Another take on wind power...

[Steve Wood]

About two years ago, Texas was on the edge of a brownout for lack of electricity when the wind quit blowing one spring day.  There are pluses and minuses to everything.  There is always someone touting the miracle solution to our problems and you can generally wonder what they hope to get out of it.





Written by Jack Kelly  


Tuesday, 18 January 2011



England is experiencing its coldest winter in a century.  The cold has been all the more biting for some because many of the 3,150 wind turbines Britain increasingly depends upon to generate electricity haven't been working.

"With demand for power at record levels because of the freezing weather, there have been days when the contribution of our forests of wind turbines has been precisely nothing," wrote Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail Dec. 27.

"It gets better," Mr. Littlejohn continued.  "As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them from seizing up.  Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate."

No nation has placed greater emphasis on wind and solar energy than Spain.  On eight separate occasions early in his presidency, Barack Obama cited the "green" policies enacted by Spain's socialist government as the model for what he wants for America.

President Obama doesn't talk so much about Spain anymore.  Could this because Spain has, at over 20 percent, the highest unemployment rate of any major country in Europe? (The average for the 27-member European Union is half that.)  Because Spain has a debt so huge it is on the brink of default?  Or because Spain has the highest electric utility rates in the EU?

When Gabriel Calzada, an economist at a private think tank in Spain, issued a report in 2009 which said each wind energy job the government created cost Spanish taxpayers $1.4 million in subsidies, and destroyed 2.2 jobs in the private sector, the Zapatero government went ballistic.  But a government report leaked last May indicated the job loss has been even greater than Mr. Calzada feared.  Spain is now cutting subsidies for wind and solar power.

The Calzada study also prompted panic in Obama appointees in the Department of Energy, who worked with wind energy lobbyists to craft responses to the study and to a column George Will wrote about it.

"What this shows is a shameless politicization of what should be a professional bureaucracy," said Investor's Business Daily in an editorial.  "Instead of staying objective, they sought to scupper facts for ideologically motivated junk science."

I suppose it is natural for politicians to be attracted to wind power, since so many of them are blowhards.  But if you think wind energy could replace a substantial amount of the fossil fuels we use, you must have slept through physics class in high school.

John Droz Jr. is an environmentali st who wants to find replacements for coal.  But John Droz Jr. is also a physicist.  All energy sources should be evaluated on their technical performance, the economics of the power produced, and their full environmental impact, he thinks.

"All independent evidence to date indicates that industrial wind power fails on all three of these critical counts," Mr. Droz says on his Web site, windpowerfacts .

Shivering Britons could give you an earful about technical performance.  The wind doesn't blow all the time.  Our Department of Energy assumes wind turbines will operate at about 30 percent of capacity, but actual experience in Europe and America has been much lower.

Further, the wind often doesn't blow when energy is needed most.  Extreme wintertime cold comes from high pressure weather systems, which don't generate much wind.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the cheapest way to generate a kilowatt hour of electricity is to burn natural gas in a combined cycle unit.  Clean coal is 43 percent more expensive; nuclear is 50 percent more expensive; wind is 88 percent more expensive.

The biggest problem with wind turbines is environmental.  They're eyesores.  They kill a lot of birds and bats.  And they can make humans sick.

Dr. Nina Pierpont (an MD with a Ph.D in biology), in her book, Wind Power Syndrome, documents that "low frequency noise and vibration generated by wind machines can have an effect on the inner ear, triggering headaches, difficulty with sleeping, tinnitus, learning and mood disorders, panic attacks, irritability."

Industrial wind turbines require enormous space.  The electricity needs of a city of 300,000 can be met by a 500-megawatt coal plant, which would cover about 300 acres.  Science writer Kurt Cobb estimated the wind turbines needed to generate 500 megawatts of electricity would cover 55 square miles (35,200 acres).  

The only thing "green" about wind power, Dr. Droz says, "is the substantial profit being made by the developers and their paid supporters" as a result of government subsidies and mandates.

How high do you think the odds are that the 112th Congress is going to put an end to the Great Wind Scam soon?

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration . He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

[ULYCYC]

We (USA)have at least  100 years worth of natural gas in the ground. By the time it depletes our homes will be direct powered from the toilet bowl.

[SuperSix]

John Deere was smart to sell off their wind turbine division.

[Charlief1]

What the heck is wrong with Hydro development these days? That's what my county is on and it works well.

[daveismissing]

I didn't think there were may feasible sites left?

[Steve Wood]

hydro needs to switch from dams to underwater turbines

[DCEPTCN]

All I've got to say is that Palm Springs looks like hell.

[firebird_1252]

i say why not solar?

i wouldnt mind seeing a few solar farms.. why not?

as far as wind.. back on li some people on farms are putting windmills up.

[chrisgarrett]

The Bloom Box:  The future of energy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khK_QTWl5Nc

[SuperSix]

i say why not solar?

i wouldnt mind seeing a few solar farms.. why not?

as far as wind.. back on li some people on farms are putting windmills up.

Solar isn't anywhere near ready yet. Panels have miserable efficiency, and large scale solar uses obscene amounts of water to cool the mirror arrays.

Where's the best solar? Deserts, the same place there's meager water resources.

Great strides have been made recently in panel efficiency, but not enough for cost effective large scale use.

Nuclear is the best choice now, but tree huggers and morons that still talk about Chernobyl and Three Mile Island stifle that.

[$1987 GN$]

i say why not solar?

i wouldnt mind seeing a few solar farms.. why not?

as far as wind.. back on li some people on farms are putting windmills up.

Solar isn't anywhere near ready yet. Panels have miserable efficiency, and large scale solar uses obscene amounts of water to cool the mirror arrays.

Where's the best solar? Deserts, the same place there's meager water resources.

Great strides have been made recently in panel efficiency, but not enough for cost effective large scale use.

Nuclear is the best choice now, but tree huggers and morons that still talk about Chernobyl and Three Mile Island stifle that.

Actually coal is the best and clean too when proper scrubbers are used.
Hydro is by far the cleanest and best controllable;  limited locations.
Nukes are bad because you can not throttle them up or down instantly. Plus it cost more than coal.
Natural gas is expensive and the tree huggers like it but not in their back yard.
Solar is too costly at this time and takes up enormous amounts of space.
Wind LOL

AJ___

[daveismissing]

Wind works in Pheonix doesn't it?
Don't the mountains make a natural funnel into the farms?

[SuperSix]

Wind works in Pheonix doesn't it?
Don't the mountains make a natural funnel into the farms?

It may work in small areas, but never as a complete solution. There's very few places on earth that have the consistent wind to make them profitable.

[Steve Wood]

There is no cheap solution....th at is the first thing that must be understood..no t today, anyway.

Secondly, there is no single solution.

As the above article points out, there are a multitude of problems with wind on a large scale.

[Top Speed]

I actually work in the biomass power industry and am in Tampa for a renewable energy conference.  I am for a mix of technologies as well as energy conservation as the long term solution to our energy needs.  Wind and solar are OK to supplement the grid but cannot be relied upon as the sole source of power.  The electric grid is 24/7 while wind only works when the wind blows and solar power only works when the sun shines.  Both pose problems on the electric grid because their full installed capacity has to be reserved on the transmission lines even though they only work 25% of full capacity on average.  This takes up available transmission line capacity so other forms of power have difficulty getting interconnect agreements in certain areas of high installed wind and solar.  Wind power also causes major synchronizatio n issues when the wind speeds up and down.  Things are not so easy as the people make it seem when it comes down to the actual details of making them work.