Fighting the Wind Mills
Wind mills are a difficult topic for me. The traditional ones are the most charming thing to come across, the modern ones are horrific to see. The idea of creating energy from wind is fascinating, the vast corruption of the sector is disgusting. The chance of freeing the society from dependency of oil-producing countries that I would in general have nothing to do with is something worth fighting for , but the recyclo-environmentalist religion is an abhorrence. So whats the thing?
One of the most disgusting things about the wind energy boom is the corruption. It’s far too typical for the wind energy producers to have their head quarters in an exotic location that provides favorable taxation and anonymity. In Finland for example starting a limited liability company requires only 2500 € as base capital and obviously there are ways of directing the income (read subsidies) to the mother company. The subsidies are for 12 years after which the local subsidiary goes bankrupt loosing the 2500 € and the mother company no longer responds to any communication leaving the rusty wind mill for the the local landowners or municipalities to demolish. In Finland the wind energy subsidies were introduced 2011 by the center party minister Mauri Pekkarinen whose son in law Taamir Fareed happens to be the wind energy director of one of the largest wind energy producers in the country – investment group “Taaleritehdas”. Also Pekkarinen dougther works on wind energy. Pekkarinen denied any connections to wind energy industry in 2011 and although this is well-known to be a complete lie it was never really made a big deal by the press.
Another thing is how wind energy distorts the markets. Wind energy is not economically sustainable so there are huge subsidies for it. In Finland wind energy has a guaranteed producer price of 85.30€ / Mwh. The demand price of electricity fluctuates a bit but averages at 30 €/Mwh. The difference is covered by tax payer. The wind energy producers could sell their energy for the price of 0 €/Mwh and still make the same money. In fact they could pay someone to take the energy and still make a profit. This obviously is bad for the market. Energy producing is a business where continuity and predictability are very important and producers tend not to invest in a market where the green cult can turn the whole market upside down in a heart beat. If the big producers are not investing the market prices actually gradually go up. This has happened in Germany and Great Britain. Subsidizing unsustainable energy makes electricity more expensive.
Yet another problem with wind energy is it’s unreliability. There are no guarantees that there will be wind when energy is needed. In Finland this is painstakingly obvious because it is common to have -30 degree Celsius temperatures in the winter with no wind at all. Wind energy production can fluctuate between 0 and ~100 percent of the nominal capacity within a day. Therefore a backup system is needed to balance these fluctuations. Backup systems are quite normal and also other forms of energy typically have them but wind energy needs a backup system needs multitudes more of backup than other forms of energy production. There works the other way too. When all wind mills are working on full capacity they produce too much energy for the grid to handle. That has forced grid companies to do expensive changes in their grids.
The last thing is real and even the wind energy fanatics can’t deny it anymore. The European wide total capacity fluctuations are the equivalent of the energy output of 20 nuclear power plants – 20 GW. And if they’ll build more wind mills in the North sea region this number may rise to 100. ETH Zurich university and the Imperial College of London have noticed this problem and propose a solution. To fix the problems caused by ideological wind energy production they suggest – you guessed it – more wind energy production. They want to cover the whole continent with wind mills in the hope of always finding a place where the wind blows. And since the most windy regions are already full of wind mills – the area causing the problems – to get a similar capacity to balance it out you need way more wind mills in these other regions.
If interested in wind mills or exposing other environmental scams check
or even https://www.climatexam.com/blog
Finnish links
http://ilmastorealismia.blogspot.fi
http://hannuaro1.puheenvuoro.uusisuomi.fi/
https://roskasaitti.wordpress.com