Wind developers: When NO means NO!

image from www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk

A little lesson for the gold-diggers in the wind industry. This is quite simple and it is something any 2 year old should understand.

No means NO.

When the good people of Burton - upon- Stather in Lincolnshire objected to yet another industrial wind turbine complex being built near their village, the developers, greedy for their gold, tried to bull-doze it though - and failed. They got all bitter and twisted when told "NO" for the first time.
A bit like a spoilt 2 year old.
It ended up with a public enquiry.

Much to the chagrin of the Klondike cowboys, they lost the appeal.

Because the primary reason they lost was the  damaging health affects their useless monstrosity would have on two young boys suffering from autism, they had a bright idea.

As you can imagine, morality does not appear to figure too highly with these gold diggers.

They decided to "come to an arrangement" with the family of the autistic children. You and I can only guess at the pressure the parents of these kids would be under, simply from the day to day living. When "an arrangement" turns up it can probably be too difficult to resist.

So after making their "arrangement" these bastards are back with another appeal to build the bloody turbines again.

Even after a public enquiry!

But the local North Lincolnshire Council, threw it out. Again. (And good for them)

A quote from the ThisIsScunthorpe news report (Full Version HERE)

[quote]
Burton and Winterton ward councillor Bernard Regan told the meeting: "I am astonished we are even looking at this again, as we have proven twice that this is not a good thing for the community or for North Lincolnshire.

"It calls into question the whole issue of democracy where planning is concerned.
"The developer can come back time and time again and chip away at the objections, but there is no such redress on the part of the objectors."
[end quote]


Bloody right Bernard. I totally agree

These shysters have been told NO by the council and NO at a public enquiry and then NO again.

Why the hell are they even allowed to consider having another go?

What the hell happened to the democratic rights of the people objecting?

What happened to the concept that when something is voted down, appealed against and voted down again IT IS VOTED DOWN.

How long are we going to put up with these bastards riding rough shod over our democracy simply so they can make a fast buck?

At least the people of Burton-upon-Stather are setting a good example to us all.

Don't let the bastards grind you down.
Just say NO!

A Warning from Billothewisp

OK you grubby little Englanders. I have a severe warning for you.

Even if you are a not mass murderer, or an oppressive dictator. Or even  a megalomaniac, nazi inspired, bigot.

You could well end up looking like this

Or even like this

Simply by embibing a mere five pints of Old Rosie (the Cider of Champions)  or half a bottle of industrial grade Metaxa - fresh from the chemical waste dump outside Athens.

No mass murder is required.

So be warned.

h/t to Anorak News and Wikipedia

Kiva: A Hand Up Not A Hand Out

OK you grubby little Englanders.  Today I want to explain how as individuals, we can give a hand up to the decent hard-working poor in the Third World. Not a hand out to the idle gangsters who rule them.

I expect you may have noticed that Billothewisp has a very low opinion of the way UK foreign aid is allocated and spent.

To me it looks more like a never-ending pleasure excursion to fame and riches than a method of alleviating suffering. The fame and riches are, of course, shared out among the Fats Cats at home and the Fat Cats ruling the Third World poor.

Meanwhile the poor sods at the bottom of the pile  get the table scrapings.

Overhanging the whole enormous DFID budget is the ugly stench of graft and greed. Fat cat salaries and cynical exploitation of both the giver and receiver. Read this article in The Telegraph for a quick whiff.

Via our government and it's incredible addiction to Globalisation, we are soon going to be  each "giving" another £500 a year each whether we want to or not.

How charitable.

But people in the third world deserve a hand up not a hand out. Charity should be only for the truly incapacitated, not for the decent people of the Third world. They deserve better.

So Billothewisp doesn't do charity any more. Charity is for the work-house and pompous Victorian oligarchs.

Now there is a better way for a personal involvement in helping the poor of the third world.

It is called Micro-finance.

Small loans to real people in need of a hand up. The crucial thing here is that the money is a loan not a hand out. It gets repaid, and then (of course) can be lent out again.

It appears to work. The main organisation involved in this at the moment is Kiva. I have a couple of issues with Kiva, but nothing that (as yet) would stop me using them.

It is run a bit like the UK peer to peer lending organisations, Zopa and Funding Circle, but Kiva is a not for profit organisation. Kiva allows individuals to loan small amounts of cash to real people. $25 via Paypal deals you in.

The people are  requesting loans to run a business or generally improve their life. Just like in the UK.

The default rate is evidently 1.8%. Which is pretty good. Of course if they default then they don't get another loan. But almost to a man (or woman) they don't default. Which must give us all a bit more faith in humanity.

For Billothewisp there is to be no more "charity" to poor Africans, but there will be loans. I am going to give a hand up not a hand out.

It is a pity that my pay is going to be drained of another £500 so the fats cats in the DFID can go and squander it at home or in foreign parts.

Believe me, with Kiva I think even my 2 year grand-daughter could do a better job with my £500 than the DFID.

Welcome to Southern Sudan

Occasionally, very occasionally, something good happens in Africa.

Recently under the threats and intimidation of their northern occupiers the people of Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence. This independence (if it is not strangled at birth by the regime in Khartoum) is due to take shape in July.

Already there are acts destabilisation and violence (bordering on genocide) being committed against the long suffering people of Southern Sudan. (See Here) .

The world looks on. If it looks at all.

The West (particularly the UK - especially the UK) wastes billions propping up cruel and corrupt regimes all across Africa. Meanwhile the average African is left to go to hell.

So how much support have we given to the common people of Southern Sudan? How much help do we give to a desperate people who are striving for independence and dignity?

HERE  they say £40 million. This £40 million for the Southern Sudan though, is actually, £40 million "given" to the UN.

The figure itself is derisory compared to how much scumbags like Mugabe have received. One estimate I read was that the Mugabe regime received over £12 billion in twenty years.

But remember, this £40 million is money going to the UN.

After you take out the "administration", the "commissions", the "pre-payments" the "enabling payments" and the outright bribes then that figure probably comes down to £4 million. This is what gets  directed to Southern Sudan.

Then after this is shipped through the neighbouring gangsters and thieves who surround the good people of Southern Sudan, I expect the net amount probably is about £500,000.

If that.

Southern Sudan has no roads. No sewage system. No power grid. The people are grindingly poor. Yet they aspire to better things. They have fought for democracy and independence just as our forefathers did.

Khartoum will try everything it can to destabilise the South and we, shamefully will probably just look on. If democracy is defeated, we will probably end up  supporting whatever faction has some marginal preferential business or party political interest to the UK.

We will probably look the other way while some nasty warlord takes control. Just as we have done elsewhere in Africa. We will probably see Southern Sudan mired in squalor.

No doubt in years to come there will be the Band Aid style appeals so the stupid and ignorant can massage their consciences and egos by donating some cash. This will of course, almost inevitably end up in the pockets of the gangsters who run Africa just as it has done before..

Nothing will change. Nothing will [expletive deleted] change.

Our £40 million is simply the modern day equivalent of medieval indulgences. Paid so the indolent can look righteous. Paid to secure a place in heaven. Paid so it looks good.

A year ago I blogged about a different way to do foreign aid, a way pioneered by Cuba. I am no fan the ugly Cuban regime, but just as the Nazi's built good Autobahns the Cubans do good foreign aid. The post is HERE. With this method everyone wins - except the fat cats.

Southern Sudan is a blank sheet of paper.They need our practical help. Their emerging political system can be influenced by decency and fair dealing.

