Rusting Hawaiian Wind Turbines

'A breathtaking sight awaits those who travel to the southernmost tip of Hawaii’s stunningly beautiful Big Island, though it’s not in any guidebook. On a 100-acre site, where cattle wander past broken ‘Keep Out’ signs, stand the rusting skeletons of scores of wind turbines.

Just a short walk from where endangered monk seals and Hawksbill turtles can be found on an unspoilt sandy beach, a technology that is supposed to be about saving the environment is instead ruining it.'

Industrial Wind Paid Not To Produce

While President Obama travels around the United States touting “green energy” as the solution to the nation’s spiraling energy costs, the wind farms of the Pacific Northwest are proving once again that alternative energy sources are having a hard time living up to the praise lavished on them.

According to the UPI, Obama told workers at a truck manufacturing plant in North Carolina: "We've got to develop every source of American energy -- not just oil and gas, but wind power and solar power, nuclear power, biofuels." At the same time, the Bonneville Power Administration — a federal agency — has been shutting down wind turbines for hundreds of hours because demand could not keep up with the supply. An article for FoxNews.com (“Wind farms in Pacific Northwest paid to not produce”) details the decision to further subsidize wind farms which could only be built with federal funds:

The problem arose during the late spring and early summer last year. Rapid snow melt filled the Columbia River Basin. The water rushed through the 31 dams run by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency based in Portland, Ore., allowing for peak hydropower generation. At the very same time, the wind howled, leading to maximum wind power production.

Demand could not keep up with supply, so BPA shut down the wind farms for nearly 200 hours over 38 days.

"It's the one system in the world where in real time, moment to moment, you have to produce as much energy as is being consumed," BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said of the renewable energy.

Now, Bonneville is offering to compensate wind companies for half their lost revenue. The bill could reach up to $50 million a year.

The extra payout means energy users will eventually have to pay more.

Lacking a means for storing the excess energy produced by the wind turbines, the capacity of the wind farms simply went to waste when the order came down to cease production for hundreds of hours. Unlike coal and oil fired plants, which produce power on a predictable schedule, wind farm production is literally at the mercy of the elements: whether the turbines are functioning at peak efficiency, or at a standstill because of low windspeed, the needs of the market for power fluctuate according to concerns which may have little or nothing to do with the winds driving energy production. Coal, oil and nuclear plants can fluctuate production to match demand from industry and residential customers, but the wind turbines are ambivalent to such concerns and may overproduce, or underproduce, without concern for economic impact.

It has been known for some time now that wind power falls far short of living up to its reputation for being “green” energy. The problem with wind turbines is not simply one of erratic energy production — the creation of the turbines themselves has led to environmental damage. Mining the raw materials needed for the powerful magnets used in the turbines has led to widespread ecological despoliation in China. As reported for The New American in February 2011, the media in the United Kingdom was already documenting the pollution connected with wind power:

An extensively researched report for the UK’s Daily Mail reveals one of the apparently-unavoidable byproducts of “green” wind power: a vast lake of toxic, radioactive sludge resulting from the production of the powerful magnets needed at the heart of every wind turbine. Thus far, the absurd contradiction at the heart of the expansion of wind power in the United Kingdom has been hidden from the public, because the pollution is far removed from the eyes of the public: The rare earths needed for making the wind turbines are processed in Mongolia, and it is alleged that corporate interests and environmentalists have either concealed that pollution, or attempted to downplay its effects, to avoid public backlash against the expensive and inefficient alternative energy.

Not only were the turbines built at an appalling cost to the environment, they also proved to be most inefficient when they were needed the most. When the UK suffered from a dramatic drop in temperatures, the turbines came to a stop for the simple reason that the winds ceased to blow:

According to the Daily Mail, the absurd inefficiencies of wind power resulted in the UK’s 3,153 turbines producing a mere .2 percent — yes, that’s one-fifth of one percent — of the needed power during the bitter cold which blanketed the nation this past December. (Operating at peak efficiency, the turbines should have been able to provide almost ten percent of the needed power, but unreliable winds had the turbines functioning at less than 2.5 percent of their capacity.)

