The Wind Farm Scam
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ISBN:978 1905299 83 6 * |
John Etherington,
The spectre of global warming and the political panic surrounding it has triggered a goldrush for renewable energy sources without an open discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each.
In The Wind Farm Scam Dr Etherington argues that in the case of wind power the latter far outweigh the former. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what’s more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition to the inefficacy of wind power there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape, which wind turbines entail.
Dr Etherington argues that wind power has been, and is being, excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been consulted, nor informed that this effective subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support.
Reviews of The Wind Farm Scam :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1905299834
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The Wind Farm Scam
The following links relate to the various chapters of The Wind Farm Scan
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Preface
"The mountains of Powys and Cardiganshire carry what from a distance looks like a golgotha of gibbets" Simon Jenkins . The Times , 15 February 2002.
"In late 2004 Country Guardian commissioned me as an independent consultant to write a revised version of The Case Against Windfarms, an undertaking that inspired and prepared the ground for this book". Dr John Etherington.
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Introduction.
"Electricity generated generated by modern industrial wind turbones has many failings, all of which can be traced back to the physical laws which govern air movement and limit the energy that can be extracted from the wind. The huge size of the machines which make them so inappropriate in thphysical laws". |
1. Wind Turbines
A chapter which describes the technology used in the design and construction of wind turbines, including the reasons why design is always in the direction of "bigger and higher", and why this puts stresss on the structure which can compromise safee countryside is also is also a consequence of those same ty.
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2. Wind-generated energy.
This covers the conversion of wind into energy, the reasons why wnd turbines produce only about a quarter of their "installed capacity |
3.No wind, low wind - intermittent generation
This is the biggest issue cururently. "It could take 50 gigawatts of renewable energy generation to meet the EU target. But it would require up to 90% of this amount as backup from coal and gas plants to ensure supply when intermittent supplies were not available. That would push Britain's installed thermal [non- renewable] powerbase from the existing 76 gigawatts to 120 gigawatts.
E.ON UK, quoted in The Guardian, 4 June 2008)
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4. Financing the impossible
"We have ...introduced Renewables Obligation for England and Wales in April 2002. This will incentivise generators to supply progressively higher levels of renewable energy over time. the cost is met through higher prices to consumers....By 2010 it is estimated that this support(RO) and Climate Change Levy(CCL) exemption will will be worth around £1 billion a year to the UK renewables industry" (DTI 2003 Energy White Paper)
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5. Do wind turbines abate carbon emission?
"Harnessing the natural power of wind is essential to tackle global warming (Yes2wind website)"
"The current 'Dash for Wind' could actually make the situation worse" (UK Power 2004) |
6. Landscape degradation and wildlife
"The Government's thesis that the countryside and upland and coastal Britain is"worth sacrificing to save the planet" is an insult to science, economics and politics. But the greatest insult is to aesthetics. The trouble is that aesthetics has no way of answering back2 (Simon Jenkins, The Times, 24 October2003)
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7. Noise, shadows and flicker
The sound of a wind turbine generating electricity is likely to be about the same level as noise from a flowing stream about 50-100 metres away or the noise of leaves rustling in a gentle breeze (BWEA website.)
E.ON has today announced that it no longer intends to continue to develop an eight turbine windfarm near Ferndale because of concerns that the design could potentially pose a noise nuisanse to nearby homes (Press release 2 July 2008) |
8. Danger and Nuisance
"The trend is as expected - as more turbines are built, the more accidents occur. Numbers of recorded accidents reflect this, with an average of 66.9 accidents found per year from 2002 to 2008 inclusive, and only an average of 16.0 accidents found per year in the previous seven years (1995-2001 inclusive). With few exceptions, before about 1997 only data on fatal accidents has been found.
There is a general trend upward in accident numbers over the past 10 years. This is predicted to escalate unless HSE make some significant changes - in particular to protect the public by declaring a minimum safe distance between new turbine developments and occupied housing and buildings (currently 2km in Europe), and declaring "no-go" areas to the public, following the 500m exclusion zone around operational turbines imposed in France."