Southern Sudan deserves better than petty medieval indulgences.

If there is anywhere on the dark continent (or for that matter the world) that deserves practical aid it is Southern Sudan.

Will they receive it? I am not holding my breath.

Eating People Is Wrong

Tonight my rowdy, randy and ravenous little Englanders, I want to instil a little moral discipline. Especially in you my fellow Hoi Polloi. Heaven knows, we, the (Ugh!) masses, need some form of control.

Basically I want to educate you how to behave with decency when confronted with a dead body. But more on that in a minute.

I am taking my lead here from the extremely well fed at the BBC. They are always giving you those numbers to ring.

You know, those 0845 numbers they give out after after any potentially distressing fictional occurrence. Anything from a murder to a spilt cup of coffee on a new carpet.

Then there are similar numbers so you can 'fess up to those wicked perverted thoughts you have had about Kate Moss.

Or you can tell all about the evil deeds you have inflicted on the neighbour's cat when all Tibbles did was crap in your vegetable patch.

What prompted me to write this moral tirade was this This Expose of the decadence of Mesolithic man (that is "Stone Age" to you  Dorset Dinlows)

Evidently Mesolithic man was none too phased about using his neighbour's skull as a drinking vessel.

I know the feeling - You are down the pub, you have a jug of old Rosie (the Cider of Champions) and no glass. What do you do?

The pre-historic neighbour's brain box conveniently provided a drinking vessel to be used in some dark ritual. The the rest of the neighbour also provided a nice nutritious snack to soak up the booze afterwards.

You can imagine the scene: A Stone Age boozer. A bar with a row of skulls filled with (of course) Old Rosie (the Cider of Champions).

Darren and Pete are at the bar. They are in deep conversation about the way the wife is always droning on about she hasn't seen the neighbour for a while.

In comes Wayne. Darren looks up.

"Hey Pete. Its Wayne! Give the man a hand."

Pete bursts into applause. Darren looks cross.

"No.No No! Give the man - A hand"

Pete blushes.
"Ha-ha-ha Of course! Sorry!"

Pete reaches across the peanuts and picks up the required item, recently retrieved from the missing neighbour. Wayne is grateful.

"Oh Yes! I am so starving!"

Darren nonchalantly passes Wayne a spare skull of "Old Rosie" (the Cider of Champions).......

Well, my grubby little Englanders, I have to inform you that things have changed.

It is no longer considered reasonable to drink Old Rosie (the Cider of Champions) out of your neighbours skull.


Even if you are desperate.

Eating your neighbours hand, or any other part of their body is also considered totally verboten.

If you have been indulging in any of these pre-historic practices, I cannot offer you a 0845 number to seek counselling on, but I can assure you that ringing any of those other numbers offered by the BBC will suffice. Although after the councilling session, I expect the operator may well have truly earned their wages for that day.

But basically my dirty downbeat little Englanders, I need you to understand one thing.

Eating People is Wrong. 

No Ifs. No Buts.

Don't do it.

Just say No.

Glowing In The Dark

Good evening my grubby little Englander pals. Recently, this blog has been far, far too serious. So tonight the subject matter is a little lighter.  Radioactive poisioning to be precise.

Hmmm. Bet you feel better already.

The shocking truth is that every day, (maybe even five times a day - if you follow government guidelines) those bastards in Tesco, Asda or even Morrisons are dosing you up with radioactive Potassium-40.

It is no use thinking you will get rid of it either. It has a half-life of 1248000000 years.

Think on that - a number so huge it is only dwarfed by the National Debt.

Potassium-40 decays by beta emmission - arguably the nastiest of the evil triad of radioactive decay mechanisms.In a sufficiently high doze it is absolutely guaranteed to kill you.

Stone dead.
Finito.
Corpseville USA.

Lower doses may just make you grow another head and possibly a third arm.

So how are these corporate demons delivering their hellish poisons to you, your children, grand parents, pets, goldfish and other loved ones?

Bananas.

The bastards are putting it in the bananas. My God! That must be why bananas have that eerily yellow skin.

Here you are coating little Johnny in factor 120000 sun cream to protect him from the poisonous solar radiation, locking him in his room and keeping him well away from those nasty boys who play in the mud.

Yet it is YOU feeding him radioactive bananas.

No wonder he is such a uncontrollable little monster.
In fact he probably will be a real monster, third arm and all. And quite soon.

Your not responsible? You thought bananas were the very epitome of Green (or even Yellow) living?

Ha! They all say that. Tell it to the judge.

An example of how utterly, utterly, totally and completely serious this is is to compare a single Banana Equivalent Dose to that of a nuclear disaster.

Remember Three Mile Island?

Melts downs?
Radiation Release?
The near destruction of the Western hemisphere, if not the entire solar system?

Well, a single Banana Equivalent Dose (no honest - I'm not making that up - See Here ) corresponds to drinking a massive 30 pints of Three Mile island contaminated milk.

Or about five pints of Old Rosie (the Cider of Champions). Perhaps that is why Billothewisp has been known to have a radiant glow as he staggers back from the boozer.

You don't have to ingest these deadly bananas either. That eery yellow radiance will get you. All you need to do is look at them. Stand by a crate of bananas, even for a moment and you will recieve a measurable dose of radiation. (again - I'm not actually making that up)

Haven't you ever wondered why Radiation warning posters are all yellow?

But that is not the only toxin these corporate monsters are feeding you

Brazil nuts, potatos and even sunflower seeds are all packed with radiation.

Don't even look at a packet of chocolate brazils. Ever wondered why they are all that funny bent shape like a "C"?

The zombie slaves who grew them are sending you a subliminal message - cancer... Cancer... CANCER.

God knows what they have been doing to the Mung Beans.

Hat tip to Antony Watts - see the full dastardly facts at Antonys blog - Watts Up With That

Canadian Green Party Leads the Way

Like the Friends of the Earth in England, the Canadian Green Party is an avid supporter of Industrial Wind Turbine technology. But at least the Canadian Greens are acting responsibly and putting people before their ideology

Due to the growing mountain of evidence  regarding the damaging effects these turbines have on people living near them, the Canadian Greens have requested Canada Health (the Canadian National Health Authority) to undertake an epidemiological survey on what has become known as Wind Turbine Syndrome. ( See their Resolution Here - passed with 66% majority)

It is refreshing to see politicians seeking to defend the  people they represent, even though the outcome may be against their ideological preferences.

Perhaps the Canadian Green Party could give a little moral  instruction to the Friends of the Earth here, who, with every passing day appear to be more in the pocket of the wind industry.

It is a shame that while their cousins in Canada give moral leadership, the Greens in this country seek to overwhelm local objections and rail-road their demands though. They seek to  ride rough-shod over any local objection, how ever valid. Today it appears that the FOE is so wedded to its doctrinaire ideology it would go to almost any lengths, destroy and trample over anyone, to get its way.

The people who the FOE sneer at and disparage will remember how the FOE preferred to side with rich developers.

One day the FOE will find this will come back and haunt them.

Wind Turbines: The Tide is Turning

The Klondike gold-rush to industrial wind generation continues, but the cracks are beginning to appear.

The most authoritative renewable energy body, the Renewable Energy Foundation has been scathing about onshore wind generation. It has also heavily criticised the catastrophically awful subsidy scheme that enables the greedy to cash in at the public's expense.

