce electricity when the wind is blowing. The Sunday Telegraph:
- "....The National Grid fears that on breezy summer nights, wind farms could actually cause a surge in the electricity supply which is not met by demand from businesses and households. The electricity cannot be stored, so one solution - known as the 'balancing mechanism' - is to switch off or reduce the power supplied..."
June 20th 2010 ~ A land blighted by giant pylons
- The path of the new pylons needed by the National Grid, to carry the "green" electricity produced by windfarms, lies through areas of outstanding natural beauty.
"...There are 22,000 pylons and 4,375 miles of lines across the countryside... It is 80 years since electricity pylons became a common feature of the British landscape, based on an American design.... This week National Grid.. will unveil plans for three high-voltage electricity lines... The new lines will be carried by pylons through beauty spots such as the Snowdonia national park, the Mendip hills and the Lincolnshire wolds."
An editorial in the Sunday Times goes on to explain that the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) which has been working hard to remove the existing overhead lines and pylons from Britain's national parks is now facing a further fight. Bill Bryson, CPRE's president, is quoted: "This is crazy - more pylons do not equal progress."
The National Grid is resisting the alternative technology to bury the lines "on grounds of reliability, capability, cost, construction impacts and land use". The editorial concludes:
- "The fact is there are huge profits in power generation and distribution and some of those profits should be used to find new ways of carrying electricity around the country unobtrusively. The beauty of Britain is far too valuable to blight with these ugly pylons."
June 13th 2010 ~ "The Government is subsidising wind farms and other forms of renewable energy with £1 billion of taxpayers' money every year it is revealed in a new report."
- The Western Morning News continues:"Westcountry wind farm protesters and MPs have reacted angrily to the news that electricity customers are footing the bill for the hefty payout for the renewable energy industry, branding it a "stealth tax".
The levy, paid by energy utilities to the Government, has added £13.50 a year to every domestic power bill.
The study by the energy watchdog Ofgem, due to be published next month, shows that over the past three years, subsidies have added a total of £32.50 to average household electricity bills.
The secret levy is part of a Government scheme designed to force energy firms to fund green energy. £ But the cost is simply being passed on to the customer. .." Read in full
June 12th 2010 ~ THIS is why we object so vehemently to "outside forces of profit, politics and populism"
- CPRE's latest magazine for 2010 carries an extract from Terence Blacker's book, edited by Bill Bryson, "Icons of England":
- "...Those of us who agree that a shift to renewable energy is essential, but that global need does not justify the sacrifice of much-loved countryside, are regularly portrayed as villainous and selfish - we are the equivalent of drink-drivers, one Government Minister has said. Landowners and developers whose only motive is financial are suddenly heroes of the environment... What chance has our little patch of "unexceptional" landscape against the might of environmental correctness?....future generations may wonder what on Earth possessed their parents and grandparents to give up so easily what is so precious."
June 5th 2010 ~ "The new regime meant an application only required to be referred for a decision by councillors if there are at least five objections, from different addresses"
- It's tempting sometimes to do nothing because we tend to think that our own letter will make no difference, but it is disturbing to read in the Press and Journal that a group set up to counter the spread of windfarms in Caithness that objected as a group from one address has found that the five-turbine development has been given planning approval without going before councillors. Although many people were in the group, there had been objections from only two addresses - one of which was the address of the group, the Caithness Windfarm Information Forum (CWIG). Read article.
June 5th 2010 ~ Eric Pickles has told all councils he will abolish regional targets for planning and housing, so councillors will once again be able to make decisions themselves
- The Morpeth Herald reports:
-
"The prospect of chains of windfarms in rural Northumberland appears to have faded, as the new Government told councillors this week that power is being returned to them.
Until now, they have been under pressure to meet targets for renewable energy set by the unelected North East Assembly and endorsed by the last Government.
But as Northumberland's Planning and Environment Committee sat down on Tuesday evening to consider applications for wind monitoring masts at Ancroft, near Berwick, and at Wooler, they were told a letter had been received from the Government.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has told all councils he will abolish regional targets for planning and housing, so councillors will once again make those decisions.
Applications for the two test masts were approved despite two dozen objectors urging councillors to reject the Ancroft proposal because it is next to the Moorsyde site already rejected by the Secretary of State because it would be harmful to views of the Cheviots."
May 22nd 2010 ~ Dolphin and seal damage warning over wind farm expansion
-
An article by Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor, of the Telegraph says that
- "A new generation of offshore wind and tidal farms could produce £14 billion of electricity every year for Scotland but pose a "significant" threat to wildlife, the fishing industry and islanders' ferries....
....the report said the wind and tidal farms could eventually generate seven times Scotland's electricity needs.
But the planned developments would cost an estimated £180 billion and have a major impact on a species including dolphins, seals, porpoise, wildfowl and other seabirds.
They could also have major implications for the future of Scotland's beleaguered fishing industry, with some of the proposals covering spawning areas for white fish, shell fish and nephrons.
A draft plan for offshore wind energy also highlights concerns about the farms blocking major shipping lanes, ferry routes to and from Scotland's islands and waters used for leisure activities..."
May 16th 2010 ~ Both Cons and Dems are committed to building thousands more wind turbines.
- Booker in the Sunday Telegraph says, ".. And neither ever mentions the crisis fast bearing down on us when we lose 14 of the nuclear and coal-fired power stations which supply 40 per cent of the electricity that currently keeps all our economy running"
- "....
What is truly terrifying about putting Mr Huhne in charge of Britain's energy policy is that, like the rest of his Government colleagues, he clearly hasn't the slightest practical understanding of what is involved. Obviously, he has no idea of just how useless windmills are in providing any more than a derisory fraction of the electricity we need to keep our lights on and our computers running. The 3,000 already built provide on average no more electricity than a single medium-sized conventional power station, and the more we build, the more we will have to build CO2-emitting power stations, costing billions of pounds, simply to provide back-up for when the wind is not blowing.
Although the EU's new Industrial Emissions Directive has extended the time we are allowed to keep six of our ageing coal-fired power plants running, Mr Huhne will allow no new ones to be built unless they are fitted with "carbon capture and storage" - which, despite a Government-estimated cost of £14 billion, is never going to work. There is no aspect of this Government's energy policy which is not based on wishful thinking and complete technical illiteracy. It talks of spending up to £30 billion on a Severn Barrage to supply "five gigawatts" of electricity, when in reality it would only intermittently produce on average 1.9 gigawatts, less than the output of a single coal-fired power station. For the same money, eight new nuclear plants could produce seven times as much power, reliably and round the clock.
Mr Huhne's only hope of keeping Britain's lights on - as he builds his thousands of hugely subsidised wind turbines - is that the largely foreign-owned electricity companies he appears to despise might build two dozen gas-fired power stations, putting us largely at the mercy of a highly unpredictable world gas market. This is precisely the danger that all the experts have been warning us against for so long..."
May 2010 ~ Environment debate at the Telegraph Moratorium on All Wind Farm Development in Britain
-
Posted by David Insall. Although closed now as a votable debate (66 in favour 10 against), it read :
-
"Remove all subsidies on wind farms as from the end of 2010. Implement an immediate ban on future development of
wind farms on or offshore.
The justification for this is that the intermittency of wind turbines requires that 80% - 90% installed capacity of wind turbines has to be built in conventional generation to ensure continuity of supplies, as evidence to the House of Lords Inquiry into the cost of renewables in 2009. Therefore emission savings are virtually nil, once transmission losses are taken into account.
The impact of wind turbines on flying fauna, mainly birds and bats is not offset by measurable emission savings, so it cannot be a justifiable environmental impact. Case history is often denied by the industry who persist in trying to attract support from local people with a small share in their almost obscene profits caused by the overt and covert subsidies."
May 5th 2010 ~ "Once you've carpeted the wilderness with wind-farm turbines, and crushed any guilt about the birds you're about to kill, prepare to be underwhelmed and underpowered.."
- At the end of last week, the Wall Street Journal had some important words to say on the subject of Robert Bryce's book "Power Hungry"
- "So you want to build a wind farm? OK, Mr. Bryce says, to start you'll need 45 times the land mass of a nuclear power station to produce a comparable amount of power; and because you are in the middle of nowhere you'll also need hundreds of miles of high-voltage lines to get the energy to your customers. This "energy sprawl" of giant turbines and pylons will require far greater amounts of concrete and steel than conventional power plants - figure on anywhere from 870 to 956 cubic feet of concrete per megawatt of electricity and 460 tons of steel (32 times more concrete and 139 times as much steel as a gas-fired plant)...."
May 5th 2010 ~" I predict that the proposed cure for global warming - reducing greenhouse gas emissions - will someday seem as outdated as using leeches to cure human illnesses..."
- On April 20th Dr Roy Spencer gave a preview of his new book, "The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists" (See Amazon.co.uk) What James Delingpole pointed out about all this in the Daily Express on Monday was
- "....Not only does it mean that the billions of pounds of taxpayers' money which have been pumped into proving the connection between CO2 and climate change have been utterly wasted but it also means that the climate policy of most of the world's leading industrial nations is based on a total lie.
According to estimates by the International Energy Agency it will cost the world at least $45trillion to deal with AGW. Under the Climate Act, Britain is committed to spending a whopping £18billion a year combatting the effects of Climate Change. Most of this will go on attempting to reduce our output of CO2 - a gas which Spencer points out is not merely harmless but positively beneficial...
....As the world's greatest expert on satellite temperature monitoring, Spencer has access to the most accurate climate data yet collected.What his observations have shown him is that, yes, there has definitely been 0.7C of global warming since the beginning of the 20th century, but that three quarters of this was caused by an entirely natural process called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).
The PDO is a shift in weather patterns over the North Pacific Ocean. It moves in cycles of around 30 years which, funnily enough, is about the length of the various periods of warming and cooling which got alarmists so worked up in the 20th century. ...."
April 14th 2010 ~ "it could cost £50million to fix Britain's 336 turbines thought to be at risk..."
- More detail about the design flaw (see below) in today's Daily Mail: "....Dong Energy said three of its wind farms were affected, including Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast and Burbo Bank in Liverpool Bay.
However Centrica, which owns British Gas and Dong Energy, said there were no safety or operational issues.
Offshore farms produce more reliable power because the wind is less intermittent, and they allow firms to avoid getting entangled in the UK's labyrinthine planning regulations. But they are notoriously expensive, and large firms including BP and Royal Dutch Shell have pulled out of the sector..."
April 13th 2010 ~ "Wind power could increase by up to 40 times should Labour stay in power."
- ..says Labour's manifesto. See Farmers Weekly on Labour's "rural election plans".
The manifesto says:
- " We already have more
offshore wind-power than any
other country in the world, and
our plans could see this increase
up to 40 times, alongside other
renewable technologies such
as tidal and marine, solar and
sustainable bio-energy. We
will make a decision early in
the next Parliament on the
feasibility of alternative options
for a tidal energy project on the
Severn, taking full account of
the environmental impacts......We want
local people to have a stake
in local renewable energy
projects such as wind farms.
April 12th 2010 ~ Hundreds of offshore wind farms are being checked for a construction fault
- The Independent reports that a flaw has been discovered in one of the Europe-wide industry standards.
- "The problem that has emerged is over the turbines' "monopile" foundations. The issue is centred on the grouting in the transition piece linking the turbine to its foundation, and the towers that are affected have shifted several centimetres under the impact of harsh offshore conditions...."
April 9th 2010 ~ Will offshore windfarms disrupt bird migrations?
- Barnacle geese which overwinter in the Solway Firth have been tagged with GPS trackers in order to gather information about their migration routes and altitudes.
The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is concerned that offshore wind farms in the Firth of Forth and off the UK coast could be an obstacle for the birds when they attempt to migrate to the High Arctic Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard later this month. See BBC and the warmwell page about the dangers of windfarms to birds.
April 4th 2010 ~ Horrible video of big bird's death in a wind turbine
- See- if you have the stomach for it - http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/03/big-bird-meets-big-green/
April 4th 2010 ~ "sick and tired of being dismissed, ridiculed, called a NIMBY, flimflammed, and bullied by wind developers and government agencies..."
- From an email received today about Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD, (see also below) who has been asked by the editor of a leading, peer-reviewed American
clinical journal to write a special article on Wind Turbine Syndrome.
Her article should appear online in the next month or two. She is now using webcam (Skype) to testify as expert witness in lawsuits on wind turbine health effects.
- (See email) "....Let the wind developers ridicule Wind Turbine Syndrome in front of a judge, with Pierpont testifying and the international community of otolaryngologists rallying behind her - and the first of doubtless many peer-reviewed clinical articles on Wind Turbine Syndrome in hand.
» If you are a victim of Wind Turbine Syndrome and you're sick and tired of being dismissed, ridiculed, called a NIMBY, flimflammed, and bullied by wind developers and government agencies, hire a crackerjack lawyer and contact Pierpont at rushton@westelcom.com. Let's see how Big Wind's bluster, phony evidence, and ludicrous reports hold up in court. ...
Note that she can testify at foreign lawsuits, as well, so long as there is an interpreter and as long as the court permits it. Contact her at rushton@westelcom.com."
April 4th 2010 ~ "Last Thursday - with northern Britain again under piles of global warming - another tranche of regulations came into force..."
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph spells out the frightening figures and regulations Climate Change Act has the biggest ever bill
Ed Miliband's legislation will cost us hundreds of billions over the next 40 years:
-
"....Since we contribute less than 2 per cent of global emissions, while China continues to build a new coal-fired power station every week, these empty getures will do nothing to reduce the world's overall "carbon footprint". Not that this makes any difference to global warming anyway - but at least it will give the Government billions more pounds of our money, while we still have any of it left."
April 2nd 2010 ~ "we send them overwhelming congratulations and thanks for saving this beautiful part of England from industrialisation by the wind industry."
- An email from the wonderfully indomitable veteran campaigner, Angel Kelly, about the five victories achieved by FELLS (Friends of Eden, Lakeland & Lunesdale Scenery) and the dedication and work of Dr. Mike Hall. See attached the list of applications recently rejected
- "
Anyone who has campaigned against even one application for a wind farm will understand the many
months and years of concentrated effort required for such a magnificent result.
Reading the list brought tears of joy and gratitude to my eyes.
It is absolutely outstanding to have achieved such success and we send them overwhelming congratulations and thanks for saving this beautiful part of England from industrialisation by the wind industry."
FELLS fights on and so must we all."
March 28th 2010 ~"The great lie is in the unspoken implication that just because you are using wind energy, carbon emissions are being reduced."
- This article from the Press and Journal is the clearest we have seen for explaining why, when the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) claims that "a typical turbine" produces enough electricity each year "to meet the needs of 1,000 homes" these are weasel words that need to be looked at more closely. As the article explains:
- "...To meet the needs, the power needs to be there when needed.
At 2am on March 19, the 1,588MW connected windpower metered by the National Grid was generating 1,355MW when nobody wanted it, and at the morning peak demand time of 8.35am on March 20, the same 1,588MW wind fleet could manage only 107MW.
The overnight excess generation wasn't used by households, and when it was needed at breakfast time, it just wasn't there. An average of 731MW was generated over the period, but it was needed at breakfast time, not over the period. This surplus generation formed part of the "electricity produced each year", but it didn't "meet the needs" of homes...."
March 27 2010 ~ Professor Jefferson's letter in the Telegraph
- Daily Telegraph 23 Mar 2010 Letters
"The Government's main planning guidance incorrectly claims that wind farms typically operate at 30 per cent capacity."
-
SIR - Since you quote me in your report ("Weak wind farms generate just a fifth of full power", March 22), I should stress that I take particular exception to efficiency claims by the Government and by industry. The Government's main planning guidance misleadingly claims that wind farms typically operate at 30 per cent capacity.
Looking at onshore wind farms in England that operated all year in 2007, 2008, and 2009, under 15 per cent achieved 30 per cent capacity in 2007 and 2009 - and only 18.5 per cent in 2008.
If the Renewables Obligation Certificate subsidy system that we pay for as electricity customers is to maximise electricity generation from onshore wind power then it should focus on helping turbine erection in the windiest places.
At present it fails to do so, and thus it: encourages too many developments in the least windy places (notably central England); increases delays and costs in supplies of equipment where they will be most effectively used; unnecessarily upsets people and exposes the industry to criticism; and undermines the chances of achieving policy targets.
Professor Michael Jefferson
Melchbourne, Bedfordshire
March 27 2010 ~ "despite angering communities and environmental campaigners ...."
- The Cumberland News reports that Allan Tubb,
a former power engineer, has undertaken research based on data released by Ofgem, that is thought to be the first detailed study of Britain's onshore wind farms.
- "...
It suggests the controversial structures have only produced a limited return despite angering communities and environmental campaigners.
The analysis reveals that more than 20 wind farms produce less than a fifth of their potential maximum power output.
One site, at Blyth Harbour in Northumberland, is thought to be the worst in Britain, operating at just 7.9 per cent of its maximum capacity.
Another at Chelker reservoir in North Yorkshire operates at only 8.7 per cent of capacity.
Both are relatively small and old, but larger and newer sites fared badly, too, according to the study..."
- "....Prof Michael Jefferson, of the London Metropolitan Business School, said developers 'grossly exaggerate' the energy producing potential of their sites.
He said: "The subsidies make it viable for developers to put turbines on sites they would not touch if the money was available."
- "The revelation that so many wind farms are performing well below par, however, will reinforce the view of objectors who believe many turbines generate too little power to justify their visual impact.
Britain has 245 onshore wind farms. Although wind power is expensive, the industry has boomed because of the "renewable obligation" subsidy system, under which consumers pay roughly double the normal price for energy from wind. ..."
March 27 2010 ~ "We are nowhere near having a plan...the existing level of political will cannot deliver the fundamental restructuring needed."
- The Guardian last week discussed the Royal Academy of Engineering report, which warned that the biggest set of investments and social changes ever seen in peacetime are needed to meet the country's energy needs in the coming decades- and that the existing level of political will and the market-led approach to energy planning cannot deliver the fundamental restructuring needed.
-
"We are nowhere near having a plan," said Prof Sue Ion, who led the report. "These are massive projects. It requires a huge exercise all through government, and needs to come from the very top and go down through all departments such as transport and local government.
What we are talking about is making sure our children and grandchildren have an energy infrastructure that is fit for purpose."
March 25 2010 ~ Ted Hughes would have been as sad as we are...
-
A letter in the Times yesterday about how the countryside of which Ted Hughes wrote is fast being inundated with wind turbines
- Sir, Your leading article ("Bard of Nature", Mar 23) on Ted Hughes concludes that we should "cherish the landscape he loved, and then go for a long walk, on a windy hillside, in the rain". Best come quickly. Ancient Elmet, the countryside of which he wrote, is fast being inundated with wind turbines, visible for 30 miles. The moorland nests of skylarks, curlews, lapwings and twite are being bulldozed to make way for concrete pits. As for Hughes's Hawk in the Rain, raptors seem to have a particularly poor record near turbine blades.
Keith Milligan
March 24th 2010 ~ "Nuclear and wind power will be at heart of Alistair Darling's Budget" says The Times
- Meanwhile, Richard North's highly popular blog today has some sour words to say about the politicians' enthusiasm for wind power, bemoaning the demise of a real opposition that
- "would mock the insanity and offer what we needed for half the price..."
- "At £3.1 million per MW installed capacity, that runs to about £90 billion. With the grid needed to serve the network, that makes, as near as damn it, £100 billion.
For the money, we will get about 30 percent load factor - if we are lucky...all of this will have to be duplicated by conventional sets to provide power when there is no wind. Thus, we end up spending £100 billion on the "conventional" estate and another £100 billion on these useless ornaments..."
-
"There is no more time left ... It takes decades to prove and roll out large-scale major infrastructure so only those low-carbon technologies we already know of can help us to meet the 2050 targets."
March 21st 2010 ~ The first detailed study of UK wind farms - "treasured landscapes may have been blighted for only small gains"
- Sunday Times
"The analysis reveals that more than 20 wind farms produce less than a fifth of their potential maximum power output.
One site, at Blyth Harbour in Northumberland, is thought to be the worst in Britain, operating at just 7.9% of its maximum capacity. Another at Chelker reservoir in North Yorkshire operates at only 8.7% of capacity....larger and newer sites fared badly, too, according to analyses of data released by Ofgem, the energy regulator, for 2008..."
March 21st 2010 ~ "Too much wind and not enough puff"
- Sunday Times "...No wind farm can produce 100% of its maximum power output; the realistic operating maximum is about 50%. Many wind farms fall well below that. The norm for onshore farms is 25% to 30%, based on data from Ofgem, the energy regulator. More than 20 farms produce less than a fifth of their maximum output and some produce less than 10%.
