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
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The Wind Farm Scam
The following links relste 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 the countryside is also is also a consequence of those same physical 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 safety.
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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 230 WAGs
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
Please note that Openview is now published online only this website,
and that this year the AGM will be held on Saturday, 18th September 2010, at 1:00pm in the Green Dragon, Hereford. Further details from Gerry Sewell
News Reports
News Reports are li ks to articles and news items covering the last 4/6 weeks, to help us keep track of the rapidly moving world of of the wind turbine.
ESSENTIAL READING From other sources
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17th August 2010
More than half of Britain's wind farms have been built where there is not enough wind
10 August 2010 Business facing a wave of green taxes 11 August 2010 Government rules out any 'dramatic increase' in onshore wind turbines
The Government has signalled a dramatic shift in its attitude towards wind farms after a minister admitted there would be no "no dramatic increase" in onshore developments.
9 August 2010 Organised crime infiltrates EU wind industry
1 August 2010
Wind power is not delivering
26 July 2010
A primary school has been forced to switch off a £20,000 wind turbine because it keeps killing passing seabirds.
02 Juyl 2010
The EU's response to global warming is a costly mistake
Europe's 20/20/20 policy will cost billions of pounds, but yield only tiny results, writes Bjorn Lomborg
News Blaze, June 16, 2010
Wind power's Embarrassing Effect on Global Warming
Sunday Telegraph 27 Jun 2010
Amazongate: the missing evidence
26 June 2010 Use your land to cash in on wind power
25 June 2010 'Rare red kite found dead at wind farm 'harmless to wildlife'
Sunday Times 20 June 2010
Put up your dukes: aristos battle over wind farms
Will Bramhill
19 June 2010
SeaEnergy pulls out of wind farm projects
Sunday Telegraph 20 June 2010
The 'hippy' wind farm tycoon receiving millions in subsidies
Sunday Telegraph 20 June 2010
Firms paid to shut down wind farms when the wind is blowing
Britain's biggest wind farm companies are to be paid not to produce electricity when the wind is blowing.
Sunday Telegraph 13 Jun 2010
Does money grow in wind farms?
Wind turbines are a poor way to harness energy - but a very good way to generate public subsidies,
says Andrew Gilligan.
Western Morning News Monday, January 25, 2010
Wind farm subsidies top ?bn a year
11 6 2010 Important peer-reviewed research re Infrasound and wind turbines
8 6 2010 Climate Fears Turn to Doubts Among Britons8 June 2010 Coalition plan to raise wind power target is a joke?lt;/a>
Jun. 04, 2010 The Bursting of the Green Energy Bubble?
05 June 2910 Anger over windfarm approval
GROUP HITS OUT AT TURBINES GO-AHEAD WITHOUT SAY OF COUNCILLORS
June 2010 Wind farm fears appear to fade
"THE prospect of chains of windfarms in rural Northumberland appears to have faded, as the new government told councillors this week that power is being returned to them"
4 June 2010 Biomass to blow out wind farms
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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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 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= |
  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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