Caithness Windfarm Information Forum
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9.Property, tourism and employment
"I do not believe any prospective purchaser would want to inhabit the property, or, indeed in the current climate, whether any mortgage lender would be prepared to lend...." (Munton&Russel, Estate Agents, Spalding, 2008) |
10. Misrepresentation and manipulation
Wind power has been promoted for politico/environmental reasons and wind developers have benefited from substantial subsidies, leading to exaggerated claims. A reality check is needed. (ABS Energy Research (2006) ABS Windpower report)
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11. Climate change and Kyoto - Is it all necessary?
"There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted" (Arthur Schopenhauer)
"It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines..." (Ed Miliband) |
12.Epilogue
"The Highlands are being humiliated by wind farm developers who insist they are saving the environment. they lie; they are here to make a profit. Wind farms produce very little and intermittent electricity. Most of the time they do not work. How can the blade of a bulldozer ripping up 6,000 years of beautifully preserved archiology be saving the environment?. How can the turbine blades smashing a golden eagle to bits be saving the environment? How can the government of Scotland destroy such a prize? And use public money to do it?. (Malcolm Rider, geologist 2009)
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Facts About Wind Power :Carbon dioxide ‘savings’ from wind farms:
Both by By Dr J M Hall ©
Wind Energy: Facts and Fiction
A half truth is a whole lie
J.A. Halkema
About the Author:
J.A. Halkema (M.S.E.E.) is an authority on the subject of energy. A retired electrical engineer, after graduating from the Technical University in Delft he worked for the international company Brown Boveri Nederland, now Asea Brown Boveri (ABB).
Wind Report 2005 - E.ON Netz
"There is therefore a risk that even simple grid problems will lead to the sudden failure of over 3,000MW of wind power feed-in. In this case, the reserves maintained in the Integrated European Transmission System, in order to cope with problems, would no longer be adequate to safely tackle such failures.
At the present time, it is not known how to confront this risk"
Wind power in Denmark
The true story of Denmark's "success with wind energy", regularly updated
By Dr V.C. Mason
(December 2008 ) ©
EPAW (European Platform Against Windfarms)
A new Europe-wide organisation witha campaign to "STOP THE USELESS & DESTRUCTIVE WINDFARM PROGRAM".
The Wind Rush
The UK Government is obsessed with wind power above all other renewable technologies. This "Wind Rush" is being fuelled by absurdly inflated subsidies, paid for by electricity consumers. The following 'Wind Rush Files' track the negative impact of wind farms as they become daily more evident
1. The risk to aircraft radar and navigation systems
2. The sheer technical ineffectiveness of wind
turbines in reducing CO2
emissions
3. The alternatives that are available
4. Climate
5. Planning
6. CO2 Emissions
7. The Safety of Windfarms
8. The Economics of Windfarms
Save the outstanding landscape of Nant y Moch in the Cambrian Mountains
One of the last truly remote, wild and undeveloped parts of southern Britain, the Cambrian Mountains are epitomised by the iconic mountain Pumlumon, source of the Wye, Severn, and Rheidol. Its north-western flanks rise from a hilly plateau, which plunges precipitously into the Dyfi valley from a jagged escarpment, fretted by a series of majestic waterfalls.
This area contains a blend of moorland hills and forests around the fjord-like waters of Llyn Nant-y-Moch, created forty-years ago to generate hydro-electric power, but now helping to produce a dramatic and unique landscape. The Countryside Council for Wales’ Landmap assessment classes this area as ‘Outstanding’ - its highest rating reserved for areas ‘of international or national importance’. In addition, much of the area forms part of the Dyfi Biosphere, a United Nations designation and the only one in Wales..................
.............Despite this history and the quality of the landscape, the giant energy corporation Scottish and Southern Energy plc (SSE) is planning to build an enormous wind power station dominating hill crests and forest skylines in a site area of 5 miles by 5 miles with 60 to 80 turbines each proposed to be 145m or 475 feet tall. This is one and a half times the height of Big Ben, and as much as three times the height of turbines used in much smaller earlier projects in Ceredigion. This project would industrialise views towards the Snowdonia National Park from Pumlumon (and vice-versa) and devastate the landscape character, tranquillity and recreational value of the Nant y Moch area.
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About Country Guardian
Contacts and Background. Country Guardian is the only anti-windfarm organisation covering the whole of the UK, and was founded in 1991.
