In December 2012 the Renewable Energy Foundation published a study by Dr. Gordon Hughes [backup link] that detailed the degradation of capacity factors in Denmark and the UK over time. As it happens, I’ve been posting on this issue ever since John Harrison first brought it to my attention over a year ago. John and I and others have run our own numbers, obtaining results that are fairly consistent with Hughes’ results. First I’ll summarize his report and then discuss the similarities. continue reading…
Browsing Posts tagged UK
I don’t often reprint newspaper articles, letters or speeches unless they have something important to say and say it well. This past week we’ve been blessed with two items worth re-posting here. The come from different sides of the globe, one from Scotland (the rape) and one from Ontario (the unravellings). continue reading…
I’m a numbers and evidence kind of guy, so when a report comes out with actual measurements I give it a great deal more weight than mere speculation. In the UK the Muir Trust sponsored a report [backup link] that looked at the UK’s actual wind production numbers and used them to see how the reality stacked up against the hype coming from the wind industry and their government allies. As you can imagine, there wasn’t much of a stack up at all. continue reading…
Actually this wasn’t a letter per se, it was an opinion piece published in England by Christopher Booker, a long-time anti-wind writer. Like letters, I usually don’t publish opinion pieces unless they are really good. This one is.
When discussing the effects of living near a wind project, proponents often ask “Would you rather live next to a nuclear plant?” Of course, that’s not the real choice. To replace a typical nuclear plant you’d have to have something like 7,000 turbines that would stretch 20 miles in all directions plus maybe 5 typical gas plants for when the wind didn’t blow.
The same question is often asked with a coal plant replacing the nuclear plant. In an earlier post, Rather Live by a Coal Plant?, I presented a case where a family that found itself in that situation would far rather live by the coal plant than next to wind turbines.
Now the residents of Hinkley Point in the UK have shown where their preference lies. They’ve lived next to the nuclear plant there for 20 years, but they want no part of a proposed wind project built next to the nuke. Proponents apparently cannot accept just how disruptive their wind turbines are when compared to coal and nukes and just about anything else.