This might not matter except that such low output adds to the already high cost of wind generation. More seriously than that, many of these wind farms got planning permission only because they had claimed levels of power output that have never been achieved. Communities have been left with the huge and noisy wind farms on their doorsteps, knowing they are producing little energy...."
March 14th 2010 ~ "The main practical objection to turbines, of course, is that they are useless, producing derisory amounts of electricity at colossal cost.
- (Yet the Government wants us to spend £100 billion on building thousands more of them which, even were it
technically possible, would do virtually nothing to fill the fast-looming 40 per cent gap in our electricity supply.) " Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph
- ".....A feature of these supposedly environment-friendly machines that I haven't mentioned, however, is their devastating effect on wildlife,
notably on large birds of prey, such as eagles and red kites. Particularly disturbing is the extent to which the disaster has been downplayed
by professional bodies, such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain and the Audubon Society in the US, which should be
at the forefront of exposing this outrage, but which have often been drawn into a conflict of interest by the large sums of money they derive
from the wind industry itself.
There is plenty of evidence for the worldwide scale of this tragedy. The world's largest and most carefully monitored wind farm, Altamont Pass in California, is estimated to have killed between 2,000 and 3,000 golden eagles alone in the past 20 years. Since turbines were erected on the isle of Smola, off Norway, home to an important population of white-tailed sea eagles, destruction is so great that last year only one chick survived. Thanks to wind farms in Tasmania, a unique sub-species of wedge-tailed eagles faces extinction. And here in Britain, plans to build eight wind farms on the Hebridean islands, among Scotland's largest concentration of golden eagles, now pose a major threat to the species' survival in the UK....."
March 12 2010 ~ Wind farms could raise temperatures
-
TG Daily
" Opponents of land-based wind farms have a new ally in the form of MIT. Researchers there say that, far from mitigating global warming, land-based wind turbines actually increase the temperature around them...."
March 10th 2010 ~ Community group takes legal action against Bradwell wind farm decision
- See Maldon Standard
-
"A campaign group's spending could top £100,000 after they announced they will go to the High Court to challenge the Bradwell wind farm development. Battle (Bradwell and Tillingham Tackling Lost Environment) have already fought two planning applications, two public inquiries and sought Judicial Review in a five-year fight against the wind farm.... Chairman Neil Yates said:
- "We have eight grounds. All of which we believe stand a very good chance of being sympathetically reviewed in the High Court. We are quietly confident."
February 25 2010 ~ a Defra project that aims to use psychotherapy to enable sufferers to live with turbine noise.
- Letter in the
Western Mail from Dr John Etherington
-
SIR - I echo Jan Morgan's plea for a moratorium on wind turbine construction (Letters, Feb 18).
During the recent Institute of Acoustics conference into wind turbine noise in Cardiff, noise vibration and acoustics consultant Dr Geoff Leventhall said there was no doubt people living near the turbines suffered a range of symptoms, including abnormal heart beats, sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, visual blurring, panic attacks and general irritability ("Turbine noise? You'll learn to live with it", Jan 28).
However the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) website says in its Frequently Asked Questions: "Wind turbines are not noisy." To compound this view, also on the BWEA website, Dr Leventhall wrote: "I can state quite categorically that there is no significant infrasound from current designs of wind turbines."
So surrealistic is all of this that I sometimes doubt my own state of mind. This is now confirmed by Dr Leventhall who said, also at the Cardiff conference, that he is taking part in a Defra project that aims to use psychotherapy to enable sufferers to live with the noise.
Sanity by courtesy of a government department!
Dr JOHN ETHERINGTON Llanhowell, Pembrokeshire
February 17th 2010 ~ Planning Committees are run by Councillors not MPs or AMs
- An email today from the veteran campaigner, Angela Kelly of Country Guardian, points out that a most effective way of getting through to policy makers is simply to send them a copy of the Wind Farm Scam. She says, "Country Guardian always advises groups to send councillors the factual information
so that they can make up their own mind. We don't TELL anyone what to think - we merely supply the facts." adding:
- "Conservation of Upland Powys (CUP) raised enough money (not easy in the most sparsely populated county of Wales and England !) to buy 150 copies of The Wind Farm Scam and have posted a copy to every MP, AM in Wales and every
Powys councillor. We are all indebted to CUP, and, most of all, to Dr. John Etherington who has made his many years
of research available in his book The Wind Farm Scam.
The book was published on 1st October 2009 and is already in its second printing and third impression.
Personally, I believe it is the most effective weapon we have and cheap at the price. Even cheaper if you order in large numbers."
February 14th 2010 ~ Wind farms 'can't cope with Big Freeze'
-
Western Morning News "Wind farms almost ground to a standstill during the Big Freeze just as demand for electricity was soaring.
Government officials have been forced to admit onshore turbines were working at as little as 5 per cent capacity during the height of the cold weather.
Energy experts said the revelation raised doubts about the wisdom of policies to expand wind farms.....
-
"We have to be realistic and acknowledge that, no matter how much wind we have, UK plc will still require conventional, gas, coal, and nuclear power stations equal to peak load (60 GW) plus a margin to stay in business. The technical and economic difficulties of running large-scale wind power with that indispensable conventional fleet are real, and greatly underestimated by government.
There is even a risk that, by going too fast with wind, we end up with a system that is dirtier than it would otherwise have been, and unreasonably expensive."
February 14th 2010 ~ "Under Labour we have had eight secretaries of state and 11 energy ministers in 13 years and they have achieved extraordinarily little..."
- Charles Clover in the Sunday Times
- "...it seems we could keep the lights on by burning gas in 2015 - as long as we have enough power stations to do it in. But right now that is uncertain. Is Ofgem correct in its analysis that the market has failed and more intervention is needed to secure the necessary investment? In fact there is a good case that we are in the mess we are because of too much government meddling rather than too little.
By subsidising wind farms so heavily and mandating that 40% of electricity comes from renewables by 2020, the government has destroyed the investment case for the necessary gas plants, which have half the carbon emissions of coal. .."
February 11th 2010 ~ "...may prove helpful to other groups under threat of a wind farm application"
- Country Guardian's Angela Kelly who is also a member of Conservation of Upland Powys (CUP)
writes that the CUP chairman, Alison Davies,
has kindly forwarded CUP's formal objection to the Tirgwynt Wind farm Application (attached)
which may prove helpful to other groups under threat of a wind farm application.
February 11 2010 ~ Planning application to take wind farms through Welshpool The results of the Town Poll
-
89% object - 5.5% support - 5.5% support conditionally
The Council makes its decision on Wednesday 24th February 2010 at 7pm in the Town Hall
www.welshpooltowncouncil.com/
February 3 2010 ~ Professor Bob Carter on YouTube
- With quietly impressive voice and with extraordinary illustrations, Australia's Prof Carter, a geologist and expert of thirty years experience and member of the Australian Climate Science Coalition, delivers blow after blow to global warming alarmism and its selective use of data. The message one is likely to get from the speech is that the whole sorry shambles is politics and economics allowed to run amok - not science. Meanwhile, the really serious issues of pollution and poverty are ignored. He calls the lack of understanding and ignorant sneering among governments an "absolute disgrace". He concludes with a warning about the effects of a possibly disastrous global cooling for which no one is planning.
February 3 2010 ~ "it is not technically feasible to deliver 33GW of wind power within any foreseeable time frame, irrespective of whether the finance is available..." Richard North
- One of today's posts on EU referendum Blogspot. Extract on off shore windfarms:
-
"...... additional technical difficulties - not least undersea cabling problems and growing concerns about the durability and reliability of turbines in highly aggressive offshore environments.
...... ...
Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan is saying that without what he euphemistically calls "reform" there could be a "degree of crisis" in 2013 or 2014 and warns the situation could then become "quite uncomfortable". ..
What he is actually saying is that, to stave off short-term problems and price increases....we must adopt a price and control system which will ensure vastly increased prices and fail to deliver the necessary capacity.
In fact, what is already happening is that the generators are investing in increased gas-fuelled capacity, notionally needed as back-up to the wind system but which will actually become our base-load provider. That will precipitate precisely the problems which Ofgem claims to be seeking to avoid, with local gas shortages during peak demand, requiring emergency purchases of gas on the spot market, at highly inflated prices.
The really worrying thing here, then, is that Ofgem is living in a fantasy world, which has not even the slightest acquaintance with reality, bolstered by the idiot Ed Miliband, who says the Government is "confident" of meeting energy supply needs, with a low-carbon transition plan delivering secure supplies until 2020. And waiting in the wings is David Cameron, whose plans for a "low-carbon transition plan" are indistinguishable from Miliband's fantasy..." Read in full
February 1 2010 ~ Ed Miliband's "reforms" will be in a document to be published in April called Roadmap to 2050, published with the 2010 Budget.
- See
The Times
today
"Labour prepares to tear up 12 years of energy policy". Ed Miliband is now saying that big reforms are essential to deliver the estimated £170 billion of investment to meet the government - s goals of huge carbon cuts.
-
"....He said that the changes were essential to help Britain to prepare for a doubling of electricity demand by 2050, driven by other policy objectives such as a growth of electric cars and a movr'om gas to electricity for heating.
A huge expansion of wind power is expected to have a big impact on the reliability of the national grid, which capacity payments could help to offset. Wind energy is intermittent and heavily reliant on back-up power generation for use when it is not blowing."
January 31st 2010 ~ "This company is not interested in Radnorshire, Powys or the environment and the impact it will create, what they are interested in is what the company will get out of it at the end of the day."
- So says one of the residents who has been fighting the Pentre Tump windfarm plan for seven and a half years. Next week they will find out if a windfarm will be built on a hill above their homes or whether their long challenge has been successful. As one says,
- "The turbines first reared their ugly heads in June 2002. Seven years ago we did lots of work; we produced leaflets and held exhibitions around the area and marches to the top of the hill and it just seems incredible that a decision day has come. I think it will damage the whole environment here; for the people living along the lane it has been hanging over them for almost eight years. I think people are relieved that a decision will be made and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the committee will make the right decision."
January 30th 2010 ~ Campaigners "over the moon"
- We hear that both appeals against Coronation Power (4 turbines) and Airtricity (9 turbines) along the southern fringes of Exmoor have been refused at appeal.
Congratulations are due to the tireless efforts of David Cocks QC and Bob Barfoot of the CPRE. The Two Moors Campaign was joined in this fight by both the CPRE and the Exmoor Society. We understand that "an amazing array of expert witnesses pulled off a wonderful job. We are over the moon!"
We hear too from Cumbria that the Inspector (see pdf file) has refused the Sillfield wind farm appeal close to the Armistead wind farm which is still under Judicial Review.
January 28th 2010 ~ Wind turbines by numbers
-
"The Government wants to built up to 6,000 new wind turbines on land over the next ten years.
At the moment there are more than 2,500 turbines onshore.
The turbines are around 300ft high
Onshore wind provides around 2.5 per cent of the country - s electricity needs The current limit for noise is 43 maximum decibels at night Campaigners want it reduced to 33 decibels at night" From an article in today - s Telegraph "Wind farms can cause noise problems finds study"
January 27 2010 ~ Ten wind turbines more than twice the height of Nelson - 's Column are set to appear on the horizon for Mersea residents.
- Grim news from www.gazette-news.co.uk
"A planning inspector has given the go-ahead for the wind farm at Bradwell, across the Blackwater Estuary from West Mersea.
Town mayor Peter Clements said the decision raised the prospect of islanders looking out on "nothing but power stations", with Bradwell a recommended site for one of the new generation of nuclear power stations currently being proposed by the Government.
The application from NPower Renewables had been refused by Maldon Council, but planning inspector Robert Mellor over-turned that decision after a public enquiry...."
January 26 2010 ~ Angela Kelly: "..there is a real opportunity to make your voice heard by making your points and comments"
- The Government has
published a draft set of National Policy Statements concerned with various large
infrastructure projects. Of these, No.3 is concerned with Renewable Energy including onshore wind farms (pdf file). There is a
deadline of February 22nd, so a quick response is needed if you are unhappy about any of the following:
- There is a section on "proximity to dwellings" which mentions "appropriate distances" but does not give any specific details of what might be appropriate.
- It claims that a wind farm of 25 years' life (with an option to "repower") is not to be considered permanent!
- It says that "there will always be significant landscape and visual effects" without saying that the wind farm should not be built if these are unacceptable.
- It states that ETSU-R-97 should be used for noise assessments without pointing out its multiple defects.
- it states that shadow flicker should be considered for a turbine within 10 rotor diameters of a house - where is the justification for this distance?
www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/home/responding/
January 26 2010 ~ "When large wind turbines are erected, some people living near them will find their lives disrupted. That wasn't supposed to happen here..."
- An extract from a news article from Maine (Portland Press Herald) which begins:
- "Cheryl Lindgren was excited when the three wind turbines down the road began turning in November, but within days her excitement turned to disbelief. The sound at her house, a half-mile or so away, wasn't what she had expected. As she sat reading in her quiet living room, she could detect a repetitive "whump, whump" coming from outside.
"I can feel this sound," she recalled thinking. "It's going right through me. I thought, 'Is this what's it's going to be like for the rest of my life?' "
....a sense of shock among some neighbors. They say the noise, which varies with wind speed and direction, ranges from mildly annoying to so intrusive that it disturbs their sleep. And they say they lament losing the subtle silence they cherish living in the middle of Penobscot Bay...
The folks living around North Haven Road aren't anti-wind activists. Lindgren and her husband, Art, supported the project as members of the local electric co-op.
But now the Lindgrens are discovering what residents in other communities, including Mars Hill and Freedom, have learned: When large wind turbines are erected, some people living near them will find their lives disrupted...The Lindgrens built their home 10 years ago next to Seal Cove. They have goats and ducks and heat with wood.
After much travel and a career in software development, the couple looked forward to a peaceful retirement. Instead, they now spend much of their time measuring sound levels, comparing notes with neighbors and learning the details of wind power.
."
January 25th 2010 ~ Campaigners who failed in their battle to stop a Northumberland wind farm say the council of made approval easy
- The Journal reports that the wind developer Catamount Energy has been given the go-ahead to put up six turbines 110 metres high at Barmoor near Berwick, even though proposals at nearby Moorsyde and Toft Hill have been thrown out. The Barmoor scheme had been opposed by hundreds of local people, led by action group Save our Unspoilt Landscape (SOUL) who put forward an expert witness to mount what it said was a "very strong" and "relevant" case on cultural heritage, but the council did not use the witness - and John Denham, the Communities Secretary, ruled that there would be "no significant effect on cultural heritage in the area".
Now, SOUL has claimed the council's "very disappointing" decision not to oppose the scheme on this ground made it easier for Catamount to win approval and argued it shows the authority had lacked commitment for the fight."
SOUL believes the council did not present such an objection as it would have cost the authority more in hire of expert witnesses. Read in full
January 24 2010 ~ "Wind farm subsidies top £1 billion a year" Sunday Telegraph
- The article shows that next month's annual report from Ofgem will show that the hidden levy which is part of a Government scheme to force energy companies to fund green energy has risen above £1 billion for the first time. The proceeds of the levy, known as the Renewables Obligation (RO), are divided between the main renewable energy sources, with wind receiving 40 per cent, landfill gas 25 per cent, biomass 20 per cent, hydroelectric 12 per cent and sewage gas 3 per cent.
Critics are saying that the subsidy scheme is being used to fund "unrealistic" plans to increase the use of wind power.
Dr John Constable, director of policy and research at the Renewable Energy Foundation, is quoted:
- "... Since the cost of the scheme is passed onto businesses as well as households, there will also be a significant impact on the economy. The Government's plans for wind are wildly unrealistic. Wind power is going to be very expensive, very difficult and ultimately very costly."
- "Consumers simply don't realise the cost to them of supporting the renewable energy industry. Not only is there a cost to consumers but there is a cost to businesses as well. So people will not only see the huge cost of the RO scheme in their household bills but also on the High Street, as they see shops put up prices to meet the rising cost of electricity. Subsidising wind farms is far too expensive, and the money could be better spent by investing in other forms of power."
Jan 22 2010 ~ Council votes to oppose wind farm
- Western Mail
"A Planning committee yesterday voted to lodge an objection to plans for the biggest wind turbines in Wales.
The planned Npower Renewables 19-turbine wind farm would be visible from the Brecon Beacons National park and the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Councillors also heard yesterday Npower Renewables accepted the turbines, almost as big as the London Eye, would kill some red kites, kestrels and golden plovers plus bats.
The objection by Swansea council to the development on land to the north of the city will be powerful evidence in a public inquiry on plans for the wind farm at Mynydd y Gwair Common later this year."
January 22, 2010 ~ Protesters' joy as wind turbine bid is rejected.
-
South Wales Evening Post
- "....Swansea planning chiefs firmly rejected the Mynydd y Gwair wind farm application.
All but one of the councillors present supported their officers' recommendation to object to the scheme - and then added further reasons.
However, developer RWE npower renewables lodged an appeal prior to yesterday's meeting because the authority took so long to "determine" the application, meaning it will be decided by an Assembly-inspector following an inquiry in July.
Councillors lined up to voice their opposition to the 19-scheme north of Felindre on traffic, disruption, visual impact and intermittent power-generating grounds, among others. They were told the wind farm would take 22 months to construct, require 88,000 tonnes of stone for nearly 14km of service roads, with 172 "abnormal" lorry loads needed to transport the 127m turbines to the site. The turbines would generate electricity for 28,100 average households, and have a 25-year life-span. Councillor Wendy Fitzgerald said her Penllergaer ward would suffer huge disturbance due to extra construction and installation traffic..."
- "This beautiful, virgin landscape will be turned into a building site. Is it really worth it? It is worth it for the developer and the landowner. Wind farms are heavily subsidised."
January 20 2010 ~ New Albion Wind Farm gets the green light. Wind turbines standing 100 metres tall are to be built between two county villages
- www.northantset.co.uk
"...Councillors last night approved developer Infinergy's plan to build seven wind turbines between Rushton and Pipewell.
Derek Booth, who has lived in a cottage 800 metres from the proposed site for 38 years, said: "I'm pleased they have taken the right decision.
"It's a decision of the future."
More than 70 people packed into Kettering Council chamber to hear the
controversial decision and councillors almost cleared the room on several occasions due to disturbances.
The decision was deferred in December because of a legal issue, but councillors followed planning officials' recommendation and approved the plan this time. Opponents including Rushton Parish Council, Wilbarston Parish Council and Northamptonshire Campaign to Protect Rural England raised concerns over the visual impact and noise levels. The council received 269 objections to the plans and 64 letters in favour." Bob King, chairman of the Rushton and Pipewell Action Group is quoted:
- "We are disgusted but there will be a judicial appeal. Kettering Council has handled it very badly. We are going to carry on fighting."
January 19 2010 ~ "In its submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs' investigation of Renewable Energy (2008), E.ON UK estimated that a back-up provision of over 90 per cent of the installed wind capacity would be needed."
- From a letter from Dr John Etherington last August in the Independent
- "Paradoxically, we shall have to build thermal power stations to allow the deployment of already very expensive wind turbines. These back-up power stations by definition will run below maximum output for much of the time and so cannot pay for themselves, nor can they pay off their energy and carbon dioxide capital as quickly as an ordinary station.
Until a proper independent cost-benefit study is made, mass destruction of countryside by wind power is being concealed under the parliamentary carpet.
Dr John Etherington"
January 19 2010 ~ "...as more wind farms are built, more back-up generation will be needed for when the wind does not blow, particularly during cold weather
- The Guardian reported yesterday that
almost 100 large power users had to switch to alternative sources when National Grid triggered clauses in their interruptible supply contracts during the snow and ice. "Ageing coal-fired power stations should be exempted from environmental regulations and kept open to stop the lights from going out, the chief executive of E.ON UK has urged the government."
- "... view is privately supported by many UK power station operators who fear a looming energy gap in a few years when old coal and nuclear plants have been closed but new reactors, clean coal plants and wind farms have not been built.
The idea puts the energy industry on a collision course with environmentalists, who are vehemently opposed to any continued use of coal in the energy mix. .....
Golby warned that as more wind farms are built, more back-up generation will be needed for when the wind does not blow, particularly during cold weather. E.ON's UK wind farms operated at only 16% capacity on average during this month's cold snap.
The E.ON UK chief said it was not economic to build new plants which would only be used occasionally but admitted that the plan would antagonise some environmentalists. "There is bound to be an environmental emotional response I guess. But if that was the only way that this quantity of wind can be built maybe it's a price that may be worth paying."
18 January 2010 ~ Letter: Sunday Telegraph
-
"SIR - Last week, there were ice-laden wind turbines idle in the still air, solar panels covered in snow, gas reserves down to eight days, and pensioners burning books to keep warm.
