I leave it to the forum management whether this belongs in the Rants area.
Solar panels and windmills are not practical means of supplying large amounts of electric power, and probably never will be. First, they can't even exist without massive government (taxpayer) subsidies to build and erect them, then to further subsidize them because they can't make a profit. Second, they are intermittent power sources. When the sun don't shine, they produce little power. And zero at night. It is impossible to have large-scale solar panels and wind turbines without fossil fuels, especially natural gas.
Electricity cannot be stored for later use. Hydrocarbon-fired backup generators must run constantly, to fill the gap and avoid brownouts, blackouts and grid destabilization due to constant surges and falloffs in electricity to the grid. And constantly speeding up and slowing down to stabilize the grid as solar and wind generators fluctuate is wasteful of fuel and shortens the life of fossil-fuel generator, which are designed to run at a constant speed.
To supply just 20% of the current (no pun intended) supply would take solar farms the size of W. Virginia (all made overseas), never mind the future. So put them in deserts, where there are long hours of sun and vast open spaces, places like New Mexico, Arizona and Utah? (Where there are no rivers; so you wash them how? And then there's the cost of hiring tens of thousands of panel washers.) Finally, putting up thousands of square miles of panels would generate electricity where it's not needed, requiring multi-billion dollars expended on new transmission lines.
Then there's the windmills of the mindless. To confront the growing onslaught of wind industry pressure and propaganda, understand the fundamental facts about wind energy. Here are some of the top reasons for opposing further tax handouts:
Energy 101. It is impossible to have wind turbines without fossil fuels, especially natural gas. Turbines average only 30% of their “rated capacity†– and much less on the hottest and coldest days, when electricity is needed most. They produce excessive electricity when it is least needed and cannot be stored for later use. As with solar farms, fossil fuel-fired backup generators must run constantly, to fill the gap and avoid brownouts, blackouts and grid destabilization. Wind turbines frequently draw electricity from the grid, to keep blades turning when the wind is not blowing, reduce strain on turbine gears, and prevent icing during periods of winter calm.
In Britain, wind turbines have to be switched off an average of 38 days each year, ironically because wind speeds are too high, the National Grid reports. Wind farm operators are given “constraint†payments (expected to top $700 million by 2020) to make up for lost revenue when the turbines are idle.
Energy 201. Despite tens of billions in subsidies, wind turbines still generate less than 4% of US electricity. Thankfully, conventional sources keep our country running – and America still has centuries of hydrocarbon resources. It’s time our government allowed us to develop and use those resources.
Economics 101. Wind turbines also need perpetual subsidies – mostly money borrowed from China and future generations. Wind has never been able to compete economically with traditional energy, and there is no evidence that it will in the foreseeable future, especially with ever-cheaper and abundant natural gas. It makes far more sense to rely on the plentiful, reliable, affordable electricity sources that have powered our economy for decades, and build more nuclear and gas-fired generators.
In Britain alone, more than $800 million went to wind power, under the government’s Renewables Obligation program. The average turbine in the UK generates about $240,000 of power per year, but gets subsidies worth over $400,000. By 2020, subsidies are forecast to exceed $10 billion a year.
Economics 201. As Spain, Germany, Britain and other countries have learned, wind energy mandates and subsidies drive up the price of electricity – for families, factories, hospitals, schools etc. Electricity rates are expected to rise by up to 19 percent by 2015. They squeeze budgets and cost jobs - two to four traditional jobs are lost for every wind or other “green†one created. That means the supposed 37,000 jobs (perpetuated by $5 billion to $10 billion in combined annual subsidies, or $135,000 to $270,000 per wind job) are likely costing the United States 74,000 to 158,000 traditional jobs, while diverting billions from far more productive uses.
Environment 101. Industrial wind turbine projects require enormous quantities of rare earth metals, concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass
and other raw materials, for highly inefficient turbines, multiple backup generators and thousands of miles of high-voltage transmission lines. Extracting and processing these materials, turning them into finished components, and shipping and installing the turbines and power lines involve enormous amounts of fossil fuel and extensive environmental damage. Offshore wind turbine projects are even more expensive, resource intensive and indefensible. Calling wind energy “clean†or “eco-friendly†is an extraordinary distortion of the facts.
Environment 201. Wind turbines, transmission lines and backup generators also require vast amounts of crop, scenic and wildlife habitat land. Where a typical 600-megawatt coal or gas-fired power plant requires 250-750 acres, to generate power 90-95% of the year, a 600-MW wind installation needs 40,000 to 50,000 acres (or more), to deliver 30% performance. And while gas, coal and nuclear plants can be built close to cities, wind installations must go where the wind blows, typically hundreds of miles away – adding thousands of additional acres to every project for transmission lines.
Environment 301. Sometimes referred to as “Cuisinarts of the air,†US wind turbines also slaughter over half a million eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, California condors, ducks, geese, bats and other rare, threatened, endangered and otherwise protected flying creatures every year. (This may be a very conservative number, as coyotes and turbine operator cleanup crews remove much of the evidence.) In one wind farm alone, Altamont Pass, CA., over ten thousand birds are slaughtered annually, most being federally protected raptors supposedly protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
And yet, while oil companies are prosecuted for the deaths of even a dozen common birds, turbine operators have been granted a blanket exemption from endangered and migratory species laws and penalties. Now the US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a formal rule to allow repeated “takings†(killings) of bald and golden eagles by wind turbines – in effect granting operators a 007 license to kill. And where is the concern about the hundreds of thousands - possibly millions - of bats killed in the USA by power-generating windmills? According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, over 10,000 are killed this way in this state alone. Bats? Ugh, ugly things; who cares? You should care. They are by far the principal agents in keeping mosquito numbers down, each one consuming thousands per night. If they are wiped out we can expect a staggering increase in mosquito-borne diseases like encephalitis, West Nile Virus (a cause of meningitis) and, for our pets, heartworm disease.
And if those who want a massive increase in these windmills have their way, in answer to a mythical manmade global warming, the present slaughter will be nothing in comparison with what we might expect in 10 or 15 years. Notice the dead silence from PETA, WWF and the Audubon Society, all left-wing organizations.
Environment 401. Scientific support for CO2-driven catastrophic manmade global warming continues to diminish. Even if carbon dioxide does contribute to climate change, there is no evidence that even thousands of US wind turbines will affect future global temperatures by more than a few hundredths of a degree. Not only do CO2 emissions from backup generators (and wind turbine manufacturing) offset any reductions by the turbines, but rapidly increasing emissions from Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and other rapidly developing countries dwarf any possible US wind-related CO2 reductions (China and India alone are opening a new coal-fired generating station each week, and planning, 1,000 new ones by 2035.)
Human Health and Welfare 101. Skyrocketing electricity prices due to “renewable portfolio standards†raise heating and air conditioning costs; drive families into fuel poverty; increase food, medical, school and other costs; and force companies to lay off workers, further impairing their families’ health and welfare. The strobe-light effect, annoying audible noise, and inaudible low-frequency sound from whirling blades result in nervous fatigue, headaches, dizziness, irritability, sleep problems, and vibro-acoustic effects on people’s hearts and lungs. Land owners receive royalties for having turbines on their property, but neighbors receive no income and face adverse health effects, decreased property values and difficulty selling their homes. Once close-knit communities are torn apart.
Real World Civics 101. Politicians take billions from taxpayers, ratepayers and profitable businesses, to provide subsidies to Big Wind companies, who buy Made Somewhere Else turbines – and then contribute millions to the politicians’ reelection campaigns, to keep the incestuous cycle going. It is truly government gone wild – GSA on steroids. It is unsustainable. It is a classic sWINDle.