Here's are a couple of quotes and links to the fuller articles from the REF

[quote]
"Such figures confirm theoretical arguments that regardless of the size of the wind fleet the United Kingdom will never be able to reduce its conventional generation fleet below peak load plus a margin of approximately 10%"   (Link to full article here)

[quote: Dr John Constable, REF’s Director of Policy and Research]
“The government needs to face the facts: the Renewable Obligation is enormously costly to the consumer, and is delivering high profits to developers even for underperforming and environmentally damaging on-shore wind.”  (Link to full article here)

The time to stop all further on-shore industrial wind generation especially near homes is now. In Denmark there is now a blanket ban on all further on-shore industrial wind generation. In France the equivalent of the French BMA have directed that no turbine should be placed within 2Km of a dwelling. The data on the health affects of being forced to live on top of these things is building. I have read some of the initial peer reviewed work that has already been done. The authors credentials are impeccable. Their findings are devastating.

This will be a scandal.

In the future, those now buckling a knee to the avaricious developers and their stupidly naive supporters will have to publicly account for their acquiescence.

There will be a fuller post on the health effects and the research papers in a (near) future post. Believe me, initially I thought that damaging health affects were illusionary but now I have totally changed my mind. Nobody should be forced to live near these things. Especially as on shore industrial wind turbines are next to useless in generating electricity.

There are many groups around our country who are defending their homes and the countryside from a modern day rape and pillage by greedy developers. Tonight I wish them well and hope they taste success in the their fight for their homes and country this year.

When the PIIGs have Wings

Here we go again. The Euro is descending and there does not appear to be a parachute. Portugal's borrowing rate is going through the roof and Ireland does not look like it is going to be able to meet the recent Euro bail out requirements  (See FT Here). The Spanish economy, or rather, what is left of it, looks like it will need a massive transfusion of Deutschmarks  Euros in the near future.

The PIIGS, are perhaps better known as that friendly, "lets-party!" group of nations, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Like us, they blew all their money on "Services" while letting those boring old manufacturing industries wither on the vine.

Luckily though for the bankrupt PIIGS,  they have their bosom buddies in dear old Deutschland. Kindly Angela Merkel will no doubt chastise the errant Europhiles, but she is always there like a good auntie, ready with the credit card.

To be fair though, this is only reasonable. After all, it is the Germans who enjoy all that slave-like dedication to work, over-time and hard labour. The Germans can get on with their toiling.  Meanwhile the PIIGS can do what they are truly superb at doing, and all they need to do that, is a nice new credit card from the Bundesbank.

I keep telling my oily rag German friends, "You know it makes sense".

I tell them that in fifty years time we can all look back on this and laugh.

For some reason though, at the moment, they do not seem to be particularly amused.

The Wind Turbine in Reading

The Daily Mail was in typical indignant mode when it reported (HERE) "Is this the most useless wind turbine?" But I think their report could had been a little more thorough.

With a quick look through the Renewable Energy Foundation database on wind turbine output (HERE) it quickly becomes evident that while the output from the Reading turbine is derisory, it is far from being the worst performing turbine. At least the Daily Mail pointed out that this  thing gets a ROC subsidy of £130,000 while producing only £100,000 worth electricity. (total payout £230,000). But the rest of the figures they present, shocking as they are, disguise the truly terrible statistics surrounding the whole of the wind power industry.

I suppose these up front figures look so bad the Daily Mail has simply not dug any deeper. If they did ( and it is not difficult) they would find that the actual situation is far, far worse.

The main area of the Mail's indignation is that for this particular turbine at Green Park in Reading, the Capacity Factor for 2010 was only 15%. But accepting this figure on face value neglects the true awfulness of the situation. If they had paid attention the the nature of wind power they would have found that this turbine would have failed to even get close to this pathetic output MOST of the time.

The day to day figures for this individual turbine, like most others, are hard to come by. But we know from the NETA data  (HERE) that nationally half the energy from wind is generated in less than 25% of the time (See earlier Post Here). This leaves the other half to cover 75%  of the time. From figures from the Le Ranch Wind farm in the USA we see that, on a single site basis this gets further scewed to 15% and 85%  (Lee Ranch synopsis half way down this Wikipedia page)

Even if you use the UK national figures this means that the typical  (i.e. the most common output)  from this turbine  falls to 10%.If you use the (probably more applicable) Le Ranch figures this typical output falls to less than 9%.

But even that fails to show how 40% the electricity will arrive when it is unneeded (i.e. at night) and that the output will be at this dismal 9% (or less) for one third of the time. But however lowly the output, or unneeded it may be, the electricity generated  is guaranteed a full market price plus the massive ROC subsidy.

High wind, or low wind, night or day, the Fat Cats in the wind industry are always smiling. Forget about bankers bonuses. Look at the money (your money) these people are raking in.

Every pound coin that people spend on electricity has its own little carbon footprint. Money has to be earned. In earning money resources are used. Using this hard earned cash to fund massively expensive and hopelessly inefficient wind generated electricity is not only foolish and wasteful but is also counter productive.

Clarkson's Mexico

In the latest "controversial" Top Gear, Clarkson and Co made some snide remarks about Mexico and Mexicans. There are the inevitable hysterical cries of outrage and calls for Clarkson to be sacrificially murdered or at least fired.

While I don't believe Clarkson should be burnt at the stake for his tasteless jokes, sometimes his humour does stretch the boundaries.

Entertaining as Top Gear can be, it can also sometimes be childish and tedious. But better that than some typical grey BBC Mung Bean chomping Politically Correct trash.

But even so, I do think Clarkson did Mexico an unnecessary disservice.

Personally, I really like Mexico and the Mexicans. As a people, they are generally kind, helpful and entertaining. I have found them far from lazy.

Mexico is a poor country ravaged by a drug war that has cost many thousands of lives. The big losers in all this are the average Mexicans who earn (if they are lucky) $150 a week. Money they work hard for.

Even though they are poor, Mexicans are not constantly in your face like you get in some other countries.  I have ridden around Yucatan Peninsula on public transport and never felt threatened or at risk. Unlike some places in this country I could mention.

Mexico and the Mexicans get enough bad publicity thanks to their large neighbours drug dependency. Perhaps a little positive publicity would be nice.

After all, Mexicans get short changed enough as it is.

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.

Appropriate Reading Material

My fellow grubby Little Englanders, I have a confession.

My youngest daughter is now an overworked F1 medic. That is a shiny new baby doctor to those of you who do not know the arcane abbreviations of the NHS.

That is five years at Med School. A year in the Far East. A tour of Australia and New Zealand. Emergency medicine in Vietnam and Cambodia.

A (semi) competent skier and a phenomenal singer.

But....... she still reads HEAT Magazine.

I must have done something wrong. Perhaps you should report me to the NSPCC.

I'll 'fess up. It's a fair cop.

Wind Turbines and Silver Spoons

I have some  questions for you my despised and disgruntled Little Englanders.

Say you had a nice little rowing boat. A fine little craft which you loved and loved you back. It loved you in a way that only boat owners (and their boats) can know.

Let us give our fine little craft an inspiring name.

Let us call her "Tellus Mater" - after the Roman goddess.  After all, this is not a Greek tragedy - even for Dioclese.

Lets say that on one terrible day, our fine little craft "Tellus Mater" sprung a leak. She started to sink. Remember, you love your little "Tellus Mater" and your little "Tellus Mater" loves you back. You would, no doubt be alarmed, panic stricken even.

