Alex 'Butcher' Salmond has destroyed Scotland [windfarms]

Telegraph - UK ^ | October 20, 2012 | James Delingpole

[hoosierham]

The envirowhackos believe in magic!

Wind driven power makes sense only in very limited areas for very specific uses.

The cost to extract energy from the wind and get it to the end user is not economical ,and probably never will be.But if all the coal,nuclear ,and hydro plants are shut down,THEN wind and solar become absolutely wonderful!

[chimera]

And when their subsidies run out, they are often abandoned and left to rot. There are no laws that require wind turbine owners to bank funds for future cleanup of abandoned sites (unlike nuclear energy, which is required to maintain an adequate decommissioning fund). If you think they are ugly when they are running (which they are), this is what you are left with:

[driftless2]

I’ll disagree with Delingpole on this one. I took a trip through a lot of Scotland last May-June, and it’s still breathtakingly beautiful. Can’t recall seeing much or any wind turbines. Not to say that it might yet become a problem.

[Dr. Sivana]

The new variety of windmall reminds me more of the "Tripods" that take over earth than the old variety (See the "White Mountains" trilogy).

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Windmills are not only next to useless in reliably generating electricity, they are a blight on any landscape.

I've spent a lifetime as an engineer and I have to say that windmills not only blight the land scape and prove a danger to wild birds, they are a terribly inefficient depending as they do on the vagaries of the weather. The greatest flaw in the current crop of wind turbines is the placement of all of the heavy mechanical equipment atop the tower. If it becomes necessary to service any of the rotating equipment you need to bring in a crane somewhat taller than the tower. Servicing the rotor bearings (beyond an oil change) would require dismantling the blades and the pitch control. Servicing the speed increasing gear box or the generator itself would require removal of the components to the ground to allow disassembly and would seriously unbalance the pod housing at the top of the tower unless the blades were removed as well.

A better approach would be to place the mechanicals at the base of the tower and go with a vertical axis turbine. In truth it would solve some problems but nothing can remove the necessity for 100% fossil/hydro/nuclear backup of any wind power scheme.

Regards,
GtG

[SunkenCiv]

Scotland will fit right in the EU, and will do as it's told.

Note: this topic was posted 10/20/2012. Thanks Cincinatus' Wife.