This is happening because politicians have been conned by anti-industrial greens into neglecting Britain's reliable and economical coal and nuclear generators, while wasting time and money on pointless climate crusades.
When this global warming madness passes, future generations will remove this derelict solar and wind infrastructure and return to the only reliable and economical electricity options - coal, gas, hydro and nuclear.
Viv Forbes
Queensland, Australia
January 15th 2010 ~ Unreliable ".. wind energy will remain just one element in Germany's energy mix." Der Spiegel
- In its look at renewables and how efficient each method is last month, Der Spiegel had to sound more than a note of caution After mentioning doubt about the effect on birds and wildlife of turbines:
-
Wind power, though, has a potentially bigger problem: It is unreliable. The wind doesn't always blow, and when it does, it sometimes blows too hard for the facilities to harness it. Furthermore, there is as yet no good way to store excess energy produced by wind power, meaning that if strong winds are blowing at a time when consumers are using little electricity, much is wasted.
In addition, the wind blows stronger in northern Germany whereas the most energy is consumed in the west and the south of the country. New power lines stretching across the country are necessary -- which will drive up costs for the consumer. As a result, wind energy will remain just one element in Germany's energy mix"
January 14th 2010 ~ Eishken giant windfarm approved on the Isle of Lewis
- Thewww.scotland.gov.uk website reports that "A 33 turbine, 118 Megawatt (MW) wind farm at Muaitheabhal in the
Western Isles, providing green electricity for 55,000 homes, nearly
four times the number of homes on the islands, has been given the go
ahead by Energy Minister Jim Mather."
January 14th 2010 ~ "our dismal record on renewables" - " a tidal lagoon in the Mersey would generate 650 GW of energy a year - much more than wind farms "
- In the exchange on Tidal Energy, (Hansard) Dr. John Pugh (Lib Dem) remarked,
- "given that something as modest as Peel Holdings' proposal for a tidal lagoon in the Mersey would generate 650 GW of energy a year - much more than wind farms - is it not time the Government got solidly behind such schemes, given our dismal record on renewables? We have had plenty of studies. We now need some action."
- "if we covered the windiest 10 per cent. of the country with windmills...we would be able to generate...half of the power used by driving an average fossil-fuel car 50 kilometres per day."?
Monday January 11th 2010 ~ "Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap"
- Telegraph today "The cold weather has been accompanied by high pressure and a lack of wind, which meant that only 0.2pc of a possible 5pc of the UK's energy was generated by wind turbines over the last few days.
Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), gave warning that this could turn into a crisis when the UK is reliant on 6,400 turbines accounting for a quarter of all UK electricity demand over the next 10 years.
He said the shortfall in power generated by wind during cold snaps seriously undermined the Government's pledge on Friday to build nine major new wind "super farms" by 2020.
"If we had this 30 gigawatts of wind power, it wouldn't have contributed anything of any significance this winter," he said. "The current cold snap is a warning that our power generation and gas supplies are under strain and it is getting worse." Read in full
January 14th 2010 ~ Lichfield's three-spired cathedral would be dwarfed by proposed turbine.
- See MP: Wind turbine plan 'a joke' in theLichfield Mercury which reports that Lichfield's MP, Michael Fabricant says of Severn Trent Water's plans for a wind turbine at its sewage works on the outskirts of Lichfield:
- "Conservation of the environment ought to be a balance between the need to conserve non-renewable energy sources while not destroying the immediate environment.
While near neighbours will be disturbed by the noise, Samuel Johnson's spires of Lichfield's cathedral and churches - which he named The Ladies of the Vale - as well as more recent constructions like the Armed Forces Memorial, will all be totally overshadowed by this incongruous and ill-placed construction."
January 14th 2010 ~ The Baillie Hill wind farm was given consent on 12th January 2010.
-
See ww.johnogroat-journal.co.uk.
Below is an extract from a letter addressed to the Minister, Mr Jim Mather MSP, From a "neighbour" of the Baillie wind farm.
- ... This proposed development is located slap bang in the middle of a community - and will ensure misery for all those in the vicinity and inability for any local to sell their home at a reasonable value and move. There are 61 homes within 2km, and 160 within 3km. Several hundred people will be affected. The only person who can now afford to move is the Developer.
Following Public Inquiry in March/April 2009, the Reporter's recommendation was received by ECU in August 2009, and the decision only published on 12 January. During the months awaiting a decision, New Zealand and Canada have become very aware of health problems for those who live in the vicinity of wind turbines, and indeed Canadians are now calling for a moratorium on further wind turbine construction following findings by an expert group. I would refer you to: http://www.windvigilance.com/awea_media.aspx
We have also seen published uncertainties regarding the ETSU-97 noise guidelines, which throw those guidelines into disrepute. These are the guidelines used to assess wind turbine noise. There have also been a number of accidents with operational wind turbines, including the documented throw of a piece of turbine blade in Norway over a 1.3km distance. Given how close the Baillie turbines are to houses, I am - frankly - disgusted that Scottish Government has chosen to put political targets ahead of public health and safety. .."
January 10 2010 ~ Et tu, Observer? "The government's new green initiatives are unlikely to come online fast enough to plug our growing energy gap"
- An emailer remarks today that
- "The Observer, along with its sister paper,The Guardian, has promoted wind power relentlessly for two decades.
Can it really be possible that they are at last beginning to see the light - or more likely,the lights go off - if we
continue to invest in wind power?"
- "The 'whole situation is very, very difficult and we have got to stop pretending we have got anything other than chaos." <>As the paper says, given that many older nuclear and coal-fired electricity plants will be scrapped over the next few years: "even if the £100bn wind-power revolution hailed by Brown and his colleagues is a stunning success, it will do nothing to alleviate a formidable short-term squeeze." Read Observer article (See also Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times. Also warmwell.com's pages on oil, wind power and other energy concerns.)
Jan 10 2010 ~ Energy supplies: "It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. It might happen this year, it might happen next year, but gas is a depleting resource and there will be a crisis at some stage"
- Roland Wessel, chief executive of StarEnergy, the UK's second largest onshore oil producer, is quoted here. He says no one foresaw the rapid decline in reserves that will see the UK shift to being an importer of 50 per cent of its gas this year and 80 per cent by 2018.
Unlike Mr Brown, Mr Wessel is seriously afraid that the UK will face a gas supply shortfall if it doesn'- t increase its storage capacity. StarEnergy has been developing onshore storage since 2000, but has been able to complete only one project owing to the time needed to navigate the tortuous planning consent procedures.
As for the government's claim that a £100 billion green revolution is underway, Christopher Booker's column in the Sunday Telegraph calls this pure "fantasy" and reminds readers that "a new study last week predicted (that electricity bills) will quadruple during this decade to an average of £5,000 a year. This would drive well over half the households in Britain into "fuel poverty".... the cost of the Climate Change Act alone has been estimated by our Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband at £18 billion every year until 2050 - a law that only three MPs in this Rotten Parliament dared oppose." (See also energy page and windfarms page)
January 10th 2010 ~ "Climate change: the true price of the warmists' folly is becoming clear"
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph warns that from the Met Office's mistakes to Gordon Brown's wind farms, the cost of 'green' policies is growing, that caving in to the climate change lobby
has been ruinously expensive and that the government's boasts about a £100 billion green revolution is pure fantasy
- "... There is no way we could hope to install two giant £4 million offshore turbines every day between now and 2020, let alone that they could meet more than a fraction of our electricity needs. But the cost of whatever does get built will be paid by all of us through our already soaring electricity bills - which a new study last week predicted will quadruple during this decade to an average of £5,000 a year. This would drive well over half the households in Britain into "fuel poverty".... the revelation that more than 90 per cent of the £2 billion cost of Britain's largest offshore wind farm project to date, the Thames Array, will go to companies abroad, because Britain has virtually no manufacturing capacity.... For years governments, including the EU, have been shovelling millions of pounds into the coffers of "green" lobby groups...
The bills for such follies are coming in thick and fast. Last winter's abnormal cold pushed Britain's death rate up to 40,000 above the average, more than the 35,000 deaths across Europe that warmists love to attribute to the heatwave of 2003. Heaven knows what this winter will bring. And remember that the cost of the Climate Change Act alone has been estimated by our Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband at £18 billion every year until 2050 - a law that only three MPs in this Rotten Parliament dared oppose. Truly have they all gone off their heads."
January 8th 2010 ~ "During yesterday's extraordinary chill, while the nation huddled by the gas fire, the wind turbines were motionless.
- The Times "...According to the British Wind Energy Association, we have about 4,000 megawatts of wind turbine capacity, representing about 5 per cent of Britain's installed power generating capacity. But yesterday, in the windless cold of January, our expensive wind turbines provided 0.1 per cent of our electricity.
Most of our power, about 80 per cent, comes from gas and coal and that will increase as the ageing nuclear power stations come offline. What incentives can the Government offer these energy companies to build exotic machines that work only with a following wind? How big must the carrot be for a utility to spend £500 million on a gas-fired power station that only works when Ed Miliband's low-carbon whirligigs are not spinning in the breeze?" Read whole article
January 8th 2010 ~ Energy Security. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is angry at "scaremongering"...
- Not noted for a capacity for irony, those at the Dept of Energy and Climate Change are, according to yesterday's Guardian, dismissive of suggestions that poor planning has left Britain heading towards an energy crisis. The reason why 100 factories and 4000 homes in southern England were left without power may be unclear at present - but one is tempted to ask how many gritter trucks could be paid for out of the salaries of climate change advisors.
Meanwhile the Times today announces that nine giant new wind farms - 6,000 turbines - are to be built in the seas around Britain - but less than 10 per cent of the £1.7 billion investment will be spent in Britain. Each megawatt of wind capacity will cost up to £3.1 million, compared with £1.5 million a decade ago, because of the fall in sterling and our growing reliance on imports. Component parts are expected to be made in Denmark or Germany since no major company is yet willing to commit to manufacturing them in Britain. (Vestas closed last Summer).
January 8 2010 ~ When the Wind Blows
- The Times article says, "The nine farms announced will generate enough electricity to power more than half of Britain's homes, but only when the wind blows..." The EUreferendum blog's headline that
all this is a "very,very sick joke" is hard to dispute.
- "We're peaking at 59GW and wind was supplying a pathetic 3.5 percent of installed capacity, delivering a mere
147MW just after midnight, or 0.3 percent of our total power requirement. Coal, on the other hand, was bashing out 48.3 percent while gas came in second place with 33.2 percent."
January 6 2010 ~ "A massive rethink on the cost of 'green energy' is taking place in Whitehall..."
- "...among senior regulators and industry, leading some to question whether the public will be prepared to pay increasingly high bills for the UK to become greener than most countries.
Officials at regulator Ofgem now privately admit that a report they issued only last year severely underestimates the cost of cutting carbon emissions by building a new energy infrastructure for the UK...new research from an energy-switching company that calculates £548 of the average household bill of almost £5,000 in 2020 would be to pay for the investments in nuclear and renewable energy.
This does not take into account payments to keep energy prices low for poorer people and grants for lagging and insulation for the fuel poor.
.." Financial Mail Jan2nd
January 5 2010 ~ " a not uncommon phenomenon in the UK - an almost total lack of wind."
- "And here we are again,"writes Richard North at eureferendum.blogspot.com "with the temperatures struggling to get above freezing and we have, effectively, a zero wind state - see below right." Writing about this week's launch of a "£100 billion green power revolution" (see below) he says,
- "these monuments to folly can no more deliver the goods when needed than can Mr Brown...With a theoretical capacity of 35 GW - but an actual load factor a third of that - this puts the construction cost at about ten times that of nuclear. And then there is the cost of the back-up generation.
There can be no greater monument to the folly of our current batch of leaders who are prepared to countenance this absurdly expensive and unreliable scheme, saddling us with massive costs which we can ill-afford to pay."
Jan 5 2010 ~ "errors and exaggerations such as that which is evidenced in the IPCC's defective graph do not inspire confidence in the reliability of the IPCC's scientific case"
- From the Open Letter to the IPCC's Chairman, Rajendra Pachauri by Lord Christopher Monkton (read pdf file in full)
- "Given this and other mistakes that an international body of this nature ought not to have made, and given your numerous and direct conflicts of interest that have, in our opinion, been insufficiently disclosed, we are also copying this letter to the delegations of the states parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with a request that you be stripped of office forthwith."
- "He is telling us all this because we need to be vigilant against the dark forces of denialism and scepticism which, like the Orcish hordes of Mordor, threaten in the coming year to trample all over The Shire and its peaceful, honest, vegetarian community of scientists, green activists, nurturing technocrats, and sweet, gentle, life-affirming carbon traders...."
January 4, 2010 ~ Windfarms threat to curlews
-
Daelnet
"Rare upland bird species like the curlew... are being driven from their traditional nesting sites by wind farms, according to research in Scotland.
Other species affected are buzzards, golden plovers and red grouse, say scientists from the Scottish RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage, who believe that the turbines act as "giant scarecrows" frightening birds and driving them away.
This news will cause anger in the Yorkshire Dales and many other hilly areas of Britain, which are threatened with a massive increase in onshore wind turbines......it sets a conundrum for the environment department Defra, which has a widely quoted public policy devoted to restoring the numbers of farmland birds which have been in decline for decades.
Some officials at Defra believe that a healthy wild bird population is a key indicator to the health of the local environment - yet others are pressing for more and more windfarms." Read in full
January 3 2010 ~ "Gordon Brown unveils £100bn wind farm gamble"
- The Sunday Times reports on the construction of nine enormous offshore wind farms "on parcels put up for auction by the Crown Estate, owner of the UK's territorial seabed. The sites will cost more than£100 billion to develop..." (Read article)
One comment: ".. All this offshore wind plant, thanks to its unreliability, will require at least 90% of back-up from mainly gas-fired plant onshore! Therefore, consumers and taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the extra back up plant as well as the wind plant, connection cables etc. These all require finite earth-sourced materials for their manufacture, including 'rare earth' minerals. How "sustainable" is that?" (And as the Independent reported yesterday, "... supplies of Chinese-produced terbium and dysprosium - irreplaceable elements of magnets used in the batteries of hybrid cars and wind turbines - are likely to be cut sharply in the coming months.")
January 3 2010 ~ "Scientific method has gone out of the window, to support a theory that looks more questionable than ever..."
- Both Christopher Booker and Richard North have, independently of each other it would seem, today written in national newspapers about the extraordinary miscalculations of the Met Office, with its expenditure of nearly £170million a year, 1,500 staff and its team of scientists "operating a £30million supercomputer capable of 1,000 billion calculations every second, with a carbon footprint the size of a small town."
In the Sunday Telegraph, Christopher Booker writes that
- "... the Met Office, Hadley Centre, the CRU, the IPCC - looks hopelessly compromised...Yet our politicians, from Gordon Brown and David Cameron down, are so in thrall to this new religion that they cannot see evidence staring them in the face..."
- "... From a technical body, the Met Office has now become the producer and purveyor of endless propaganda on climate change. Its latest production is an expensive, glossy, 20-page pamphlet.. packed with highly controversial and disputed assertions...delivered with the authority of a government agency as if they were unarguable fact."
What is becoming more and more evident is that the powerful climate change industry has become a juggernaut with so many political and financial eggs in its basket that its overturning would make a gigantic mess - unthinkable to those who have invested so much in it. Meanwhile, the determination to cover the countryside with giant turbines in the name of saving the planet, seems equally unstoppable.
January 1 2010 ~ The chairman of the IPCC has no qualifications in climate science at all and is personally involved in a vast number of organisations which stand to benefit from the IPCC's recommendations.
- (Earlier in December) Telegraph: ".... an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC 's policy recommendations.
These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in 'carbon trading ' and 'sustainable technologies ', which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year. ..."
Meanwhile, as today's Daelnet article says of hilly areas in the UK, they
- "... could soon be peppered by huge wind turbines which are grossly inefficient and make their living from subsides from the taxpayer rather than the wind."
December 31 2009 ~ "not allowed to publish his findings on the orders of the government.."
- In the debate column of Daily Mail (print edition only) on 28 December
the lead comment, from a David Stevens, Austhorpe, Leeds, writes of a scientist at the University of East Anglia whose
- "...job entails measuring and recording global weather conditions, including the average temperatures often spoken about by governments. He claims his department is one of four which analyses temperature across the globe.
He's not allowed to publish his findings on the orders of the government.
...He also stated that the average temperature today is lower than it was during the sixties. If this is true - and I'm sure he's telling the truth - why are we being led by our Government to believe that temperatures are rising?"
December 31 2009 ~ "the whole dishonest affair has been summarised as a promotional venture for the world 's fastest growing financial bubble, international carbon trading..."
- A letter from Dr John Etherington in the Western Mail today."...This will very soon to be a trillion-dollar money-maker for some of those very same key players who have stoked the fires of climatic warming and destroyed the credibility of climate science for that pot of gold which really is at the end of this rainbow.."
December 27 2009 ~ A turbine at the Fenner wind farm Madison County (USA) has toppled. No one yet knows how or why.
The tower is more than 200 feet long and the entire tower was separated from the concrete base.
The Cohoctonwindwatch website quotes Jill Van Allen, who lives across the street from the group of 20.
"I was turning over in bed and it sounded like a big clap of thunder. I was waiting to see the lightning through my bedroom window (but didn't)".
- Fenner Town Supervisor Russ Cary was notified by company officials at Enel North America, which owns the farm. He tells us Enel did not have any answers as to how it happened, but adds, the towers were built a distance away from homes for this very reason-that if they collapse, they won't do any harm.
December 16 2009 ~ "Whitehall's solution was to suppress that part of the report..."
-
"How can we be expected to believe any research-based report that has been through the busy, grubby hands of civil servants and politicians?"
asks an article in today's Independent
commenting on the quiet doctoring or "streamlining"
of report (see below) into the noise made by wind turbines and the effect on people who live near them.
Although commissioned by the government, its findings were not what the government wanted to hear. The proposed reduction in permitted noise was awkwardly large - so Whitehall's solution was to suppress that part of the report.
-
"Naturally, there was a cover-up. A request by the Den Brook Judicial Review Group to see early drafts of the report under the Freedom of Information Act was rejected by officials on the grounds the information was not in the public interest..."
December 14, 2009 ~ "giant wind turbines and the millions of euros behind them..... an eco-friendly image that seems above political reproach.."
- Dr John Etherington is quoted in this article from yesterday's New York Times, With Wind Energy, Opportunity for Corruption about the impact of government subsidies:
: "I'm not sure that the industry is regulated at all - let alone well regulated" Extract,
- "...The town of Santa Lucía Tirajana... yearlong investigation by the Guardia Civil... turned up irregularities in a plan to build a new wind park. Now the mayor, five town officials and two wind park developers are fighting criminal charges that include influence peddling, misuse of public office, misappropriation of land and bribery. The motivation? Up to €40 million in European Union subsidies....
The European wind association does not have a code of conduct for developers, though Mr. Kjaer, the chief executive, said it would have no trouble operating with one. The board of his association includes a representative from the National Italian Wind Energy Association. In November, Oreste Vigorito, the leader of the Italian association, was arrested in the Gone With the Wind case and accused of participating in an illegal scheme to collect European subsidies. Mr. Vigorito's lawyer says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
As long as wind energy benefits from generous subsidies, sometimes "easy money can be made in the sector and that can attract the unscrupulous," said Jason Wright, a Milan-based director of Kroll Associates, a risk security investigative firm, which has uncovered evidence of bribery and fraudulent environmental evaluations for Italian wind parks..."
December 13, 2009 ~ "even if it were practically possible for Mr Miliband to build his turbines, they would still only provide a tiny fraction of our electricity at no overall gain in carbon dioxide savings"
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph says that when asked by the fearless Jon Snow what would be the cost of all his measures to figh't clie change, Ed Miliband replied "an 8 per cent rise" in our energy bills. Yet Mr Miliband - s departmental website, says Booker, gives the estimated cost of his Climate Change Act alone as £18 billion a year, or £725 per household every year for the next 40 years. "That is 800 per cent more than the figure Mr Miliband was allowed to get away with claiming in front of the cameras."
-
'
"He then said we would all be able to hold the wo - s climate at bay by building 10,000 wind turbines and driving electric cars. Neither Snow nor the audience (which included a hapless Cockermouth bookseller who blamed the recent flooding of her shop on global warming) pointed out that, even if it were practically possible for Mr Miliband to build his turbines, they would still only provide a tiny fraction of our electricity at no overall gain in ca'n dioxide savings (because of the need for proper power stations to provide back-up when the wind isn - t blowing). Nor was Mr Miliband asked how all those cars would get their electricity - namely, through the national grid, from conventional power stations. Again, no savings.