But maybe you are also strapped for cash (like Billothewisp). There are mouths to feed, fires to stoke, bills to pay. Oh, so many demands! On such a little a budget!

Maybe you only have a tenner in your pocket. You need to buy a bailer for the boat but you need to feed the kids as well.

What do you do? (this is multiple choice so you don't have to take your socks off to answer it)

Do you:

1. Buy an effective bailer that you can rely on.

2. Spend your money on some really fashionable silver spoons.

OK that may seem somewhat bizarre. So lets us work up some model answers to both possibilities.

Answer 1:

With your effective bailer you save the boat. Then with the change left over buy some food for the kids. Job done. (Drama Queens need not apply).

or

Answer 2:

With your silver spoons in your hands you sneer your disdain about anyone who would buy anything as ugly as a proper bailer.

Unfortunately baling the boat out with your spoons proves difficult. They only bail tiny amounts of water and often they fail to bail out anything at all.

You pride and joy - the fine little boat "Tellus Mater" gets ever lower in the water.

You desperately buy more spoons and clutch more spoons in each hand. You paddle desperately at the water.

The man selling the spoons is very happy and tells you what a fine example you make and suggests ugly bailers should be banned.

You sneer at those around you who suggest that you really need a good bailer and the spoons are simply a waste of money and time. Eventually though, out of irritation, and seeing your spoons do not really work all that well, you heed their advice.

You take out a loan and buy a bailer as well.

Of course from then on most of the bailing gets done by the bailer, but every now and then when the conditions are <just> right you revert to using the spoons.

At last little "Tellus Mater" is saved.

The spoons are still wonderfully fashionable and you can grandstand to all those around you. You can tell them about how wonderful your spoons are and how they are the true saviour of "Tellus Mater" Meanwhile the despised bailer is chucked over the side.

The Grotty Yotties down from the city, sitting at anchor on their floating Eco Gin Palaces, hear your fine words and listen transfixed. They need silver spoons as well! A competition ensues.

Who has the most silver spoons?
Who is the most fashionable?

Ugly bailers are abandoned en-masse, just in case they ruin the new image.

The man selling the spoons is very, very happy. Your kids though are crying because they have gone unfed. (moan.. moan.. moan.. some people are always complaining)

Meanwhile, unseen by you and the Grotty Yotties the skies have darkened. A few spots of rain announce the coming storm.

All of the bailers have drifted away........


So my grubby little international band of compatriots what is the moral of this tale?

Well funnily enough the average sized bailer holds about 2 litres of the old briny, whereas a fashionable silver dessert spoon holds about 20 milli-litres of the same salt sea ocean.

The ratio then is about 100:1

Just by utter coincidence a modern nuclear power station is rated around 920MW whereas a shiny new fashionable  wind farm consisting of four of the very largest turbines is rated at just under 9.2MW (although really it only ever manages about 2MW).

Again we have a ratio of 100:1

So, in a tight spot, what do we choose? 

Ugly bailers or silver spoons?

Nuclear power or wind turbines?

Practicality or Fashion-ability?

Oh, Decisions. Decisions.

Ed Balls Returns

Billothewisp is feeling slightly ill.

 It has nothing to do with the 5 pints of Old Rosie (The cider of Champions) he recently embibed.

But is has everything to do with the Machiavellian return of the odious Ed Balls.

After knifing his brother in the back Ed Milliband at least tried to do the decent thing and clear out the rotten core of Browns economic disaster. But now  the economically illiterate shadow chancellor Alan Johnson has chucked his hand in and our Ed is under pressure. Foolishly he has decided to re-rehabilitate  Ed Balls. The wreckers apprentice has returned.

The ugly ambition of Ed balls is already shining through, his little piggy eyes glint and shine. But then he is after all, the next leader in waiting.

If I were Ed Milliband I would watch my back. Sooner or later, it could end up just like his brothers.

Superstition and Disease.

Back in the 19th century relatives of mine from the  age of eight were sent down coal mines. For months on end they saw no sunlight. Today we know that sunlight provides vitamin D. We also know that in very rare cases of excessive exposure, sunlight can also cause skin cancer.

I suspect none of my 19th century relatives were ever lucky enough to go sunbathing. But Rickets was endemic amongst the poor. I expect they would have gladly traded their bent legs for a little sunshine and a miniscule risk of skin cancer.

Lack of sunlight (and so vitamin D) makes your bones soft. They bend. The victim can end up crippled or deformed.  While there is a sensible case for skin protection in bright sunlight, the emphasis is on the word "sensible".

Rickets was eradicated many years ago. But now it has returned. Why? Because of an hysterical obsession with sunlight, its relationship to "radiation" and cancer. People have been coating their children with factor 50 sun-cream. That is, if they have even allowed them outside in the first place.

Confidently these paranoid parents see that no sunshine means no radiation, no cancer. The hysterical propaganda pushed out against nuclear power arrives at its final bizarre conclusion. In order for nuclear to be "unsafe" all radiation must be "unsafe". So Rickets returns.

How sad. But how typical.

I would put money on it that most of the parents of these poor children are avid supporters of trivialities like wind power, homoeopathy, crystal healing and palmistry. They are probably deeply suspicious of modern medicine and I would imagine they regard nuclear power with utter horror.

But really, this succinctly sums up the choice we have today. On one hand we can follow a fashionable paranoid doctrine, dwell on irrational fears and probably cripple our children in the process. Or on the other we can continue to embrace modern technology and medicine which have served us so well over the last two centuries.

People today have a quality of life immeasurably better than that of our Victorian ancestors. This has been solely achieved by 150 years of relentless scientific, medical and engineering progress. Regrettably there are plenty of pressure groups who are all too keen to reverse this progress. They are keen to portray the smallest risk as a conspiracy or cover-up, simply to promote their own twisted doctrines. Unfortunately there are even more fools who hang on their every word.

If we continue to  over-react to these hyped-up scare stories, it is our children who will ultimately suffer.

Rickets regrettably, is only the thin end of the wedge.

A Wind Turbine Malaise

Do you know that 6000 people die in the UK every year from Asbestos related illnesses?

Back in the sixties and seventies, did you ever clean out your brakes using an air hose? Ever smashed up an old asbestos roof and seen all those little fibres floating in the wind? Maybe you even tossed around some of the murderous Blue Asbestos. Yet Asbestos looks so benign, harmless even. A wonder material with so many uses. Today our older schools, hospitals and public buildings are still full of the stuff.

Makes your blood run cold doesn't it?

If someone had told you back then, that emerging research had shown that there might be a problem, maybe you would have taken a few more precautions. Certainly those responsible for the safety of the community would have been expected to put people first. Maybe that yearly death toll would not now be 6000 (that is in this country alone).

But we were not told. Vested interest saw to that. There was too much money involved. It took independent and often disparaged researchers to prove the ill effects of Asbestos. By then for many, it was too late.

Today wind turbines are increasingly being implicated in causing illness in people forced to live in their proximity. There are an increasing number of reports and studies raising concern about the hidden consequences of living next to wind turbines.

The response from the wind industry is one of denial. Funded research from the wind industry reaches the unsurprising conclusion one would expect from such reports: There is no problem. Their current masterpiece “Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects” which did a non systematic review of existing literature did not even have an epidemiologist on the panel. Commenting on this review, the highly respected NHS website ( HERE ) disparages the lack of an epidemiologist and makes some very scathing observations on both the methodology of the review and its conclusions.

