Wind Power - Another Damning Report


RenewablesUK and the government have really thrown their toys out of the pram over the latest energy report by the AF Mercados engineering consultancy.  (  Title: Powerful Targets - Link Here* )

The original version of the report was originally due to be published by KPMG last year. Consequently it held a very high profile. But contents of the report were so explosive KPMG bottled out. The report was suppressed at the last moment.

According to KPMG this had nothing to do with any pressure from the government, RenewablesUK or their many wind farm clients. They said the report was so complex it was open to misinterpretation. Hmmm - thats believable (not).

The engineering firm who did the research for KPMG has decided to publish anyway.

According to the government and RenewablesUK (the wind industry trade body), AF Mercados produced a simplistic and shoddy report.

Bearing in mind AF Mercados is a large and highly respected international firm of consulting engineers - obviously with enough status to be hired by KPMG, that hardly seems likely does it?

Of course, if this was the only report detailing the absurd squandering of resources that epitomise wind power then we all may be forgiven for treating the report sceptically.

But this is very far from the first report.

Go back a few weeks. There was a damning report by Civitas ( Title: Electricity Costs. the Folly of Wind Power - Link Here.)  RenewablesUK, obviously lacking any reasoned defence of their position, blamed the report on "Cranks"

Then there was the report by Stuart Young Consulting for the environmental group the John Muir Trust (roughly a Scottish equivalent of the CPRE). ( Title: Analysis of UK Wind Power Generation - Link Here.) Scottish Renewables announced they had no confidence in the Stuart Young figures (no surprise there then)

Previous to these there was a report by Royal Academy of Engineers (Title: The Cost Of Generating Electricity - Link Here) which detailed the horrific cost associated with wind power compared to other generation techniques. It looks like the wind sector ignored this damning report completely and simply hoped it would go away.

Four separate and detailed reports by four independent and highly respected bodies.

Each independant report presents a damning vision of current government policy. Each report displays how hopelessly ineffective and how unaffordable wind turbines are.

They all display the wind industry as an industry gripped by a gold rush. An industry squandering our money and resources on what is little more than a fashion statement.

Have a good read.

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* if this link to the AF Consult document (hosted on "businessgreen") mysteriouly breaks, drop me a note and I'll make my copy available directly
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2 comments:

RayF said...

>> "contents of the report were so explosive KPMG bottled out."

That's one way to describe it!! The other way is KPMG abandoned the report and sacked the person responsible when they could not defend many of the claims in it.

Bill, you do seem to be suffering from 'confirmation bias' - agreeing with anything that confirms your beliefs and ignoring everything else - including >>REALITY<< now.

I recommend you do the least research on the reality of global wind power deployment. Focus on China, in particular, who are deploying hundreds of GWs of wind power. Do you think it is more likely the Chinese have been fooled by the "hippie propaganda", or do you think it might be possible that you have been fooled by the fossil / nuclear propaganda that is trying to slow down renewable energy?

BilloTheWisp said...

I agree that there has been a large take up of wind worldwide. There is a good side to this because it will allow us in fairly short order to get a good feel for viability in different conditions, especially when the subsidies stop.

China is undergoing a massive expansion in power generation. Regrettibly most of it is coal (extra 400MW every 3 days) but I certainly won't be promoting coal power simply because the Chinese are building loads of it!

As for Chinese hippies, regrettibly they are few and far between. As a result it looks like China is rapidly losing its enthusiasm for more wind and solar (post soon - just picked up on an asian newscast)

As for AF Mercados, what is more likely? That an accountancy firm pulled the commissioned report because it conflicted with the interests of rich and powerful clients, or that one of the biggest and most experienced engineering consultancies in Europe got it wrong?

I know which one I would go for.

As for conspiracies by fossil/nuclear etc. - sadly I am not a believer.

Regards
Billo