Hi Chuck
I couldn't agree more. Then there is the environmental impact of actually
installing the turbines, constructing roads, clearing native vegetation, etc.
The three areas of Australia where commerical windfarms have been installed are
in western NSW, and Albany and Esperance, WA. All remote areas and in some
cases, not connected to the national grid.
Jon
"Vandergraaf, Chuck" wrote:
> Jon,
>
> Something that is often overlooked in these discussions is the risks and
> dangers associated with supposedly benign forms of energy conversion.
>
> As you and Glenn pointed out, it takes an awful lot of wind turbines to make
> any impact on the energy requirements. True, the wind is free, but the
> labour required to keep these things serviced is not trivial. The turbines
> are quite some distance from the ground and people are forever falling off
> things and killing themselves. It would be interesting to see a comparison
> of injuries and fatalities per TWhr (terawatt hour) produced by wind power
> with those produced by more conventional energy conversion systems. Solar
> panels present a similar danger: what is the risk associated with keeping
> these panels clean?
>
> There are places where wind turbines have their place and that's in very
> isolated places where the wind blows a lot. Les Isles de la Madeleine in
> the St. Lawrence estuary in Quebec is one place where, I believe, wind
> turbines are used because the cost of providing electricity is too high.
>
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Clarke [mailto:jdac@alphalink.com.au]
> Sent: Tuesday January 23, 2001 1:58 PM
> To: vandergraaft@aecl.ca
> Cc: Asa@Calvin. Edu
> Subject: Re: Oh boy, wind power.
>
> Here in Oz a number of rural towns use wind turbines as a supplemental
> energy
> sources. This is of course hailed as a great triumph of alternative energy.
>
> I am all for use of wind turbines, but their use is supplemental. They
> cannot be
> relied upon to produce base or peak load power, that capacity has to be
> available
> through conventional means, either diesel generators or the grid. All the
> wind
> turbines can do is reduce actual usage, which is important in itself of
> course.
>
> Another issue is the fact that the largest wind turbines produce not much
> more than
> ~1 megawatt per turbine. So a thousand turbines on hill tops, coastlines,
> and other
> windy areas would be necessary to replace one large coal or nuclear station.
> As wind
> turbines are relatively noisy and visually intrusive, one could expect the
> NIMBY
> reflex to come into effect quite quickly.
>
> Jon
>
> Glenn Morton wrote:
>
> > There was an article in the Financial Times yesterday which bears on our
> > discussion of energy. Here are some quotes:
> >
> > "In 2000 wind power systems had a capacity to generate electricity of
> > 17.57GW, according to DKW in a new report. This figure should grow to
> 66.93
> > GW by 2006, according to the bank's forecasts, with the US having by then
> > surpassed Germany as the country with the largest amount of electricity
> > generated through wind power." Peter Marsh, "Wind Power Systems poised to
> > Triple over Next Five Years," Financial Times 1/23/01, p. 15
> > **
> > "Between 2000 and 2005 the price of electricity from wind power turbines
> is
> > expected to drop 17 percent from $900/kW (£608/kW) of installed capacity
> to
> > $750/kW, reflecting improvements in technology." Peter Marsh, "Wind Power
> > Systems poised to Triple over Next Five Years," Financial Times 1/23/01,
> p.
> > 15
> >
> > Sounds really great. Then you realize the following:
> >
> > "In 2000 wind power produced only about 0.2 percent of the total 3,300 GW
> > world electricity generation capacity.
> > "However, this figure is likely to rise to 1.42 per cent in 2005
> and 3.11
> > percent in 2010, according to Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. By 2020 the
> > share could expand to 7 per cent, by which point wind energy could
> generate
> > a total of some 400 GW--roughly equivalent to 10 large conventional power
> > stations." Peter Marsh, "Wind Power Systems poised to Triple over Next
> Five
> > Years," Financial Times 1/23/01, p. 15
> >
> > Electricity is only a small fraction of the energy that we actually use.
> If
> > we expect wind to be a significant player in the future, we need to cover
> > the earth with turbines.
> >
> > glenn
> >
> > see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
> > for lots of creation/evolution information
> > anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
> > personal stories of struggle
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