Thousands of Britain’s wind turbines (link fixed) will create more greenhouse gases than they save…
The finding, which threatens the entire rationale of the onshore wind farm industry, will be made by Scottish government-funded researchers who devised the standard method used by developers to calculate “carbon payback time” for wind farms on peat soils.
h/t Old Lori
Such wonderful timing for his news . . . on the same day they realize they have screwed the pooch on energy planning and now face major electrical production shortages.
Sure will be easier for consumers to save electricity when there is non to be had. Pity about the human suffering this will cost.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/9889184/One-day-turning-off-the-lights-wont-be-up-to-you.html
Gaia will be so pleased.
Ha Ha. The link has been removed by the Telegraph. The news must be vwey, vwey bad… and someone with a huge vested interest has seen to it that news won’t be known.
Try this link;
http://quixoteslaststand.com/2013/02/23/uk-scientific-research-study-to-be-released-later-this-year-determines-that-wind-farms-create-more-co2/
So simple to solve.Take a greenie and make them live by their by their religion.
I never ever see the CO2 produced in the manufacturing cost expensed out. Smelting steel, copper for generators and connecting to the grid, let alone the CO2 produced mining iron ore.
Well I was more or less amused, at first as the first of these Qixotic thingies were erected just south of here down by Port Burwell. Then on a more or less “curiousity recon” I discovered that each and every tower had a 1000 tonne ferro/concrete foundation….or is it 1000 cu/yds.
One helluva hole anyhoo….and several convoys of mixer trucks…
It was far enough on in the game that CO2 AGW was the big thing and energy 101 starts off with steel and cement manufacture being among the most energy intensive….aluminum refinning distinctive with it’s specific need for electricity…lotsa electricity.
I think yer capcha got hacked by the PRC PA geeks….
Indeed as a kid I recall the huge geoenginering project at Kitimat BC….big ass bulldozers…clearing vast forests with buldozers rather than loggers…tunneling through mountains…the works…just to exploit hydro power for Alcan…..which was expanding from it’s hydro power lair high up Quebecs Saguenay River…another site with lotsa hydro and no people.
But that can’t dislodge that epiphany of that monster hole getting filled with concrete…..
Yes, Tranio. I’ve read (probably at junkscience.com) that including the (Chinese) rare earth minerals used in the blades, the concrete used in the bases, shipping throughout both the manufacturing and delivery process etc. that windmills have a larger ‘carbon footprint’ than they save.
For this reason the hydro cos are installing ‘smart meters’ to enable them to turn off the power anywhere, at any time; from the head office. The bird/bat grinders were never intended to be efficient – they were put up to ‘pretend’ to be a scource of energy while the Agenda 21 ilk contemplated how to herd the population into tiny dark cells in cities. If people have unlimited power at affordable prices they will not choose to live in chicken factory pens in the city; they will live on a lovely stretch of land and have a big house! All the dots can be joined if a person reads Agenda 21, posted on the UN website.
Well yes, it is true wind power is inefficient, and even if “emissions” actually grow we can just lower immigration so people will remain poor elsewhere and emit less … and less … and less.
Maybe we can make everyone here poorer, not just potential immigrants. That would be good for the environment, right?
Say why don’t we make everyone in the world poorer so we could have even lower emissions which would be really, really good for the environment.
What about actual pollution? C’mon that’s so, like, last millenium thinking. The only thing you need to know is that oil made and consumed in Canada is responsible for all pollution. That’s right, all of it; and only capitalists (aka the “rich”) use oil, which proves they’re evil. IOW wind turbines are worth the social cost. You can see the obvious connection, right? So, case closed.
Precis: If you don’t want a giant carbon pricing & tax & spend & borrow economy, you’re an oil shill (IOW not in the “middle class”), which as we’ve already covered means you’re evil.
This message was approved by the Marx/Malthus foundation.
It’s interesting that in addition to LCA of manufacturing and construction, the report ignored the inevitable CO2 increase from base-load required to buffer the grid. If the green theocrat inquisition had not started by targeting nuclear power over forty years ago, I wonder what they would be on to today. Even the French (France is 75% nuclear) make the green theocracies look like idiots.
Wind power is the pretty girl of the renewable family. Fickle, high maintenance, and won’t put out as advertised.
Wind farms around the world are producing only a small percent of their installed capacity.
http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/169521/wind-turbine-energy-capacity-less-estimated
Sasquatch, you were right the second time, it’s up to 1000 cu/m. On a per installed MW basis, wind uses 2 1/2 times the steel and 3 1/2 times the concrete as a nuclear plant. When you consider that nuclear plants produce for times as much energy per MW as a wind turbine, the actual materials requirements are about 10x nuclear.
Jema, not quite. Smart meters don’t control the devices in your house. Smart meters measure your consumption by time of day. During the day, they bill you more.
It’s a revenue-raising device.
cgh
“It’s a revenue-raising device.”
Yeah and one that the consumer cannot really monitor for accuracy. With the old meter I could read the meter each day and then complain bitterly when they mis-read the meter….always in their favour….funny that.