Experts are finding out wind turbines are not only an inefficient way to produce electricity but that they are also wrecking the environment, natural habitats, and even the climate.
So far we know wind parks:
- Are an erratic source of power
- Have high maintenance costs
- Involve recycling problems, hazardous materials
- Blight the natural landscape
- Hazardous to birds and wildlife
- Result in deforestation and wrecked biotopes
- Make people seriously sick (infrasound), and
- Interfere with weather radars.
And according to one German prominent meteorologist, Dr. Karsten Brandt of Donnerwetter.de, wind turbines are now even putting the brakes on wind speeds and even altering local climates.
How an environmentalist could support this form of energy is becoming increasingly mind-boggling. Hat-tip Die kalte Sonne here. The Donnerwetter.de press release follows:
Less and less wind due to more and more wind turbines?
An ever weaker wind is blowing across Germany. For example in the 1960s annual wind speeds of 3.7 meters per second were measured in Osnabrück, but now it’s only 3.2 m/s. That’s a drop of over 13 percent.
Almost all weather stations in the country which were analyzed by the Bonn-based meteorologists at donnerwetter.de found that the trend looks similar.
Wind speed has decreased “very significantly”
“In most places, the mean wind speed has decreased very significantly,” says Dr. Karsten Brandt. And he has a suspicion: “We believe that in the last 15 years more and more massive wind turbines have influenced the wind speed.”
The trend of ever decreasing winds was not observed out on the open sea, however. To the contrary: On the islands of Norderney or Helgoland the wind has, in fact, increased slightly over the past 20-30 years.
Yet in northern Germany, just inland from the coast, (i.e., just after the first wind rotors), the donnerwetter.de meteorologists found a decline in the average annual wind speed: from 3.8 – 3.9 m/s to less than 3.5 m/s.
“Of course, the increase in building construction and especially high-rise buildings in Germany has had a slight braking effect,” admits Brandt. “The braking effect of wind turbines should, however, exceed this.”
Confirmed by other studies
A variety of studies support the meteorologists’ assumption. “Danish research has shown that air flow is weaker than before the turbines even 14 kilometers downstream from a wind farm,” says Dr. Brandt.
This is an effect that the operators of such parks are concerned about. If a new turbine park is built in front of an existing rotor park in the main wind direction, the losses could be over 50 percent, American studies have shown.
In northern Germany, there is now one wind turbine every ten square kilometers. According to the donnerwetter.de meteorologists, the North German air flow is generating so much energy that a weaker north wind is now arriving at the north German interior.
The situation is similar with westerlies, which are weakened by wind turbines in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Wind park warming… “more heat inland”!
According to Dr. Brandt: “The weaker wind ensures less air exchange. This, in turn, drives up pollutant concentration in our air.
Especially in the summer months, the lack of wind means more heat inland and less land-sea-wind circulation. In addition, the air is heated by the generators, as further studies have shown.”
“Think again before further developing wind energy”
So far the wind has been considered as an almost inexhaustible source of energy – albeit being incalculable and poorly predictable. The fact that you can extract some of your energy from the wind turbines was seen as a pioneering achievement.
“But the fact that man takes so much energy from the wind”, the climatologist concludes, “and considering the consequences, we should probably think again before further developing wind energy.”
Read more at No Tricks Zone
And this morning (20181017) the Scotsman newspaper out of Edinburgh reported “Scottish Power becomes the first big UK energy firm to switch to 100% wind power”. I assume that on windless days their customers will either do without power, or power will be provided by coal burning plants belonging to other companies. Even when their mills are producing, what will the charge be per kilowatt hour – higher or lower than other suppliers?
How can anybody be surprised that using wind to turn huge turbines to generate electricity will reduce the speed of the wind coming out the other side? That’s just basic physics. Having only a very small number of turbines won’t cause enough change to be noticed but as more and more of these monstrosities are erected it will have an influence. And scientists in Germany have been able to measure this reduction with concurrent problems caused by that speed reduction.
So much for Wind Power being so called Enviromental Friendly these Wind Turbines have got to go let the Eco-Wackos use a peddle powered generator so they can watch Al Bore’ and Leonardo DiCaprios junk science fake films on their TV and DVD