Country Guardian's Policy
Membership Form
List of UK Windfarm Action Groups. This list contains contact data, including websites and email addresses of over 300 groups
International Links
www.countryguardian.net. Our website has been updated to take account of John Etherington's
book The Wind Farm Scam
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The Case Against Windfarms
"In late 2004 Country Guardian commissioned me to write a revised version of the Case Against Windfarms, an undertaking that inspired and prepared the ground for much of this book" John Etherington.
Openview Online, Country Guardian's Newsletter
OpenView Online - Number 55 Autumn 2009
OpenView Online - Number 56 Spring 2010
Openview Online - Number 57 Autumn 2010
Please note that Openview is now published only online and on this website
News Reports
News Reports - are links to relevant articles and news items covering the last few weeks.
there is an archive of prrevious months at NEWS ARCHIVE
xxxz
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Forget the Huhne hype about wind power
Dieter Helm
The Times February 6 2012
Since 2000, we have had three major white papers, forests of consultation papers and ten energy secretaries. Chris Huhne, in his 18 months in office, claimed that he had the answers to Britain’s energy problems.
He believed that investing massively in renewables, especially wind farms, would usher in a new industrial revolution that would help to curb climate change and, through the Green Deal, create 250,000 jobs. Not only that, he believed that his approach would be competitive. He predicted that energy efficiency and universal smart meters would reduce demand by so much that household bills would be lower by 2020, more than absorbing the cost of subsidising renewables.
Setting aside the hype, this approach is based on two core mistakes: on climate change and on international energy prices.
On the first, the facts are clear. Global emissions have for the past two decades been going up, primarily because of the rapid growth in the coal burn to meet rising global energy demand, especially in China. Last year coal use grew by 9 per cent in China; it opens between one and two new coal-fired power stations a week, and India adds one a week.
In contrast, our ambitious windmill- building programme in the North Sea would have an insignificant effect on emissions. Likewise, Kyoto has made no discernible impact and there is little prospect of it doing so any time soon. The recent Durban climate conference decided that participants would try to agree by 2015 to the caps on emissions that might be adopted after 2020. In other words, nothing substantive would be done this decade, a decade in which China’s economy is set to double.
The Kyoto calculations make it look as if Britain is making progress. Our emissions were down more than 15 per cent between 1990 and 2005. But this is partly an illusion. We were deindustrialising: buying energy- intensive goods from abroad rather than producing them at home. So while our production of carbon fell, our consumption went up by 19 per cent. China does much of our polluting for us — and that is why no progress has been made in limiting emissions. Rather than blaming China, we should accept our responsibility. Driving up our energy prices drives energy- intensive production overseas.
Mr Huhne’s second mistake was to assume that oil and gas prices were on an ever-upward march. But the shale gas revolution has turned everything upside down. In the United States, the gas price has plummeted. America is using cheap gas to cut its coal emissions and boost its competitiveness.
The contrast with Europe could not be greater: its gas price is now four times higher than America’s. Despite that, the mantra of “peak oil”, “peak gas” and “high and volatile prices” continues to be trotted out in Britain. This partly explains why we have put most of our eggs in the wind basket — £100 billion by 2020, with much more to redesign the networks and provide the back-up to deal with wind’s intermittency.
There are good reasons for believing that renewables, including wind, have an important part to play in cracking climate change. But we need to do something quickly — and on a global scale. Coal burning is not going to go away because of wind. Gas is one transition option, a bridge to decarbonisation. If we concentrated on getting a proper carbon price in place — including on all those carbon-intensive imports –— then we would find out which way is quickest and cheapest to get emissions down.
Carrying on as we are will probably end in tears. It won’t do anything about climate change and it will put up bills. Ed Davey, the new Energy Secretary, has a golden opportunity to have a rethink. We need market reforms that emphasise price and cost, and to concentrate on getting the carbon emissions down in the cheapest way first, not the most expensive. That will mean a balanced mix of energy sources. Ministers who try to pick winners should remember that losers tend to pick government.
Energy and climate change policy is too serious to be allowed to be become a triumph of hype over substance.
Dieter Helm is Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford
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RECENT NEWS ITEMS
Drive to cut energy bills could hit wind farms
"There was growing speculation last night that the Government is on the verge of cutting multibillion-pound financial incentives to build wind farms.
Such a move, which could come as early as tomorrow, would have a profound effect on the British wind industry, which has stated its intention to become a world leader in renewable energy.
