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smallblueplanet S
smallblueplanet Jan 2, 2005 14:10:37
Replying to FourWinds

Here's an Irish site that suggests your statistics are wrong - "AN ILL WIND - AN OBJECTION AGAINST WINDFARMS IN IRELAND"

http://www.geocities.com/nigbarnes/

"The electricity produced by windfarms is significant. FALSE. A glance at the table summarising power outputs internationally shows how pathetically small this contribution is. This amount will gradually grind to a halt in the face of growing adverse public opinion, and the dwindling of available sites (it is already difficult to get permits in Germany). The small amounts of electricity produced is illustrated by the fact that it would take 1904 new 750kW wind turbines operating at 28% capacity factor to produce as much electricity as one 500MW gas-fired combined cycle base-load generating plant with an 80% capacity factor."

Another site - talking about W. Denmark
"During 2003, the annual production of renewable energy (mainly wind power) in the region
was numerically equivalent to about 20.7% of power demand (Bülow, 2004a) (i.e. similar to
UK aspirations for 2020). However, at its times of generation, about 84% of the wind power
was surplus to local demand (White, 2004; Sharman, 2004) and had to be exported to the
much larger power systems of Norway, Sweden and/or Germany, primarily to maintain
stability of frequency and voltage in the Danish grid. <b>This implies that over the period of 2003
under 4% of the region's demand for electrical power was directly provided by wind
resources</b>, the bulk of requirements being met by carbon-emitting central and local CHP
generators, some of which operated sub-optimally as backup for the wind power for much of
the time.

http://www.dartdorset.org/West%20Danish%20wind%20power%20lessons%20for%20the%20UK.pdf

Here are plenty of links by those who don't agree with your views of wind farms -
http://www.dartdorset.org/html/links.html
including one to a report - "Danish wind boss admits: Wind-power hasn't cut Denmark's CO2 emissions."

F FourWinds
FourWinds Jan 2, 2005 14:26:32
Replying to smallblueplanet

"However, at its times of generation, about 84% of the wind power was surplus to local demand (White, 2004; Sharman, 2004) and had to be exported to the much larger power systems of Norway, Sweden and/or Germany, primarily to maintain stability of frequency and voltage in the Danish grid."

That's just sloppy management isn't it. The 4% figure is a twisted one, too. The other generators were also providing power at these times, who's to say it wasn't them that were over producing when the wind turbines were at full tilt? Why weren't other generators slowed down?

And although the future will see much more locally produced power, what's wrong with exporting it when you can? At least the nasty polluting generators in Norway, Sweden and/or Germany weren't having to churn out quite so much crap for a while.

And 20-35 years isn't all that long. I've been around longer than that and there hasn't been very large improvements in the systems in my lifetime. If using current renewable energy sources prolongs this period to 50-75 years then it has to be a better option than doing nothing. At least by adopting these now we have a better chance at finding an alternative, long lasting solution.

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