Make you Fink on Friday

Britain’s Dirty Secret

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Stopgap: Banks of diesel generators that have been built for when wind turbines fail to produce electricity because of lack of wind

The dirty secret of Britain’s power madness: Polluting diesel generators built in secret by foreign companies to kick in when there’s no wind for turbines – and other insane but true eco-scandals

• Moving to wind power is expected to cost £1 billion a year by 2015
• Official figures on the size of the green economy are extremely misleading
• They exaggerate the worth of the sector by up to 700 per cent

Thousands of dirty diesel generators are being secretly prepared all over Britain to provide emergency back-up to prevent the National Grid collapsing when wind power fails.

And under the hugely costly scheme, the National Grid is set to pay up to 12 times the normal wholesale market rate for the electricity they generate.

One of the main beneficiaries of the stopgap plan is the Government itself, which stands to make hundreds of millions of pounds by leasing out the capacity of the generators in public-sector property including NHS hospitals, prisons, military bases, police and fire headquarters, schools and council offices.

But the losers will be consumers who can expect yet further hikes in their electricity bills in the name of ‘combating climate change’.

The scheme is expected to cost £1 billion a year by 2015, adding five per cent to energy bills.

This scheme is a direct consequence of the renewable energy policy adopted by the Coalition but first developed by Tony Blair in response to EU renewables directives to reduce Britain’s carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.

As more and more wind turbines are built to replace fossil fuels, so the National Grid will become increasingly unstable because wind power is intermittent, unpredictable and unreliable.

Wind now constitutes about ten per cent of Britain’s energy mix. Under current Government targets, the plan is to increase this to 25 per cent by 2020.

Source: Mail Online

Opinion:

Yes, what happens when the wind stops blowing?

Think about that!

What’s happening in your country? Is your government pulling the same stunt?

Blowing Hot, Blowing Cold

One of the big issues, environmentally, at this time is the production of ‘green’ energy. We need it if we are to reduce carbon emissions and thereby save the planet if there is truth that man-made carbon emissions are  responsible for climate changes; another hot topic. Irregardless of that as an issue, we do need to reduce carbon emissions for public safety and health reasons.

Wind turbines dot the landscape

Extracting power from the wind. Wind turbines, or colloquially referred to as wind farms, seem to be the answer. The governments have been sold on the idea, corporations who produce the materials for them and the companies that make them have sold the government on the idea. The idea has been peddled through the mainstream media (controlled by the corporations, of course) to the populace.

Wind farms are the answer.

I, however, am not so convinced. I agree that a wind farm doesn’t produce pollution, soil contaminants, etc. But what about the energy in producing the turbines and generators? From the mining of minerals, to the smelting, to the engineering involved. ALL that produces a lot of pollution, which takes decades of wind production to recover, if the wind blows.

Then there are issues like the wind is not a constant, so fossil fuel generators have to be kept idling on-line in the event of a drop in the wind creating a shortfall.

Image from Patriot's Corner

Ecological considerations like bird-kill that is down played by the industry to be negligible, tell that to endangered species, they won’t think it is negligible. But the human need for energy is far more important than the extinction of rare raptor species. This is an ugly secret of the powerful prop-turbine wind industry, a story that you won’t see on the “feel-good” TV commercials or read about in industry-sponsored ads or mainstream media. You can read more here and on Killer Wind.

I read sometime back about the drying of farmland behind wind turbines. The disturbed wind behind turbines raises the temperature by between 2 and 5 degrees, the result is that evaporates up to 7mm (rain equivalent) from the soil during the day. In some areas that could be catastrophic resulting in the creation of arid land; land that was used for pasture and crops and can no longer support such uses.

The argument is that the turbines don’t affect so much area. But a recent photo shows the magnitude of the area involved.

Clouds forming in the wakes of the front row of wind turbines of Horns Rev wind farm, Denmark. Photograph: Aeolus

Photo from The Guardian: Are Wind Turbines Increasing Carbon Emissions?

The area is, in fact, quite considerable. Not only that but the altitude of the disturbed air can reach up to 1,000 metres (3,000ft) altitude; thereby creating climatic changes, affecting rainfall and storm direction. You can read more on Tainted Green.

Erosion is another highly contentious issue, whereas wind erosion has always existed, the erosion caused by the disturbed wind flow exacerbates the rate rate of erosion.

The military have even noted radar blackout areas associated with wind farms.

Wind power is a multi-million dollar industry, the controllers of which receive huge, and I mean colossal, subsidies, but many call the whole idea a scam.

Where there is money involved there are lies, when there is BIG money involved the lies are proportionately BIGGER.

The governments will never question it, because the corporations tell them not to; after all, who owns the governments?

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Even then, there are other issues. Wind turbines break, fall, fail, etc. 1,500 accidents and incidents are recorded over a five year period on Britain alone.

“The noise annoyance caused by wind turbines can lead to sleep deprivation, memory and cognitive issues, vertigo and dizziness, and, finally, heart issues like rapid heart rate.” From: ‘Wrecking our heaven’. Airborne dust pollution hasn’t been mentioned, how much more is there to consider when calculating the costs of wind energy.

I remain, not convinced.