' Mr Snow - s programme has won a reputation for exposing official cover-ups and for terrier-like grilling of ministers over facts they wish to hide. When it comes to global warming, however, it seems Channel 4 News is only too happy to let a minister have his head and to operate in a bewilderingly fact-light zone.
December 13, 2009 ~ Officials cover up wind farm noise report
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The Sunday Times reports that
- "O problems started three days after the turbines went up and they - ve ca'ed on ever since. It - s like having helicopters going over the top of you at times - on a bad night it - s like three or four helicopters circling around,
We abandoned our home. rent a house about five miles away - this is our fourth Christmas out of our own home. We couldn - 't sleep. It is torture - my GP describes it as torture. Three hours of sleep a night is torture."
December 9 2009 ~ "The sluggish turbine market and political opposition to large-scale wind development in the UK...."
- An article on the USwebsite earthandindustry.com reports on the pausing of production of turbines at the Colerado Wind Turbine plant owned by Vestas, the company that closed the plant on the Isle of Wight.
Some might regard the linking together of the words "opposition" and "political" as bizarre. People from all walks of life and every kind of political and non political leanings object to giant wind farms because they are inefficient, inhuman in scale, destroy the last wild and beautiful places - and decisions about them seem less and less democratic but rather skewed to support political ends and private profits.
December 1 2009 ~"...the wind industry trying to convince us that the only way to save the planet is to cover all of our wild uplands with machines "
- A customer review of
The Wind Farm Scam by John Etherington. (Amazon.co.uk)
- " it laid out in clear, easy to follow tables and charts the reason why we should stop building wind turbines today. Technical details which I have previously found hard to get to grips with were explained in plain language...
If all of our politicians read this book we might at last get a well balanced and realistic policy on energy for the UK. For too long we have been subjected to propaganda from the wind industry trying to convince us that the only way to save the planet is to cover all of our wild uplands with machines reminiscent of H G Wells 'War of the Worlds'
Please read it and come to your own conclusion. The government is advised on energy by the very people who stand to benefit from the subsidies. How can that be right?"
November 30 2009 ~ "accumulating evidence of adverse health effects from Japan, New Zealand, the UK, USA, and Canada."
- Dr Nina Pierpont's book, Wind Turbine Syndrome, is available and can be ordered online. From the blurb:
- "....There are also some 357 organizations from 19 European countries demanding an enquiry by the European Union about health and many other adverse effects of wind farms. At a minimum, the EU would be wise to consult with Dr. Pierpont..."
November 30 2009 ~ "...wind farms divide communities, ruin landscapes, affect tourism, make a minimal contribution to our energy needs and a negligible contribution towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions".The Duke of Northumberland
- The Telegraph today on how the Duke had repeatedly turned down bids by the wind power industry to erect turbines on his land.
-
"However, despite opposition from campaigners, two wind farms close to the Duke's 700-year-old family seat in Alnwick, Northumberland, have been granted planning permission...
In a letter to the Journal newspaper, the Duke explained.. he had remained silent on the issue because he did not want to be accused of double standards, as he and his forebears had developed mines, quarries, supermarkets and homes which had at times drawn local criticism.
But he had always privately opposed wind farms and wrote to let councillors know his thoughts."
November 28 2009 ~ " industrial wind is a bunco scheme of enormous consequence"
- Jon Boone's review of "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington points out yet again that
- "...A wind project with a rated capacity of 100MW, for example, with 40 skyscraper-sized turbines, would likely produce an annual average of only 27MW, an imperceptible fraction of energy for most grid systems. More than 60% of the time, it would produce less than 27MW and, at peak times, often produce nothing..."
November 25 2009 ~ "for most of the time its turbines are not turning.."
- Mrs. Jacqui Lait (Beckenham) (Con): " I feel desperately sorry for DEFRA, because nobody has mentioned that Department so far. It is lovely to see the Secretary of State here; he has sat patiently wondering if anyone will mention anything to do with the countryside. ... We have a wind farm on the Romney Marsh, although I am afraid that it is not taken terribly seriously because for most of the time its turbines are not turning. There is endless anecdotal evidence that wind farms have not been built quite correctly...."
Her contribution during yesterday's debate about how energy recources could be better utilised is worth reading.
On the subject of nuclear power she noted "...It does not take a great brain to work out that the consultation will not end before the general election. There is an immediate and built-in delay in the progress of national policy statements."
November 22 2009 ~ "saving the planet has risen steadily higher on the EU's agenda, as the perfect idealistic cause to justify more new laws..."
- says Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph, ".. from the landfill directive that has reduced our rubbish collection to chaos, to the legislation that forces us to encumber our countryside with useless wind turbines, and to use nasty, inefficient, mercury-filled light bulbs.
Still the one thing lacking, despite that 1992 proposal for a carbon tax, has been some way to harness this noble cause to provide an almost limitless source of money for the EU itself. How appropriate then that the coming into force of the EU's constitution should bring to power a man who wishes to see the EU funded entirely from taxes designed to save the world from global warming...."
November 21 2009 ~ the Inspector today dismissed the appeal by Tegni for 13 turbines at Gorsedd Bran, a hill just to the north of Llyn Brenig
- We hear that the village of Nantglyn is "over the moon".
The two main reasons were the effect of the turbines on views of Snowdonia from the top of Moel Famau, and the number of houses close by which would be affected by both visual intrusion and noise. We read in an email that:
- "I attach the Appeal Decision (pdf), which might give a few pointers to others.
By the way, Gorsedd Bran is firmly inside Strategic Search Area A. So it's not a foregone conclusion that anywhere inside an SSA is doomed! At the Inquiry, 4 local people spoke in favour, and 19 local people spoke against. That most certainly had a bearing on the result. "
November 21 2009 ~ "huge beasts ..will plant their feet all over our remotest regions - the infrastructure needed is expensive, intrusive and energy-consuming"
- From Charles Moore's article yesterday: " In Scotland, the proposed Beauly-Denny transmission line would send more than a hundred miles of new and enormous pylons through some of the most beautiful country there is. Near us in Sussex, when wind turbines were installed on Romney Marsh (overruling almost unanimous local objection, of course), each one required concrete foundations 116 feet deep. Concrete manufacture is the largest source of industrial carbon dioxide on the planet. According to the chief scientific adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, if onshore wind were to produce just a fifth of the power used per Briton per day - the equivalent of us each driving a fossil-fuelled car 25km every day - we would take up 10 per cent of our landmass and double the entire world fleet of wind turbines.
The phrase "carbon footprint" is well known. If we go ahead with wind power, huge beasts, the technological equivalent of the dinosaurs, will plant their feet all over our remotest regions. Also like the dinosaurs, they will fascinate future generations, by their weird size, and by the fact that they have become extinct."
November 20 2009 ~ "whatever the formal process of local objection, government is desperate for wind power. And what government wants, government usually gets."
- From Charles Moore's Telegraph article
-
"....an interesting example of the great wind debate. The Lammermuirs are very beautiful, with lots of upland birds such as curlew, wheatear and golden plover. They are also unusual, because this wild space is extremely close to Edinburgh.
At Fallago Rig there, North British Windpower and the Duke of Roxburghe, who owns the land, want to put up 48 wind turbines, 120 metres high. Against the duke are all the local community councils, the Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, and, piquantly, another duke, the Duke of Northumberland, who, like Roxburghe, has a grouse moor there. The Ministry of Defence also objected, because the wind farm would interfere with its radar, which defends the neighbouring Torness nuclear power station.
Last year, an inquiry found against the wind farm, but the Scottish executive refused to publish the inquiry's report. The objectors discovered, almost by accident, that the Reporter had sustained the objection about radar. The Scottish executive, desperate to push for its targets, put pressure on the MoD, and the objection was quietly withdrawn. The executive eventually agreed to have a reopened inquiry, but with the same Reporter, on the issue of radar alone, making approval of the wind farm inevitable.
This ploy has now failed. Under threat of judicial review, the Scottish executive has had to widen the scope of the inquiry to include environmental factors. Meanwhile, the Scottish Borders Council accuses Roxburghe Estates of starting to develop the site without waiting for permission, which they deny.
I do not know if the developers are indeed jumping the gun, but it would be rational for them to do so, because what emerges from this case - and from many others - is that, whatever the formal process of local objection, government is desperate for wind power. And what government wants, government usually gets. When I talked to North British Windpower, they were eloquent on how the present generation had a duty to the next. Wind power, they said, will fill a gap of energy over the next 20 years while other forms of renewables are developed.... .... I began this column by questioning predictions. But now I shall be rash enough to make one. We shall not meet any of these targets. Within a few years, we shall have to seek EU derogations to allow our old coal-fired stations to stay open longer, just to keep the lights on. We shall not be the jolly green giant of Europe, but the dirty old man..."
November 18 2009 ~ "We now await with anguish the outcome of that inquiry while looking out day in day out on the cherished landscape we have fought to protect..."
- A comment on the Farming Today website from a listener called Clare Dakin She
thanks the programme
- "for allowing John Henderson to articulate so well the feelings of many landowners.
We too turned down the opportunity to make a small fortune by allowing wind turbines on our farm in north Northumberland. We thought about it, about the heritage assets on our farm and quickly realised that our obligations as stewards of the landscape far outweighed the personal gain available not to mention the lack of evidence that onshore wind farms provide any contribution to the overall CO2 emission reduction agenda. However several neighbours went ahead leaving a small community to find hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the cost of putting the opposition case to a 6 week public inquiry into 3 locally refused schemes.
It was essential that we did so because the local authority is so lacking in funding that there was no assurance that they would be able to fund a case at inquiry! It has been a deeply distressing and exhausting experience for many of us also trying to hold together our business and family lives in the meanwhile.
We now await with anguish the outcome of that inquiry while looking out day in day out on the cherished landscape we have fought to protect from this cynical political game."
November 18 2009 ~ "UK ministers and their civil service advisors do not appear to comprehend the nature of these basic technical problems and are continuing blindly to promote windpower on land and sea."
-
Also emailed to BBC Farming Today by Alan Shaw DEng(Hon) BSc CEng MIET
Extract:
- "...It is quite obvious that the wayleave rentals per wind turbine are an offer that few farmers can resist accepting. Also the developers, who retain the ownership of the wind turbine, obtain huge profits from the electricity they sell to the National Grid. Neither farmer nor developer can lose. Thus support for the government's windfarm promotion policy is assured.
Unfortunately wind turbine output is entirely dependent on wind speed , unpredictable, variable and strongest in the far north and west of Scotland while the UK main demand for electricity is below a line between the Humber and the Bristol Channel. Thus huge costs are incurred in building new overhead and underground transmission lines and in reinforcing relevant existing lines to convey outlying wind power to demand centres.
But UK total demand for electricity in the whole UK system must be balanced exactly by generation at every second of the day. A shortfall causes system frequency, normally maintained at 50 cycles per second , to fall, slowing down electric motors nationally. Excess generation causes frequency to rise causing motor overspeed.
Beyond a certain point either eventuality can destabilise the grid causing wind turbines and power stations to trip out, An extreme case can cause national black out...we are heading into an unprecedented situation in which, due to lack of government generation planning, this could be a daily occurrence over many years.
...every wind turbine must be "backed up" by construction of dedicated fully controllable fossil fuelled turbine of nearly equivalent capacity whose capital cost must be added to that of the wind turbine..."
November 2009 ~ "current knowledge indicates that there should be precautionary avoidance of locating wind farms in all important bird areas and/or migration routes"
- An important paper Impact of wind turbines on birds in Zeebrugge
(Belgium)
Significant effect on breeding tern colony due to collisions
Joris Everaert Æ Eric W. M. Stienen
Received: 18 April 2006 / Accepted: 12 June 2006
- "....
An exhaustive study before the selection of future wind farm locations is a key
factor to avoid deleterious impacts of wind farms on birds. In general, current
knowledge indicates that there should be precautionary avoidance of locating wind
farms in all important bird areas and/or migration routes."
Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Kliniekstraat 25, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium
November 16 2009 ~ "He actually came close to admitting that turbines, with their "intermittent wind" (this sounded like a much-loved but elderly dog that lies in front of the fire turning the air in the sitting room foul) were a waste of time and money."
- Simon Hoggart's Sketch in the Guardian last Tuesday
after listening to the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, explaining that after only 12 and a half years delay, the government was going to speed up the planning process for lots more nuclear power stations. "It was, we gathered, an emergency. If we didn't get the power stations, the lights would start going out.."
- "...But these monstrosities have never been there to provide quantities of clean power. Turbines are the cathedrals of the green religion, huge, vastly expensive and largely useless symbols of faith. However, unlike wind turbines, most cathedrals are beautiful. Except Guildford, of course."
November 16 2009 ~ "A report has exposed the true costs of wind generated electricity"
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Eugene Henderson in the Sunday Express yesterday:
- "The Government's renewable energy strategy is in tatters after a report exposing the true costs of generating electricity by wind power.
An internal document from the National Grid, seen by the Sunday Express, says wind turbine energy will at times cost over 3,000 per cent more than conventional power.
Industry experts say over-reliance on wind power could mean fuel poverty for consumers, as older power plants reach the end of their working lives while Britain's new generation of nuclear stations is still a long way off completion. Some experts claim the cost of upgrading the nation's electricity grid - so it is possible to use all the renewable energy- could be £250 billion or 10 times the Government's estimates...."
November 15 2009 ~7,000 wind turbines by 2020? This will involve building 2 giant wind turbines a day, including Saturdays and Sundays, for the next ten years.
- Professor Phillip Stott's Blog is a breath of unpompous fresh air. Here he is on the subject of Ed Miliband's Energy and Climate Change White Paper in July
- "...for the next ten years, an impossibility. And the projected cost ... it also emerged that the renewable energy strategy is likely to add £200 to the average household's utility bills. The strategy paper will say Britain needs to spend more than £100 billion on renewable energy infrastructure by 2020, including 7,000 wind turbines. This money will come from a levy on energy bills, which will have to rise by about 20%." Splendid! It is rubbish on stilts. The emperor has no clothes...."
- "But why do you not go back to your older and better ways?"
"Our Great Leaders, The Grodonbrun and Decameron, prevent it, Sir. They tax us even more heavily if we seek to use aught but wind - and straw for our little homes. Sir, I beg you not to stay or to tarry. They are surely mad, for they believe that they can rule the wind and the weather. You should go and use the wind at sea for sail, and not partake of our toil on and. Sail at once, Sir, for, if the Milibandians come, they will surely set you to the poles for ever and a day."
November 14 ~ Huge wind farm in New Zealand turned down because fears of dangerous man-made global warming were not supported by the evidence and there were no grounds to build it to "fight climate change".
- It is interesting to see that a judgement in New Zealand has revoked consent for Project Hayes, a 630 MW wind farm proposed for an upland plateau in
the South Island.
Seeveral groups had appealed on the grounds that it would destroy an area of outstanding natural beauty while a businessman appealed on the grounds that it was seriously uneconomic compared to alternative generation and that, because fears of dangerous man-made global warming were not supported by the evidence, there were no grounds to build it to "fight climate change". See more detail.The 350 page judgement was delivered after nine months of deliberation by the Court. For New Zealand at least, this decision may well impact on all other wind farm proposals.
November 13 2009 ~ Artists against windfarms. "I, like many others, remain completely unconvinced about what difference these wind farms will make..." Tom Hutton
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Tom Hutton, an award winning photographer from Mid Wales, has joined other artists in speaking up for the Cambrian Mountains. Here, he writes
- "Anything that compromises the skyline or the tranquility of this area would be nothing short of vandalism. Doing this purely because it's an uninhabited region with no residents to stand up for it is, in my opinion, underhand cowardice.
As a conservationist, I am only too aware of the need for renewable energy, and if there were no other options, I'd understand the need to build these huge turbines in some of our most precious countryside. But there are other options and I, like many others, remain completely unconvinced about what difference these wind farms will make. It's time that our government looked at real solutions in both the production of energy, and more importantly, in the reduction of our usage of energy." Tom Hutton
November 12 2009 ~ "The proposal is located within the Forest of Bowland Area of Natural Beauty (AONB)"
- An application for 20 turbines, each 415 ft high is under consideration. Such a windfarm would dominate the Lower Lune Valley that runs up into Cumbria from North West Lancashire. The proposal is located within the Forest of Bowland Area of Natural Beauty (AONB) See application
This application is 6km INSIDE the Forest of Bowland AONB. Objectors are given 21 days only in which to respond - that is by December 1st. Emails can be sent to dcconsultationl@lancaster.gov.uk (Your name must be provided but do not include any telephone numbers. It is best to send your comments as an attachment so that your email address is not published but your postal address should be provided.) (View Non-Technical Summary of the windfarm proposal.)
Together with the 9 turbines in Scoping from E-ON, the scene from Lancaster to Kirkby Lonsdale will be permanently affected if the proposal is accepted.
November 11 2009 ~ Thou shalt not take the name of climate change in vain!
- We read on www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com/ that the film of BAFTA-nominated documentary maker, David Graham Scott, has been banned by the BBC because, according to the BBC, it shows a lack of impartiality about wind farms.
Scott is quoted:
- "This was not meant to be a political film. It is more about the impact of modernity on an ancient landscape where people are having to cope with the modern world.
I don't have a problem with the BBC's impartiality guidelines, but I think my film has been misinterpreted. I wouldn't want to alter the film to get it broadcast as that might ruin it."
November 9 2009 ~ The UK's so-called Britannia Project is looking precarious.
- The problem, of course, is money. While onshore turbines only generate the energy of which they are capable for an average of a quarter of the time and need costly electric backup, offshore windfarms are considered a little more efficient and do at least avoid the worry about dependency on foreign energy. However, one with a capacity of 3 gigawatts will cost more than £10 billion to build - twice the price estimated three years ago. In addition, bringing the power ashore needs hundreds of miles of undersea cable, at an estimated cost of another £15 billion. And what of breakdowns? Andy Cox, energy partner at KPMG, is quoted in the Sunday Times:
- "The hostile environment that awaits these projects must be a real concern to investors. Even in the more benign onshore wind sector, there have been numerous problems with gearboxes and blades failing."
Ofgem, the regulator, recently warned that annual household energy bills - today about £1,100 - could increase to £2,000 by 2016.
Warned by the wind industry that Britain's wind energy revolution would die without more, the government responded by increasing the subsidy by a third - but within weeks, costs for turbines, cables and other equipment rose by a similar amount.
Whatever the truth about the need to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, it is hardly surprising that voices are raised to say the money would be far better spent on making sure household energy efficiency is improved.
Instead, the government is throwing more and more money at the ever more voracious windmills.
November 8 2009 ~ Dr John Etherington's letter to the Western Telegraph
-
Wind power paradox
9:30am Saturday 7th November 2009
- ..."
Pembroke Design director Gareth Scourfield described the Wear Point wind turbines as the "right thing in the wrong place" (Objections to wind farm bid, Western Telegraph, October 28th).
As the author of the recently published book The Wind Farm Scam, I query Mr Scourfield's understanding of the situation.
One of the UK's major wind power operators, EON UK, submitted evidence to a House of Lords select committee in 2008, pointing out that wind power needs backup from conventional fossil-fuelled power stations equal to about 90% of the wind installed capacity.
In other words, once we have a lot of wind power, the paradox is that we have to build extra power stations to support it.
.."
November 8 2009 ~ "There are hundreds of thousands of people who are opposed to windfarms who can only benefit by acquiring a copy of this book. "
- An email just read: "On a personal note I have sold over 40 copies in my local area in the last 2 weeks. I can only urge others to do likewise -
I guarantee that people will buy them.
Stacey-International (020 7221 7166), the publishers, will supply a minimum order of 10 copies at £5-99 each plus postage...or see the book at Amazon.co.uk
.... doubters understand that they are subsidising the UK wind industry to the tune of almost £1.5 million per day See the website http://www.swindlefarms.com extract:
- "...every megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity generated by a windfarm costs us approximately £50 in subsidies. In the financial year ending March 2009 this worked out at £1.2 million per day. The story doesn't end there because the electricity is then sold for approximately £50 per MWh, thus making wind generated electricity double the cost of that from normal sources. The criminality of this system beggars belief, particularly when you consider that there are now more than 6 million households in the UK suffering from fuel poverty. Surely this money would be better spent helping them..."
November 6 2009 ~ Petition
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We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to set up an independent working party of acousticians and medical experts to fully explore the problems of wind turbine noise and the health consequences as ETSU-R-97, the measurement presently used, is invalid and does not protect our communities from unbearable noise pollution. More details
November 5 2009 ~ "Rural rejecters of wind power aren't bumptious bumpkins, says Adrian Snook. We are asserting our rights as consumers and voters"
- Guardian
- ".....The notion that commercial electricity providers would be able to win large-scale public support for inland wind projects was completely misconceived. As a starting point, organisations that make vast fortunes from producing carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power stations are not well positioned to lecture voters on saving the planet. Moreover, power suppliers are widely distrusted by most consumers as a result of windfall profits and a history of dubious doorstep sales practices....
