Thursday - September 25, 2008

WIND TURBINES CAN BE A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.  (don’t say)

Kinda bringing BMEWSers up ta date case they didn’t already know.
Also wanted to get this posted fast before Drew put one on his house or Grumpy. All the regulars.  Now you’ve seen this you won’t rush out to buy.

However ... I do have an idiot cousin born on April 1st who is also a donk libtard that I don’t usually acknowledge and do not speak to.
She might have this.  Hey ... every family has one ya know.  How about, almost every family.

Wind turbines in suburban areas a ‘waste of time and money’
Wind turbines are a waste of time and money for any householder that lives in a built-up or suburban area, according to a leading consumer watchdog.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 12:12AM BST 25 Sep 2008

The ultimate green lifestyle statement could, in fact, end up using up energy rather than creating it, said Which?, the consumer organisation, which has tested one over the last year.

Between December 2007 and June 2008 the turbine, on top of a roof in Milton Keynes, used up more electricity that it generated. That is due to an inverter that converts energy into a form that is usable by the mains – but it constantly uses power, even when the turbine is not turning.

Chirstopher Christoforou, principal researcher at Which?, said: “This house is not in the centre of town, it’s in a suburban area. We can’t recommend any domestic wind turbine if you live in a built-up environment of any sort. It really isn’t worth the money.”

The tester installed a Windsave WS1000 turbine – the most popular domestic turbine, which is sold at the B&Q chain – late last year. The machine costs £1,5000 but between December 2007 and June 2008 it actually used up 9.4 kilowatt hours of power – the equivalent of boiling a litre of water in a kettle 85 times.

This is the latest report to suggest that wind turbines – famously championed by David Cameron atop of his Notting Hill house – can never solve Britain’s lack of cheap energy.

Friends of the Earth have admitted that domestic wind turbines are too often a “glamourous statement” and that consumers should invest in other, more efficient forms of energy saving such as loft insulation.

Earlier this month a joint study by the Carbon Trust and Met Office said small-scale wind energy could in theory generate some 41.3 terawatt hours of electricity – 12 per cent of UK electricity consumption – each year.

But with current electricity prices and the cost of small wind turbines, only a fraction of that is deliverable. The study concluded that if one in ten households had turbines, they would produce just 0.4 per cent of total UK energy consumption a year.

Windsave, the manufacturers of the turbines, have rounded on Which?, claiming the organisation was “inept” and failed to listen to its advice that the tester’s house was not in an windy enough area.

The house in Milton Keynes has an average wind speed of 4.7 meters per second.

The company says the speed needs to average 5 meters per second before the turbine generates energy. The average across Britain is 5.8 meters per second.

David Gordon, the chief executive of the company, said: “They are out to castigate a pioneer in the industry.”

The company sent a disclaimer to the tester saying the site was not windy enough – but this was a full year after tester ordered the turbine, but had yet to install it because of planning problems.

Mr Christoforou said: “Our tester did sign the disclaimer, but let’s face it 4.7 meters per second is not far off 5 meters per second and yet we ended up using energy rather than generating it.”

Mr Gordon insisted that at 5 meters per second one of his turbines would generate enough energy for a consumer to make a return on their £1,500 machine in seven years.

http://tinyurl.com/5yc4ro

Posted by Drew458     on 09/25/2008 at 11:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Environment •  
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