It is believed that the Government could cut so-called ROC incentives for green energy projects as a means of keeping a lid on rising power prices.
Renewable energy leaders say that any cut in the incentive regime would be a disaster for the wind industry, which claims that it would not be able to afford to build commercially viable wind farms.
If confidence in building wind turbines in the North Sea and off the shores of Britain is damaged, billions of pounds of investment from international companies could dry up and tens of thousands of new jobs would not be created, they argue. In addition, Britain’s target of producing 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable means by 2030 could be in jeopardy.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change is set to publish the result of its review into the renewables obligations certificates — ROCs. In the case of onshore wind, developers receive one certificate for every megawatt hour (mwh) of electricity they produce. In the case of more expensive offshore wind farms, the incentive is two ROCs. One ROC is about the same value — £50 — as the price of 1 mwh of power; so, for every megawatt hour of electricity produced by an offshore wind turbine, the developer is paid £150.
Senior industry sources believe that the department will announce a reduction in the ROC incentives for wind. “If the ROCs for onshore wind were reduced from 1 to 0.75, that would simply put most developers out of business,” one well-placed source said. “If the ROCs for offshore wind were reduced from 2 to 1.5, you just will not get the proposed developments being built.”
A department spokesman said that an announcement was imminent".
The Times 21/10/2011
Military radar deal paves way for more wind farms across Britain
Analysis of UK Wind Power Generation: report
Government mis-selling green economy as job creator
Ministers go to war with green charities over planning shake-up 'smears'
ELN - UK wasting billions on renewables policy
Why planners are inundated with wind and solar farm applications
Capital Flight From Green Investments
Wind farms: 'The question is, who will pay?
Windfarms prevent detection of secret nuclear weapon tests, says MoD
U.S. Debt Deal Kills Off Prospects of Renewable-Power Support
Duke of Northumberland: an unlikely hero in the fight against turbines
The aristocrats cashing in on Britain's wind farm subsidies
ARTISTS AGAINST WIND FARMS
Green tax hike hits businesses
Hundreds bled dry in £20m eco-fraud
We’re destroying our countryside – and for what?
Who’s afraid of big energy projects? We are
Sun sets on solar power subsidies
EDITORIAL: GOLDEN EAGLES FALL PREY TO WIND INDUSTRY
Global backlash against wind energy
Cairngorms National Park Authority is first to adopt guidance on Wildness
Now we pay the real price for clean power
Investors in wind power get cold feet
Broken Wind Turbine Blades Create Mountainous Waste Problem
Second police grilling for Huhne
Ignoring climate change 'like appeasing Hitler' Huhne says
Scottish Wind Farms Paid to Shut Down Generation
Anti-windfarm campaigner wins volunteer award
Half of planned wind farms blown away by force of local protests
The carbon cost of Germany's nuclear 'Nein danke!'
Blades of fury
Huhne sets out UK nuclear energy future
Renewable energy: but at what cost for Scotland's scenery?
China’s power stations generate ‘future spike’ in global warming
Get rich quick by being 'green'
Almost half of wind farms onshore refused planning
The green tax con: Climate change levies are swallowed up by Treasury
RWE sale of npower 'threat to energy industry investment'
Helicopter noise’ court challenge for wind farms
Has the green movement lost its way?
Renewables policy: Solar industry feels chill of UK cuts
Energy giants want billions for back-up to windfarms
Wind turbines as a source of electricity
Relief for campaigners as controversial wind farm rejected
Rejected Midlands wind farm offers cautionary tale
IPCC 'considering sending mirrors to space to tackle climate change'
Earth May Be Headed Into A Mini Ice Age Within A Decade
Report - Low Frequency Noise Technical Research Support for DEFRA Noise programme
Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink
UK faces job losses as businesses threaten to flee abroad to escape green energy levies
Exasperated planners shut wind farm down
It's time this Government grew up over climate change, says Nigel Lawson
Hidden green tax in fuel bills: How £200 stealth charge is slipped on to your gas and electricity bill
We must stop pandering to climate scaremongers
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Kyoto successor looks bleak at Bonn climate talks
A C Grayling "Why Beauty Matters" National Trust Magazine, Summer 2011
Artists Against Wind Farms's Photos - June 3rd 2011
To read News Items from previous months go to NEWS ARCHIVE
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 This is a duplicate of a Digital Negative taken on a Nikon D2X camera, with a Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3EX DG HSM lens, of one of the 42 massive turbines at Blacklaw Wind FarmSouth Lanarkshire, Scotland, which rise to a height of 110 metres to the tip of the blades. The picture was taken from a distance of about 4/5th of a mile from the village centre of Forth on the B7016 road looking NW.
