Extract from a debate by a German scientist trained by Einstein.
1.One does not generate "electricity", but electric energy.
2.Megawatt is a unit of power, not energy and one does not generate power, but installs
it. A 100 KW
car does not generate any energy just because I bought it and installed it in my garage.
3.Energy unit would be MWH equal to a MW device operating for one hour. My car will
generate 100
KWH of energy RUNNING 1 Hr at full power. As one seldom uses more than 30% of
power when driving, my car will generate 30 KWH during an average 1 Hr drive.
Now, as we shall see below, operating time of Wind Mills is about 10%, which means
that the project will generate 40 MWH, apparently enough for 40 000 homes. Question
arises, what happens during the 90% of non-operating time. One cannot expect these
homes to shut their light, fridges etc. for 90% of time.
We touch here the extremely complex problem of RESERVES, too complex to continue
this loose chat.
Let's take it more rigorously from the scratch.
Energy may be classified with respect to the following criteria: clean/polluting,
sustainable/depletable, permanent/intermittent.
Intermittent energy requires reserves for non-operating periods. Reserves must come
from plants capable to start, stop, change the rate in matter of minutes, which restricts
them to fossils (oil, gas, coal). Fossils are most polluting sources even in permanent
regime. In the intermittent regime of reserves their pollution ratio increases about 5 times.
Following the statistics of EON (German electricity provider controlling about 15 000
Wind Mills) operational Wind Mills time averages to 10%, as they shut down for:
-wind too weak,
-wind too strong (for security reasons),
-wind-blasts (for security reasons),
-ideal conditions, when all Wind Mills work at full capacity, because it would heat white
the high tension lines, which are not build to accomodate wind energy picks.
Thus, always following EON, for each INSTALLED MW of Wind Power, one has to
keep installed and running 0.9 MW of fossils.
Let' have a look at some usual clichés:
Cliché: Wind energy is a practical, efficient alternative.
Comment: 15 000 German Wind Mills produce 0.4% of German electric energy. To have
an idea of wind efficiency, imagine a train replacing electric or diesel engines with sails.
Wind energy is a NON-ALTERNATIVE.
Cliché: Wind energy is clean.
Comment: True for 10% of time. For the rest, taken integrally with reserves it is the most
polluting form of energy.
Cliché: Wind energy is sustainable.
Comment: False, it may last only as long as the depletable fossil reserves, underlying it.
Cliché: Wind energy is an alternative to Nuclear.
Comment: False. Forgetting for the moment that Wind is a NON-ALTERNATIVE to
anything:
In order to replace French Nuclear one would have to cover all available places in France
THREE TIMES with Mills, change France to 3 layers of Mills standing on top of one
another.
With fossil plants on top of them for 90% of the installed Wind Power. And that would
replace the Nuclear for about 40 years, the time to deplete the fossils. Let's not talk about
pollution. One would not see one's feet through the smog.
But one does not get a full picture just by negating false clichés. Let's recall some
characteristics of Wind Power less known to the public.
COST. A Wind KWH is 9 times more expensive (in France and Germany) than the
traditional.
That for the operative 10%. For 90% of reserve use the ratio varies from 14 to 40 under
normal reserves availability (see next paragraph).
The extra cost is carried by the citizen in form of tax increase (state subventions of Wind
Power), or electricity bill.
IMPACT ON RESERVES AND NETWORK. Reserves control is one of most complex
issues of electric network management. Reserves are there, of course, not only to support
Wind Power, but to compensate any unforseen drop in supply, like failure of a
transformer, etc. Reserves management is in hands of a central command unit of a
provider.
Once facing an emergency (in Wind case a meteo message warning of closing the Mills),
the chief manager considers an internet site offering reserves by international auction.
Offer and demand determine the price usually fluctuating between 14 and 40 times that of
traditional supply. Occasionally it reached 500 and more.
But what if there are no available reserves?
Simply a black-out like that in the US, in Greece and in Italy.
One or two Wind Mills of course don't count.
But tens of thousands contribute seriously to disequilibrate the networks. An EON study
concludes that if the increase trend continues, the Wind Power may cause a several
months black-out for whole Europe, with consequences comparable to the WWII.
ECOLOGY. German League of Environment Protection compares Wind Mills
devastation of environment with the 30 years war. The "Bird Grinders" kill millions of
birds a year in Germany.
NUISANCES. Noise, stroboscopic effects, disco effects, and infrasounds impact the
health and the quality of life of close residents.
PROJECTIONS. 50 kg blocks of ice projected at 1 km. In several cases of brakes failure
30m long and 3 tons heavy blades were projected at 500m.
One may ask, why Wind Mills are so progressing, if they are inefficient, polluting,
depletable, costly, devastating environment, harmful to neighbors' health, life quality and
life itself?
Sam gave us a partial answer saying: "Adam Twine, who owns the land for the farm, had
no problems finding investors for the project."
Money is the answer. Wind Power is probably the biggest fraud of the century. The
German Wind Lobby grifted in the present decade 50 billion Euros from the taxpayers in
form of subventions, tax reductions, interest free credits and law obliging providers to
buy Wind Energy at 9 times their current cost.
According to the League of Environment Protection 30% of this money goes to bribe
involved politicians from ministers and lawmakers to village mayors.
But we did not yet tell the worst: draining all money and resources, the Wind Monster
chokes other really clean and sustainable alternatives
In Brittany, traditionally competent in things of the sea, a company produced an efficient
prototype of "hydrolienne" or a sea current turbine. Now, that is clean, permanent (no
reserves) and environment friendly. The company is going broke for want of 500
thousand Euro.
A bit of grifted billions could save it and its product.
Fossil and Nuclear Lobbies contribute to bribing the politicians to promote Wind Mills.
Indeed, each Wind Farm fosters new or secures existing fossil plants and the Wind Fraud
chokes real alternatives that could get dangerous for the Nuclear.