Birds Bats Bugs Bees and Wind turbines

A tale of the Double Stall.

A lot of my friends get extremely animated about the slaughter of bats and birds by wind turbines.
This Canada Free Press Report indicates that in Spain alone around 6 - 18 million birds and bats get chopped every year.

But compared to the numbers of less fashionable critters that get chopped, the slaughter of the birds is small beer.

So do the bugs matter?

Well, to the wind energy companies it matters greatly (although for all the wrong reasons).

As the bugs get slapped by the rotor they do roughly what they do when they hit your windscreen.
They splat. Having splatted, they stick to the offending aerofoil. This increases what is known as the rugosity (or roughness) of the blade. The rougher the blade, the less effective it is at  taking energy out of the wind. (A bit like the difference on pushing a wood block across the carpet then trying to do the same with it wrapped in sandpaper.)

This rugosity has an astonishing effect on the output and can decrease the output by nearly 50%. It is mooted that this accounts for a problem that the wind industry has kept quiet for about ten years. The problem has become known as the Double Stall.

This graph from HERE shows the effect of the Double Stall phenomena.

So what exactly is the Double Stall? The problem came to light when numerous identical turbines, positioned in equivalently windy locations produced massively different output. (up to 50%). Initially various ideas were mooted for this. Most came down to some form of operator incompetence.

But it looks like the problem is not the operator error. The problem is the layer of bug DNA smeared over the leading edge of the aerofoil. See  This Paper  by Corten and Veldkamp. Also link to Nature report Here

(If the above link to the paper by Corten & Veldkamp is problematic  - try this direct link

http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2001/rx01052.pdf

Various cleaning methodologies have been investigated but most can only be done in low wind speeds with the thing stopped. Even then, dangling 200 feet up in the air while scraping off dead insects is not for the faint hearted.

The down time can be anything up to three days at a time. For a larger turbines (bigger than 1MW) I suspect it might be considerably longer.

But of course, scraping off the DNA to boost your profits hardly addresses the millions of critters that must get splatted in the name of Green fashionability. But as they are not "pretty" they get ignored. Even by the anti-wind compaigners.

It is just an hypothesis, but it would be interesting to find out the effect IWT's have on the local bug/bee population. After all, most of the time IWT's are spinning idly in low wind, producing little but the murder millions of insects. That must have an effect on bird food supplies and I suspect insect populations. Maybe this is even part of the recent drop in Bee populations?

So next time you lament for a bird like this:

(image from Daily Mirror HERE)

Please remember the billions of insects that met a similar fate. Spare a thought for our ugly bugs, wasps and bees as well as our bats and birds.

They are all just as important to our countryside and environment.

Huhne: Good Riddance

I understand that before the now notorious speeding offence, Huhne had already accumulated several driving convictions. If he had taken another three points on his licence (instead of the points going on his wife's licence) then he would have been banned from driving.

So it looks like this arrogant self obsessed technical ignoramus drives without any consideration for anyone else. A bit like his approach to high office in fact.

Regrettably, even though we are well rid of this egotistical bigot, the general thrust of the coalitions approach to the wind turbine scam is unlikely to change - at least in the short term.

I picked up on an email that a long term political insider said this about the government and Huhne's demise:

“I don't believe anything has changed with the departure of Huhne,
other than we have lost one of our more arrogant and ultimately stupid Ministers.”

 I don't know who made this comment, but it sounds about right.

The Lights Will Go Out: Official

You won't find this on the Daily Telegraph site, it was a filler in the paper. But was picked up by Anthony Watts ( HERE )

I am actually left speechless by this. I am so angry.

Is this bloke Holliday having a laugh? Does he not realise that people DIE when the electricity fails. OK they are usually only the OLD and the FRAIL or the POOR.

I suppose it is only fair to say: Who in the glitterati  gives a toss about them?

This is UNBELIEVABLE.

Are we so screwed as a country that we are completely and utterly in the awe of people who simply express mindless dogma and then justify any travesty, any stupidity just so they can maintain their quasi-religious zeal for ridiculous white elephants like wind turbines?