It was clear from the outset that Labour's hugely ambitious plans for inland wind power would involve forcing through the most visible and controversial changes in rural land use since the Enclosure Acts. It was entirely predictable that this would create deep waves of social and political anxiety, yet nothing was done to calm the legitimate fears of rural people.....
.... As the polls suggest, most rural voters remain in favour of renewable energy and even wind turbines, providing it is clear that these are planned in the national interest and are not simply a cynical scheme to line the pockets of big business...... In the end, politicians cannot blame the electorate for their own mistakes."
October 14 2009 ~ To: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Call for a Moratorium on Proposals to site Wind Farms in Sensitive Areas
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(For signatories: in signing this you accept that this petition will be copied to the following agencies: UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Countryside Agency, Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature, Environment and Heritage Service Northern Ireland, Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage. This bracketed text will be removed before the petition is printed and posted.)
".....We welcome the concern that the RSPB has demonstrated, and the many objections it has lodged, about proposals for the erection of wind farms in areas where significant bird and other wildlife populations and habitats are likely to be adversely affected. We also support the aim to increase the usage of a broad mix of effective forms of renewable energy, offering long-term potential for the production of clean energy with minimal impact on the environment. However, on the issue of wind farms, it is our view that the RSPB should initiate urgent action in order to wholly fulfil its traditional and primary objective of the protection of birds. The RSPB's stance on the core of the windfarm debate does not go far enough...." Read petition
October 11 2009 ~ "There was one bright side - as soon as the blade snapped off the TV signal instantly improved and I could see all my programmes properly again."
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The
Telegraph yesterday reported that a
wind turbine in Sheffield has been broken by the wind - for the second time in 15 months.
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"...Manufacturers of the 190ft high turbine, one of three owned by Sheffield University, are now investigating the damage at the site.... residents who live close to the site at Catcliffe, near Rotherham,
have expressed fears that they could pose a danger to local people.
Martin Oldfield said : "I'm worried about them from a safety point of view as they are quite close to the road and a supermarket where a lot of people go. There are workmen up there now starting work on repairing it but now that it's happened a second time clearly there is a serious issue. There was one bright side - as soon as the blade snapped off the TV signal instantly improved and I could see all my programmes properly again."
October 10 2009 ~ We live in a "very, very strange world" now
- A campaign costing £6 million has produced a film shown first last night in the prime ITV1 slot during Coronation Street.
Ministers are worried that people will resent "carbon-reducing policies" such as higher energy bills and the advertisement's evident aim is to make parents feel guilty. It shows a father telling his daughter a bedtime story of "a very very strange" world with "horrible consequences" for today's children. Joan Ruddock, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, is quoted in the Times
- : "The survey results show that people don't realise that climate change is already under way and could have severe consequences. With over 40 per cent of the UK's C02 emissions a result of personal choices, there is huge potential for individual behaviour change to lower emissions."
- "It is straight out of Orwell's 1984: an attempt to control with images of a perpetual war against something, in this case climate change."
Oct 10 2009 ~ Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and the Tory energy spokesman Greg Clark have both said they would protect the Lake District's landscape from windfarm proliferation.
- Westmorland Gazette
"....
They spoke out after ...
Prof David MacKay, the new chief scientific advisor at the Department of Engergy and Climate Change, warned Britain could begin running out of power within seven years because new energy sources were not being built fast enough.
... Mr Clegg told The Westmorland Gazette
"I know how committed people in South Lakeland are to creating renewable energy - but the focus must always be on energy generation that is suited to each local area," he said.
"
We will protect the historic landscape of the South Lakes and will not allow it to become industrialised. What Cumbria needs is an ambitious programme to make sure that its hydro and tidal energy potential is properly tapped.
Meanwhile, Mr Clark, the Conservative Shadow Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, told the Gazette that under a Tory government windfarms would not be imposed on South Lakeland against local democratic wishes. In what amounts to a criticism of a planning inspector's decision to approve the Armistead windfarm at Old Hutton after it was rejected by local planners, he said: "While I support the need for renewable energy - including both onshore and offshore wind - I believe that such developments should be fully subject to the planning decisions of the communities in which they would be sited." ... South Lakeland has just one operating windfarm at Lambrigg, with construction of the second, Armistead, yet to get under way. "
Oct 6 2009 ~ "We are aware that wind farms are not the solution to CO2 emissions in the UK and we are not convinced by the misinformation put out by the wind industry and the government."
- Part of a letter posted to Feedback, following Any Questions on Sunday:
- "...If wind energy is so good, why the need to deceive? Why do developer's visualisations always minimise the impact on the landscape? Why the need for the unnecessary and misleading claims that a particular development will save so many tons of CO2 and will power so many thousands of homes, when it is obvious that it cannot do that when the wind is not blowing. Why are we not told the full story about government incentives and subsidies? Why does the industry deny that there is a real problem with noise from wind farms?
Why does Denmark, which has the highest number of turbines per capita of population in the world, also have the highest domestic electricity prices (although heavily subsidised), and yet at the same time produce more CO2 per capita than the UK?
We oppose the destruction of the landscape for little benefit to either the UK or the planet. That is not NIMBYism..."
Sept 30 2009 ~ "We are asking for a moratorium on the construction of windfarms...the current policy is unsustainable, unbearable, and unfair."
- There has been an international protest march to save Mont-Saint-Michel from windfarms. Jean-Louis Butré, president of Fédération Environnement Durable (FED) and European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW), declared to the press is quoted here: "we are asking for a moratorium on the construction of windfarms...the current policy is unsustainable, unbearable, and unfair. For the first time, we address the President of France. If he maintains his windfarm policy, he will bear the historical responsibility of the massacre of the French landscape."
On the banners exhibited by the demonstrators one could read words like: "Monsieur Sarkozy, your machines devastate the country", or "developers have become predators", and "France is not for sale".
Sept 30 2009 ~ Published today "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington
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"INDEPENDENT MINDS
• Pits common sense against the politically correct
• Challenges received wisdom with the hidden facts
• Confronts the 'dire inevitable' with the viable alternative"
Press release extract: "Publication of "The Wind Farm Scam" comes at a crucial time, as our government appears determined to confront public opposition to deployment of wind power. Just a few months ago Energy Secretary Ed Miliband publicly stated "It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines . . ." and more recently Huw Irranca-Davies, DEFRA minister for marine and natural environment, supported the fast-tracking of wind power through the planning system by allowing developers to finance local projects. Such action is contrary to the government's own 2007 policy set out in "Delivering Community Benefits from Wind Energy Development: A Toolkit" which contained the categorical statement that: "To put it simply, planning permission cannot be 'bought'.
Despite the government's statement that 81% of people are in favour of wind power and that 62% would be happy to live within 5 km of a wind power development, media polls have recently shown a consistent 70% to 90% of people opposing local wind farm development. (See also blog comment by Cllr Paul Robinson in Yorkshire)
Sept 24 2009 ~ Danish consumers "paid huge additional charges on their electric bills for almost three decades, based on an ideological desire to promote the development of wind turbines."
- See cphpost.dk
".....The government's ally, the Danish People's Party, welcomed the proposal, pointing out that the subsidies had cost residents and electric companies billions of kroner.
Party group chairman Kristian Thulesen Dahl said consumers had paid huge additional charges on their electric bills for almost three decades, based on an ideological desire to promote the development of wind turbines.
"When the current energy agreement expires in 2012, we expect a new agreement will be reached where support for onshore wind turbines is phased out."
Sept 20 2009 ~ " the green and pleasant land itself, or what remains of it has never needed more protecting"
- James Lovelock said recently
- "The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due.."
- "..a new quango - created, symbolically, by the unelected Lord Mandelson- may usher in the biggest change to the landscape in our lifetime.
...the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) ..was stealthily slipped into last year's Planning Act without anyone realising how vast would be its power to drive a steamroller through the checks and balances of the current planning system... wind-farm developers are constantly being delayed, or even thwarted, by challenges from local objectors and conservation groups such as the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. So ministers have set up the IPC to wrest large-scale planning decisions - not just about big wind farms, but motorways, airport expansions, power stations, waste-treatment plants and big housing estates - away from local councils and independent inspectors, and instead to decide such matters according to "national policy" In other words, in line with what the Government wants. And what it wants is a vastly increased spread of those unlovely wind turbines across the landscape."
Sept 13 2009 ~ "multiple night time background noise of the rotor blades.. ruined her life"
- From Sleaford Standard - 10 September 2009
- "People left a public meeting anxious and frustrated having struggled to find out more information about a proposed wind farm at Heckington Fen, near Sleaford.
Project developers Andrew Muir and Jamie Baldwin for Ecotricity attended a public meeting at Heckington Village on Monday night called by the parish council as a fact finding exercise for all parties about the proposed 50MW-plus wind farm on land at East Heckington, to the east of Sidebar Lane.
Feelings ran high as people demanded answers on the specifics of the wind farm but Mr Muir insisted that until more thorough investigations, consultations and tests had been carried out he could not say for certain how many wind turbines could be installed there. He estimated a maximum of 30 turbines, measuring 100m to the tip of the rotor blade, of a similar size to those already installed at Bicker Fen...." Read in full
September 11 2009 ~ New adviser blames the public for energy shortfall
- The BBC reports today that the government's new energy adviser, a researcher from Cambridge called David MacKay, blames the public because they keep "objecting to energy projects".
Blaming the public seems a novel way to view the looming threat of blackouts. By 2015, nine oil and coal-fired power plants and four nuclear power plants will close. By 2020 the UK will be importing between 45 per cent to 70 percent or more of its energy. Given the global recession, Government plans for wind, wave and solar to supply 40% of the country's power by 2020 are optimistic to say the least. James Lovelock's recent comment puts all the political hot air on the subject into perspective:
- "The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism..There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas...Let us be proud to be nimbys, our backyard is the countryside and that is the face of Gaia."
Sept 8 2009 ~ "For many people, ill-judged actions that can mop up billions of pounds for no predictable outcomes are far more frightening than any "global warming". "
- Letter in the Times
Sir, Lord May of Oxford is misguided (report, Sept 7 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6823909.ece when he castigates the BBC for abandoning Planet Relief and for thus not participating in Energy Saving Day (E-Day). For once, Aunty displayed wisdom in grasping that, whatever one's view of climate-change science, the choices to be made are essentially political and economic, and that these are highly contested, involving adaptation or pseudo-control, punitively high costs, retrogressive and retrospective taxes and near-impossible international agreements.
For many people, ill-judged actions that can mop up billions of pounds for no predictable outcomes are far more frightening than any "global warming".
Emeritus Professor Philip Stott
Gravesend, Kent
Sept 7 2009 ~ "THE WIND FARM SCAM" by Dr John Etherington
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should be on the book shelves late next week (13-19 Sept).
It is being launched as the first of a series entitled "Independent Minds" which will also include
THE BIOFUELS DELUSION and THE FACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE.
" Independent Minds" will present the findings and conclusions of distinguished
scientists and scholars whose voices have been marginalised by the fashionable
but muddled clamour of accepted wisdom on the major issues of our troubled planet.
"Wind power is a swindle...Please read this book and find out why" David Bellamy OBE For more details go to http://www.stacey-international.co.uk/v1/index1.asp and click the book-cover to get to ordering page. It is also on Amazon
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The Wind Farm Scam
John Etherington
"The spectre of global warming and the political panic surrounding it has triggered a goldrush for renewable energy sources without an open discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each. In The Wind Farm Scam Dr Etherington argues that in the case of wind power the latter far outweigh the former. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what's more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the inefficacy of wind power there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape, which wind turbines entail. Dr Etherington argues that wind power has been, and is being, excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been consulted, nor informed that this effective subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support."
Sept 6 2009 ~ Wind farm threat to Wales' national bird
- Wales on Sunday
An energy company has admitted precious Red Kites are at significant risk from its planned new wind farm complex in South Wales.
Now, campaigners against the controversial proposal in the Swansea Valley say they will prosecute npower renewables under the Wildlife and Countryside Act if the farm goes ahead and Red Kites - dubbed Wales' National Bird - are chopped up in turbine blades.
The soaring hawks were so prevalent centuries ago, Shakespeare called London "a city of Red Kites and crows"...
Sept 6 2009 ~ Unmasked: the landowner set to make millions from Moray wind farm
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"A landowner worth £237 million with a chequered past is set to make a killing from hosting one of Scotland's most controversial wind farms, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
Christopher Moran, a self-made financier from London with links to the Conservative Party, owns the 40,000-acre Glenfiddich and Cabrach estate on Speyside, south of Dufftown. A plan to build 59 wind turbines on the estate is due to be considered by Moray Council at the end of this month.
Moran has been reprimanded for business misconduct in the past, and his estate has one of the worst records for wildlife crime in Scotland. Yet now he stands to make more than £20m from the wind farm over the next 25 years. The revelation has provoked an angry response from national campaign groups and local residents. They accuse Moran of having "his nose deep in the renewables trough" and of neglecting his estate....
The wind farm, known as Dorenell, is being developed by the Dutch company, Infinergy. It has been opposed by a powerful coalition of local businesses, including two whisky distilleries, William Grant & Sons and Glenfarclas, as well as the famed shortbread makers, Walkers of Aberlour.
The Cairngorm National Park Authority has also strongly objected to the development, which is 2.2 kilometres outside the park boundary. It is concerned about the wind farm's impact on the landscape and the dangers it poses to eagles.....
Moran did not response to requests for comments last week. But the developer, Infinergy, argued that the Dorenell wind farm would bring substantial benefits to the local community.
The company has promised to set up a fund to provide £354,000 a year for local projects over 25 years...."
Sept 1 2009 ~"Although the council has received more than 40 letters objecting to the scheme and only three in favour, it is expected to be recommended for approval by Aberdeenshire councillors by the end of this month."
- From the Independent
- ".....Controversial plans to build a wind farm on a remote hillside in north-east Scotland has provided a classic example of the difficulties surrounding the Government's plans to increase Britain's renewable energy sources. Accusations of foul play, misinformation, environmental destruction and dirty tricks have abounded in a fight over the siting of 21 turbines, each as large as a 30-storey block of flats, close to the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road.
Renewable Energy Services (RES) plan to invest £15m in the construction of the turbines, each 78 metres high, on the Hill of Bainshole and nearby Play Hill, in the Glens of Foudland, near Huntly in Aberdeenshire. When fully operational RES claims it will produce enough power to supply more than 11,350 homes in the towns of Huntly, Inverurie and Turriff....Earlier this week the Government launched an initiative to encourage farmers and landowners to allow small wind farms to be developed on their property so that Britain can meet its target of producing 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010....
...an organisation called Country Guardian, which was established 10 years ago "to oppose the inappropriate development of commercial wind farms on our finest coasts and hills and to promote conservation of energy". Angela Kelly, the chairwoman of the organisation, said:
- "Wind farms do far more harm to the environment and communities than good. They exist on hill-tops as symbols so local politicians can be seen to be 'green' and doing something to combat global warming. These people are not environmentalists, they are not green, they are the least green people you can imagine. They are businessmen with only one aim in life and that's to make as much money as quickly as possible. These turbines divide communities wherever they go,"
August 24 2009 ~ "Conservation Banking" - buying off those who want to say "No"?
- The Sunday Times article by Tricia Holly Davis yesterday, "Objectors to wind farms to be bought off", explained how DEFRA "ministers", (or Huw Irranca Davies in particular) consider that planning objections to wind farms can be overcome by ".. financing local environmental programmes, such as improving wildlife habitats."
- "People respond to financial incentives so, if there's a way for the local community to earn money from conservation banking, then it might help get more projects approved."
In 2001, farmers' objections to the mass culling of their livestock were softened by excessive "compensation" payments. These were at least more substantial than lightweight arguments that all was done "on the best scientific advice".
The countryside, however, is not "property" to be bartered with. It is our heritage and it is beyond price. As Caroline Cranbrook says (below) "Government must also listen and act on the advice of its parliamentary committees, scientists, engineers, technologists, economists - and local people."
August 24 2009 ~ BBC's ANY ANSWERS - Listen Again
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m53qd
There are 5 days left to hear Robin Laird and Ann West (vice chairman, Country Guardian)
responding to D.J.Gent's question:
- "Is the answer to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions blowing in the wind?"
August 21 2009 ~ "Wind farms must be in the right place - where there is most wind. In Britain, this is offshore."
- A letter from the Countess of Cranbrook appeared in Country Life on August 12 2009. Extract
- "Across most of the country wind speeds are low: the amount of electricity produced does not justify the subsidy required to attract developers. Historically, the energy industry perceived onshore wind as a demonstration technology to blaze a trail for big energy projects offshore, but it is now dominant since it yields large profits to developers. Unfortunately this is bad value for the subsidising consumer.
They should not be put in important landscapes, nor within a few hundred metres of houses. People live in these places. Their concerns must not be dismissed as Nimbyism but recognised as real and justified. Wind turbines are a hazard to birds and to bats. They should be distanced from important bird areas and migratory routes.
Unfortunately, wind farms provide only supplementary energy, not reliable capacity, so there are limits to their usefulness. We have to be realistic, listen to the advice of the engineers and do the job properly, offshore. Instead, we see government distorting planning guidance and instigating £1bn in bank loans for developers to push through approval for uneconomic onshore wind farms whose benefits are exaggerated and disadvantages under-estimated..."
August 21 2009 ~ The vision for the 'NOVA' (Novel Offshore Vertical Axis) project is 1 GW of offshore vertical axis turbines installed by 2020, via a large scale demonstrator installed offshore within six years.
- More on the NOVA project, mentioned in the Country Life letter from Caroline Cranbrook (here)
From the Nova project website: "Offshore vertical axis wind turbines offer the potential for a breakthrough in offshore wind energy availability and reduced life-cycle costs due to their inherent design characteristics of few moving parts, insensitivity to wind direction, and the placing of the generator at base level potentially allowing large-scale' direct drive. Their relatively low centre of grty and overturning moments (in the case of NOVA - s Aerogenerat' make the turb's highly suitable for offshore installation. In addition, they are potentially - radar friendly - compared to existing horizontal axis wind turbine technology.." Read in full
August 19 2009 ~ Scheme near Cairngorms national park thrown out
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Plans for seven 410ft turbines on Pressendye hill, three miles from the border with Cairngorms National Park, proposed by Cushnie Wind Energy
attracted hundreds of objections - and have been thrown out by councillors.
Nearly 600 letters were received by Aberdeenshire Council opposing the windfarm.
Paul Anderson, of the Stop Turbines on Pressendye group (SToP) said: "This damaging development is far too high a price for our community to pay for the meagre national and local returns. The currency which drives our local economy is our landscape." See Press and Journal
August 15 2009 ~ Replacement transformers for broken wind turbines must come from abroad.
- A month after its official opening, a power fault has shut down nearly a quarter of the Romney Marsh wind turbines. The Telegraph says that each of the 26 wind turbines at the site is 377ft (115m) high and weighs more than 275 tonnes. Replacement transformers have to be made in Belgium by the firm that constructed the site - RWE Npower renewables - which has been owned by Germany since 2002. On many websites, this company is still referred to as "one of the UK - s leading renewable energy developers and operators".
August 14 2009 ~ Yet another application to build a windfarm in the Highlands.
- 8km North East Of Tomatin
Proposal: Construction of wind farm comprising 17 wind turbines, associated access tracks and infrastructure, 2 x temporary construction compounds and 2 x temporary borrow workings
The tireless and remarkable veteran campaigner, Angela Kelly, writes to say this one is right next to another application for a large development.
The link attached takes you (new window) directly to the Highland Council page which facilitates objections, should you want to tick the "object" box - a very easy process.
August 13 2009 ~ Dark days ahead - "Even if the windmills are built, they will not in themselves plug the generation gap"
- From The Economist print edition "A shortage of power-generation capacity could lead to blackouts across Brita- and a dangerous reliance on foreign gas
.....Britain - 's energy grids are already showing signs of stress. A cold snap in the winter of 2005-06 led to a spike in demand for natural gas, which is used both as a heating fuel and to generate electricity. Prices shot up but, despite several pipelines linking Britain to Europe, no extra gas was forthcoming from the continent. ...
Last year two power stations - one nuclear, one coal-fired - failed within minutes of each other, causing blackouts across the country. Officially, this was a one-off stroke of bad luck, but privately some think that a system with more spare capacity could have kept the lights on. Less obvious but just as worrying, says John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a think-tank, is that electricity prices are becoming more unstable.... most of the nuclear plants, and around half of the coal plants, are due to close in the near future.."
