Gone with the Wind: Inefficiency and Hazardous Nature of Wind Energy Impedes Renewable Crusade – IOTW Report

Gone with the Wind: Inefficiency and Hazardous Nature of Wind Energy Impedes Renewable Crusade

American Thinker:

Wind energy is infinite, clean, a friend of climate, and the future of our energy sector.  That is the green gospel we hear from renewable-obsessed environmentalists and politicians every day.

If wind energy is what they claim it is, why are the economic powerhouses of the world increasingly turning toward fossil fuels and nuclear, not toward wind?  If wind is affordable and efficient, as they claim, why does it need subsidies to flourish?

The answers to these questions reveal that wind energy is not what it is portrayed to be.

Intermittent Generation and Hyper-Sensitiveness to Weather

It is a well known fact that wind energy is intermittent — i.e., it can generate stable electricity only when the wind speed is at an optimum level.  This is known as rated wind speed, which is around 26–30 miles per hour, or 12–14 meters per second.  A little slower, and the generation is inefficient.  A little faster, and turbines risk getting damaged.

Unfortunately, average wind speeds are not stable, so neither is the energy generated.  Wind changes direction and speed minute by minute for various reasons.  Furthermore, geographical regions have different wind-generating capabilities during different seasons.  Some turbines remain non-operational for months when average wind speeds are lower than 10 miles per hour. read more

10 Comments on Gone with the Wind: Inefficiency and Hazardous Nature of Wind Energy Impedes Renewable Crusade

  1. “Fellow Travelin’ Man”

    Up with the sun, gone with the wind

    everyone knows I am lazy

    grifting’ my own, grifting my friends

    Lying ‘ when things get too crazy

    Out in Vermont, I’ve got 26 Cars

    Feelin’ the heat, I should be feathered and tarred

    Hillary has come…with money to run

    Everyone tryin’ to Bathe me

    Her money so sweet, I never got free

    Others, they only loathed me

    Sometimes at night, I sample their feces

    I feel the traces they’ve left in my hole

    Those are the reasons I live on the Gov’t Dole

    Those are the scandals that gave Me a Beachside Home

    FellowTravelin’ man, steal when you can

    Turn loose my hand ’cause I’m goin’

    (This started out well,but drinking since Noon caught up to Me)

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  2. I have been to Hawaii a few times. Every time, I head to South Point because there are some great things to see down there.
    On the road down, you pass a wind farm, and some, if not a majority, of the turbines are not turning, even though there is always a wind blowing.
    Gee, I wonder if maybe it costs more to maintain those ugly things than it actually provides in electricity.
    Oh wait, no I don’t.
    I have no problem with wind energy, but if it is so great, why does the government have to prop the things up?
    Maybe someday. Until then, give me coal, nuclear, etc.

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  3. The first time I saw these windmills I was shocked at how huge they are. They are an eyesore. They take up thousands of acres of land. And being innefficient and deadly to flying creatures they should be dumped in favor of fossil fuels which with today’s technology are efficient and have a fraction of the footprint.

    Like Uncle Al said, follow the money.

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  4. The windmills face one direction because the turbine axis is horizontal. The whole shebang has to turn to face the wind.

    Putting the turbine axis vertical solves the shifting wind problem.

    I’m neither endorsing nor condemning. Just pointing out some basic physics.

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  5. Denver billionaire Philip Anchutz is planning to build the largest wind turbine installation in North America on ranches he owns in Wyoming, and to build transmission lines to send the electricity to California. It’s a massive, multi-hundred million dollar project that won’t happen if the environmentalists finally admit that these monstrosities are not good for the economy or the environment. This is going to be the biggest test for the viability of wind energy and the value people place on birds and bats in modern history. Nothing like this has ever been approved in this country or in Europe, but no one with Anschutz’s money has ever proposed anything like this before.

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