Aside from the controversies related to the manufacture of the wind turbines, and their highly variable level of energy production, wind farms have also generated protests on the basis of their noise generation, and complaints about their aesthetic effect. One wind farm project in the Pacific Northwest is already on hold due to several factors — despite approval from the Governor of Washington. The Associated Press reports that one of the developers admits the wind farm would not be economically viable:

Opponents of a wind farm on the north side of the scenic Columbia River Gorge say they may appeal Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire's approval of it.

Meanwhile, one of the developers of the Whistling Ridge Energy Project in Skamania County says the project is on hold.

Jason Spadaro, president of SDS Lumber Co. of Bingen, says he appreciates the governor's approval but that the reduced size of the approved project is not economically viable right now.

Washington's energy siting council had recommended that the project be scaled back from 50 to 35 turbines.

With wind farms being paid not to produce, or failing to produce when they are needed, the most reliable and economically-efficient means of energy production continues to be various forms of hydrocarbon-based energy sources, and nuclear power. As noted in a recent Bloomberg article, 35 percent of the world’s energy comes from oil, 30 percent from coal, and 20 percent from natural gas. And, despite Obama’s fixation on alternative energy vehicles, the world’s supply of oil can continue to meet demand for many years to come.

Every dollar spent on non-producing wind turbines is coming directly from the pockets of a public already overburdened with taxation and spiraling energy costs. As reported last fall for The New American, new domestic oil production could create a million new jobs by 2018. What is needed is for new production to proceed without interference driven by the ideological agenda which favors inefficient, expensive forms of energy production over proven technologies. Until then, Americans may continue paying wind farms to underproduce.

UK Shelves Plans For More Industrial Wind

'The government and energy industry have quietly shelved plans for windfarms equivalent to four large traditional coal and nuclear power stations, amid growing public and political anger over the cost and sight of the turbines.

A report by the Electricity Networks Strategy Group (ENSG), which is the most up-to-date view of government officials, the regulator Ofgem, and leading industry investors, estimates that 28.3GW of onshore and offshore wind power may have been built by 2020.'

NOTE: Please read about Industrial Wind in Oregon, it has ruined the environmental beauty, endangered birds and lives.

Industrial Wind Is Not Clean, Not Green & Not Cheap

'The intensive lobbying – both to construct wind farms and to maintain generous subsidies – comes amid growing unease over an industry adding to the burden on household electricity bills.

Analysis of UK wind farms shows that the 15 biggest owners will between them receive almost £850 million in subsidies that are added on to household electricity bills.

It comes after the disclosure last week that 101 Tory backbench MPs had written a letter to David Cameron demanding he slash the subsidies.

Industrial Wind Turbines Damage Environment

They have long been championed as a way to combat global warming by creating clean energy.

But wind farms can actually alter the climate according to a new study by a group of American scientists.

The team from the University of Illinois found that daytime temperatures around wind farms can fall by as much as 4C, while at night temperatures can increase.

The study found that currently the effect is restricted to areas near to the turbines, but the increase in larger farms could create weather changes on a regional scale.

The study was led by Somnath Roy, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the university, with the San Gorgonio wind farm in California the focal point of his research.

He found that the day ground temperature behind turbines was up to 4C lower than in front.

He suggested that the turbines' blades scoop warm from the ground and push the cooler air downwards. This is then reversed at night.
Research: Somnath Roy of the University of Illinois conducted the study into climate around wind farms

Research: Somnath Roy of the University of Illinois conducted the study into climate around wind farms

Roy, whose findings were published in the Sunday Times, added that he believes the turbines causing turbulence and reducing winds speed are the cause.

He also added that the churning of air from low to high can create vortices that could extend the phenomenon for large distances downwind.