- "...ministers want to see a big expansion in the amount of energy Britain gets from the waves, the sun and the wind - especially offshore wind. They are hoping to see 33GW-worth of maritime windmills (somewhere around 5,000 turbines in all) built over the next 11 years. That is quite an ambition, and many doubt whether it can be realised. Britain's entire offshore capacity in 2008 was only 0.6GW, although admittedly this was the biggest in the world.
... Even if the windmills are built, they will not in themselves plug the generation gap because they do not generate power on a calm day. National Grid reckons that compensating for that uncertainty of supply will require a huge amount of over-engineering. 25GW of wind power, it reckons, would be worth only around 5GW of fossil-fired generation..." Read in full
August 13 2009 ~ wind farms - 'Monstrously silly!' says James Lovelock
- See the Guardian August 9.
- "... A 500-ton concrete base support and 4,000 of them needed to equal the output of one coal-burning station - how is that helping? There was a report in Der Spiegel saying that in Germany, where they've got 17,500 of the things, the amount of CO2 now being produced in the country is greater than ever."
August 11 2009 ~ Jeremy Paxman's brother launches battle against wind turbines - Telegraph
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Telegraph Aug 10 "Jeremy Paxman's brother has launched a battle against plans for nine 120ft wind turbines overlooking Dartmoor national park which he said would "stick out like a sore thumb....He said the proposed wind farm in Den Brook Valley, north Tawton, would ruin the landscape and affect tourism, a major part of the local economy.
Mr Paxman, 55, is the chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA) and gave evidence at a public inquiry this week over whether the farm should be built.
....".
August 10 2009 ~ Climate Change Discovery - Scientists on Youtube demonstrate how it is the sun, plus cosmic rays and their effects on cloud formation that are driving climate change today (as they did in the past)
- Part 1 here (followed by the other 4)
August 7 2009 ~ Scottish Highlands - Lochaber's first wind farm development in doubt
- www.lochaber-news.co.uk
"The verdict on controversial plans for Lochaber's first wind farm development was put on hold this week by Highland councillors..." The paper is running a poll on this issue. (When we voted, the proportion was 80/20 against. When you vote the paper invites you to email the reason for your vote. A nice touch.)
August 4 2009 ~ "When the wind don't blow, the power don't flow."
- Comment from Australia's Herald Sun (The article is based on the work from the Australian Landscape Guardians - Technical and Economic Committee contributing professional experts: Tom Quirk, Andrew Miskelly, Paul Miskelly, Peter Mitchell and Peter Lang.)
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"... Even more devastatingly... the wind not only don't blow an awful lot of the time. It tends to not blow 'everywhere' at the same time.
This utterly shreds the claim that if we build enough of the so-called 'wind farms' across southern Australia, the wind will always be blowing somewhere.
No it won't. But you'll look in vain for 'official' advice saying that.
What makes the analysis even more damning is that wind fails even in the main reason for its costly and ineffective existence - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Precisely because of that pesky little problem.
An unreliable 484MW wind farm would not only cost more than two times a gas-fired 550MW power station. But it would allow perhaps only 25MW of coal-fired generation to be shut down - whereas the gas plant could close its full 550MW. ..."
August 3 2009 ~ Lord Robert May, the former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, describes Dr Pierpont's research as "impressive, interesting and important".
- The Mail on Sunday, too, ran a lengthy article on the condition Dr Nina Pierpont calls "wind turbine syndrome" See this weekend's articles
August 3 2009 ~"People describe the noise as like an aeroplane that never arrives."
- From the Independent "....My husband developed
pneumonia very quickly after the turbines went up, having never had chest
problems before. We suffer constant headaches and ear nuisance. My mother-in-law
developed pneumonia and my husband developed atrial fibrillation - a rapid
heartbeat. He had no pre-existing heart disease. Our blood pressure has gone up.
My father-in-law has suffered a heart attack, tinnitus and marked hearing
loss.
" I understand this can be regarded as a coincidence, but nobody was ill before 2006." (Read in full on the page about "wind turbine syndrome")
August 2 2009 ~ "Weather records are a state secret"
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Times:
- "....as CO2 levels continue to rise, temperatures have failed to follow suit as the IPCC's computer models predicted they should. Part of the reason why the Met Office has made such a mess of its forecasts for Britain is that they are based on the same models which failed to predict the declining trend in world temperatures since 2001.
....
When Mr McIntyre made Freedom of Information requests to see the data used to construct the HadCrut record (as he has chronicled on his ClimateAudit blog) he was given an almighty brush-off, the Met Office saying that this information was strictly confidential and that to release it would damage Britain's "international relations" with all the countries that supplied it.
The idea that temperature records might be a state secret seems strange enough...." Read in full
August 2 2009 ~ "A wind farm is not the answer"
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"The green movement's fixation with technology reveals that we are asking the
wrong questions," wrote Paul Kingsnorth in yesterday's Guardian.
- ".....the challenge posed by climate change is not really about technology. It is not even about carbon. It is about a society that has systematically hewed its inhabitants away from the natural world, and turned that world into a resource. It is about a society that imagines it operates in a bubble; that it can keep growing in a finite world, forever.
When we clamour for more wind-power stations in the wilderness, we perhaps think we are helping to slow this machine, but we are actually helping to power it. We are still promoting, perhaps unintentionally, the familiar mantras of industrial civilisation: growth can continue forever; technological gigantism will save us; our lives can go on much as they always have..."
August 2 2009 ~ ""The wind industry will try to discredit me and disparage me, but I can cope with that. This is not unlike the tobacco industry dismissing health issues from smoking. .."
- The Independent on Sunday takes up the research of Dr Nina Pierpont. See below - or in full here.
July 31 2009 ~ Wind Turbine Syndrome - headaches, heart palpitations, hearing problems, stress, anxiety, and depression
- An article yesterday in www.frontpagemag.com
reports on the research conducted by Dr. Nina Pierpont in America on what she calls "wind turbine syndrome," the clinical name she has given to the "constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines." These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression; memory loss; eye problems; problems with concentration and learning; and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
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"...Dr. Pierpont is no agenda-driven fright merchant. She received her PhD in behavioral ecology from Princeton and her M.D. from John's Hopkins School of Medicine. But she does believe that the enthusiasm for wind power, espoused by the Obama administration, is seriously misguided. "As industrial windplants proliferate close to people's homes and anywhere else people regularly congregate (schools, nursing homes, places of business, etc.) Wind Turbine Syndrome likely will become an industrial plague," Dr. Pierpont warns..."
July 31 2009 ~".... if we are going to keep the lights on and the wheels of industry turning, we are already facing a big increase in energy bills..."
- Bernard Ingham writing in the Yorkshire Post on Tuesday:
- "...you have to add on £548 a year for 15 years to pay for the planned £233.5bn energy investment. Some of that investment is desperately needed - £52.1bn for new coal, gas and nuclear power stations and most at least of the £39.8bn earmarked for upgrading pipes, networks and gas storage.
So, if we are going to keep the lights on and the wheels of industry turning, we are already facing a big increase in energy bills.
But that leaves another £141.6bn of the proposed investment to be accounted for. It is here that the Government - and, to be fair, every other (stupid) political party in this land - is hell bent on fleecing you.
Some £112.5bn is to go on renewable energy - mostly utterly useless on-and offshore wind turbines - another £13.4bn on so-called smart meters whose utility seems grossly exaggerated for political reasons; and £15.7bn on trying to hit unachievable European carbon reduction targets.
All this because our pathetic political class have suspended their critical faculties over man-made global warming, cast the concept of value for money to the four winds and insist we pay for setting an example to a world that will cheerfully ignore it."
Wednesday 29 July 2009 ~ NEWSNIGHT Tonight: Wind turbine plant protests
- Adrian Snook of STOP THE SPIN
will be head to head with Ed Miliband
on
BBC 2 - 10.30 pm
July 29 2009 ~ An aquarium in Devon has taken down two wind turbines after seagulls were killed when they collided with the blades.
- BBC reported
"The 15m (50ft) high 6kW turbines at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth were installed in 2006 for a £3.6m sustainable energies project.
But the Hoe-based attraction has taken them down after several birds died, it said.
The aquarium also said they had not produced as much electricity as hoped. .....following a gale, the turbines were damaged."
July 29 2009 ~ Adverts 'halved size of turbines'
- BBC "....Promotional images for a windfarm in Northumberland were likely to mislead the public, the UK's advertising watchdog has ruled.
Energy firm E.ON's adverts for the West Ancroft, Berwick, site showed turbines half the size of those planned, said the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
A photomontage was also "not sufficiently representative" of the likely visual impact in the area.
E.ON said the images were intended to be for illustrative purposes only...."
Saturday July 25 2009 ~ "....very serious electricity price increases simply to make those wind farms happen"
- (The Register) "...the only reason they ever get built is the government's Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) scheme. By cranking up the ROC system, the government can drive more wind into the market; this process is already underway, and set to continue for a long time. ROCs are often misleadingly described as a "subsidy", but they cost the Treasury nothing: their effect is to pay renewables plants a guaranteed minimum sum of extra money for every unit of power they put into the grid, on top of the market price, and pass the costs of this on to the consumer via the distributing companies...." Read in full
Thursday 23 July 2009 ~ Armistead wind farm to go ahead - in spite of numerous and well-informed objections.
- The
Inspector has granted the appeal for the Armistead wind farm after a two year fight by those who felt so strongly that it would be a very bad plan.
As one commentator puts it, "I said..this would be a hard one to stop because of the existence of the
Cumbria Wind Energy Supplementary Planning Document and the raft of Regional and National guidelines and targets - and so it has proved.
I have always said that it depended on whether Mr Pike took a Government perspective or a human perspective and sadly he has leaned towards the former. We now have to refocus and ensure that this does not become a 9 turbine wind farm with the Sillfield application due to go to PI shortly."
The Inspector's decision can be read here. As the greatly respected veteran campaigner Angela Kelly says, "Read it as a lesson in what you must must expect to face if you oppose an industrial wind farm."
Thursday 23 July 2009 ~"... the 7,000 or so wind turbines Britain will install over the next decade to help meet its climate-change targets will have to come from abroad"
- Vestas Wind Systems plant on the Isle of Wight, which makes wind turbine blades, is scheduled to close on July 31 with nearly 600 redundancies.
Last night was the third night of occupation by the workiers there. Climate-change campaigners have set up an ad hoc camp outside the factory and have been passing food to the occupiers. Independent quotes Nick Clegg : "This closure exposes the hollow truth of Labour's climate change strategy."
July 22 2009 ~21st-century "gold rush" to secure dwindling supplies of neodymium
- A fascinating new insight into what has to go into the lightweight permanent magnets of wind turbine generators comes from this article from theatlantic.com"Clean Energy's Dirty Little Secret". Neodymium is necessary for the rare-earth magnets "that make Prius motors zoom and for the generators that give wind turbines their electrical buzz." The article says that " if we are going to make even a few million of the hybrid and electric cars that are supposed to help rescue the planet from global warming, we will need to double production of neodymium in short order." Mountain Pass supplied most of the world's rare earths until 1989 but in the early 1990s, cheaper Chinese rare earths began eating into the mine's market share. In 2006, nearly all of the world's roughly 137,000-ton supply of such rare-earth oxides came from China but over the past few years, China has cut exports in order to supply its own permanent-magnet industry. (See article in full)
Monday July 20 2009 ~ "considered debate beginning on the cost of the low-carbon electricity production"?
- Some interesting letters in today's Independent. The second, from the
Special Professor in Sustainable Energy at Nottingham:
- ".... incomprehensible that the Government places such reliance on wind power. According to statistics from the department for Energy and Climate Change, offshore wind power in 2007 had a load factor of a mere 25.6 per cent, meaning that nearly 75 per cent of rated capacity was lost.
There is a theory that tidal energy is not favoured because it would deny funds to nuclear energy. Both will be necessary to bridge the energy gap. The Manchester report favoured the thorium alternative to uranium. This has much to recommend it now there is less enthusiasm for nuclear weapons."
Monday July 20 2009 ~ "Switching from uranium to thorium as our primarily nuclear fuel could lead to cheaper, safer and more sustainable nuclear power"
- An article in the Guardian last week
- "....a growing number of scientists and energy experts believe that the world should switch from uranium to thorium as its primary nuclear fuel. Compared to uranium, thorium is far more abundant as well as much more energy-dense...waste products generated by thorium are virtually impossible to turn into plutonium..they remain dangerous for hundred of years rather than thousands.
.This technology...was shown to have many benefits... reactors of this type can be smaller
Despite its early promise, research into liquid-fluoride thorium reactors was abandoned - the most likely reason being that the technology offered no potential for producing nuclear weapons. Sorensen estimates that between 5,000-6,000 tonnes of thorium could produce as much energy as the world currently consumes each year..."
July 19 2009 ~ "Renewable Energy Strategy is Inconsistent and Implausible"
-
Last week, the Renewable Energy Foundation expressed grave concern about the credibility of this government's Renewable Energy Strategy and the analysis behind it.
- "...
The strategy is intended to map out the UK's policies to meet EU targets requiring us to obtain 15% of Final Energy Consumption from renewable sources by 2020.
In its response to the Consultation last year REF pointed out that it was unlikely that UK final energy consumption (150 million tonnes of oil equivalent) would remain at current levels up to 2020, as was assumed by the Government's consultation text.
Today's strategy document is grounded in the still more extraordinary view that consumption will actually fall..."
-
"By assuming that UK energy consumption will actually fall by 2020, in spite of rising population and economic growth, the Government has lost any claim to credibility.
It seems that in a desperate attempt to make this infeasible target appear realistic, the Government has resorted to the expedient of making up the numbers.
We are deeply concerned that such flawed calculations will lead to counterproductive policy and uncontrolled cost at a time of economic vulnerability and rising levels of fuel poverty."
July 19 2009 ~ When wind power blows, jobs will fall
-
Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times
Extract:
- "....Because the wind blows intermittently, and may be at its calmest at times of freezing weather, Germany has not been able to close a single one of its conventional power stations, despite its vast investment in wind power....
The powerful wind-turbine lobby in Germany constantly harps on about the number of jobs "created" by its subsidised investment, quite ignoring the number of jobs destroyed by high-cost energy, or indeed the greater number of jobs that could be created if the same amounts were invested in more profitable activities. This is why the Bremen Energy Institute argues that "wind energy macro-economically has a negative employment impact"....
Sunday July 19 2009 ~ "Even more alarming than the media's credulity is that of the ministers themselves..."
- Christopher Booker today How can wind turbines generate so much lunacy? The Ministers, he says are trying to pretend that their £100 billion dream of building three giant turbines every day between now and 2020 has the faintest practical hope of being realised.
- "...Most alarming of all, however, in the desperation to reach EU "renewables" target, is the setting up of a new Infrastructure Planning Commission to force through thousands of these absurd objects over the wishes of local people and councils, who are now to be robbed of any right of appeal."
Meanwhile, also in today's Telegraph, Damian Reece speaks of the uncertainty of future gas supplies and that the £120bn-£170bn that the CBI estimates we need to invest in order to bring about the transformation of our energy system as last week's White Paper describes, "hasn't even begun to be raised, never mind spent.... In 2016, where up to a third of our power stations have to close under EU law, how do we ensure security of our energy supply, and avoid relying on uncertain gas imports, while keeping the lights on and hitting our environmental targets? If we stick to current government policy we will need more gas from increasingly expensive sources"
July 17, 2009 ~ Don't blow our £100 billion on wind power
-
Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow of New College writes in the Times that
" it is one thing to understand that there is a problem and another to find a way to address it. So far very little has been achieved. ... The test for the Government's renewables White Paper, The UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, published this week is: will it make much, or indeed any, difference?
...It is immediately obvious that even if all the wind turbines the Government (and the Opposition) wants are built, they will make not even a tiny dent in the carbon concentration in the atmosphere.... the emphasis on renewable energy could even make it worse: for the costs of commitment to it are great - £100 billion, and possibly a lot more - and may accelerate the migration of energy-intensive industries to countries such as China and India...
The question that should have been at the heart of the White Paper is this: given our (limited) resources, where can Britain add the maximum benefits to this global problem? Where can it make a difference? The answer is largely in technology: we have some of the best scientists, very good engineers and best universities in the world. Where we can really help is by investing in developing carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear energy and new technologies for networks, batteries and the electrification of transport.... new technologies may do for energy what the internet has done for communications. But progress will not happen spontaneously: research and development is one area where government commitment, strategic vision and £100 billion would make a lot of difference. Even then it will take time for us to see the fruits. But the White Paper is driven by hitting 2020 targets...Where will the money come from? Who is going to pay? Putting aside that we are in the middle of an economic crisis, ultimately raising this money relies on taxpayers and customers. Will they be willing to pay? Will they even be able?... Whether voters will recognise that these costs are yielding very little in terms of an impact on global warming and will continue to want to pay them remains an open question." The article should, of course, be read in full.
July 17 2009 ~ "How can we save the environment without trashing the landscape?"CPRE's Chief Executive
- Well worth reading are the calm and balanced words of Shaun Spiers, CPRE's Chief Executive (here):
-
"We are delighted that Ed Miliband has agreed to address the very difficult question of how to get the energy infrastructure the country needs in order to keep the lights on and combat climate change, without unacceptably damaging the countryside. How can we save the environment without trashing the landscape? 'These questions aren't going to go away. They are asked every time a new wind farm is proposed. And communities asked to accept intrusive new renewable energy infrastructure such as wind farms will ask how serious the Government is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions when it is still prepared to allow carbon intensive opencast mining.
Energy debates are highly complex. On wind farms, it often seems that there is no debate - just impassioned arguments from both sides with neither side listening to the other...."
July 16 2009 ~ "putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket"
-
Ellie Zolfagharifard in "The Engineer Online"
writes,
"Sections of the power industry - including voices from the renewables sector itself - have lined up with business leaders to warn the government of the perils of backing wind too strongly in today's carbon change whitepaper. Power technology experts and tidal energy specialists joined the CBI in urging caution ahead of the expected announcement of a major expansion of the UK's wind output. The CBI believes that the UK will risk its low-carbon future if it continues to focus on wind power at the expense of nuclear and clean coal energy...In a report issued ahead of today's UK Low Carbon Transition Plan whitepaper, the CBI referred to the government's existing energy policy as being 'disjointed...
John Cridland, CBI deputy director general, said: 'Large chunks of our energy infrastructure urgently need replacing. While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants. If we carry on like this, we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket.'
The CBI warned that, unless its recommendations are followed, the UK will be too reliant on gas supplies, with only 64 per cent of its energy generated through low-carbon technologies by 2030. The group claims that its 'Balanced Pathway' plan would lead to 83 per cent of the UK's energy being produced by low-carbon methods. It believes the majority of this energy would come from nuclear, 14 per cent from clean coal technologies, 16 per cent from gas, 20 per cent from wind and 15 per cent from other renewables. Other industry figures claim that wind provides only part of the low-carbon energy solution, while concerns remain about funding for other forms of renewable energy. ...." Read in full
July 16 2009 ~ A quango that the Tories have pledged to scrap is set to fast-track controversial projects, from wind farms to runways, in the run-up to the election
- The Guardian reveals that ".....the Conservative opposition, alongside countryside campaigners and environmental groups, is preparing for a long, drawn-out battle opposing the new planning system.
At the centre of this battle stands an emerging quango known as the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), which begins work this autumn. It has been created ostensibly to take decisions on specific large-scale projects out of politicians' hands and, crucially, slash the time it takes to get planning approval by consigning the lengthy public inquiry process to history in key areas.
Society Guardian has learnt that developers are preparing to submit more than 50 schemes to the IPC in its first year, with large energy projects topping the list - including scores of wind farms...." Read in full
July 15 2009 ~ "all the wind turbines planned in the UK in the foreseeable future will be imported..."
- Vestas, Britain's only significant manufacturer of wind turbines, will tomorrow cease production of wind turbine blades at its factory in Newport in the Isle of Wight. This is somewhat ironic, given Ed Milliband's aggressive policy of support for expansion of wind energy. Given the level of scepticism and outrage at the way Britain's wildest places are being sacrificed to a concept that relies on an intermittent source of energy via giant structures that have to be backed up by fossil fuel or nuclear power when there is no wind, Ed Milliband now plans that wind farm planning applications shall be "forced through".
Meanwhile, a consortium of 20 large industrial companies, banks and insurance companies forming a group called Desertec has a rather more ambitious idea. This is to use efficient solar-thermal energy in the vast deserts of Africa. If it is successful, a significant portion of Europe's energy needs could be supplied. (See Desertec website)
July 14 2009 ~ Scotland. The Beauly-Denny electricity transmission line inquiry "took evidence on transmission only from organisations that agreed.."
