Wind Turbines and Silver Spoons II

Apologies to my fellow grubby little Englanders. I think my first post on this was a bit obtuse. In brief, using wind turbines to generate electricity to reduce carbon emissions is like trying to bale out a dinghy with a set of silver spoons.

I want to explore this analogy a little more, because the more I think about it the more accurate this analogy is.

Going back a couple of months I sat in a meeting where a planning application to build four huge wind turbines was being given a public hearing.

Objections were raised by worried residents. The turbines were close to a care home for children who suffer from autistic spectrum disorder. The site was right next to a scout camp and also very near residential housing.

Half way through the speeches, one supporter of the turbine scheme declared that the turbines were too important. The scout camp, care home and if necessary the residents should be relocated to allow the development to take place. He got a flicker of applause from other supporters.

His view was plain. Global warming was such an emergency that any crumb or morsel of relief was to be grasped at. Irrespective of the consequences for those immediately affected.

You may well think he was just some fizzing little eco fascist, and perhaps you are right. But I suspect that really, he was just another willing victim of the wind industry's propaganda.

The wind industry loves to push the naive theory that we must do something, anything and at any cost. For them the eco warriors support was simply more money in the bank.

This guy was, I regret to say, fanatically wedded to his silver spoons. He wanted to see them thrashing about in order to calm his nightmares. He didn't care if they got in the way of the guys with the dirty bilge pumps and was even less concerned at those who would get thrown overboard to give his spoon wielders some arm room.

His huge, hopelessly ineffective turbines would be an icon, a talisman for a world no longer dependant on filthy mathematics or high technology. Essentially they would be a large eco fashion statement thrashing about for all to see and marvel at. The "selfish Nimbys" could go to hell.

Needless to say, the vested interests, the landowners, the silver spoon makers and those who would be handsomely paid to do the paddling, all purred with support and praise.

One day I hope this guy sees past his own neurotic demons. I do hope that he realises that he has a moral obligation to the people affected by these monstosities and this obligation trumps his fashionable desires.

If he wants to really cut carbon emissions (or even plain old pollution) he needs to see past the propaganda and look to effective methods for energy reduction and energy generation. Wind farms and all their paraphernalia are simply a massively expensive dead end.

A silver spoon has its niche. But it is a truly hopeless way of baling out a boat.

Wind turbines also have their niche, pumping water on remote farmsteads, even producing electricity in remote off-grid locations.

But they really are a hopeless way of supplying our daily electricity demands.