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Jewish World Review Jan. 20, 2011 / 15 Shevat, 5771 It is natural for politicians to be attracted to wind power, but … By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
England is experiencing its coldest winter in a century. The cold has been all the more biting for some because many of the 3,150 wind turbines Britain increasingly depends upon to generate electricity haven't been working.
"With demand for power at record levels because of the freezing weather, there have been days when the contribution of our forests of wind turbines has been precisely nothing," wrote Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail Dec. 27.
"It gets better," Mr. Littlejohn continued. "As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them from seizing up. Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate."
No nation has placed greater emphasis on wind and solar energy than Spain. On eight separate occasions early in his presidency, Barack Obama cited the "green" policies enacted by Spain's socialist government as the model for what he wants for America.
President Obama doesn't talk so much about Spain anymore. Could this because Spain has, at 20 percent, the highest unemployment rate of any major country in Europe? (The average for the 27-member European Union is half that.) Because Spain has a debt so huge it is on the brink of default? Or because Spain has the highest electric utility rates in the EU?
When Gabriel Calzada, an economist at a private think tank in Spain, issued a report in 2009 which said each wind energy job the government created cost Spanish taxpayers $1.4 million in subsidies, and destroyed 2.2 jobs in the private sector, the Zapatero government went ballistic. But a government report leaked last May indicated the job loss has been even greater than Mr. Calzada feared. Spain is now cutting subsidies for wind and solar power.
The Calzada study also prompted panic in Obama appointees in the Department of Energy, who worked with wind energy lobbyists to craft responses to the study and to a column George Will wrote about it.
"What this shows is a shameless politicization of what should be a professional bureaucracy," said Investor's Business Daily in an editorial. "Instead of staying objective, they sought to scupper facts for ideologically motivated junk science."
I suppose it is natural for politicians to be attracted to wind power, since so many of them are blowhards. But if you think wind energy could replace a substantial amount of the fossil fuels we use, you must have slept through physics class in high school.
John Droz Jr. is an environmentalist who wants to find replacements for coal. But John Droz Jr. is also a physicist. All energy sources should be evaluated on their technical performance, the economics of the power produced, and their full environmental impact, he thinks.
"All independent evidence to date indicates that industrial wind power fails on all three of these critical counts," Mr. Droz said on his Web site.
Shivering Britons could give you an earful about technical performance. The wind doesn't blow all the time. Our Department of Energy assumes wind turbines will operate at about 30 percent of capacity, but actual experience in Europe and America has been much lower.
The wind probably won't be blowing when energy is needed most. Extreme wintertime cold comes from high pressure weather systems, which don't generate much wind.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the cheapest way to generate a kilowatt hour of electricity is to burn natural gas in a combined cycle unit. Clean coal is 43 percent more expensive; nuclear is 50 percent more expensive; wind is 88 percent more expensive.
The biggest problem with wind turbines is environmental. They're eyesores. They kill a lot of birds and bats. And they can make humans sick. Dr. Nina Pierpont found that "low frequency noise and vibration generated by wind machines can have an effect on the inner ear, triggering headaches, difficulty with sleeping, tinnitus, learning and mood disorders, panic attacks, irritability."
Industrial wind turbines require enormous space. The electricity needs of a city of 300,000 can be met by a 500-megawatt coal plant, which would cover about 300 acres. Science writer Kurt Cobb estimated the wind turbines needed to generate 500 megawatts of electricity would cover 55 square miles (35,200 acres).
The only thing "green" about wind power, Mr. Droz said, "is the substantial profit being made by the developers and their paid supporters" as a result of government subsidies and mandates.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2009, Jack Kelly |
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