Wednesday 13 January 2010

A little help from West Virginia

Whilst researching for the 'confused about renewables' strand APTSec came across an amateur blog called:

Allegheny Treasures


APTSec has corresponded with the author of the blog who has kindly provided some information:

"Allegheny Treasures began some weeks ago as a counter to the lack of balance in the reporting of issues surrounding proposed wind installations in the Appalachian mountains, of which the Alleghenies are a part. While focused on local issues I've discovered an excellent network of individuals very interested in distributing factual information expressing the unreliability, cost and environmental impact of industrial wind."

The author recommends :

You find them linked under his category on the blog.

5 comments:

  1. On the subject of wind turbines, I would refer the interested reader to “Without the Hot Air” by David MacKay. This is available as a free pdf download from www.withouthotair.com. In it, he demonstrates that if we covered the windiest 10% of the land surface of the UK with wind turbines, we could generate 20 kiloWatt hours per day per person. This is half of the power used by driving an average car 50 km per day. This assumes a wind speed of 6 metres per second which means (given the efficiency of wind farms) an average energy generation of 2 Watts per square metre of land surface. To put this into context, we need to compare this estimate of British wind potential with current installed wind power worldwide. The wind turbines that would be required to provide the UK with 20 kiloWatt hours per day per person amount to 50 times the entire wind hardware of Denmark; 7 times all the wind farms of Germany and double the entire fleet of all wind turbines in the world. So, on-shore wind turbines are not the solution, and anyone who expects to be able to change the balance of our energy generation without making a huge impact on the infrastructure of the UK is sorely mistaken.

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  2. I find the whole objection to wind farms as bizarre - I can only presume these people live in a world where global warming is a myth and nuclear power is a lovely safe and clean fuel, and are happy to push their flawed propaganda on everyone else.

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  3. Sadly for us and our planet scientists are producing evidence that global warming is not a myth.

    We need to stop exploiting our environment and the people that live in it and educate ourselves more.

    If you have some information on the wind industry that you believe no one could describe as flawed then please, the blog would be very interested to provide links so that readers could weigh up what is presented.

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  4. @ "Anonymous"
    Apologies for not getting back sooner.
    I notice that the offer by APTSec to post some information on the so-called "efficiency" of on-shore wind turbines has not been taken up. Could it be that it was a little more difficult to refute the presented argument with real facts? BTW the comment does not state that global warming is a myth - it merely emphasises the fact that we have to take a scientific, rational approach and weigh up the facts of the matter. The only flawed propaganda I observe is people being swayed by emotional, ill-thought out statements; statements that are not grounded in solid data analysis. Your non-response would apperar to prove my point.

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  5. @"Anonymous" (again)
    I notice that you have still not posted any data or facts that refute my posting regarding the efficiency of on-shore wind turbines. I am awaiting your evidence so that we can engage in a data-driven debate, and not the "flawed propaganda" that you accuse me of. It still appears to me that the only "bizarre" standpoint is the one occupied by yourself, bolstered by your own "flawed propaganda". I await your response with interest.

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