JESUS H CHRIST. I am SO angry about this.

There is NO EXCUSE. At all, of any description.

This is supposed to be a civilised country with a highly developed infrastructure. Why the hell  should we have to expect power cuts?

This is all because assorted stupid, ignorant fools like Chris Huhne and their mindless parody of a government insist on following dogma rather than common sense.

The last government caused the basis of this crisis. But the present government has (or had) a narrow window to dig us out of the pit.

It is not that they failed. It is that they did not even try.

They would rather sentence people to death rather than address the problem and risk losing their false green aura.

When (not if) the lights go out -

When old people freeze to death because the either cannot afford electricity or their boiler will  not light-

When the poor and needy have to choose between freezing or starving-

There will be only one person to blame.

Chris Huhne could have fixed this but chose not to. He chose not to fix it for the worst of political reasons, firmly backed up by his own stupidity and dogma.

Chris Huhne will be the culprit for very many ( tens of thousands ) deaths.

Chris Huhne (even now) should go before a court and explain why he did nothing except line the pockets of the gold-diggers saddling us with useless wind generation while simultaneously crippling the real generating ability of the nation.

If he had the slightest amount of decency in his body he would resign and then let somebody else with a better grip on reality try and pick up the pieces.

I hope in the future this fool and his sycophants are subjected to a public enquiry and they are held up to the public ridicule they so richly deserve.

But that  humiliation will not be witnessed by the true victims of this fool and his policies.

They will be cold, very cold - in their graves.

Lib-Dems: The Return of the Care Bears.

Or is it the "My Little Ponies"?

After returning to our ruined little England from far away I made the mistake of looking up a synopsis of Lib-Dem policies. All I can say to you my fellow sour faced little Englanders is God help us all if this bunch of tosh gets anywhere near legislation.

Really, I would expect better from a group of nine year olds. Some of this junk simply beggars belief.

First off I will blame the cause of my unpleasant foray into Lib-Dem dream-world on this post by Ian Dale It describes the proposed Lib-Dem tax break for illegal immigrants. Basically, if you evade our laughable boarder protection for ten years, you do not have to repay any of the tax you have avoided (ker-ching!). Illegal immigrants only will be eligable for this concession. Nasty little Englanders need not apply. In fact YOU will be paying for this. So bugger off to the back of the queue as normal.

Regrettibly, after reading Ians post, I then Googled this Lib-Dem policy synopsis.

I was going to make a list of the most ludicrous and vacant of these touchy-feely pie-in-the-sky statements but then I read the section marked "Environment".

Then I got worried. Very worried.

There is crass stupidity elsewhere in their policy synopsis. But in the Environment section it gets worse. Much, much worse. So bad in fact, I fear for the future safety of our frail and elderly.

Get this:

"Setting a target for 40 per cent of electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020 rising to 100 per cent by 2050"

This is totally unachievable.

It is a pair of targets that are so ludicrous you have to question the technical ability (if not the sanity) of anyone suggesting them.

Worse than that, by implying it is achievable they will end up killing people. These victims will mainly old ladies who will freeze to death when the inevitable power cuts stop their gas or electric heating from working.

Now get these two further statements:

"Blocking any new coal-fired power stations"
"Rejecting a new generation of nuclear power stations"

So how exactly are they planning to generate electricity? Obviously no-one has told them that those mighty wind turbine thingys don't actually produce much power. Especially when you need it. Are they going to rely on gas? From the generous Mr Putin no doubt?

I had to take a break in writing this to cool down. This is just so bloody unbelievable. Do these people have any contact with reality at all?

I am really, really, worried that people with apparently no understanding of basic physics let alone real world energy generation and managment are "planning" our future energy strategy. The crass incompetence and cowardice of the Labour party has got us into a situation where there is likely to be real difficulties in avoiding power cuts in the next 5 years anyway. This lunacy from the Liberals would make things much worse.

To ensure this countries energy requirements are met we really must have a set of policies based on the real world and what can actually be achieved.

Ridiculous fashion statements will not suffice.