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11 December 2011

An example of how the wind industry misleads the planners

I found the video posted below on James’ blog and it has been reposted by Geoff Edwards’ blog, “My Wild Camping” as well.

It features a chap who was actually pro-wind – until the day dawned when the wind power station was built and he realised that he had been fed a pack of lies by the developers. He now has to live with a lot of noise and flicker. Flicker is not usually mentioned a lot on posts about wind power stations but it is worth noting.

The developers have helped frame the guidelines used to determine how far turbines should be built from habitation. The current guideline is 10 times the rotor diameter. You will see from the video that this chap is experiencing flicker at twice these distances.

So: Why is he experiencing this dreadful flicker when he lives almost twice the prescribed distance away? It’s down to simple maths that the overly simplistic guidelines simply ignore. There’s a slot of “simples” in there aren’t there? Yes – the wind industry likes that because, as we shall see, it serves their purpose well.

In real life, rather than the abstract world that wind power station developers live in, the world isn’t flat. In fact it suits the power stations’ efficacy not to be so; To be situated on top of a hill increases the mean wind speeds so the turbines have a better chance of spinning at the required rate. So – Let’s put the turbine on a modest hill of 150m above the nearest house:

Flicker Distances0001

(CLICKABLE DIAGRAM)

I have chosen, for illustrative purposes only, to select a fairly common turbine; 125m to tip height with a rotor diameter of 80m and a hub height of 85m. Fairly standard,

Just by looking at the very simple maths, above you can see that the house will experience flicker at over twice the wind industry's current planning guidelines.

So – If you have a “windfarm” coming near you, Be Aware of these horribly simplistic guidelines that the Wind industry loves using and which seem to satisfy the planners.

17 comments:

  1. I really wish I could say that I'm surprised a corporate body or industry would resort to lies and half truths to help them line their pockets

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  2. Andy - that isn't anywhere near the half of it! If you dig down into the way they measure "allowable" noise from wind turbines, it is frankly pure bloody evil! They select the frequency ranges specifically to exclude the worst of the turbines' most annoying frequencies.

    And the UK Government's advisory body connived in this as they realised that if actual noise levels were to be enforced there would hardly be a turbine built in England.

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  3. Alan, the energy company's flicker range measurements were probably taken on a mid to late June day when the sun was high and shadows short.

    And the earth was flat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Byeways: Are those trousers pinching your waistline?* I can't believe that you have so little respect for our treasured little darlings in the Green Energy sector...

    *Readers should refer to THIS for an explanation...

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  5. Why am I not surprised by any of this....the whole wind farm fiasco is a total con just like so much of what we are led to believe these days.
    It's all a bloody disgrace......!!

    -Trevor

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  6. Hi Alan

    The power provided by wind turbines is approximately 3% of the national requirement.

    So even a **** like me can work out that to provide all the electricity we need there will have to be 160,000 of these giant ****-ups.

    There are currently 5200.

    Not including the ones that burn down and fall over...

    ReplyDelete
  7. There's an article in The Telegraph today about a report by the Adam Smith Institute and the Scientific Alliance which says that wind farms cannot meet the need for energy, leading to "a crisis by the middle of this decade".

    I can't figure out how to paste the Telegraph's html link here but if you've not seen it then you should be able to google the article with: Over-reliance on wind farms 'will lead to power cuts'

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  8. Yet again, more evidence that we are being royally conned by these people.

    Widening the debate slightly, I wonder whether our on/off relationship with Europe (currently off, it would appear) will have any effect on onshore wind projects (positive or negative)?

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  9. Trevor, Peter, Brian & Jules: Many thanks for your comments. Robin of blogpackinglight has sent me the link to which you refer, Brian.
    The article is published by the Adam Smith Institute, who in the past have been very influential on both Labour & Conservative policies (though it has to be said they they were massively influential with Thatcher).
    However, this article doesn't appear to have any political bias and effectively trashes current energy policy: You can find it
    HERE

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  10. I can't work out why, if turbines are so poorly inefficient and intrusive and obviously so, they are even being considered a contender for provision of electricity.

    Is it lip service? Is it because a great many of us think they actually work (by us I mean the general public) because of the great PR job done by the early 'farmers?

    I just don't get it and it annoys me.

    That 3% stat, if it is correct, offends me. To get even a quarter of the power we need would take another 35k of them!

    And what of those rare-earth metals used in the magnets? I can only begin to imagine the impact of the extraction process in China where most of the stuff comes from - but I guess that is ok because it is just from another wilderness which nobody cares about eh?

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  11. Hi Carl: If you read my next post you will see that the incredibly recent paper written (12th Dec 2011) by the Adam Smith Institute basically rubbishes wind.

    It is damning.

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  12. I keep watching this and it makes me more angry about the lying and cheating of the wind power beneficiaries, than about the wind turbines themselves!

    Consider the beneficiaries of windpower...

    1 - The Landowner

    2 - The Manufacturer

    3 - The Extraction company (magnets etc)

    4 - The Government (gets to meet its target on Renewables)

    5 - The electricity company (gets to meet its target on Renewables)

    6 - The engineering company

    I'll stop there. That is a lot of mouths to feed with just those few, and there are probably more.

    I didn't mention the consumer because it costs the consumer more.

    I didn't mention the local community for reasons already stated well enough in Alan's writings.

    I didn't mention the environment either.

    Consider the 25-year lifespan of a wind turbine.

    Consider that to provide a quarter of the power our island needs, we'd need 40,000 turbines.

    Consider the costs, and environmental impact.

    Consider the rolling emissions for the construction, maintenance, decommissioning and re commissioning of them all.

    Consider Nuclear?

    Consider Wind power (for wind power; read also, wave, hydro, solar, biomass)?

    Consider having a couple of spots on your face.

    Now consider Acne....

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  13. Carl: That just about sums it up nicely. Just the politicians to convince now....

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  14. I moved to the country not so long back. great (or so i thought) surrounded by fields and views.
    not for long tough a new wind farm has just been erected to my east. plans are through for one to my north, plans have just been submitted for a wind farm to my west!!!
    so very soon i will be almost 360 degree surrounded!!
    not happy

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  15. Hi Gordon
    That sounds like a pretty miserable situation to find yourself in. There will be local groups already set up to fight these planning applications. You need to get in touch with them to see what you can do to help.
    Just Google the windfarm name and I am sure the protest groups will be in the first page.
    Good luck - and let us all know how it is going?

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  16. Alan

    A big thanks for sharing this page and video over at Bimble Britain. It's been really imformative and should help us with our campaign.

    Thanks again.

    Dave

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    Replies
    1. I've put your blog in my rolling blog list on the RHS of my blog, David so if you have any news I'll pop over to have a read.
      The very best of luck: You are going to need it.

      Have a read of THIS POST to see what you are up against...

      Delete

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