« Concorde - Requisicat in pacem | Main | Legislative excess »

November 26, 2003

Sustainable energy sources

It seems to be my day for finding things to get steamed up about. The latest folly is the hugely expensive "wind farm" commissioned off our shores to "harvest wind energy and generate clean electric power". Yeah. Pity about the noise, the fact that they are an eyesore and that they don't actually generate anything when the wind is too light or too strong!

Which means they only produce power on about one hundred and forty days a year. Great, so the rest of the time, we have to fall back on open fires, candles, paraffin or gas lamps and clockwork TV's?

Erm, well, no. Not quite, we have to keep the nuclear and fossil fuel power stations on line as well so that we can make up the shortfall when the wind isn't right. Oh joy, oh b****y rupture! Guess who pays for this - again?

The best estimates of power available from this source at present are around 5%, not even the output from one existing power station. With power demand growing by around 2% a year and predicted to keep going up, can we really afford to waste money like this on expensive toys which don't provide a constant supply and have to be backed up by conventional power anyway?

Surely it makes better economic sense to invest in new, reliable technology and sources which are cleaner than those we have, reliable (as in supply a constant service!) and aren't such a blight on the landscape, seascape or wherever?

Not if you are a politician trying to prove your "green" credentials. We are to get more of these fiendish and expensive devices on sites around the country. Lead me to the barricades and pass me a pitchfork!

Posted by The Gray Monk at November 26, 2003 12:20 PM

Comments

Ha Ha - just got the pun - getting all "steamed up"....

Posted by: Ozguru at November 27, 2003 01:58 AM

here is something to fight the "greenies" with http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86%257E10669%257E1760883,00.html

The article talks about how the blades are killing endangered birds.

Posted by: Matthew at November 27, 2003 05:03 AM

My thanks to Matthew for the article on bird deaths due to wind turbine blades. A classic example of unforseen effects arising from someone's blinkered approach to solving one problem by creating another.

Posted by: The Gray Monk at November 27, 2003 10:56 AM