Stories About Wind Power
I don’t like large onshore wind turbines, as I believe they destroy wonderful views and the economics are not very sound.
On the other hand, when they are offshore, they are less intrusive and the economics might be better. But even so the arrays have to be properly designed and sited.
The real place for wind turbines is to provide distributed power to difficult places, where a small amount of electricity is required and running a cable would be expensive.
I’ve not been happy on the effect of turbines on birds ever since, I read several articles about how in the United States, wind farms kill eagles and other large birds. Yesterday The Times published a similar article about their effect on bats.
I’m always sceptical about the reasons for publishing these articles, as I’m pretty certain, that they are very much the sort of story that pleases Middle England, who feel the turbines will make their house drop in value.
The Times also published a story about a wind turbine on the Welsh Assembly, which is also reported on the BBC. This is the first paragraph.
A wind turbine that cost the Welsh government £48,000 to buy has been generating an average of just £5 worth of electricity per month.
It all goes to show that wind turbines may not be as economic, as their proponents say they will be.
One thing I’d like to see is an open database on the Internet of all turbines, with their detailed cost, subsidy and revenue, so anybody who wanted to, could check the efficiency and economics of any turbine.
Only if that information wee to be freely available, would we be able to know if they were money well spent.
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The Anonymous Widower 
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