{"id":467543,"date":"2010-03-24T16:04:45","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/new-revelation-wind-energy-needs-wind-work-41320\/"},"modified":"2010-03-24T16:04:45","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:04:45","slug":"a-new-revelation-wind-energy-needs-wind-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/467543","title":{"rendered":"A New Revelation: Wind Energy Needs Wind to Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 03.24.10 11:14 AM posted by Nick Loris<\/p>\n

One of the common arguments made against wind power is that without government subsidies, mandates or tax credits, wind turbines would not be built. But even when companies do receive preferential treatment to build windmills, just because they\u0092re built doesn\u0092t mean they\u0092re going to work. For that, there needs to be (drum roll, please)\u0085wind! A <ahref="http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1259573\/More-20-wind-farms-operating-fifth-power-breezy-enough.html">report from Britain says:<\/p>\n

\u0093The analysis of power output found that more than 20 wind farms are operating at less than one-fifth of their full capacity. Experts say many turbines are going up on sites that are simply not breezy enough. They also accuse developers of ‘grossly exaggerating’ the amount of energy they will generate in order to get their hands on subsidies designed to boost the production of green power.<\/p>\n

While it is possible some of the results were skewed by breakdowns, the revelation that so many are under-performing will be of great interest to those who argue that wind farms are little more than expensive eyesores. The analysis was carried out by Michael Jefferson, an environmental consultant and a professor of international business and sustainability. He believes that financial incentives designed to help Britain meet is green energy targets are encouraging firms to site their wind farms badly.\u0094<\/p>\n

<spanid="more-29702"><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other wind farm news, although the event was <ahref="http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1260115\/Europes-largest-windfarm-shut-turbine-blade-snaps.html">called \u0093exceptionally rare and highly unusual\u0094, Europe\u0092s largest wind farm had to be shut down because a <ahref="http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1260115\/Europes-largest-windfarm-shut-turbine-blade-snaps.html">14-ton turbine snapped. It\u0092s not the first time a windmill broke and fortunately no one was hurt. A turbine snapping is no reason to stop building windmills just as coal mining accidents are not reason to completely cut off our coal supply. Accidents happen in any industry and it\u0092s a company\u0092s job to learn from them and improve both quality and safety.<\/p>\n

If businesses find it profitable to build supply energy in a variety of ways without government handouts, increased competition will only benefit the consumer. Yet, we\u0092re being told we need to transition to a clean energy economy and that the United States needs to be the leader in building these technologies <ahref="http:\/\/environment.about.com\/b\/2010\/01\/27\/obama-state-of-the-union.htm">because, \u0093the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation,\u0094 said President Obama in his State of the Union address. If renewable energy eventually competes in the marketplace, economist Don Boudreaux <ahref="http:\/\/cafehayek.com\/2010\/02\/whats-the-goal.html">says, \u0093So what if the Chinese are world-leading producers of such equipment? Specializing in the production of other goods and services \u0096 things that we produce more efficiently than the Chinese \u0096 we Americans can then buy solar panels and wind turbines from the Chinese for use in our homes and offices. The latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of the factories where the final assembly of such equipment occurs are irrelevant.\u0094 That\u0092s not to say U.S. can\u0092t be a leader in wind mill production, but market-based policies are the best way to ensure that America\u0092s renewable energy production is as competitive as possible.<\/p>\n

In addition, the cleanliness in the President\u0092s mission to green our economy may be a bit over hyped. We not only use fossil fuels to make turbines but also provide back up power when the windmills don\u0092t spin. Since it\u0092s too costly to stop and start a power plant, wind simply creates more emissions. Or, as Todd Wynn of the Cascade Policy Institute <ahref="http:\/\/www.katu.com\/news\/local\/87439577.html?">points out, in some instances wind replaces CO2-free sources of energy, like hydroelectricity: \u0093So when the wind blows, the dams stop generating electricity, and when the wind stops, the dams continue to generate electricity. So, in fact, wind power is just offsetting another renewable energy source. It\u0092s not necessarily offsetting any fossil fuel generation.\u0094<\/p>\n

Wind may be economically viable in some parts of the United States, but we should let businesses and electricity consumers, not the government, decide that.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/24\/…-wind-to-work\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 03.24.10 11:14 AM posted by Nick Loris One of the common arguments made against wind power is that without government subsidies, mandates or tax credits, wind turbines would not be built. But even when companies do receive preferential treatment to build windmills, just because they\u0092re built doesn\u0092t mean they\u0092re going to work. For that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}