Sense on Wind Farms From the Duke of Edinburgh
Wind generation of electricity has its place, but it will never generate the large amount of electricity we need. They only work economically with heavy subsidies and when the wind blows. They also need back-up power plants for when the wind doesn’t blow.
On the front page of the Sunday Times, the Duke of Edinburgh is quoted about his opposition to the farms.
We would be much better using the subsidies we all pay with our electricity bills to insulate houses and other buildings, rather than waste it on uneconomic wind farms.
The Anonymous Widower 
The problem with wind is that air density is too low and so very large machines are required to generate any significant amount of power. Also the wind is, as you say, unreliable. Water on the other hand is much more dense, and produces far more electricity using smaller machines. Also the tides are both reliable and predictable. We should of course all minimize the energy we use, but human weakness will never make all people frugal with their heating or transport. We only get one ride on the roundabout, and most people want to make the most of theirs. We should strive to make the best use of non-fossil energy sources of which there are plenty apart from wind and water. Even on what we think is a cold day, there is a massive amount of energy arriving from the sun. If just a small proportion of this is used to heat our houses and run our transport, then we can all sleep in peace with a quiet conscience.
Comment by John Wright | November 21, 2011 |
In my view we shiould have listened to Frederick Snow in the 1960s.
https://anonw.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/the-severn-barrage/
The trouble is the Nimbies in their 4×4’s would have had a field day.
Comment by AnonW | November 21, 2011 |