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 ...
You and I agree here.
There is no way GE or anybody whould receive one dime of subsidy for anything they are developing that they expect to receive eventual profit from.
>> “I dont think anybody in the 90s thought that you could hold a computer as powerful as a Cray supercomputer, nut your smartphone is exactly that, even more so.” <<
.
That statement isn’t true.
You may not have thought so, but the rapid increase in computing power was an accepted principle since the early 80s.
That is the most telling single fact about the government's "green energy" policies. It incentivizes scams -- not improved technologies.
Moore’s law.
Computers would keep getting more powerful, but only a few insiders thought it could shrink so much. Bill Gates, for example, is quoted as saying that he didn’t think software would ever need more than 640 k to run.
Anybody can make wild predictions, it’s a matter of being correct.
I just read that Intel expects computers to eventually be powered by solar power, like your calculator. If we can get solar power to that point of efficiency, there’s no reason why it cannot also power your home lighting as well.
I know.
Between you and I, that is a non-debatable point. We should not be subsidizing technological advances.
If GE, or whomever, honestly believes that wind power, or whatever, is eventually viable, the R + D should be on their dime or it isn’t viable.
Isn't that what we're seeing now? So-called "green energy" subsidies and loans simply serving as a device to reward contributors?
As a consequence, the whole "green energy" market is predicated on an artificial foundation -- virtually insuring that there will be no technological advances in wind & solar power which might eventually make them an efficient competitor.
I agree.
The subsidy game has probably slowed technological advances by 20 years. What we’ll have in terms of advances for solar and wind 20 years from, we might have had by now, if the object had been to make money from technological advances, instead of making money through government subsidy.
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