| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Please note that opinion pieces (including letters, editorials, and blogs), reflect the viewpoints of their authors; National Wind Watch does not necessarily agree with them in their entirety or endorse them in any way, nor should it be implied that the writers endorse National Wind Watch.
Wind power will never compete
Credit: The Press, www.yorkpress.co.uk 15 December 2010 ~~
During an interesting wind energy debate on the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2, a man phoned in from Doncaster to compare the massive “dirty” Drax Coal fired-power station with clean wind turbines, which he supported.
How can they be compared? Drax is the largest power station in the UK; it has an installed capacity of almost 4000MW, so it could provide all the electricity for Wales, twice over, on its own. It would require 8000 wind turbines, each one 400ft in height, working at an average output of 0.5mW each, just to equal the output of Drax.
Yorkshire is 4,597 square miles in total area. Therefore, to equal Drax’s output, it would require almost two monstrous 400ft high wind turbines on every single square mile of Yorkshire.
Of course, under a high pressure area or anticyclone, virtually all 8,000 wind turbines would stop, leaving Yorkshire without any electricity.
Therefore, how could wind turbines replace Drax? Wind energy needs constant back-up from fossil fuel to allow for the vagaries of the wind.
LJ Jenkins, Gwbert, Cardigan, Wales.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=44535 ]