Roy's research is supported by a study undertaken by the Iowa State University, who looked at how a 100-turbine farm would affect conditions on farmland.

They found that temperatures on the ground were warmer at night, which in turn allowed plants to breathe more.

While scientists in the United States have conducted research into the effects of wind farms on climate, such research in the UK is at an early stage.

NOT clean, NOT green, NOT cheap!

UK Tories Revolt Saying NO More Industrial Wind Farms

'A total of 101 Tory MPs have written to the Prime Minister demanding that the £400 million-a-year subsidies paid to the “inefficient” onshore wind turbine industry are “dramatically cut”.

The backbenchers, joined by some MPs from other parties, have also called on Mr Cameron to tighten up planning laws so local people have a better chance of stopping new farms being developed and protecting the countryside.'

“In these financially straitened times, we think it is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies onshore wind turbines,” they say. The MPs want the savings spread between other “reliable” forms of renewable energy production.

NOT clean, NOT green, NOT Cheap!

Industrial Wind Projects Cutting Jobs

“Cos without massive initial and ongoing TAXpayer subsidies its dead in the water/wind,” says reader.

A total of 2335 employees are expected to be made redundant,” said Vestas in a statement today.

In addition, the company said it may lay off an additional 1600 people in the US.

Vestas last week issued a profit warning, saying sales for 2011 would be around $494.80 million lower than expected a few months ago, and that its expenses would be about $154.63 million more than previously forecast due to higher production costs.

It said it was preparing for “a potential slowdown in the US in case the present Production Tax Credit (PTC) is not extended.

Is Industrial Wind Wrecking The Environment?

'A new report published on Monday by Civitas, a social policy thinktank that promotes a "free and democratic society", is claiming that wind power is "inordinately expensive and ineffective at cutting CO2 emissions". In a particularly eye-catching claim, it argues that "wind power, backed by conventional gas-fired generation, can emit more CO2 than the most efficient gas turbines running alone". If true, that would make a mockery of the government's current policy of promoting and subsidising wind turbines.'

Not Clean Not Green & Not CHEAP

'First there were the wind farms that had to be shut down if it got a bit blowy. Then there was the turbine that burst into flames in a gale a month ago.

And now three turbines have been wrecked in the latest bout of rough weather – sweeping away any remaining illusions that strong winds simply mean more electricity being generated.'

Wind Is Not Clean, Not Green & Not Cheap

Britain is heading for an energy crisis by the middle of the decade due to the government's "unrealistic" reliance on wind, solar and other high-cost renewable energy technologies, according to a controversial report out today.

Ministers are failing to factor in the cost of dealing with intermittent energy sources and ignoring the implications of burdening consumers with higher energy bills, said the right-leaning Adam Smith Institute and Scientific Alliance.

The report argues the renewable energy roadmap for 2020 is hugely overambitious. It says the target has already been reduced but current renewable power generation is still 28% short of meeting it.

Solar and wind energy have no prospect of becoming economically competitive in an unrigged market, with government intervention leading to higher energy costs and jeopardising energy security, the document says. It is being published just as ministers are preparing further details on reform of the electricity market.

"For too long, we have been told that heavy investment in uneconomic renewable energy was not only necessary but would provide a secure future electricity supply," said Martin Livermore, co-author of the report and a self-styled consultant who has in the past questioned the science around global warming.

"The facts actually show that current renewables technologies are incapable of making a major contribution to energy security and have only limited potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

Livermore said the main drawbacks of wind and solar were that they must be backed up with gas, coal or nuclear generation when the wind does not blow or sun shine.

Britain Battered By 165 mph Winds, Wind Turbines EXPLODE

Too windy for wind turbines! 165mph gales raise MORE questions about wind farms as gusts leave trail of destruction across country

300ft high turbine explodes and another collapses
Huge areas of country brought to a standstill as roads and bridges are closed
Winds are ranked at maximum force of 12 on Beaufort scale
Bridge collapses in North Yorkshire
Environment agency issues 12 alerts on rivers and lakes


Britain was battered by gales of up to 165mph yesterday, leaving a trail of destruction across the country.