I am reminded of another industry and how it manipulated the truth through paid research. Remember Big Tobacco? Remember how nobody has ever proved a link between smoking and lung cancer? Remember how they routinely disparaged honest researchers and even ruined careers to hide their dirty little secret? How many millions of lives has that cost?

There should be no more land based turbines. Especially anywhere near where people live (as is the case now in Denmark). This is after all, only a cautionary approach. It should be adopted at least until these urgent medical issues have been resolved. People must come before wind turbines. Especially when the only plus side is pitiful amounts of highly expensive and intermittent electricity.

Finding out there really is a problem in 5 years time will be too late. There will be no excuses. Especially for those making the decisions today.

A Business Banking Rebellion

Once upon a time us grubby little Englanders regarded our banks as respectable, honest institutions. Pillars of society. Bank managers were respected and viewed with awe. Meeting one was usually regarded with a level of trepidation. A bit like  being called to see the headmaster or waiting to see the dentist.

Your money was safe in banks. They paid interest on your savings and charged appropriate rates for loans. They made a respectable profit on the difference.  They were seen as the basis for fair dealing and financial honesty thoughout the country.

Small businesses could go to them assured that their situation would be given fair consideration, even if "the interview" was a bit like an interrogation by Special Branch. But if you had a good  history you could get the money to expand your business. You could trust the banks.

How things change.

At the moment the small businesses requiring short term loans are being crucified. Even if they are offered loans they are often at extortionate rates of interest.

This reluctance to lend becomes a self fulfilling propecy. No loans mean businesses cannot expand or modernise. No expansion or modernisation means they lose market share. They become less viable.  As they are less viable they are even less likely to attract a loan. Eventually they go under or are taken over. Hey Presto. The bankers were right all along.

But there is hope.

Lenders and borrowers are rebelling against the tyranny of the banks.

The new revolutionary concept of Peer to Peer banking is storming ahead. This is where the "banker" acts like a facilitator or intermediary and does not actually hold the purse strings itself. Real, actual people are the lenders and they decide the rates.

Most of the development so far has been with enabling peer to peer lending to individuals. The main player in this market has been the highly successful firm ZOPA. Now the model has been extended into the business sector by a new company called Funding Circle.

Funding Circle is soley concerned with facilitating loans to small and medium sized businesses. They are in their infancy at then moment but the concept looks good. It works by letting individuals directly loan money directly to small businesses. Funding Circle is simply the intermediary

Small businesses needing cash can register to borrow money.

A single lender will make many very small loans (£20) to many businesses. A single credit checked borrower will have their loan constructed from many small lenders.

The interest rate is decided in exactly the same way as done at ZOPA. The lender decides what rate he wants to achieve and then the loan offer is contructed from the lowest offers. So if you offer to loan money at a ridiculously high rate you will have no takers, while the borrower is classified according to a credit rating so he will only be offered a loan from borrowers who will have adjusted their rate to take into account the credit risk. On any one borrower, a lender is only risking a small amount of money.

The end result is that businesses can achieve loans at significantly lower rates than offered by the banks while lenders (i.e. savers) get a return (that takes into account potential bad debt) which is at least twice that offered by the banks. You can, by the way lend as little as £500. This is not a scheme simply for the rich.

Before you ask, I have no financial or work interest with Funding Circle. That is other than that I have bunged in £500.00 to see what happens. So far I am very impressed.

If your small company needs a fair loan, have a look at Funding Circle. If you have some savings and you want to get a good return (and actually use your money to do something useful) then I recommend you look to become a lender. As well as that, in a small way you also get to screw the greedy banks.

Next (or soon)  I will be looking at the third very interesting leg of Peer to Peer banking with KIVA and the charity sector.

The Bankers Achilles Heel

Billothewisp has been watching the unfolding farce surrounding bankers bonuses with probably as
much disbelief and disgust as the rest of you grubby little Englanders.

I suppose it really was too much to expect the arrogant ignorant and greedy to put anyone else before themselves. Even when we are all up to our bottom lips in their debt.

The bankers feel invincible. They can ignore the shrill cries about fair play and  responsibility. They can sneer at the common hard working folk while gloating over their own growing mountain of gold.

This travesty will continue year in, year out. Until, out of nowhere, "something" will happen that turns them from an arrogant elite into a flock of foolish redundant dinosaurs.

And maybe that "something" had already happened.

Maybe an event has already taken place that spells doom for out extremely well fed friends. Perhaps they have been so busy swindling the rest of us that they did not notice the high tide of banking excess has reached a turning point.

Revolutions, even against the most despicable tyrants, never happen unless there is someone, or something of a revolutionary nature that sparks the gunpowder.

Billothewisp reckons (or at least hopes)the today that spark has arrived and has the name of Peer to Peer banking.

Currently the most popular manifestation is a company called ZOPA but there other infant companies like Funding Circle. The concept has even expanded into the charity field with an organisation called KIVA.

Currently all of these companies simply deal with arranging and financing loans. But all revolutions have to start somewhere.

Peer to Peer banking works in a completely different way to normal banking.

With a bank you borrow off the bank. They decide the rate. You get what you are given. The money they take in from savers gathers derisory interest. The bankers pocket almost all the profit.

Companies like ZOPA work in a completely different way. They are an arranger. They do not own the loans, but they take a commission for sorting things out.

A loan for £500 will have 50 lenders, each lending £10. Each lender, lending in total £500 will lend £10 to 50 different borrowers. All borrowers are credit checked as for a normal loan, and the risk of bad debt is reduced by the spread of the lenders money over many borrowers.

The best part is that the interest rate is determined by what the lenders is prepared to lend it for - and what the borrower is prepared to pay. Hence the name ZOPA (Zone Of Possible Agreement). Borrowers pay less and lenders gain more. This would have been impossible before modern computers.

It is revolutionary. The cobwebbed ossified banks have no answer.

I hope it works.

I hope ZOPA, its clones and competitors continue to grow exponentially. I really hope the greedy banking elite come to rue the day the scorned and swindled the British public. Maybe with a real revolutionary alternative to the big banks we will avoid ever getting in this mess again.

I'm having a go with ZOPA (you want to try lending through them, you can start with £50.00), also Funding Circle and soon KIVA. It's worth a punt.

I'll tell you how it goes.

Wind Power: The Damning Results

Here is the results from some analysis of the 3 month NETA Wind Turbine metered output. This NETA data is independant and used to pay power generators. There is no wishful thinking or political slant on this data. This data is freely available and continuously updated  HERE.

The snapshot I used is available HERE

The first graph below is a frequency plot of power output against half hour billing slots. It shows how often, within the 3 month period wind power contributed a particular power level (power level - X axis number of half hour periods - Y axis. (Sorry forgot to label the graph properly)

The most shocking outcome from this graph is that the most common output from the whole of the national metered wind power system is 300MW. That equates to  12% of their maximum rating of 2430MW. They were running at this level, or less for more than 30% of the 3 month period.

The graph indicates that while in the 3 month period the output fell to close to zero (less than 100MW ) for no less than (in-total) 147 hours, at no no time it ever reach anywhere near the often hyped maximum rating. In fact the total output never even reached 85% of this rating. The absolute maximum achieved was 2065MW (84.8%). This was achieved for (in-total) one hour in the three month period.

