Article by Viv Forbes, Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition, an Australian organisation which opposes pollution and waste of energy, and promotes rational carbon energy policies.
Why wind won’t work
Why are governments still mollycoddling wind power? There is no proof that wind farms reduce carbon dioxide emissions and it is ludicrous to believe that a few windmills in Australia are going to improve global climate. Such wondrous expressions of green faith put our politicians on par with those who believe in the tooth fairy. Tax payers funding this largess and consumers paying the escalating power bills are entitled to demand proof.
Not only is there no climate justification for wind farms, but they are also incapable of supplying reliable or economical power. It is also surprising those who claim to be defenders of the environment can support this monstrous desecration of the environment.
Wind power is so dilute that to collect a significant quantity of wind energy will always require thousands of gigantic towers each with a massive concrete base and a network of interconnecting heavy duty roads and transmission lines. Then when they go into production, they slice up bats and eagles, disturb neighbours, reduce property values and start bushfires.
Finally, to cover the total loss of power when the wind drops or blows too hard, every wind farm needs a conventional back-up power station (commonly gas-fired) with capacity at least twice the design capacity of the wind farm to even out the sudden fluctuations in the electricity grid.
Why bother with the wind farm – just build the backup?
There is no justification for the continuation of mandates, subsidies or tax breaks favouring wind power over reliable and cheaper electricity generation options. Wind power should compete on an equal basis with all other electricity options.
TrueblueNZ 
What about underwater turbines. I’m excited about the Kaipara project. It even bet the iwi opposition. They just sit under the water out of sight minding their own business and slowly rotate without affecting their surroundings. I passed my second year degree semester doing a presentation on that project.
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And those wind turbines are polluting.
They are visual pollution . Any other structures of that size in just about any location would be objected to by the very people proposing them ,but these monstrosoties pass cos they’re said to be green.
Bollocks.
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Too right kowtow. Double standard, much?
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@wikiriwhi, there generally isn’t too much wind underwater…
Denmark has about 20% of it’s generation from wind – much of which is sold to Sweden who switch off their hydro when the wind is blowing in Denmark – the Danes are sick of the trubines and all their issues and are massively scaling back their support of wind… There are many great articles about “wind folly” online, James Delingpole has written a couple of excellent ones…
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I was wondering if Red is opposed to alternative power per se or would rather prefer nuclear power
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Why do you need wind, or sun, or nuclear? New Zealand has a massive reserve of coal and already produces 80% of its power from renewables in the form of hydro. And if the coal and water ever run out, our closest neighbour has 1,000 years of natural gas to sell us.
This love affair with sun & wind is a greenie wet dream. Both forms of generation are horrendously expensive and inefficient. Not to mention highly toxic to the environment. And totally unnecessary.
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Jeremy H
I read somewhere that the Swedes have a great laugh at the Danes and their green bollocks as when the wind isn’t blowing they have to buy power from the Swedes,who have nuclear if I’m not mistaken.
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Yip, the Swedes have a couple of nuclear power plants, they run them very well and they store their waste in a granite cavern which is dated at 80m years, i.e. it’s not going to rupture within the waste’s half life…
Even Finland (with a similar population to us) has nuke plants…
I’m sure the Swedes find the fact that; the Danes have scores of wind turbines (running mostly at night) keeping them awake, blowing up, destroying the landscape and bird striking, so they can sell power to the IKEA, Volvo and TeraLaval nightshifts and then have Sewden sell hydro and nuclear back to the Danes during the day (at a higher price), uproarously funny… Socialists like to point to Sweden as their nirvana, never realising that the Swedes are amongst the most intelligent and hardworking people on the planet – just look at the success of their populations in the English speaking West – and if anyone could make Communism work they almost could, goodness knows how wealthy and innovative they’d be if they had free enterprise…
The big development in the last few years in Energy has been shale gas, produced by “fracking”, it’s a game changer… Countries that have never had energy reserves now will be able to produce and old fields are re-rated exponentially… Greens of course scream because it’s gas, so contains carbon, but also because when wind turbine engineers sit around talking, the first question they ask is, “What is the price of NG..?”, they are in direct competition basically… The development of the process used to produce shale gas is the reason T. Boone Pickens dropped his wind plans methinks…
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Red, have you seen the following? This guy Niall Ferguson is 110% correct in his criticism of Obama regarding of what’s happening in Egypt.
arvard’s Niall Ferguson Schools Her on Muslim Brotherhood and Caliphate
I saw it on Kiwiblog, cited by Hurf.
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