If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

- George Washington

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Wind Farms - I'm Not A Big Fan*

*Not original, sadly.

There's a good post over at Not A Sheep on the latest misinformation on wind farms as a source of the nation's energy.

It seems that the majority of wind farms have a turbine efficiency of between 25 and 30%. Turbine efficiency is the amount of power that a wind turbine actually produces, compared to its theoretical maximum. Some are far worse than this - one at Chelker reservoir in Yorkshire runs at 8.7% efficiency, and one at Blyth Harbour in Northumberland boasts a magnificent 7.9%.

So when the Telegraph reports that "The Whitelee windfarm... turbines can generate 322MW of electricity, enough to power 180,000 homes", Not A Sheep correctly identifies the key word in the sentence as 'can'.

On these figures, they can power 180,000 homes, but probably do power about 45,000. Or possibly 14,000.

Why do the mainstream media give this inefficient, uneconomic, unreliable and unsightly technology such an easy ride?

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