Wind turbines could cause mid-winter black outs (in UK) - FUD

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1033071/Wind-turbines-cause-mid-winter-black-outs.html

Wind turbines could cause mid-winter black outs

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:07 PM on 07th July 2008

Plans to cover the countryside with thousands of wind turbines could leave the UK vulnerable to mid-winter black outs, a new study suggests.

Researchers have found that the output from wind farms can plummet dramatically on cold, still days in January when demand is at its highest.

The findings, published in a respected energy journal, come just days after the Government pledged to build 4,000 new turbines on land, and another 3,000 at sea, to meet Europe's green energy targets.

The new study was funded by the Renewable Energy Foundation - charity set up by Noel Edmonds to investigate alternatives to onshore wind farms.

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Foundation

Renewable Energy Foundation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

---

The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) (founded 2004) is a United Kingdom based lobby group whose main activity is campaigning against wind turbines. The group funds reports which typically show renewable energy technologies to have inferior performance, be expensive, or unreliable, and advocate abandoning existing public support schemes for renewables.

According to the Guardian (July 15, 2004), REF is backed by ‘anonymous wealthy individuals and hopes to gather the 80 or so groups opposing wind farms around the country’.

[redqueen]

1. Lovely. (nt)

[Taverner]

2. Daily Mail - the UK version of World Net Daily

[leveymg]

3. Here are some of those "anonymous wealthy individuals"

[phantom power]

4. Why is it...

that whenever somebody points out that wind turbines do not produce a constant electricity output, it is attributed to some kind of FUD conspiracy?

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Just because it's true does not mean it's not FUD

The best http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear%2C_uncertainty_and_doubt">FUD is true.

For example, did you know that CFL's contain mercury!? (It's true!)

The Hindenburg contained hydrogen! Do you want a hydrogen tank in your car?

(Ignoring the inherent dangers of a "gas tank.")
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/doe_h2_safety.pdf

[phantom power]

7. This is tangential, but I don't especially want hydrogen for my car.

Not really because I'm afraid of it, but it seems easier and cheaper to use something like propane or DME that is easy to store at liquid densities without inventing new materials and technologies.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. And objections like this are not FUD (although they can be employed as part of a FUD campaign)

However, in the long run, I still expect to see increasing use of hydrogen for energy storage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_storage

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. Apparently, it's not even true

At least not to judge from this. Check out the wind potential around the UK in "Northern Winter":

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-128

Ocean Wind Power Maps Reveal Possible Wind Energy Sources

July 09, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. - Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth's ocean winds could soon gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA's QuikScat satellite that reveal ocean areas where winds could produce energy.

The new maps have many potential uses including planning the location of offshore wind farms to convert wind energy into electric energy. The research, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, was funded by NASA's Earth Science Division, which works to advance the frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future.

"Wind energy is environmentally friendly. After the initial energy investment to build and install wind turbines, you don't burn fossil fuels that emit carbon," said study lead author Tim Liu, a senior research scientist and QuikScat science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Like solar power, wind energy is green energy."

QuikScat, launched in 1999, tracks the speed, direction and power of winds near the ocean surface. Data from QuikScat, collected continuously by a specialized microwave radar instrument named SeaWinds, also are used to predict storms and enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts.

...


(... Red and white colors indicate high energy are available while blue color reflects lower energy. ...)

...

Wind conditions in the UK appear to be ideal in the Winter!

[Nihil]

12. I quite like the double standard ...

... involving the word "could":

> How a Giant Solar Tower Could Power the Future
= double plus good super-optimism fully justified

> Wind turbines could cause mid-winter black outs
= FUD, propaganda, horrible people spreading lies

(Though I will grant you the last one considering the source of
the OP.)

:shrug:

[kestrel91316]

6. Bad writing: Should say "Over-reliance on wind power could lead to blackouts".

You have to have a backup for when the wind isn't blowing.

[JohnWxy]

9. Wind Turbines will cause the sky to fall, really, for sure. link:

gosh, too bad there are no ways to store electrical power, oh-my!

www.vrbpower.com

http://www.vrbpower.com/applications/load-levelling.html

It's too bad when they build wind farms they are going to tear down all the other power plants even though they are still functional so the ONLY source of power is wind. Yeah, for sure, it's true, ... my mother told me..


http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html

NOte that the map for England shows a number of offshore sites with avg wind speed greater than or equal to 9.4 m/sec. Most people familiar with the NOrth Atlantic would laugh at the notion of a calm winter day (or night) over that region.

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. Imagine if it was as big a disaster as Spain's wind power system

(Which is to say, "Quite successful.")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Spain

[ElectricGrid]

10. storage methods are on the way that will eliminate this problem.