-
(Published Date: 10 July 2009 in the Scotsman)
A letter from Helen McDade,
Head of policy, John Muir Trust
- "Your report (1 July) that the Scottish Parliament's economy, energy and tourism committee has said the Beauly-Denny electricity transmission line must go ahead as soon as possible is no surprise since, in its year-long inquiry, it took evidence on transmission only from organisations that agreed with this - mainly the power companies.
It refused to take evidence from Sir Donald Miller (ex-chairman of Scottish Power), Colin Gibson (a previous member of National Grid's board) and the John Muir Trust, all of whom have been extensively involved in examining the case for the line.
Since the committee found it had no time to listen to these alternative views, it would be interesting to know how many hours it managed to find to meet with industry lobbyists within and outwith the committee.
The committee system at the Scottish Parliament is supposed to be the safeguard against poor decision-making by the executive arm of government. There is a serious question about whether, in some cases, committee members are mostly following the party whip rather than giving serious independent thought to major issues.
Some people believe the decision-making process on electricity generation and transmission is the next big scandal, after the banks. There is no doubt that the public's interest is not being best served, by the UK or Scottish governments, in the shambles that is our energy "policy".
July 14 2009 ~ "Britain is facing an unprecedented crisis. Before long, we will lose 40 per cent of our generating capacity."
- Once again, Christopher Booker is undaunted at the prospect of challenging the current dogma. He writes today:
"...unless we come up quickly with an alternative, the lights WILL go out. Not before time, the Confederation of British Industry yesterday waded in, warning the Government it must abandon its crazy fixation with wind turbines as a way of plugging this forthcoming shortfall and instead urgently focus on far more efficient ways to meet the threat of a permanent, nationwide black-out...over the past 20 years, our politicians have made an even more unholy shambles of Britain's energy policy than they have of our economy - and the cost, when the chickens come to roost in a few years' time, will be almost unimaginable. The causes of Britain's impending energy crisis are manifold. Michael Heseltine's 1992 'dash for gas', when he closed down most of our remaining coal mines because North Sea gas was still cheap and abundant, and because its CO2 emissions were only half those of coal, was one of them.
But nothing has done more to take the politicians' eye off the ball, egged on by environmentalist groups such as Friends Of The Earth and Greenpeace, than their quite incomprehensible obsession with windmills.
For these white elephants can never produce more than a fraction of the electricity we need, and by no means always when we need it - as we saw last winter when, for weeks on end, they were scarcely turning at all.
Do politicians never look outside the windows of their centrally-heated offices to see how often the wind is not blowing?
The Government has now shovelled so much money in hidden subsidies into the pockets of the turbine companies that the 'wind bonanza', promoted on a host of fraudulent claims, has become one of the greatest scams of our age.
But if and when our lights do go out, it will be important to remember just why we got carried away by such a massive blunder.
Left with a land blighted with useless towers of metal, we shall look on those windmills as a monument to the age when the politicians of Britain and Europe collectively went completely off their heads." Read in full at www.dailymail.co.uk
July 13 2009 ~ "The one discordant element is the wind turbines, an affront to the eyes and an insult to the intelligence."
-
From The Times
June 24, 2009
Times Literary Walks: Brontë territory ".... the moors become a sea of purple, heavy with the scent of heather, the landscape is a variety of greens, browns and greys that change with the season and weather.
The silence is broken only by the plaintive cry of sheep, the liquid warbling of curlew and the lyrical crescendos of lark-song. The one discordant element is the wind turbines, an affront to the eyes and an insult to the intelligence...."
July 13, 2009 ~ Tilting at Wind Farms
- Times Editorial
"The Government's plans to concentrate on wind power at the expense of other renewable energy sources could prove to be a costly mistake
...
If hot air could be harnessed and fed into the National Grid, the environmental rhetoric emanating from Westminster could power London. ....Wind power, the great renewable energy hope of the Government, is neither cheap nor bountiful. ...
.... if a free market in energy would not support a wholesale switch to a ruinously expensive and volatile energy source, why should the taxpayer, or the electricity customer?
As we move to a planned energy economy which we are expected to pay over the odds for, we have the right to expect a serious, unsentimental debate on what we are paying for. Nuclear power must be brought into the centre of the planned economy, in from the cold. A wind farm producing the same amount of energy as a nuclear plant would cost up to three times as much. The Government is charging ahead with plans for wind farms, while its programme for the nuclear sector is far less ambitious. The aim is merely to replace ageing existing plants.
If the Government wants a target which is, for once, both sensible and achievable, it should aim to double our nuclear energy capacity. Nuclear may be unpopular with the green lobby, but it is still cleaner than coal and cheaper than wind."
July 11 2009 ~ Families face a charge of up to £120 to fund thousands of wind turbines
- The Government White Paper to be unveiled next week is expected to propose 'social tariffs' to ease the burden of higher energy bills on the poor and the elderly with energy companies told to subsidise the cost for the poor by adding extra to the bills of others. It will also introduce incentives for householders to produce their own energy from solar panels, ground source heat pumps and combined heat and power units. The Mail quotes Matthew Sinclair of the TaxPayers' Alliance:
- "The last thing that the Government should be doing right now is pushing up electricity bills even more to line the pockets of renewable energy firms. Wind farms aren't delivering reliable energy when we need it, and their massive subsidies are paid for by pushing up ordinary people's bills.
It would be a complete betrayal if they were to add to that burden while families are struggling to cope in a recession. Action needs to be taken to reduce the burden of ineffective climate change policies, instead of ploughing blindly on and throwing even more money at the problem."
July 9 2009 ~CUMBRIA UNDER SIEGE
-
Latest update on Cumbria wind farms (table here).
On the list, 29 is High Raise which is mis-located in the CG listing with the wrong grid reference.
July 9 2009 ~ "to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad...."
- James Lovelock, whose views on global warming could be described as cheerfully pessimistic, compares "sustainable development" to "deathbed snake oil peddled by an alt-medicine quack..."
James Lovelock told the New Scientist shortly before the release of his latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia that
- "Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It's not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it'll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning.....I am not against renewable energy, but to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad."
July 9 2009 ~"the best answer was 'we do not know'...."
- How difficult it is for non-specialists to know whom to believe on the question of climate change. Today's Mail :
- "....There is always a temptation to assume that anyone labelled a scientist thinks scientifically. Learned philosophers have discussed how experiments are regularly conducted to prove a desired conclusion rather than to ascertain truth.
Prof Plimer (see Ian Plimer's book 'Heaven and Earth. Global Warming, the Missing Science') provides the sharp-end view of this. The use of computer models excites his particular disdain....."
2 July 2009 ~ Silton, North Dorset. No turbines announcement greeted with cheers and applause
- Guardian ".. Planning chiefs today rejected proposals for six wind turbines.. in a beauty spot in Dorset. Green energy firm Ecotricity submitted the plans to build six 120-metre turbines (395ft) close to Silton, near Gillingham. North Dorset council's planning officers recommended the scheme for approval, but a development control committee unanimously rejected the plans to cheering and applause..."
2 July 2009 ~ 3,600-name petition says no to wind farm
- Scotsman "
Protestors campaigning against proposals to site Europe's biggest community wind farm in the heart of the Shetland mainland presented councillors with a petition bearing more than 3,600 signatures yesterday.
Viking Energy, a consortium formed by Shetland Islands Council and Scottish and Southern Energy to build the 150-turbine wind farm, formally lodged an application in May to develop the scheme, which, it is said, will produce enough power to supply 20 per cent of Scotland's domestic energy needs.
The turbines will be spread across 252 hectares of moorland. Viking Energy says the project will generate £37 million a year in revenues and create hundreds of jobs.
But opponents say devastation will be wreaked on a pristine, fragile landscape. Billy Fox, chairman of campaign group Sustainable Shetland, said the petition showed the level of opposition among local people..."
June 29 2009 ~ "an important case because the decision could have implications for future wind farm applications near to other national parks in the UK"
- Telegraph "...a battle that could have important legal implications for the siting of wind farms across Britain"
The Peak District National Park Authority has joined forces with Derbyshire Dales District Council to ask the High Court to reject planning permission for four giant turbines being built at Carsington Pastures just outside the Lake District National Park and adjoins the Carsington Water beauty spot.
- "The planning application was originally rejected by the district council two year ago, but developers Carsington Wind Energy Ltd took the matter to the Planning Inspectorate, which overruled the local councillors..."
June 25 2009 ~ "Stop the Spin, a movement dedicated to opposing planning applications for inappropriately sited industrial-scale inland wind farms"
- . See
www.stopthespin.org.uk
This website has just been created and will expand rapidly in the coming weeks and months. The site says, "To find out more about the Stop The Spin movement please attend our public meeting on Thursday June 25th at 7.30pm in Watford Village Hall, Station Road, Watford, Northamptonshire....We need all the help we can get to help save our villages and our rural environment!" Links are given to some local groups.
22 June, 2009 ~ 60 - 80 turbines each the size of Nelson's column at Nant y Moch, one of the most stunning areas of Ceridigion
- - and the company Airtricity says "... there will be considerable monetary benefits to local landowners involved in the scheme" See their website FAQs
UPDATE Now on the Artists Against Windfarms blog and also links on Nant-y-Moch page on website :-
http://www.artistsagainstwindfarms.blogspot.com
http://www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com/walks-2009/nant-y-moch/nant-y-moch-june.html
22 June, 2009 ~ Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has pushed the red button over a plan which could see more wind turbines built in the Norfolk countryside.
- EDP24 "
Miss Holden... said she was "incensed" after a planning application was submitted to put up an anemometer on Honey Hills, between Docking and Fring with a view to building a seven turbine wind farm.
She has joined the protest after more than 100 residents living in the villages surrounding the proposed site have lodged letters of objection to a wind measuring device being put up in the area.
At a West Norfolk council development control meeting on Monday, a decision on the planning application was deferred so councillors could make a site visit to the area.
Although Miss Holden's would not be directly affected, she said her loyalty and love of Norfolk would mean she would be supporting the villages affected.
....
A report to West Norfolk council recommends the planning application for approval. It said: "In the light of the central government's stated policy of supporting the exploitation of renewable energy resources and because of the temporary nature of the consent for this single mast, approval may be granted, subject to condition of a period of 36 months." The planning application will go before West Norfolk council tomorrow at 11.15am following a site visit."
9 June, 2009 ~ Are wind farms a good idea - BBC poll
- This BBC poll is on a BBC children's page. We were unable to get the voting mechanism to work. Can anyone else or has the poll now expired?
While the answer may be that wind turbines are a brilliant "green" idea in theory, the hard facts - as we have tried to show below - suggest that giant turbines are actually wasteful of resources, inefficient and irreversibly destructive of the environment.
June 2009 ~ "Europe should scrap its support for wind energy as soon as possible to focus on far more efficient emerging forms of clean power generation including solar thermal energy..."
- The Times quoted
Professor Jack Steinberger, a Nobel prize-winning director of the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva:
"Wind is not the future...I am certain that the energy of the future is going to be thermal solar,....There is nothing comparable. The sooner we focus on it the better."
Professor Steinberger said that all known reserves of fossil fuels would be depleted within 60 years and that a network of solar energy farms in the Sahara could reliably supply nearly 80 per cent of Europe's energy needs by the middle of this century.
The Times continues: "He called for European governments to fund a big pilot project in North Africa linked to Europe via high-voltage undersea cables. Solar thermal power was already economic and on the brink of big advances that would place it way ahead of rival forms of wind, geothermal, wave and tidal energy, he said. "Governments need to focus on this area right now."
A 3-3.5 gigawatt solar thermal project in North Africa, which would generate enough electricity to supply two million homes, would cost £20 billion to build. "I am certain you could make electricity and ship it to Europe at a price equivalent to fossil fuels."
He said that intermittent energy sources, such as wind, required back-up power generation, which undermined their contribution to emissions reductions. In contrast, solar thermal power could generate heat energy that could reliably generate 24-hour electricity...."
Britain has made wind energy a priority in reducing carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. The Government plans to build 33 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2020, which the professional services organisation Ernst & Young estimates will cost more than £100 billion. Professor Steinberger said that it would cost about £440 billion and take 30 years for Europe to remove its reliance on fossil fuels, which supply 80 per cent of its energy needs, but that governments needed to make bold decisions about which technologies to support....." Read in full
May 28 2009 ~ "it made no sense to put wind turbines in a low wind area, but there were so many other reasons why these turbines should never have been considered..."
- Montreathmont and Rossie Moor public enquiry - result. these wild areas of lowland Angus ARE SAVED from being turned into industrial wind parks. The Scottish Government reporter has recommended that the applications be refused.
- "....The proposals were fought on two fronts by action groups Friends of the Forest (FoF) and STORM (Stop Turbines on Rossie Moor), with one campaigner last night lauding their combined drive as a key factor in convincing the government reporter to block the bids.
FoF chairman Jim Hair said, "We are so pleased with this decision..."
May 2009 ~ The sheer volume of articles says it all
- Wind Power News: U.K is just the UK section of the global "Wind Watch" website. Every day, more and more articles from across the world chart the increasing concern of those who oppose wind turbines, new information about the ecological impact of windfarms and evidence that the technology is unable to produce anything approaching the amount of energy that might counterbalance objections to the disadvantages it presents.
May 27 2009 ~Time to celebrate?
-
Letter in The Scotsman 22 May 2009
- "Yippee for the completion of Whitelee, operated by Spanish-owned Scottish Power ("Energy is renewable but lost market share is not", Business, 20 May). This monstrous adornment to the landscape can produce 322 megawatts (when the wind blows very hard). However, the Spanish owner, Iberdrola, released a statement just a few weeks ago that, "Britain, which aims to install about 30 gigawatts of wind turbines by 2020, will need to build almost as much backup power generation.
This will incur huge extra cost from the new fossil fuelled plant, which cannot pay for itself while standing-by, and will negate part of the intended carbon dioxide saving. However, it makes money from the Renewables Obligation subsidy and no doubt political fingers are in the till, as elsewhere."
(DR) JOHN ETHERINGTON
Llanhowell
Solva, Pembrokeshire
May 2009 ~ ".. helping the victims of this destructive industry"
- Angela Kelly writes that "Dr. Nina Pierpont continues to do a wonderful job researching and unmasking the truth about noise from
wind turbines and helping the victims of this destructive industry".
Please visit her excellent website for more information :
http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/ One extract:
- "....Professor MacKay is not promoting one kind of energy source over another. He has no axe to grind. His goal is simple: to compare current energy usage throughout the United Kingdom with what can be reasonably expected from non-renewable and renewable energy sources. In other words, he uses numbers to show this is what we consume and this is what wind, solar, oil, nuclear, coal, and natural gas can realistically provide."
May 2009 ~ "Even though polls consistently show that 80 pc of the British Public favours offshore wind, local and national anti groups crowd meetings and twist the facts" (sic)
- Quoted in the Telegraph. The 'expert' consulted by the Telegraph, who considers that those who are opposed to windfarms "crowd meetings" and "twist facts", is Ed Wilson, head of energy (and environment finance)
of Bank of Scotland Corporate. He also counters the reasoning of what he calls 'the small but well-organised and vocal anti-wind lobby' that wind is both inefficient and intermittent by offering this: "Intermittency is often cited as a reason not to use wind, but all power stations are intermittent - for example, Britain's nuclear fleet experiences more outages than any other nuclear fleet in Europe...."
May 2009 ~ "My party shows every sign of being likely to gain office next year, but I can spot very few signs of it being about to adopt sensible energy policies."
- On May 7 in the House of Lords, Lord Reay's speech contained the following thought-provoking words:
- "... The current fashionable pursuit of so-called renewable energy must rank as one of the most lunatic policies ever adopted .... The expansion of renewables today means the expansion of wind power. However, wind power is inefficient...government figures show that the load factor - that is, the percentage of what would be produced by turbines over a year if running at full capacity, even of offshore wind turbines - barely rises above 27 per cent. For between 55 and 110 days a year, depending on where they are sited, wind turbines are idle, the wind being too weak, or, more rarely, too strong to power them.
Moreover, this absence of wind is very likely to coincide with periods of extreme cold, or, in the summer, extreme heat, when electricity demand surges.....
.... per delivered megawatt the capital cost of wind is three to five times the cost of nuclear, 10 times the cost of gas and 15 times the cost of coal.....
.... If the Government's renewable targets were to be met, this would rise to some £6 billion per annum - enough to build two nuclear power stations - and a cumulative total by 2020 of some £32 billion....
... They also have other disastrous effects, one of which is the industrialisation of those beautiful upland landscapes throughout the United Kingdom that attract visitors from all over the world..... Faced as we are with the need to find the capital for an enormous rebuild of conventional power stations, can we afford to more than double that amount, perhaps much more than double that amount - I have seen an estimate of £200 billion all told - and to do so by increasing consumers' electricity bills by 30 per cent to 50 per cent?..."
May 2009 ~ A recipe for disaster?
- U.K. energy regulator Ofgem said on Friday it is "temporarily relaxing industry rules to allow faster connection to the electricity network for generators of low-carbon electricity such as wind." See www.dowjones.de
It claims that the move will "speed up the connection of 450 megawatts of power from small and large wind farms in Scotland that will be able to connect to the high-voltage electricity networks as soon as they are ready..." but what about the grid itself? Are connections are going to be "speeded up" before the grid has been upgraded to receive them?
April 29 2009 ~ Linton wind farm: "since the application was made almost all the correspondence has been against."
- James Paice MP seems to be largely in agreement with www.stoplintonwindfarm.org.uk He writes,
- "There is no doubt in my mind that the issues of landscape, road safety and impact on peoples' homes are very considerable. I have always been concerned that planning guidelines in Scotland recommends a turbine to be at least 2 kilometres from any house yet no such rules apply in England though I believe they should.
I am also very disappointed that the developers have refused to attend any public meeting since they submitted the application. I invited the chief executive to attend such a meeting under my chairmanship in order that we could hear their answers to these questions. Regrettably he saw fit to answer that he believed "a public BUN FIGHT is totally inappropriate". I have since suggested to him that his refusal means he is losing the argument by default. He has not as yet replied.
I have therefore concluded that with all the obvious negative aspects of this particular site and in the absence of any clear positive argument for it that the application should be refused and I am setting out that opposition to the planning authority."
April 25 2009 ~ "We all stood up and clapped as it was such relief. We have our piece of England kept to what we love and know."
- The BBC reports how Councillors have rejected plans to build a wind farm in Oxfordshire of four wind turbines, each 411ft (125m) high proposed at Willow Bank Farm in Ardley, north of Bicester.
April 24 2009 ~Scottish Power worried about wind power
-
Scottish Power, one of the leading power companies in the UK says that Britain is going to need a back up for its wind power solution. Right now, Britain is aiming to install about 30 gigawatts worth of wind turbines by the early date of 2020. However, the problem is that Scottish Power says that the UK will have to come up with just as much power from another source to generate energy during calm weather periods. More
April 23 2009 ~ Reports of wind farm health problems growing
-
CTV.ca News Staff
"More people are coming forward saying they're experiencing sleep problems, headaches, and heart palpitations caused by living near windmills.
Ontario physician Dr. Robert McMurtry told a news conference in Toronto Wednesday that while wind energy may offer a cleaner, more efficient way to generate electricity, those who live near the giant turbines are suffering through serious health problems. ....
Krogh and a group of volunteers distributed questionnaires in areas near wind farms, asking residents to describe whether they have experienced any effects from the turbines.
Of 76 people who responded to their informal survey, 53 reported at least one health complaint. They complained of:
- headaches
- heart palpitations
- hearing problems
- stress, anxiety and depression
April 2009 ~ "if we wanted to go totally green, we - d have to carpet the country with more windmills than exist in the whole world.."
- Article in the Mail, April 22 ".....the arguments about wind energy must be based on cold, hard economics, not emotion'. Thruth is that it is simply too expensive to cover all our needs.
What we really need is a new energy policy, one which involves building a new generation of nuclear stations - and soon.
We also need to invest, now, in research into - clean coal - technology, in which the carbon dioxide produced when coal is burned is captured, liquefied and stored, harmlessly, undergound. This is a technology in which Britain leads the world (and we still have plenty of coal).
And, yes, we need to invest in more renewable energy.
But we also have to recognise that while energy from the natural elements such as the wind must form part of the mix, it cannot be anything like the sole solution to our energy crisis as the romantic greens hope.''
The answer is messy, expensive and fraught with controversy and debate..."
