Posted on 11/19/2011 2:34:29 PM PST by Steelfish
Wind Farms Are Useless, Says Duke The Duke of Edinburgh has made a fierce attack on wind farms, describing them as absolutely useless.
The Duke's views are politically charged, as they put him at odds with the Governments policy
Jonathan Wynne-Jones 19 Nov 2011
In a withering assault on the onshore wind turbine industry, the Duke said the farms were a disgrace.
He also criticised the industrys 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 Dukes 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.
The Dukes views are politically charged, as they put him at odds with the Governments policy significantly to increase the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines.
The country has 3,421 turbines 2,941 of them onshore with another 4,500 expected to be built under plans for wind power to play a more important role in providing Britains energy.
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, last month called opponents of the plans curmudgeons and fault-finders and described turbines as elegant and beautiful.
The Dukes attack on the turbines, believed to be the first public insight into his views on the matter, came in a conversation with the managing director of a leading wind farm company.
When Esbjorn Wilmar, of Infinergy, which builds and operates turbines, introduced himself to the Duke at a reception in London, he found himself on the end of an outspoken attack on his industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
As you say, to keep batteries charged. You have a way to store it, therefore it’s useful.
But, like solar, it is only really usable on a very limited scale.
It’s not ready for mass usage at this time.
Wind farm illness: Waubra Disease
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYnNQoTcsHY
Protect yourself.
Acoustic Vibration Disease Hat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El2vVl5Figk
66 percent of Tea Party members would agree with having wind turbines near their homes (Saint Consulting Group, poll of 1,000 in US, June, 2011). 73 percent of men agreed but far fewer women.
Environmentalists are against Wind power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODvhqSfyeM
Wind turbine syndrome news report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRCekFYWsPo
Wind Nimby Spanking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLHOydx2RTA
Wind Nimby Rant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KurAbrMHu2k
John Stossel Wind Power and NIMBY
[Environmentalists against wind turbines.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo2rMj8KVtQ
They are also noisy, I would hate to live near one. I stopped at a wind farm in NY state a while back and was astounded at how loud it was.
Holy Toledo Ernest! Lookit this!! Reality is makin somewhat of a comeback!!!
Too bad his wisdom on wind farms hasn’t been inherited by his nitwit son Chuck.
In general, wind power is a joke; nobody could possibly operate solely on wind.
What wind power is good for is small, off-grid solar power users that need a source of power that tends to run well when the sun doesn’t.
As a source of power for the main grid, wind falls flat on its face.
Chuck doesn’t seem to have inherited any wisdom of any kind.
>> “Reality is makin somewhat of a comeback!!!” <<
.
But it’ll never make it across the California border.
>> “Its not ready for mass usage at this time.” <<
.
And never will be!
Both wind and solar are voracious consumers of resources, and tremendous producers of industrial wastes.
>> “Sounds like the Duke is of stong mind.” <<
.
Refreshing, huh!
Not necessarily. If the right technology comes along, in terms of maximizing the generation, storage and transmission of power, then maybe.
But there should be no subsidies in development. A company should be prepared to do such R and D, for the benefits that will come long term.
The “Right Technology” came along a long time ago, but it cannot do what it is being asked to do.
To increase the output of solar panels, for example, would require elimination of thermal conduction from the cells to the backboard. That is where the lost energy is going for the most part.
Lightning?
I think they just turned it on.
Then it’s not the right technology, if it cannot do what it is supposed to do.
I’m not saying that it’s just around the corner, or even 50 years away. But I do believe that it will come, at some point.
It does exactly what its supposed to do.
Some public expectations are out of line with the real world.
I don’t think so.
I don’t think anybody in the 90’s thought that you could hold a computer as powerful as a Cray supercomputer, nut your smartphone is exactly that, even more so.
Now, it is expected that laptops and desktops will go away and everything you need to do computing will be contained in a smartphone. You’ll just go home and plug it in a docking station and run a monitor and keyboard off that.
If I told you that five years ago, there’s a good chance that I was just fantsizing an impossible fantasy.
Same with solar or wind. It’s just a matter of figuring out the right materials, circumstances, and understanding. I don’t necessarily expect to run whole cities off these technologies, but there’s no reason, if we can overcome the limitations that they can’t be an eventual part of how we generate our power.
I won't say never. But there is one thing that will keep your unlikely dream from happening.
Subsidies.
So long as a technology is subsidized, there is no incentive to improve upon it.
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