Are wind turbines efficient?

[Lucian]

Not wishing to de-rail a thread, I noticed that a poster had written something along the lines of useless turbines on a photo thread.
Are wind turbines efficient? That's the question in hand. Nick quoted the Economist but I guess the real question would be could the UK's power supply be covered by ALL renewable energy types, water, solar etc?



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I was reading something in the Economist the other week that reckoned in order to get all our energy from wind turbines, you'd literally need to cover the entire country with them.

ENERGY SAVING

*UK electricity consumption has grown steadily since 1990 and by 2020 is expected to increase by another 15 to 20%. Worldwide, demand is expected to double by 2050. Wind power cannot satisfy this growth let alone reduce overall usage.

*The only way to reduce CO2 emissions significantly is to burn less fossil fuel. That means using less electricity through greater incentives to reduce consumption and more investment in energy saving technology. A recent EU study shows that we could easily reduce energy consumption by 18% by 2020, if the will existed.

*The Government invests far more in wind power than in energy saving. Between 1982 and 2000 wind power was the only renewable energy source receiving Government investment.

*If every home in the UK were given one more low energy light bulb, one conventional power station could be decommissioned.

*Solar energy is already perceived as the best renewable source for the future. The power generated is used locally and any excess can be fed into to the national grid, reducing both bills and demand on the grid.


Facts About Wind Farms

[parnassos]

Not wishing to de-rail a thread, I noticed that a poster had written something along the lines of useless turbines on a photo thread.
Are wind turbines efficient?

Facts About Wind Farms

Define "efficient". don't need to put them on land anyway.
I heard Denmark gets about 30% of its electricity from windfarms off shore in the sea. Not bad.

[Lucian]

Interesting article pointed out by Nick earlier:

Fiscal stimulus and the environment | Greenstanding | The Economist

Define "efficient". don't need to put them on land anyway. I heard Denmark gets about 30% of its electricity from windfarms off shore in the sea. Not bad.

Yeah, just to clarify I'm actually opposing Welshman's views that they are useless. I didn't want to go too overboard as it could have been just an off the cuff remark made by Welshman.

From The Economist:

Nuclear-power stations take many years to build, so new ones will not help Britain meet its 2020 targets for curbing emissions. But the technology is well understood. Politicians may have calculated that a few nuclear-power stations will be easier to sell the public than thousands of wind turbines. And energy does not have to be renewable to be low-carbon.

Has the Economist got a vested interest in nuclear power, stocks and shares for energy companies/ backhander from some branch of the government? or would they be right in thinking this as it could be a more realistic attitude.

[parnassos]

I wouldn't say they are useless at all. From what I've read its unlikely that we could get all of our electricity from them so we'd need other sources, nuclear being one. So its a case of all of the above I guess. But what to do with the nuclear waste I wonder. Still might be better than global warming.

[THX 1133]

In a responsible application combined with many other alternative sources; wind power is an excellent source of electric power. Wind, sea, thermal (volcanic), and solar could get us off of the oil tit that makes us the whores of war for oil dominance.

[Beyonder]

In a responsible application combined with many other alternative sources; wind power is an excellent source of electric power. Wind, sea, thermal (volcanic), and solar could get us off of the oil tit that makes us the whores of war for oil dominance.

Agreed. Wind alone wouldn't enable us to jump off of the carbon band wagon. There are too many issues with upfront financing, connection to grid, and options for storage of the harnessed power. However, coupled with other 'wedges' wind power is definitely a good option, and even the best option for some locations that are out of range of a power grid.

[Jon]

Europe's biggest wind farm, the size of Glasgow city centre, has just come on stream in Scotland.
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West | Largest wind farm comes on stream
I'd like us to develop tidal and wave power more in the UK.