Mynydd Llansadwrn Action Group

Help Protect our Welsh Mountain Landscapes

Latest-turbine-news >> news archive 2009

NEWS ARCHIVE 2009

• December 30, 2009: Insurance companies refusing to cover damage caused by wind turbines

  It has come to light that some insurance companies do not cover damage caused by wind turbine developments. 

  If a wind turbine caused total loss (for example by starting a fire) – their conditions deprive the owner of cover for that disaster even if the wind turbine belongs to another person. The property owner with a wind turbine may also be deprived of cover against damage to third parties, in the worst case a major fire could incur costs far beyond the property owner's resources to pay. Farmers eager to host turbines may not be aware of this!

  For example see: http://www.bankofscotlandhalifax.co.uk/insurance/pdf/HalifaxHomeInsuranceMORPolicyWording_1_337329-2.pdf

   

• December 2, 2009: German wind turbine burns

A wind turbine burns in the German city of Uelzen.
The fire on the around 100 meter tall turbine caused €750,000 in damage
and is believed to have been caused by a technical defect

See also:

For a summary of Wind Turbine Accident data to 31 December 2008 go to:

http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wp-content/uploads/accidents.pdf

• November 15, 2009: £250 Billion, the real cost of wind power?

An internal document from the National Grid, seen by the Sunday Express and reported in an article today, says wind turbine energy will at times cost over 3,000 per cent more than conventional power.  The Government’s renewable energy strategy is in tatters after a report exposing the true costs of generating electricity by wind power. Industry experts say over-reliance on wind power could mean fuel poverty for consumers, as older power plants reach the end of their working lives while Britain’s new generation of nuclear stations is still a long way off completion. Some experts claim the cost of upgrading the nation’s electricity grid – so it is possible to use all the renewable energy – could be £250billion or 10 times the Government’s estimates.

The revelations will make uncomfortable reading for Gordon Brown and his team, who have pinned much of their hopes of meeting carbon emission targets on wind power. Professor Ian Fells, Emeritus Professor of Energy Conversion at Newcastle University, said: “For a long time I have thought that the wind power bubble would burst. I think that’s starting to happen. Ed Miliband tells people that to oppose wind farms is morally indefensible, but as more people start to realise the reality of what wind power actually offers, that will change.”

The National Grid document, Accessing Renewable Energy, deals with the issue of “balancing the grid” to get the right amount of power from different sources across the UK so that it can maintain a supply to customers.

To read the complete article go to: www.express.co.uk/posts/view/140456/-250bn-The-real-cost-of-wind-power

• October 2, 2009: German politicians now admit wind turbines and solar panels have not reduced CO₂ emissions in Europe.

Despite Europe's boom in solar and wind energy, CO₂ emissions haven't been reduced by even a single gram. Now, even the Green Party (in Germany) is taking a new look at the issue -- as shown in e-mails obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE. For the full article go to: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,606763,00.html

• September 25, Press Release from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF)

The Danish governing party moves to correct over-emphasis on on-shore wind power

  In the last few days Venstre, the governing party in the Danish parliament, announced that it would be phasing out subsidy for onshore wind power in order to concentrate on other renewables such as biogas and solar.

In a press statement released on the 17th of September, Lars Christian Lilleholt, energy and environment spokesman for Venstre pointed out the very heavy burden now placed on consumers to support wind power, and announced the intention of putting a cap on this in order to concentrate on other technologies.

The change of emphasis comes after a year of increasing concern over the value for money offered by the Danish wind project. In May the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) published a major study of the Danish and German spot price markets for electricity which noted that wind power was now beginning to place real strains on those systems. The author of the study, one of Denmark's most respected engineers and a onetime Planning Director for the Danish grid, Mr Paul-Frederik Bach, pointed out that wind was posing problems without obvious or easily costed solutions. (See http://www.ref.org.uk/PublicationDetails/53)

Then in August the Danish think tank CEPOS published a study revealing that the majority of Danish wind power was being exported at below subsidy prices, with a net economic loss to the Danish consumer. (See http://www.cepos.dk/)

Dr John Constable, Director of Policy and Research for The Renewable Energy Foundation said: "The Danish experiment with wind power is producing results of great importance for the UK, and nothing could be more important than the fact that subsidy for wind has caused an over concentration on this one technology, just as it has in the UK. A change is long overdue here as it is in Denmark."