This graph below shows the half hourly power ratings linearly from  low to high. Wind energy is governed by a cube law. Double the wind speed and get 8 times as much power (unfortunately the reverse is also true - halve the speed get 1/8th the power). Here you can see the cube law in action and how it skews the output so most of the time wind power generation is  BELOW the Capacity Factor

The raw average (or capacity factor), which is arrived at by simply adding all readings up and then dividing by the number of readings gives an capacity factor  of 25%. (608MW) On their website the BWEA suggest it is 30%. Often the figure gets inflated further. The press blindly accept what they are told.

This otherwise laudable  Daily Mail Article   falls into exactly this trap.

Remember these NETA figures include offshore as well as onshore sites so the Capacity Factor is certain to be even poorer for on shore turbines alone.

The BWEA suggest that the capacity factor taken in isolation is meaningless. I (sort-of) agree with this. As electricity generation cannot be stored, the duration of the power generation operation is as important (or arguably more so) than the averaged value.

In this three month period the wind output only managed to reach or exceed this capacity factor (25% - 608MW) for less than 40% of the time. If you use the much hyped BWEA figure of a 30% capacity factor, then this value was only reached or exceeded for 23% of the 3 month period.

Due to the cube law relating wind speed and power output, we find that half the 3 months energy arrived in less than 25% of the time leaving the other half to cover the remaining 75% of the period. This is actually an improvement on the single facility figures of about 15% found in the USA (Lee Ranch Sample Data (1/2 way down this page) .

This improvement from 15% to less than 25% is the contribution from the grossly overstated "if its not blowing here its blowing somewhere else" argument. Clearly, in the UK, the power averaging due to the geographic separation of the turbines falls very far short of the usual bland statement that "things even out".

This is a graph of nuclear power output over this 3 month period. Notice how steady it is as it provides us with essential, solid, predictable Base Load generation. The variation is where the Power generator is matching demand not the result of a lack of "fuel" or wind (interestingly, there does appear to be a drop-out. and that, my friends is exactly what spinning reserve is for!)

The mess below is the wind power output for the same period.

It is a chaotic unpredictable set of short duration spikes smeared over a grindingly low background. How anyone could suggest that this can be used to reliably provide 30% of our power is beyond me. There are those though who even suggest that this could be used for base load power generation.

God help us all if the likes of Chris Huhne is stupid enough to continue pushing us down this road.

Love & Kisses
Billothewisp

Denmark: No More Land Based Wind Turbines

Billothewisp is busily hacking his way through the 3 month NETA data on wind turbine power output and has some rather startling, (nay - shocking) preliminary figures. To be presented here soon.

But not tonight.

But I must quickly mention a few things.

Today I came across a truly awesome Canadian site with masses of information on the sheer hopelessness of wind power.

It is not bitchy. It is not nasty and it presents the facts about a whole range of issues surrounding this truly failed technology.

The site is: http://windfarmrealities.org/ I highly recommend it.

Just another quick aside on a couple of things I've picked up:

1. Denmark (the doyen of the Wind lobby) has declared that it will no longer build any more wind turbine on land. (That is none, nil, zero) The reason? Because of masses of  complaints about noise!
The Telegraph version of this news item is  HERE

2. The good people of Hinkely Point, famous for its nuclear power station, have  forced a wind turbine company to abandon its plans to descrecrate their countryside with 12 or so turbines.

Hinkely will soon have a new nuclear plant. This new nuclear plant leaves the people of Hinkely un-phased, although I expect the day-dreaming luddites with their windmills are wide-eyed in disbelief!

Good for the people of Hinkely Point.

The article from the Independant is HERE

Love and Kisses
Billothewisp

Wind Turbines: National 3 Months Data

See last post... Here is the raw 3 month NETA data and a tidied version in xls and ods formats

Files Are Here

The four files are attachment on the bottom of the home page.

The first two are the two complete zip files from NETA for the last 3 months power generation output. Downloaded by me tonight.

The other two are cleaned up versions of the CSV file saved in ods and xls formats.

No data has been deleted in the cleaned up xls and ods files, but I have added a header showing which column is which. The only caveat here is that both the Irish interconnector and the "other" generation methods were all zeros so I dont know which is which. But as they are all zero it doesn't really matter.

Love & Kisses
Billothewisp

Wind Power: Three Months Data

I am following a very interesting thread on the IET (formerly IEE) website regarding  the sheer uselessness of windpower during the cold snap we have just had.  (See Here)  It makes interesting reading.

While I have been following the excellent Neta Website myself for a few weeks, I did not realise that they actually provide  a full 3 month data set  for all the various methods of power generation. This displays actual outputs on a half hourly basis. (Thanks to "Ipayyoursalary" on the IET thread for pointing this out)

I have one minor criticism of this data. While the XML data set looks good, the potentially more immediately useable CSV data lacks headers and you have to go digging through the XML equivalent to figure out what is what.

But even so, this is an absolute gold mine. Or, if you are a greedy wind farm developer, possibly a nest of vipers.

Congratulations must be given to those who run the Neta site, not only for producing this data set, but also for coherently displaying the fluctuations and methodology of the country's power generation.

I downloaded the CSV and XML data sets tonight and have had a first hack at simply tidying up the CSV file so people can use it in Excel or Calc. I'll be having a crack at some analysis myself in the next few days but I know some of the folk who read this blog can do things with a spreadsheet that would make my ears bleed.

I will try and figure out a way of getting this file available for general download and will raise another post when I have sussed it out.

Love & Kisses
Billothewisp

BBC: England Almost Unstruck

Regular visitors to this blog will know that Billothewisp has a very low opinion of the BBC. Especially the way the BBC has airbrushed England out of the political landscape of these shores.

The BBC's stance on the non existence of an English identity was initially explored in  This Early Post Of Mine.

As it is a year since I wrote about this, I thought I would revisit the BBC monolith. Lo and Behold! The BBC has partially relented.

Today on This Page you will find a reference to "Around England"

Of course while N. Ireland Politics, Welsh Politics and Scottish Politics all have detailed references to their own assemblies All the pitiful "Around England" entry boasts is a section on "Blogs around the Regions" Ugh.

Obviously the Great Good and Extremely Well Fed at the BBC are still wedded to Prescotts "Final Solution" to the West Lothian Question. They are fully on-board the concept of destroying England by dismembering it into some regionally antagonistic nightmare. The thought of having an area actually devoted to English politics is still a bridge too far.

I suppose this is progress. Even though it feels like we are all just trying to drag an rusty and obsolete old car up an steep incline. Maybe, one day, this festering travesty of a public service will actually fulfil its duty and really acknowledge an English identity and the existence of English political issues.

Until then, in this blog, England remains stuck out.

A Christmas Wish

In the new year, may all of our lives be enriched by honesty.

May our politicians tell the truth and look out for those who elect them rather than just themselves.

May our bankers guard the money entrusted to them and fairly treat those indebted to them, rather than just lining their own pockets.

May our environmentalists devote themselves to facts and people rather than just fashion statements and wishful thinking.

Happy Xmas.

Love and Kisses.
Billothewisp

p.s. Yes. I know. Fat Chance.

Predicting the wind - update

Just an early morning comment. This is the latest NETA data

Notice NETA almost got it right. But the wind arrived late, about settlement period 7 ( 3.30am) on the 23rd when nobody wants it. NETA had estimated that the wind would arrive during peak household demand period in the evening of the 22nd.

Luckily, the amount of power (even from new higher wind) is so inconsequential it would not have caused any issues. But if we had been relying on wind for 30% of our power there would have been mayhem.

