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Wednesday 16 March 2011

The wind merry go round

wind turbine

Coming to the UK if Caroline Lucas has her way.

Denmark has built a lot of windpower. Denmark has got a high carbon tax as well as the EU emission trading system and feed-in subsidies for windmills. Some days the wind blows too hard, so the electricity generators have to pay to get rid of the surplus. Fortunately for Denmark, they can export electricity to Norway, that can store it in hydropower dams. The Norwegians can then stop their own production to sell the Danish electricity to their captive customers with a hefty profit. If it blows harder than a gale, the windmills must all suddenly stop in order not to overrev. Then Denmark buys back electricity from Norway for a very high price. Fortunately, Denmark has almost no manufacturing left. Even the windmill manufacturer Vestas Wind has moved most production abroad, because of high manufacturing costs. But Denmark has got one of the biggest public sectors in the world. They are indeed doing well!

Nicked from here

4 comments:

  1. There's a right ding-dong going on at the Telegraph.

    Professor Ian Boyd wrote a paper about sonar possibly interfering with whale behaviour but then, in the University of St Andrew's press release he said:

    ...but I am also worried that the general levels of sound that humans make in the ocean from all sorts of sources like ships, oil and gas exploration and renewable energy may be a much more serious problem for beaked whales and some other sensitive species.

    The Telegraph picked up on this and presented a story that windfarms cause whales to beach.

    Prof Boyd is furious with the Telegraph and says he's been misrepresented, that wasn't what he meant at all. The trouble is, he was the one who mentioned renewable energy and that can only credibly mean windmills.

    Telegraph article with comments:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8382476/Wind-farms-blamed-for-stranding-of-whales.html#disqus_thread

    Original press release
    http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2011/Title,65795,en.html

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  2. Even the windmill manufacturer Vestas Wind has moved most production abroad, because of high manufacturing costs.

    That is genuinely funny, albeit in a facepalm kind of way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Raft Woman.

    Yes I've been following that story.

    AE. Hoisted with their own petard.

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  4. Err, what about wave & tidal - much more likely to emit underwater sounds?

    Our bird-slicers would run much better if, when he's finished making loads of money from AV scams, Kinnock came back to the UK - the Welsh windbag could get 'em turning!

    ReplyDelete

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