For further information please contact Margareta Stanley on 020 7930 3636 or 07968 049 832, email press@ref.org.uk or visit our website www.ref.org.uk

• September 14, 2009 Press release: Scientist exposes wind farm scam

In The Wind Farm Scam, to be released on 30th September 2009, Dr. John Etherington argues that wind farm technology is a wholly counter-productive and undesirable response to the problems of climate change and electricity generation. Dr. Etherington is a former Reader in Ecology, Thomas Huxley Medallist at the Royal College of Science and former co-editor of the Journal of Ecology.
 
The Wind Farm Scam explains that the intermittent nature of wind power cannot generate a steady output, a fact that necessitates back-up systems from coal and gas-powered plants that significantly negate any reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, there are the ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats and wildlife, and the far from insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty which wind turbines entail.
 
Moreover, wind power is being excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have been neither consulted nor informed that this subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost-efficient.
 
With the recent proliferation of local groups opposing wind farm planning applications (now over 300), and the increasingly frequent and challenging discussions on wind farms in all the media - including a round condemnation by James Lovelock on the BBC’s Hard Talk programme - this meticulously researched and compellingly-argued book could not be more timely.
 
As Christopher Booker says in his introduction:

“Eventually the obsession of our politicians with tower blocks was seen to be one of the greatest follies of the age.  In time to come – it may be sooner than we think – the obsession with wind power will likewise come to be seen as an even greater folly”     

The Wind Farm Scam: ISBN 9781905299836, £9.99, published 30th September 2009 by Stacey International  Please contact David Birkett on 020 7221 7166, 07982 75 4646 or by e-mailing him at marketing@stacey-international.co.uk

• July 2009

Very expensive electricity coming our way

  A recent study into the effects of the government’s plan to increase the UK’s supply of wind power has concluded that the National Grid could cope. However, the report goes on to say that the increased use of intermittent wind power will result in greatly increased electricity bills for consumers. To read an interesting discussion on the report’s findings click here:

• July, 2009

 "Onshore wind turbines : the myth, the reality and the bottom line" 

Mr. John Webley, Chairman of the The Kentish Weald Action Group (KWAG) has prepared a new article that challenges much of the information provided by the wind industry. His conclusion, based on UK wind data, is that virtually all the energy from onshore wind turbines will have to be backed up.

William Hyde, a Chartered Engineer and retired South Eastern Electricity Board engineering manager, has taken three daily readings from 30 Met Office weather stations across the whole UK for October, November, December 2008 and January and February 2009. The recorded wind speeds have then been converted into turbine electricity output, giving a very good understanding of the total output that would be generated by wind turbines evenly distributed across the UK, expressed as a percentage of installed capacity.

  The total average output from such turbines, on one or more of the daily readings dropped below 5% of installed capacity on an astonishing total of 58 days during this five month period. What is even more significant is, that on 24 of these days, the output never rose above 5%. Even on the 34 remaining days, when there was at least one reading at above 5%, it should be borne in mind that wind speeds seldom change that rapidly and, on most of those days, average output never rose above 10%.

• June 15, 2009

Grass-roots revolt against wind farms - New national alliance of community action groups formed to challenge turbines’ impact on communities and countryside

  A new national alliance of over 30 local action groups against wind farm development in the British countryside has been launched today. The new group – to be known as the National Alliance of Wind Farm Action Groups (NAWAG) – brings together community organisations from England, Scotland and Wales who are standing up to the financial muscle of wind farm developers, rushing to capitalise on the public subsidies that sweeten the construction and operation of turbines. Click here to download NAWAG aims and objectives in MS Word format.

The launch members of NAWAG will recruit as many as possible of the estimated 200-plus local action groups in existence across Britain, to create a powerful and authoritative voice for communities in the face of the highly resourced pro-wind lobby. The Mynydd Llansadwrn Action Group is already a member of NAWAG.

• April 2009 

  A new book has come out which beautifully illustrates the futility of wind turbines.
  "Sustainable energy: Without the hot air" by David MacKay, a physicist at Cambridge University. You can read extracts on his website: www.withouthotair.com

For earlier news items, click here for the News Archive page for 2008 

and here for 2005 to 2007.

[Return to the top of the page]