This (lightly edited) article reveals sensational facts about the “clean, renewable, inexpensive” wind generation being forced on us by dreaming greenies and spineless politicians. With solid, pragmatic engineering expertise it destroys the grounds cited by our Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw, and the bureaucrats of the Ministry for the Environment who would transform our economy to “zero carbon,” a ridiculous (and undefined) policy which could be recommended only when labouring under zero knowledge of the climate (but of course: “zero carbon” = zero knowledge). Knowing the facts set out below, there’s no defence for a national policy of “decarbonisation”, since there’s categorically no reliable replacement for fossil fuel-powered electricity generation to be found in windmills. The article was originally posted under the title “Electricity consumption in wind turbines” in about 2004 by Eric Rosenbloom, a science editor and writer (then) living in Vermont. There’s more information at his website and in his post A Problem With Wind Power (scroll to the bottom for lots of links). — h/t Susan Goodman for a comment at WUWT
— RT
Energy consumption in wind facilities
Large wind turbines require a large amount of energy to operate. Other electricity plants generally use their own electricity and the difference between the amount they generate and the amount delivered to the grid is readily determined. Wind plants, however, use electricity from the grid which does not appear to be accounted for in their output figures. At the facility in Searsburg, Vermont, for example, it is apparently not even metered and is completely unknown*. The manufacturers of large turbines — for example, Vestas, GE and NEG Micon — do not include electricity consumption in the specifications they provide. Continue Reading →
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