Look at the graph.  When I say the "wind arrived" I actually mean the total metered wind turbine output rose from 2% of the much lauded turbine rating to a peak of 18.5%.

Just as an example. If this was the planned Alaska windfarm at East Stoke in the Purbecks which has a projected boiler plate rating of 9.2MW, the actual output would have risen from 0.184MW through to a peak of 1.7MW. That of course ignores the amount of power used internally to heat the turbine blades and gear box to stop them freezing.

Don't forget, these are nationally based statistics, and it has been like this (or worse) for days

Predicting the Wind

If wind turbines are to be used productively then there the wind must be reliably forecast.

NETA produce a prediction of the wind power contribution to the grid. They produce a sliding three day window using their initial and latest predictions with the actual outcome shown for the (usually) first day and a half of the window.

NETA (New Electricity Trading Arrangments site) are the people who sort out trading in wholesale electricity. As part of this they have produced a really informative and detailed site that is constantly updated. They do their very best to stay on top of many different changing parameters that affect electricity generation.

In my post yesterday (and using their data), I indicated that the national output from the turbines looked like it was about to rise to 16% of their maximum rating. This was  from around 4-5% per cent - where it has been languishing for  days.

While 16% is still pathetically poor, the predicted wind has not arrived. The output prediction has now been ramped down to  147MW  ( 6%)

Believe me, I am not getting at NETA for the variability in the figures. NETA is doing the very best job it can in exceptionally difficult conditions.

We call know about the unpredictability of the weather. We know how often the Met Office foul up on really short term weather forecasts. This again is not an issue of competence it is an issue of how very difficult predicting the weather is.

These figures underline in thick black pencil  that nationally  wind power is unreliable and  unpredictable.

It should also be noted that the absolute maximum output that was very briefly reached on the 18th December was barely 23% of their advertised rating. Most of the time during these four days the national output of all metered turbines on the grid has been well below 10%.

I have added the last four sliding window graphs below. Remember they all overlap so you can see the initial forecast (orange), the latest forecast (blue) and the actual outcome (red line) for three of the four days. The settlement period indicates the time. NETA settle accounts in 48 half hour blocks, so block one starts at midnight, block 24 at midday and so on.

(Note: the vertical scale changes between graphs 2 and 3)

Wind Power, Winter and No Wind

Just a short update on the contribution the theoretical 2.4GW of metered wind generation is making  at this critical time.

Here are some figures from NETA and a little commentary from me.

Using the same data set, yesterday and earlier today, NETA came up with these predictions:

This gives peak output (NOT the average) as 4% rising to 5% of the rated output. The prediction is that output may treble tomorrow. But this will still be only 16% of the total boiler-plate rating - and will peak at 21:00 - just in time for people to start turning in for the night. Even then it is still a shamefully low figure.

If we look at the contribution made by different types of generation :

We see that the contribution from windpower is 0.1%. From the much lauded boiler-plate rating it should be just under 4.5%

That is, the total metered wind-turbine supply in all of the UK, at this time of maximum demand is providing us with 1/1000th of what we need. The boiler-plate rating the wind industry keeps boasting about states it should be about 1/25th.

We have actually been buying 12 times as much as this from the French. Even the pumped storage facility in Wales (usually used to meet short lived demand peaks and to control the mains frequency) provided eleven times as much. Hydroelectricity, of which we have very little, still provided double the wind power output.

It has been like this for days.

Luckily we are not in a position where we are dependant on wind for serious power generation.

But what if we were?

What if we were dependant on wind power or, in this weather, on its spinning reserve? What if the wind power "enthusiasts" get their way and we largely replace coal generation with wind turbines backed up by CCGT (Combined Cycle Gas Turbines)

On first look, it appears that it would not matter - during a time like this we simply would be using the CCGT spinning reserve.

Regrettibly it does matter. It matters massively. Dare I say it matters catastrophically. During weather like we are having right now, it would push our dependence on Gas to almost 70%.  We would need to significantly increase the gas transport infrastructure to feed these CCGT stations. Most importantly we would need to stockpile much more gas. At the moment, our meagre 7 day supply relies on the fact that power generation can, over a number of days, maximise use of coal and nuclear and minimise gas. That goes out the window if you need to guard against wind power failing and have no other option but to use gas..

I'll explain fully in a future post. Possibly the next, maybe the one after that. But I havn't got time to elaborate at the moment.

Wind Power Today Revisited

I just thought I would give you grubby little Englanders  an update on how the mighty wind turbines have done over night.

Fresh from the BMReports Page At NETA.....

So, it looks like yesterday things actually picked up a bit and the national real output from our spinning monsters actual broke through the 4% of their rated value. Woooaaaa!

And tomorrow, (wait for it.) their output almost reaches 5%.

Strewth. With overnight improvements  like that perhaps we should just shut down all the other power generation plant ready for the mighty wind turbines to take over!

Just as a comparison. If your economical one Litre car was reduced to 5% of its power it would like ripping out the one litre engine and then replacing with the engine from a 50cc moped. I dare say though, that there are some supporters of this wind turbine fantasy who would actually consider this a good idea.

Unfortunately, there is one figure missing in the NETA table. We must always remember that a wind turbine is a machine operating in a unpredictable and harsh environment. They must never be allowed to stop turning in very cold conditions and freeze up. Unfortunately, when the wind stops blowing they stop. To get round this problem they all have heaters. Electric heaters in fact. This is to ensure that they do not freeze solid. Alternatively some can be "motored" This is usually used to start the thing turning in sub-optimal wind conditions. This incidentally is a nice little feature often exploited to give the impression of useful work being done even when the wind is too slow to actually turn the things. An absolute boon when trying to impress a politician or two.

So, in these freezing times when  power generation is being severely tested, not only are the mighty wind turbines providing bugger-all of next to nothing in the way of power, they are no doubt, in many places actually acting as a further drain on the grid.

Pathetic isn't it.

Wind Power: The Reality Today.

In these frozen autumn days, Billothewisp thought he would cheer himself up by having a look at all that free energy flowing into the grid. After all wind turbine generators  get a Billion quid a year in subsidy paid for by the likes of Billothewisp and other assorted grubby English folk, so perhaps a little payback in the form of happy-time may be in order.

He had a look at the NETA Site, which is the site that shows the day-today costings and accounting for the countries power grid. It tells us how our electricity is made, transmitted, paid for and regulated.

Billothewisp puzzled over the figures for the mighty wind turbines. Surely there was something wrong. There must be a mistake! There was no happiness here! A single tear rolled down his knarly cheek.

He had seen this graph:

His rheumy old eyes misty with tears, could barely make out the contribution from wind power. A billion quid seemed a lot of money for a barely legible pixel wide line!

Then he read this.

For a moment his sorrow was placated as he read the bottom line (or boiler plate rating) giving the theoretical output for his billion quid. But then he looked up.

Oh sorrow on sorrow!

The boilerplate rating for all the wind turbines in the country was 2430 MW but the maximum nationwide output today was 276 MW.

11.3% of their much lauded boilerplate rating.

But then it got worse . He looked at the predicted output for the next day. The maximum output was going to be just 94 MW.

That is 3.8% of their boiler plate rating.

I will write that again in large letters in case you missed it.

3.8% 

But even worse than that. This maximum occurs at midnight. Just when Billothewisp and the rest of old England is tucked up in bed, with the low energy light bulbs turned off.