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When will the lights go out?
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When will the Lights go out?
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200 pages, Paperback
198x312mm, Portrait
Published July 2010 |
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Derek Birkett - Derek Birkett is the former Grid Control Engineer of Northern Scotland. He has a lifetime of experience in electricity supply throughout Britain and has been involved in the installation and commissioning of several power stations, whether coal-fired, hydro or nuclear, including Dounreay.
Lord Walker of Worcester - Lord Walker served on all the government cabinets between 1970 and 1990. The posts he held included Secretary of State for the Environment (1970-72) and Secretary of State for Energy (1983-87).
 Wind farms - Is there a hidden Health Hazard?
Dr. Nina Pierpont began seeing patients in her clinic suffering from many debilitating symptoms and found a common thread among them: All lived near a new wind farm. Now, she's written a book about the condition.
Details at http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/?p=5116
See reviews at: http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Turbine-Syndrome-Natural-Experiment/dp/0984182705/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/187-1817413-6079930
Watch this superb video of a presentation by Dr Mike Hall, in support of the Cartmel Valley Turbines Windfarm Action Group. It covers a wide spread of information about the windfarm threat.
Turbine Explosions and Fires
The turbine generator could be seen widely as a huge burning torch....... (see photo and report below)
Windfarm Accidents Website
Caithness Windfarm Information Forum Go to www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk for the definitive database of wind turbine accidents
The unacceptable height of wind turbines -
A Scale (1:100) model of a proposed wind turbine, 126 metres high, with Hempnall church (Norfolk), people, cars and small trees/shrubs
©Landscape Architect, Howard Bolton, with permission
[Good News - 09 December 2009
An energy firm hoping to build a windfarm on the edge of a Norfolk village yesterday lost an appeal bid aimed at overturning a decision to refuse the plans.
Diss based Enertrag UK had hoped to overturn a planning decision by South Norfolk council which had refused permission for the firm to build seven 125m wind turbines at Hempnall last August.
The plan had been turned down on the grounds it would have an impact on the character of the area and be detrimental to local listed buildings.]
Letters, Daily Telegraph, 4 September 2007
Sir, There is an old saying: "No one ever built a windmill if he could build a watermill." The wind is an unreliable source of power. It seldom blows steadily and sometimes not at all.
The power generated by the wind varies with the cube of the wind speed. That means that if the wind speed drops from 40mph to 20mph, the power output does not drop by 50 per cent: it drops by 87.5 per cent. At 10mph, the wind produces only 1.56 per cent of the power generated by a 40mph wind.
The wind can never become a major source of power.
Norman Plastow, Hon Curator, Wimbledon Windmill Museum , London SW19.
Key Links to UK wind farm information sites which are concerned to spread the truth about wind energy
www.warmwell.com/windfarms.html
This page monitors significant news items about windfarm developments in the UK and the mounting hostility to them. ind Watch: Industrial Wind Energy News
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/?s=England
"These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted".
This is a USA-based site which pulls together world-wide news. To pull out news about Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or any other country- just insert the name after ?s=
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  Offshore wind farm plan scrappedPlans for a wind farm in the Bristol Channel have been scrapped,
say the developers.
Work on 30 turbines, each 400ft (121.9m) tall, at Scarweather Sands off Porthcawl, had been expected to start this year. But the two companies behind the project, DONG Energy and E.ON, said it was no longer commercially viable. South Wales West Conservative AM Alun Cairns said many local people had been against the development. The £100m scheme was postponed for two years in 2006, when the developers said it was not financially viable. The work had then been earmarked to start in 2008-09. But DONG Energy and E.ON said the challenging seabed conditions, the relatively poor wind speeds and a restriction on turbine height, means Scarweather, with just 30 turbines, was no longer commercially viable.
“ Put simply it has become clear that Scarweather Sands is not the best place to build a small scale offshore wind farm ”
Dave Rogers of E.ON
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