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A long, relaxed look at wind farms

30th June 2017

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy

     

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About two years ago, I was travelling on a train from London to York. On the way I passed the Drax power station. Drax was built to fire coal but at the time it was burning imported wood chips, which, by some logic of a green fanatic, was better for the planet than burning coal.

The fact that wood chips had to be transported across the Atlantic Ocean by ships that, um, use diesel fuel for transport propulsion seems to escape the green lunatic fringe. Could one not burn coal and diesel and leave the wood chips to do whatever wood chips do? Anyway.

It was a still North Yorkshire winter day and the smoke from Drax spiralled up in a vertical stripe. Next to Drax were three wind turbines, all slowly turning in the still air. I could immediately see that the turbines were not actually being driven by the (nonexistent) wind but were being turned by internal motors to stop the bearings from freezing. They were drawing about 300 kW each and giving the impression to the gullible public that, no matter how still the day, the wind turbines will still turn, since “there’s always wind up there”. A lie.

With the exception of one fact, everything that I have written about wind turbines has come true. They are a visual blot on the landscape. Undeniably true, unless you are a green lunatic and the sight of 160-m-high towers stuck all over a hill that was once pure and natural gives you a thrill, knowing that you have supported changing the visual aspects of the planet permanently, forever.

Wind turbines are not reliable. Undeniably true. At the Gouda wind farm, the energy generated by the wind turbines has not yet resulted in an investor profit, so I am told. The erratic generation nature of the wind turbines has resulted in State-owned power utility Eskom having to run at least one of the power stations as a load-balancing station, which results in increased pollution and inefficient generation.

Wind turbines kill birds. Undeniably true. Wind supporters and green lunatics tell me that cars and cats kill more birds than wind turbines. Which is also undeniably true. The only matter is that cars and cats kill doves, mossies, mynah birds and robins. Wind turbines kill bustards, blue cranes, hawks, eagles, vultures and other raptors, less common than the former group.

The only thing that I said wind turbines did, which, in fact, they do not do, is make a noise. A number of wind farm operators allowed us to measure the noise of wind turbines and it is not great.

There is no overwhelmingly compelling argument in favour of wind turbines. The energy supplied is not free – the wind farm operator sells the energy to Eskom and incurs costs in building the wind farm. It is a bit like saying that a hydroelectric power station supplies energy for free, since you do not have to pay for the water.

But the worst thing about wind turbines, wind farms and wind- supporting people is the complete lack of transparency concerning wind farm operations. They should be open and honest but, instead, they hand out a series of cosy illusions and comforting half-truths. They say that wind farms produce at a “capacity factor” of “up to 45%”. Thus, they give the impression that they produce 45% of the nameplate capacity of the generation system. If you asked them what the capacity factor is, you find that they have a definition which is the average energy produced as a ratio of the peak energy produced. Since the peak energy is never the nameplate capacity, the definition is flawed. But they do not tell you that.

When a wind turbine breaks or a tower falls down, they keep it a secret; there have been at least three tower failures, but they never make the news. But it has all come to an end. My secret spy in the wind industry tells me they are not going to build any more turbines. All the turbine constructors have left for South America. What I can say is: Vaya Con Dios, Godspeed and never come back.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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