In one spectacular incident a 300ft wind turbine exploded in flames as it was buffeted by the high winds.

Another wind turbine was completely blown down on Wednesday, raising questions about whether wind farms were simply unable to cope with the weather.

The appalling conditions brought huge areas of the country to a standstill as lorries were blown over, roads and bridges closed, and ferries cancelled.

Dutch Out Of Love With Industrial Wind

“When the Netherlands built its first sea-based wind turbines in 2006, they were seen as symbols of a greener future,” says this article by Ivana Sekularac.

“The 36 turbines — each one the height of a 30-storey building — produce enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 100,000 households each year.

“But five years later… the Dutch government says offshore wind power is too expensive and that it cannot afford to subsidize the entire cost of 18 cents per kilowatt hour — some 4.5 billion euros last year.

“The government now plans to transfer the financial burden to households and industrial consumers (and) will start billing consumers and companies in January 2013.”

Duke Of Edinburg Says Industrial Wind Useless

The Duke also claimed that “wind farms would ‘never work’ and accused people who support them of believing in a ‘fairy tale’”.

The Duke’s attack on the turbines came in a conversation with Esbjorn Wilmar, managing director of a leading wind farm company.

“Mr Wilmar said one of the main reasons the Duke thought onshore wind farms to be “a very bad idea” was their reliance on such subsidies.”

“Electricity customers are paying an average of £90 (US$143) a year to subsidise wind farms and other forms of renewable energy as part of a government scheme to meet carbon-reduction targets.

Britain presently has 3,421 wind turbines, with another 4,500 expected to be built under plans for wind power to play a more important role in providing Britain’s energy.

Last month, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne called opponents of the wind turbine plans “curmudgeons and fault-finders” and described the turbines as “elegant” and “beautiful.”

Thousands Of Wind Turbines Now Abdoned Metal Junk

'Literal beacons of the "green" energy movement, giant wind turbines have been one of the renewable energy sources of choice for the US government, which has spent billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing their construction and use across the country. But high maintenance costs, high rates of failure, and fluctuating weather conditions that affect energy production render wind turbines expensive and inefficient, which is why more than 14,000 of them have since been abandoned.

Before government subsidies for the giant metals were cut or eliminated in many areas, wind farms were an energy boom business. But in the post-tax subsidy era, the costs of maintaining and operating wind turbines far outweighs the minimal power they generate in many areas, which has left a patchwork of wind turbine graveyards in many of the most popular wind farming areas of the US.'

NOTE: These are NOT clean, NOT Green, and NOT Cheap, there are no contractual agreements to remove monstrosities, and when the money runs out, and it is running out, the greedy land owners are rightfully left with the mess. Everyone else sadly is still left with the environmental degradation

Wind Power Not Clean, Not Green, Not Cheap

'Chris Huhne demonstrated again last week his breathtaking unfitness to run Britain’s “energy and climate change” policy. Addressing a conference of RenewableUK, the chief lobby group for the wind industry, he won a big hand for attacking “the climate sceptics and armchair engineers” (such as me) who continually point out the futility of his infatuation with windmills. Then he reeled off various factual errors, to confirm once more that he hasn’t a clue what he is talking about.

He said that electricity demand rises to “a high of 80 gigawatts every day”. But if he looks at the fifth chapter of his own department’s Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, he will see that only very occasionally does demand scrape above 60GW. He also claimed that “10 per cent of our electricity capacity is renewable”. His ministry’s figures show that he exaggerated this by more than 60 per cent.

Most tellingly, his use of that weasel word “capacity”, rather than “output”, hides the fact that last year the output of our 3,500 windmills put together averaged 1.16GW – less than is generated, unsubsidised, by a single large gas-fired power station, at only a fraction of the cost.'

Will LIghts Go Out In UK Or Germany First?