April 2009 ~ - We are six years away from an energy crisis -
- - We are six years away from an energy crisis - wrote Dieter Helm,
Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford in the Times on April 16. Professor Philip Stott commented "Helm's analysis of the
current energy debacle should be force fed into every politician in the
land...." Read Professor Helm's view in full at www.timesonline.co.uk Extract:
- ".... because 'of the EU Renewables Directive the Government 'has
'committed itself to a crash programme to increase wind's share of
electricity generation from the current 5 per cent to perhaps 35 per cent by
2020. But not only will wind power' little to combat global climate change
(the big issue is the projected increases in coal burn in China, India and
developing countries), it is also expensive and may even reduce the security
of supply. It is uncertain too. Few think that wind supply on this scale
will be achieved - though, unsurprisingly, few politicians will admit this
in public.
The security problem arises because wind is intermittent. When it does not blow, back-up capacity is needed; and when it does blow, it reduces the profitability of power stations whose alternative energy supplies it displaces.
If current capacity were around 70GWs, by 2020 even if demand stayed the same we might need as much as 90-100GWs of capacity to meet peak demand. So not only do we need to replace at least 30GWs of existing power stations, but we also need to add another big tranche of capacity to support the vagaries of wind power. Wind power is largely additional to the existing system: it does not replace the capacity that is being closed. ..".
April 2009 ~ Cumbria's windfarms
- 55% of Cumbria is designated National Park, AONB, Heritage Coast,
or World Heritage Site (Hadrian's Wall) AND the Lake District itself is seeking World Heritage status - yet there are more windfarms there than anywhere else. The many independent dissenting voices making disturbing comments about inefficiency include
- The head of development at West Danish generating company ELSAM (one of Denmark's largest energy utilities): "Increased development of wind turbines does not reduce Danish carbon dioxide emissions."
- Der Spiegel - which reports that "Germany's CO2 emissions haven't been reduced by even a single gram".
- Danish electricityneration costs are the highest in Europe.
- Niels Gram of the Danish Federation of Industries :"windmills are a mistake and economically make no sense."
- Professor David Bellamy :"These turbines are 22 storeys high put on hills where everyone can see them. They kill bats and birds and need 1,000 tonnes of concrete as well as a road infrastructure. It beggars belief that some environmental groups can say they are 'green'."
- Aase Madsen , the Chair of Energy Policy in the Danish Parliament: "a terribly expensive disaster."
- James Lovelock: "I was asked to open the windfarm at Delabole. At that time nobody was talking about a gigantic programme, getting 15 or 20 per cent of the country's energy from wind turbines. It was a kind of nice green gesture. I think, now that I know as much as I do, I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole."
April 12 2009 ~ After a delay of almost two years, German wind developer Enertrag (anagram of Green Rat) has finally registered its eight 125 metre turbine application spread over 24 acres of attractive rising chalklands
- about 7 miles to the south east of Cambridge. The historic Icknield Way runs close beside the site, and the Roman Road from Cambridge to Horseheath is nearby.
The rural site is surrounded by attractive villages - a number of them designated Conservation Areas.
Linton Zoo has an internationally important endangered species breeding programme and has succeeded in rearing two Madagascan White Collared Lemurs - the second rarest primate on earth..."
The deadline is 22 April, but there is some leeway of a day or two.
The campaign is very active and the local forum wind thread has so far had 48,131 visits. The group would very much appreciate help - read in full
April 7 2009 ~ "The mountains went into labour, and gave birth to a ridiculous mouse."
- In spite of enormous pressure from financial and ideological lobbying, Europe's cut in emissions, we read, will amount to a miniscule 4 percent by 2020, far below the ambitious 20 percent target. The Charter of Palermo is an urgent bid to save the European countryside from the devastating impact of giant turbines - which anyway "don't fulfil the fundamental demands of sustainable development". Put forward by the European Platform against Windfarms
(EPAW), the Charter notes that windfarms have, for decades, drained most of the public funding dedicated to renewable energies, degrading the European countryside without ever having demonstrated their usefulness.
In the UK Ed Miliband says we have "no option" but to support 'a massive expansion of wind farms in the face of the growing threat from climate change'. Cutting harmful emissions and weaning ourselves off fossil fuel is certainly important - but windfarms, as James Lovelock has said, "won't cut it at all." Giant wind turbines, absurdly destructive and inefficient, gash, tear and tower their way across areas of wild beauty. Mr Miliband, concerned about political targets, dismisses as "a small minority" those who feel this is a tragic madness and must be opposed.
March 30 2009 ~ James Lovelock says Ed Miliband's moral stance on wind turbine opposition is an erosion of freedom and close to facism
-
The Observer reports his view:
- "It seems that we are now subject to a campaign that uses social rejection as a force to make us accept industrial-scale wind energy stations across the UK, to call them wind farms is disingenuous. As part of this campaign, the great and the good are now hectoring on the moral need to embrace wind energy...The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism. If wind energy were the one practical and affordable answer to global heating then I would grit my teeth at the loss of the countryside and accept it. There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas."
- "It is false pride and hubris to think that we can do anything to 'save the planet'...It is time we fully and deeply understood that our Earth can and always has saved itself although not necessarily for our benefit."
March 27 ~ Wind farms could damage your health says A&E consultant
- Cambridge News:
"An accident and emergency consultant warned a public meeting the long-term health impacts of wind turbines were 'still relatively unknown'..."
Also on Cambridge News was the poll " Do you think we should build more windfarms?" Out of 100 votes: Yes (42.0%) No (58.0%) Closing date 27-Mar-2009
March 26 2009 ~ "the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland."
- Extract from an article in Scotland's Press and Journal about the RSPB's support for inshore windfarms:
- "conservation charity the John Muir Trust yesterday urged the government to tackle climate change by further investment in energy efficiency rather than an increase in "costly and environmentally damaging" onshore wind power.
Bob Graham, chairman of Highlands Against Windfarms, said:
- "Germany and Denmark have seen no reduction in their CO2 emissions despite having more wind turbines per head of population than any other European country. Farcically, the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland.
"The RSPB, have for years, been feathering their nest with a cosy deal with Scottish and Southern Energy in which they get paid for every customer they sign up to so-called 'green energy'. This latest announcement is particularly cynical as they are more than aware that thousands of birds are killed every year around the globe by windfarms."
March 13 2009 ~ "major concerns about instances where the council followed officials' recommendations only to see the verdict reversed"
- The BBC quotes the Scottish Borders
Executive member for planning and the environment, Carolyn Riddell-Carre:
- "I think that is very unfair if a council makes a decision in line with its policies approved by ministers.
If that happens much more often it could be a case of saying let's get local government out of this because it is a farce. Just because we are not an overpopulated area does not mean it is acceptable for them to rain down an endless supply of wind turbines. My main concern is our picturesque landscape must not be destroyed in order to satisfy some national agenda," she said.
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Highly Recommended: Latest UK News at wind-watch.org (new window)
Recent news stories
| "Wind power is one of the great self-deceiving fantasies of our age.... it threatens to become a central ingredient in our forthcoming energy disaster." Booker's Notebook, Sunday Telegraph, March 2 2003 |
|---|
| "Wind energy is not as clean as its proponents would have us believe. It is an industrial development and as such causes degradation of the environments where turbines are sited. The result is a loss of habitat for wildlife. The proposed environmental benefits of windfarming...will only come from the very large-scale use of turbines. One environmental problem will simply be replaced by another." Dr John Hedger at the Institute of Biological Sciences at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth |
|---|
What's wrong with windfarms? The Case Against Wind farms'
wind represented an illusory technology - a cul-de-sac that would prove uneconomic and a waste of resources in the battle against climate change.
| "other measures deserve to be given closer consideration, but they involve much greater political sensitivity. ... it is time for the UK and other EU Governments to face up to these realities, and open up a wider debate." "CO2 Emissions Reduction: Time for a Reality Check?" Oxford Institute for Energy Studies February 2005 |
|---|
- A pdf file of the Gazetteer of wind power in Scotland, produced January 2005 by The Scottish Wind Assessment Project "..an
important document which maps and lists all the windfarms proposed, refused,
approved in Scotland. "
(Useful links about windfarms in the UK)
photo from http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/windfarms/turbulent.asp
James Lovelock (Gaia theory) has told the Western Morning News that he now regrets his endorsement of windfarms in the Westcountry "Windfarms won't cut it at all," he said..."
David Bellamy : "If I wanted to build in an area of outstanding natural beauty I wouldn't be allowed. Yet these turbines are 22 storeys high and put on hills where everyone can see them. They need 1,000 tonnes of concrete and a road infrastructure. It beggars belief that some environmental groups say they are 'green'."
Jan 2004 Lord Sainsbury has told peers that the Government's target for a massive expansion of renewable energy will be driven mainly by new windfarms, despite calls for greater investment in tidal power.
March 2003......the most frightening part of the paper is the section that, with a startling absence of facts or figures, endorses our EU obligation to spend billions of pounds on wind power.
To reach this target, Prof Fells points out, we would have to build 20 two-megawatt turbines every week until 2010. Most are much smaller than this, so we may need some 20,000 wind generators, up to 400 ft high (we have only 1,000), dominating thousands of square miles of countryside.
July 2004 "Some respected environmentalists believe here is only one realistic alternative available, and it is recognised by the man who opened Britain's first wind farm, Professor James Lovelock, the much-admired seer behind the Gaia concept of the planet as a living organism. He, too, has now turned against wind power. He believes nuclear power is the greenest energy option. It is a proven
supply of significant capacity and does not consume fossil fuels. Fells
also supports it.
"Fells said: "There
is no doubt that we need all the electricity we can get that doesn't
create carbon dioxide, but predicating this almost entirely on wind when
there are other, less obtrusive technologies seems simplistic, stubborn
and perverse....." (Sunday Times)
( See also http://www.wind-farm.org for those who "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.")
See also 'Ye Compleat Windde Warrior'
Latest SWAP Report (PDF new window)
READ LATEST NEWS
on Wind Farms at http://www.wind-watch.org/news/category/locations/europe/uk/Recent Examples
April 2009 ~ The sheer volume of articles says it all
- Wind Power News: U.K is just the UK section of the global "Wind Watch" website. Every day, more and more articles from across the world chart the increasing concern of those who oppose wind turbines, new information about the ecological impact of windfarms and evidence that the technology is unable to produce anything approaching the amount of energy that might counterbalance objections to the disadvantages it presents.
April 12 2009 ~ After a delay of almost two years, German wind developer Enertrag (anagram of Green Rat) has finally registered its eight 125 metre turbine application spread over 24 acres of attractive rising chalklands
- about 7 miles to the south east of Cambridge. The historic Icknield Way runs close beside the site, and the Roman Road from Cambridge to Horseheath is nearby.
The rural site is surrounded by attractive villages - a number of them designated Conservation Areas.
Linton Zoo has an internationally important endangered species breeding programme and has succeeded in rearing two Madagascan White Collared Lemurs - the second rarest primate on earth..."
The deadline is 22 April, but there is some leeway of a day or two. The campaign is very active and the local forum wind thread has so far had 48,131 visits. The group would very much appreciate help - read in full
April 7 2009 ~ "The mountains went into labour, and gave birth to a ridiculous mouse."
- In spite of enormous pressure from financial and ideological lobbying, Europe's cut in emissions, we read, will amount to a miniscule 4 percent by 2020, far below the ambitious 20 percent target. The Charter of Palermo is an urgent bid to save the European countryside from the devastating impact of giant turbines - which anyway "don't fulfil the fundamental demands of sustainable development". Put forward by the European Platform against Windfarms
(EPAW), the Charter notes that windfarms have, for decades, drained most of the public funding dedicated to renewable energies, degrading the European countryside without ever having demonstrated their usefulness.
In the UK Ed Miliband says we have "no option" but to support 'a massive expansion of wind farms in the face of the growing threat from climate change'. Cutting harmful emissions and weaning ourselves off fossil fuel is certainly important - but windfarms, as James Lovelock has said, "won't cut it at all." Giant wind turbines, absurdly destructive and inefficient, gash, tear and tower their way across areas of wild beauty. Mr Miliband, concerned about political targets, dismisses as "a small minority" those who feel this is a tragic madness and must be opposed.
March 30 2009 ~ James Lovelock says Ed Miliband's moral stance on wind turbine opposition is an erosion of freedom and close to facism
-
The Observer reports his view:
- "It seems that we are now subject to a campaign that uses social rejection as a force to make us accept industrial-scale wind energy stations across the UK, to call them wind farms is disingenuous. As part of this campaign, the great and the good are now hectoring on the moral need to embrace wind energy...The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism. If wind energy were the one practical and affordable answer to global heating then I would grit my teeth at the loss of the countryside and accept it. There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas."
- "It is false pride and hubris to think that we can do anything to 'save the planet'...It is time we fully and deeply understood that our Earth can and always has saved itself although not necessarily for our benefit."
March 27 ~ Wind farms could damage your health says A&E consultant
- Cambridge News:
"An accident and emergency consultant warned a public meeting the long-term health impacts of wind turbines were 'still relatively unknown'..."
Also on Cambridge News was the poll " Do you think we should build more windfarms?" Out of 100 votes: Yes (42.0%) No (58.0%) Closing date 27-Mar-2009
March 26 2009 ~ "the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland."
- Extract from an article in Scotland's Press and Journal about the RSPB's support for inshore windfarms:
- "conservation charity the John Muir Trust yesterday urged the government to tackle climate change by further investment in energy efficiency rather than an increase in "costly and environmentally damaging" onshore wind power.
Bob Graham, chairman of Highlands Against Windfarms, said:
- "Germany and Denmark have seen no reduction in their CO2 emissions despite having more wind turbines per head of population than any other European country. Farcically, the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland.
"The RSPB, have for years, been feathering their nest with a cosy deal with Scottish and Southern Energy in which they get paid for every customer they sign up to so-called 'green energy'. This latest announcement is particularly cynical as they are more than aware that thousands of birds are killed every year around the globe by windfarms."
March 13 2009 ~ "major concerns about instances where the council followed officials' recommendations only to see the verdict reversed"
- The BBC quotes the Scottish Borders
Executive member for planning and the environment, Carolyn Riddell-Carre:
- "I think that is very unfair if a council makes a decision in line with its policies approved by ministers.
If that happens much more often it could be a case of saying let's get local government out of this because it is a farce. Just because we are not an overpopulated area does not mean it is acceptable for them to rain down an endless supply of wind turbines. My main concern is our picturesque landscape must not be destroyed in order to satisfy some national agenda," she said.
March 15 2009 ~ When computer modelling goes haywire.....
- From today's Sunday Telegraph. Christopher Booker writes about the climate conference held in New York
- ".. organised by the Heartland Institute under the title Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?. In Britain this received no coverage at all, apart from a sneering mention by the Guardian, although it was addressed by dozens of expert scientists, not a few of world rank, who for professional standing put those in Copenhagen in the shade.
Led off with stirring speeches from the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the acting head of the European Union, and Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, perhaps the most distinguished climatologist in the world, the message of this gathering was that the scare over global warming has been deliberately stoked up for political reasons and has long since parted company with proper scientific evidence... it is already painfully clear that the computer forecasts are going hopelessly astray..."
- "... there is no dialogue on these issues.."
With what gratitude and affection many of us remember Professor Fred Brown and his gently persistent attempt to bring sanity to the FMD policies of 2001 - yet another case where seductive but flawed computer modelling drowned out any voice of humane reason, however distinguished.
February 16 2009 ~ " These figures should alarm all policymakers..."
- In the cold weather, wind turbines provided only 0.4 per cent of the energy needed.
As a letter in the Times today:
- "There were periods in January when wind hardly registered at all.
These figures should alarm all policymakers when one considers that the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) will result in the UK having to close down nearly a third of its coal-fired power stations by 2015. ....Wind energy's failure to deliver during the continuing cold period should be a wake-up call. We need to better support more reliable and predictable renewables such as tidal stream."
February 13 2009 ~ Reeves Hill - Herefordshire councillors decided to recommend approval for the plans. Is it to be left to Hazel Blears to decide?....
- After the decision by Herefordshire Council yesterday, the government will now decide whether four large wind turbines can be built
in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The novelist Ian McEwan, in a letter of objection, wrote that although he is a "passionate advocate of clean energy development" he is opposed to building the turbines in such an area of "great and fragile beauty for a near negligible gain."
BBC
- "...
A spokeswoman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said the application would now be assessed.
If it is called in the secretary of state Hazel Blears will make the final decision.
Applications that are called in are those which are of regional or national, rather than purely local, significance, the spokeswoman added."
February 11 2009 ~ "new wind turbines and solar cells haven - t prohibited the emission of even a single gram of CO2"
- Der Spiegel (in English) , Feb 10 2009:
- "... The EU-wide esions trading system determines the total amount of CO2 that can be emitted by power companies and industries. And this amount doesn - t change -- no matter how many wind turbines are erected.
'
Experts have known about this situation for some time, but it still isn - t widely known to the public. Even Germany - 's government officials mention it only under their breath. No one wants to discuss the political ramifications...big energy companies have an interest in maintaining the status quo. As a result, no one is pushing for change. Everyone involved is remaining silent.."
January 20 2009 ~ If you missed the S4C programme at 7pm yesterday it is repeated at:
-
S4C -3pm TODAY
Included in the programme (English subtitles) is coverage of the highly professional film made by
The Cambrian Mountains Society.
Members of the Society are interviewed. Shots are taken from the CMS film showing the beautiful Cambrian mountains as well as wind turbines and their effect on the landscape. Highly recommended.
January 2009 ~ Join the international demand for a moratorium on European wind energy
- The European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW).
whose aim is
- "to defend the interests of the numerous groups that are either fighting individual windfarm projects, or denouncing the ineffectiveness of windfarms for solving the problems of man and the planet .."
- "We originally represented organisations from Germany, France, Belgium and Spain. But since our foundation, associations from the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries whose number keeps increasing, have joined us, and we hope more will after reading EPAW's draft letter to the European institutions (below). All you need to do is send an email to contact@epaw.org saying you wish to join, signed by the head of the organisation.
Request for a moratorium: We have prepared a letter, below, that we shall send to the European institutions demanding that a moratorium be declared on the approbation of new windfarm projects and the construction of approved ones..."
January 2009 ~ "an authoritarian government bent on steam rollering its obsession with nigh-on useless wind power through the planning system, rather than allowing that well-tried system to do its job"
- A letter sent to the Guardian - (for which, it seems, the Guardian could not find space) - sums up what people feel about 'wind power at any cost' - and the present government's attitude to democracy. Extract:
- "... The problem is countrywide and not just at Shipdham. It lies in the profoundly anti-democratic attitude of an authoritarian government bent on steam rollering its obsession with nigh-on useless wind power through the planning system, rather than allowing that well-tried system to do its job, and regardless of the democratic rights of opposition by host communities. Never before has Government sold its heart and soul to an industry that purveys a product which promises so much and delivers so little.
The spectre of windpower anywhere at any cost antagonises communities and causes them to rise in protest. The true reason why the wind programme takes its time in a democratically based planning system is that intelligent people right across Britain have worked out that it conveys a false prospectus against climate change and pollution, and in the end is only a short cut to masses of money for the very few, as well as threatening the very roots of our democratic society. ..."
December 12 ~ Wind farm scheme 'will wreck our village'
-
"A £3 million wind farm scheme will wreck the tranquillity of South Devon villages and drive money- spinning tourists away, a public inquiry has been warned.
A power company wants to build three 100-metre high wind turbines on a prominent ridge near Kingsbridge, near the villages of Goveton, Buckland tout Saints and Ledstone.
Town planner Graham Percival warned that tourists could choose to holiday elsewhere rather than have to see the huge turbines as he gave evidence in the Totnes planning enquiry.
He also warned of the impact of the huge turbines on the residents of surrounding villages and invited the inspector to spend an evening in them to see just how quiet they are. "In my life I have never been to places that are quite so tranquil as Ledstone and Goveton," he said. He warned that even if people could not see the turbines from their homes or gardens they would still be forced to see them as they went about their daily lives..."
December 2008 ~ Windfarms now a threat to air safety
-
"AIR safety will be threatened in Allerdale if any more wind farms are built.
That's according to the company responsible for traffic control of all planes flying in UK air space.
Air traffic control service NATS, in a letter to Allerdale council planning boss Ric Outhwaite, has warned that the district has reached what it regards as the safe acceptable limit of wind farms and that any more could compromise safety...." Read in full
September 16 2008 ~ New report slates windfarms
- Friday's Telegraph reports on the study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank. Extract:
- "...Energy companies want to erect more than 3,000 turbines over the next five years, leading to fears that hundreds of acres of rural landscape will be blighted.....
The report says that wind farms are unprofitable and rely on hefty subsidies that ultimately come from consumers....
The report, written by John Constable, of REF, and Robert Barfoot, the chairman of