Wind farms: the monuments to lunacy that will be left to blot the landscape ( UK )

Telegraph ^ | 10 Sep 2011 | Christopher Booker

[george76]

These pointless monstrosities will continue to proliferate until the Government sees sense.

Three separate news items on the same day last week reflected three different aspects of what is fast becoming a full-scale disaster bearing down on Britain. The first item was a picture in The Daily Telegraph showing two little children forlornly holding a banner reading “E.On Hands Off Winwick”.

This concerned a battle to prevent a tiny Northamptonshire village from being dwarfed by seven 410-foot wind turbines, each higher than Salisbury Cathedral, to be built nearby by a giant German-owned electricity firm. The 40 residents, it was reported, have raised £50,0000 from their savings to pay lawyers to argue their case when their village’s fate is decided at an inquiry by a Government inspector.

...

Alas, despite all the practical evidence to show why wind power is one of the greatest follies of our age, those who rule our lives, from our own politicians and officials here in Britain to those above them in Brussels, seem quite impervious to the facts.

[decimon]

Thanks, Civ.

“Everyone has a steak in this.”

That takes some chops.

[Marty62]

Windfarms. Ecofascist environmental equivalent to a strip mine.

[cripplecreek]

Consumers.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You are lucky. The kooks in California have MANDATED that 1/3 of our power must come from wind and solar. Look for rates to double and power to be unreliable.

[Kickass Conservative]

How many people died at Three Mile Island?

One less than died in Ted Kennedy’s Oldsmobile.

[Billthedrill]

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

[cripplecreek]

There is one being proposed here in michigan that would cover some 6,000 acres with towers 4 and 5 hundred feet tall. I did some estimating and figured that they would be visible over an area of nearly 200 square miles.

I don’t remember the exact figures but it was enough for me to decide I’d rather live a mile from a coal fired plant.

[Greysard]

if it can pass the following criteria

There is of course one more concern. Wind transfers energy (heat) from one place on Earth to another. If enough windmills are built, they will slow the wind down and extract that energy from the wind. As result, the energy will not be released where it was meant to be. The air will be colder. How will this impact the precious climate that so many "scientists" are agog about?

Note that if the air gets colder then the water vapor in it condenses into water droplets. You will get clouds and rain where no rain was supposed to be, and accordingly other locations will not get that water. I somehow doubt that any of that was included into the environmental study.

[Lakeshark]

I've had a few PerryKrishnas insist on telling me how great wind power is.

It's amazing how common sense (or reality) gets checked at the door...........

[cripplecreek]

Sierra Club’s War on Coal Blamed for 53k Lost Jobs in Michigan

Green Energy Mandates and Cap on Competition Blamed for Michigan's High Energy Costs

[SeeSharp]

I’d like to laugh at the Brits for this but we’re still converting our food into ethanol.

[bigbob]

Utter drivel, even Algore has written more intelligent factual crap than this.

[cripplecreek]

But he’s magical.

[WestwardHo]

“There is of course one more concern. Wind transfers energy (heat) from one place on Earth to another. If enough windmills are built, they will slow the wind down and extract that energy from the wind. As result, the energy will not be released where it was meant to be. The air will be colder. How will this impact the precious climate that so many “scientists” are agog about? “

OK wise guy, I live in eastern New Mexico, the most windy place in the nation, and windmill Heaven. We have lots of windmills! Then how come we had triple digit heat most of the summer? We have enough windmills we should have been wearing sweaters all summer. And our heat should have been pushed up to Seattle WA. I know junk science when I see it.

[Lakeshark]

"Wind power is awesome when my cronies friends get rewarded for their industriousness."

Hat tip to FreeReign.....

[wita]

equivalent to a strip mine

Worse! Strip mines will be returned to a natural habitat after they are mined out. Windmills may very well be a blight on the environment for decades.

Strip mines actually produce a product for sale at a reasonable price. I’ll take a coal bearing strip mine to a bunch of windmills any day any time.

Strip mines are capable of efficiencies that can be measured above 30 percent. Windmills are limited to 30 percent or less by the very nature of wind.

[cripplecreek]

I do wonder about air disruptions and rain desert effects.

[Rocky]

You are a rare steakholder. You have used FreeRepublic as your medium to prove it. Well done.

[wita]

OK wise guy, I live in eastern New Mexico, the most windy place in the nation,

You might get some argument from the entire state of WY

[JoenTX]

Amen. Truly a blight indeed.

We are, unfortunately, beset by these monsters here in TX and in large part thanks to, alas, GWB. One of the last things he did as Governor was “ok” the wind power initiative we have plaguing us today. Nonwithstanding the fact that they are a scam, scamola, fairy tale, a fool’s bet, hogwash, hooey, balderdash, and bilge.

Now, for those landowners who’ve chosen to accept leases for these catastrophes, they are told that there is a giant pile of money being put aside somewhere in Austin (cough, BS) just in case, for whatever reason, in the unlikely event that the mills on their property are shuddered that the cost of removal and reclamation will be paid for. Ya know, some event like the taxpayer subsidies supporting them now running out and the machines becoming instantly uneconomical.