. . . to this
delivery of a turbine blade
From this . . . .
Rotsea Lane on a late September day
Windfarm Factfile
So just how effective are wind turbines ?
Did you know that . . .
- Wind turbines only operate at an average of around 26% efficiency (source: DEFRA).
- Developers usually quote ‘installed capacity’ figures which are effectively based on the turbines running at 100% efficiency.
- Based on the 26% average efficiency a wind farm claiming to reduce CO2 emissions by say 30,000 tons is likely only to reduce CO2 emissions by around 7,800 tons.
- Did you know a single jumbo jet, flying from London to Miami and back every day releases the equivalent of around 520,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. This means that a daily connection between Britain and Florida requires in the region of three giant windfarms of 30 turbines each to offset the carbon emissions.
- David Bellamy carried out a study of the output of two neighbouring wind farms totally 159 turbines and found the joint output averaged 20 MW set against a UK demand peak of around 53,000 MW. From this he calculated that 420,000 turbines would be needed to meet that demand.
- Due to unreliability not one existing fossil fuel power station can be closed down. Indeed research has now shown that as a result of the need to turn up and down the output from the conventional power station to compensate for the unreliability supply from wind turbines the conventional power station produced more CO2 than when it is running consistantly.
Conclusion
- If we continue to rely practically entirely on wind turbines to solve global warming we are going to be in serious trouble and the present government reliance on these giant structures which appear little more than effigies to make it look as if they are doing something is shameful.
- It’s time we had a balanced energy policy that provides investment in more effective renewable energy sources instead of massive subsidies thrown at wind farm development, without which it is claimed they would be totally unviable.
- Shouldn’t equal emphasis and investment be made in trying to reduce our energy consumption?
