Wind Turbines: The 30% Capacity Factor Myth

I don't know about you, but I am getting really tired of large corporate bodies continually peddling half-truths and even outright lies in order to service their own greed.

Take the wind industry for example. Especially with the way they try to big up the ludicrous ineffectiveness of their money machines.

Truly, if it was not for the fact that they get paid (at least) twice for their intermittent and unreliable production of electricity, these ugly white elephants would be abandoned and left to rot.

Whenever the wind industry talks about the capacity factor (that's the actual averaged output over a year compared to the maximum turbine rating) the wind industry always try and pretend that this capacity factor is 30%.

While this may sound low, it is actually a massive exaggeration on the real figures.

Unfortunately, the wind industry have repeated the lie so many times it is often taken as" a given" by organisations that should know better.

So what is the capacity factor for on-shore wind turbines?

Luckily there are people like Professor Michael Jefferson who has has done an analysis of the exaggerated claims of the wind industry.

His presentation is available Here

While his presentation truly demolishes the mythical 30%, it is just one of the many false claims he debunks. His presentation is well worth a read.

Look at this for 2009: (taken from Professor Jeffersons presentation)

In 2009, the real capacity factor for on-shore turbines was 21% NOT 30% Only 7.5% achieved the mythical 30% capacity factor. In other words 92.5% of on-shore turbines in 2009 failed to reach the 30% capacity factor that is promoted by the wind industry. Remember, since 2009, it has got even less windy.

Even in 2008, which was an abnormally windy year,  over 81% of on-shore turbines failed to chalk up a  30% capacity factor. In fact in 2008, the windiest year in recent history, the real on-shore average capacity factor was 23%.

So when is the wind industry going to stop telling lies?
When are they going to confess that the real output from these monstrous money making machines is much less then the figures they ritually push?

If you are waiting for the truth from the wind industry, I wouldn't hold your breath.

But even this farcically low capacity factor hides the true hideously ineffectiveness of these white elephants.

Always remember when comparing capacity factors of generating equipment that wind power is intermittent. With wind, most of the energy arrives in infrequent, irregular and unpredictable bursts. Most of the time their actual output is much less than even the real dismally low capacity factor.

But more on this in a future post.

Renewable Energy Foundation - Under Attack

The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) is in the pocket of no-one.

Not the government, industry,academia or the media.

They provide expert, rigorously researched data to anyone who wishes to have it. No obfuscation. No spin. Just solid data with an expert commentary and opinion which is based firmly on that data.

They report on all forms of renewable energy. Their funding comes from a number of sources, some industrial, some not. But nobody calls the shots.

Their research has led them to be heavily critical of on-shore wind generation and particularly the Klondike style gold-rush to install ineffective and intermittent on-shore wind turbines in ever more inappropriate and damaging locations.

This though, obviously does not sit well with the companies and "trade associations" that have much to lose from the REF's stance. Then of course we have the wind lobby's unthinking and unquestioning admirers in the media.

Take this Leo Hickman Guardian Environment Blog Entry. Dear Leo is apparently an unblinking fan of Wind Turbines. While the latter part of his Guardian article is a reasonable exchange between him and a REF spokesperson the front end is full of innuendo and supposition. If you read it, get past the blinkered opinionated front end with its veiled character assassinations. Then read the exchange with blinkers removed.

Interestingly, the front end of Leo's blog entry presents unchallenged criticism of REF from the likes of the quaintly named British Wind Energy Association ( now more fashionably renamed "Renewables UK" ) But Leo fails to mention that this is not just a supporters group, it is actually the so-called "trade association" for the wind industry.

Some call it a trade association, personally I would call it a cartel.

This is the same organisation whose members routinely refuse to release wind data and noise data to council planning departments. Let alone concerned individuals.

Unlike the REF there is no transparency, no openness. The data is secret. Unless that is, you are prepared to risk everything by taking them to the high court like good old Mike Hulme did ( See this Post )

The attitude and tactics of the Wind Turbine lobby get ever more like the attitude and tactics adopted by the big Tobacco companies in the 1960's. Back then, not only was the truth suppressed but anyone attempting to reveal the truth had their career ruined.

Perhaps that is the next port of call for these huge Corporate wind turbine companies.

Maybe after REF they will apply pressure and get NETA Data removed or filtered, especially that pesky section half way down - "Peak Wind Generation Forecast", and its equally pesky partner "Wind Forecast Out turn". Then  nobody else, like the John Muir Trust can criticise them. ( Access their report HERE)

As for poor old Billothewisp, without the NETA data or the REF data, posts like This One, or in fact, any of These posts, would not be possible.

We would all be in the dark while the the huge international corporations and their "Oh aren't we green" front companies rake in the profits from the outrageous subsidies.

What is more, if we continue to allow these gold-diggers to continue brow beating and undermining legitimate groups like the REF we probably will all end up in the dark.

That will be when the wind stops blowing, and the lights go out.    

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.