Last week, the head of Germany’s national grid warned that supply was in such a parlous state that major power cuts may soon be inevitable. Like Britain’s, Germany’s energy policy has been so skewed by green obsessions that it has built 22,000 wind turbines, more than any other country in the world. Yet they are even more useless than ours – generating at only 15 per cent of their “capacity” (ours managed 21 per cent last year).

Even the 6 per cent of the nation’s electricity they supply is so unreliable that the Germans say they must not only keep open several coal-fired power stations – in defiance of an EU anti-pollution directive which is shortly to close six of ours – but that they must build new ones, to burn some of the world’s “dirtiest” coal.

Meanwhile, after rejecting its own nuclear power Germany, is having to import nuclear-generated electricity from France, We may smile at this – but last week, watching the Neta website that gives running figures on where our electricity comes from, I noted several times that our 3,500 wind turbines were contributing less than 1 per cent – and up to four times as much was being imported from those same French nuclear reactors. If the Germans are already staring their disaster in the face, our own is not far down the line.

#Wind Industry Scam. Not Cleant, Not Green, Not Cheap!

What is the maddest thing going on in Britain today? There may be many competitors for that title.

The Government’s plan to ring our coasts with vast offshore wind farms.

The Government’s offshore wind farm plans would, by 2020, cost £100 billion – scarcely a state secret, since the Government itself announced this three years ago – plus £40 billion more to connect these windmills to the grid, a figure given us by the National Grid last year.

Helm did not tell us that this £140 billion equates to £5,600 for every household in the country. But he did admit that the plan was “staggeringly expensive”, and that, given the current extent of “fuel poverty” and the state of our economy, he doubted “if it can in fact be afforded”.

Helm did not tell us that this £140 billion equates to £5,600 for every household in the country. But he did admit that the plan was “staggeringly expensive”, and that, given the current extent of “fuel poverty” and the state of our economy, he doubted “if it can in fact be afforded”.

This is capable of generating 882MW at a capital cost of £400 million – just £500,000 for each megawatt. Thus the wind farm is 22 times more expensive, and could only be built because its owners will receive a 200 per cent subsidy: £40 million a year, on top of the £20 million they will get for the electricity itself. This we will all have to pay for through our electricity bills, whereas the unsubsidised cost of power from the gas plant, even including the price of the gas, will be a third as much.

NOTE: Wind Turbines do not function 70% of the time and have not replaced even one fossil fuel plant.

There is an expensive downside to industrial turbines. Physicians worldwide report people near turbines suffer migraines, sleep problems, nausea, exhaustion, irritability, heart palpitations, stress, depression, anxiety, epileptic seizures, high blood pressure, tinnitus & vertigo in otherwise healthy people!.

The WHOOSING, SCREECHING, VIBRATION and LIGHTS cause “Vibro Acoustic Disease” & “Wind Turbine Syndrome.” The Turbines and hundreds of flashing red lights obliterate the night sky, our tranquility, continue to distract drivers and have killed hundreds of Raptors & Golden Eagles soaring at that height.

Wind turbines produce significantly less power than predicted, are hopelessly uneconomical, require conventional power back up forcing power stations to run inefficiently, resulting in higher CO2 levels! They blemish the landscape, damage the local economy, are a detriment to tourism, obliterate property values and are rightly regarded as an environmental monstrosity.

In early 2009 the Socialist government of Spain reduced alternative energy subsidies by 30%.

"At that point the whole pyramid collapsed. They are firing thousands of people. BP closed down the two largest solar production plants in Europe. They are firing between 25,000 and 40,000 people...."

"What do we do with all this industry that we have been creating with subsidies that now is collapsing? The bubble is too big. We cannot continue pumping enough money.

...The President of the Renewable Industry in Spain (wrote a column arguing that) ...the only way is finding other countries that will give taxpayers' money away to our industry to take it and continue maintaining these jobs."

And that country, sadly is the United States...giving away your money for foreign interests.

A must read wind site from Oregon: