January 7, 2013
England

Wind farm study ‘demonstrates economic flaws’

6 January 2013 | Skegness Standard | www.skegnessstandard.co.uk

New evidence demonstrating the economic impracticality of onshore turbines confirms what a ‘dreadful investment’ wind energy has been, local opponents to the technology claim.

A study published recently by the Renewable Energy Foundation claims a turbine’s economic life-span is only 10 to 15 years rather than the 20 to 25 years previously forecasted by the industry and used for government projections.

The decline in performance, derived from ‘rigorous statistical analysis’ of wind farms in the UK and Denmark, would have serious consequences for carbon reduction estimates, which had been based on the previous turbine life-span.

REF director Dr John Constable said: “This study confirms suspicions that decades of generous subsidies to the wind industry have failed to encourage the innovation needed to make the sector competitive. Bluntly, wind turbines onshore and offshore still cost too much and wear out far too quickly to offer the developing world a realistic alternative to coal.”

The report’s author Professor Gordon Hughes claims the decreased life-span would require more capital investment and higher wind farm capacity to achieve the government’s renewable energy targets.

As consumers have already seen their fuel bills rise significantly to achieve those targets under the previous estimates, local wind farm opponents believe it is time to end support for the technology and seek alternative forms of energy, which can halt the rising costs of bills.

Coun Colin Davie said: “We have always believed that the pursuit of wind energy was a disgraceful deceit perpetuated by government on the consumers.

“This report simply and precisely analyses the real outputs from wind farms across the UK.

“It shows how useless the technology is in terms of delivering returns for the investor and in terms of protecting the vulnerable and elderly from ever rising energy bills.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/01/07/wind-farm-study-demonstrates-economic-flaws/