Don't forget these are national figures. Not a single isolated case. National. All major turbines. And these are the PEAK values for these days.

So much for the argument that if the wind isn't blowing in one place it will make up for it elsewhere.

These figures are so bad, so dreadful, so outrageous that I feel I must have made a mistake. Our politicians and assorted environmental dreamers are not really this gullible are they?

Surely we are not spending and extra One Billion quid a year for this?

Thanks to Jockdownsouth and his comment on This Post at WUWT that tipped me off to the magnificent NETA site and the distinctly un-magnificent figures for wind generation.

I think I am going to have some serious fun here with the figures from NETA in the future.

Immigration and the Elected Government

I am only an old oily English rag, but as I remember, the elected government of this country decides the policies that this country should pursue. If my memory serves me correctly, we elect this government.

That is us  - The People. Nobody else.

As I further remember, the current coalition promised to try and stem the flood of immigrants (legal and illegal) pouring into this country (Look at the population forecasts - See Here).

Usually elected governments tend to rescind on difficult policies but this one has actually  tried to do something about this particular issue. Even though it could be argued that what they are doing is too little too late.

So what the hell is an unelected, unrepresentative judge doing saying the recently imposed migrant cap is "illegal". For Christ's sake nobody elected this pompous elitist bastard, so how the hell can he overrule the policy of a legitimately elected government? (See Here)

When it comes to the crunch, we don't have a real democracy anymore. It has been subsumed by a tangled self serving elite who can veto at whim, and direct at their pleasure, what the government does.

The elected, democratic parliament of this country must reassert its authority.

Or ten years down the road there really will be trouble.

You have to ask: What the hell is going on?

Drug Laws and Politicians

It is a pity Bob Ainsworth did not have the courage of his convictions about drug law reform when he was in office. (Telegraph Report Here).

Instead he sat in a government that buckled to the whim of the press, played to the gallery and crassly reversed policy on drug law reform. Finally his almer-mater Gordon Brown went on to sack Professor Nutt for his inconvenient though scientifically based views.

All this and not so much as a squeak out of Bob Ainsworth.

You have to ask if any of our politicians are really up to the job of making  informed decisions on reforming drug law. Especially after they have now packed the ACMD (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs) with yes-men and other assorted non scientists.

If anyone should have influence on this matter it is exactly the type of people Bob Ainsworth and his pals sacked that we should be listening to. (Guardian Article on David Nutt here)

Perhaps we should pay more regard to people like the Independant Scientific Committee On Drugs rather than spineless politicians out for a bit of quick publicity.

Professor David Nutt's blog is HERE It makes interesting reading.

In our society anyone who sells alcohol needs a license, needs to be approved by a magistrate and must be regarded as an upstanding citizen. Because of this the very severe damage that can be caused by alcohol is mitigated.

Yet to sell illegal soft/hard drugs exactly the opposite criteria are required. Any form of scum-bag can set up shop. Illegal he/she may be, but with no competition (except from other scum-bags) they can sell whatever they like.

It is no wonder that our society is a mess.

There is very little trade in illegally brewed/distilled alcohol because a known and safe source is available. People don't buy dodgy booze so criminals have no market.

Legalise the lot. Tax them, regulate them and use the money to mitigate the problems - Cut out the criminals.

You know it makes sense.

Once Upon a Russian Blonde

My friendly trusting gullible little English compatriots, I have a fairy tale for you.

Once upon a time, in a very old and crumbling land lived a large jovial bearded man. A politician non-the-less. This rather fat but happy individual was so important he was charged with looking after the defences of that crumbly land.

Like all the great good and extremely well fed, he spent long, long hours filling out expense claims. In those odd moments when he was not form filling, or at lunch, or berating his peers for something or the other, he managed to spend time on the more trivial aspects of government. Like nuclear deterrence or procuring advanced weaponry.

But like the other Great Good and Extremely Well Fed, he needed assistants. People in trusted positions. Dare I say, people charged with the safety and security of the nation.

Now, the foolish and paranoid would insist on those aids being security cleared nationals of this crumbly land. But Oh! That is just sooooo politically wrong. Sooooo incorrect.

If you want to show the world exactly how "globalised" you are, you hire willing and pretty foreigners. Even foreigners from countries that not so long ago were mortal enemies.

Prime candidates among these foreigners are attractive young blonde Russian girls. Maybe even one called Katya.

Of course you can tell they can be trusted, just by looking at them. You can always trust a sweet innocent blonde Russian girl. Especially with the nations secrets.

But could her loyalty really be to her Motherland?

Could she be a spy?

No. No. Nooooo. That would be just too silly.

After all, things have got so run down in this crumbly old land that other countries only spy on it for sport.

And pretty young Russian girls simply don't do that sort of thing.

But some foolish members in crumbly lands MI5 have taken it all too seriously.

Even though the fat politician whined and complained and declared his pretty aid innocent, the cruel zealots in the security service still arrested her and will soon send her back to Russia.

Goodbye Katya.

I expect you did a really first class job.

It is a pity you are not taking your bumbling incompetent ex-boss with you.

A Special Subservience

Wiki Leaks has laid bare the true nature of the so called UK-USA Special Relationship.

My grubby little Englander readership may well find these revelations somewhat shocking. But I have to tell you that you are hearing just a fragment, a fraction of the truth. I gather that, at the moment, there are more D notices flying about than cruise missiles.

Even so there is some brutally accurate commentary. Take this article. It ends with a starkly accurate assessment of the the so called special USA-UK relationship. [I quote]

But the underlying message of all this is that the relationship is defined in this way and if, or probably more likely when, the day arrives when the Brits cannot or will not offer so much, they will find that the relationship they still regard as "special" will be very much more ordinary.

For the last sixty years this unnatural and one sided loyalty has slowly seen the corrosive and debilitating subservience reduce and diminish our country. As each year passes , the usefulness of the UK to the Americans reduces. The UK supporters get ever more hysterical and sycophantic in their promotion of this doctrine.

Undoubtedly some Americans have been, and will continue to be our friends. But others, like Hilary Clinton only see us as a diplomatic cash cow, to be milked and loathed.

One day the milk will stop. Then do not expect anyone, especially the likes of Hilary Clinton to ride to our assistance.

A Strange Wind Turbine Morality

 Well, the night was lost. The council planning department had originally recommended rejection. But the councillors, after a barrage innuendo, superstition and false moral outrage decided to allow the wind turbine application to proceed.

The supporting groups had a clever coordinated and focussed mantra. There was running theme through the whole of their speeches.  A bogus child centric theme was pushed and pushed. Non-existent moral high ground was claimed again and again. The moral turpitude of the massive subsidies was brushed under the carpet. No mention was made of the sheer incapability of these things to meet our needs. Only rosy and hopelessly inaccurate figures on carbon reduction and noise output were made. Landscape impact was denied or glossed over.

The average common folk who actually lived in the area were outnumbered and out spoken. Unaccustomed to public speaking their defences flowed uneasily. Other speakers against the turbines tried to show how ineffective wind turbines are. Others showed that they were incapable of addressing  our real energy needs. But all to no avail. The motion was passed 6-3.

One small victory for stupidity

One more step on the slippery slope.

More of the average folk, their homes and families, sacrificed to the false god of Green.

A Final Note:

NIMBY?

Actually it will not affect me. I don't live in East Stoke. So why do I bang on about this?

Because I care.

I care about our environment and I care that we should not fall into stupid dead end traps that will deprive our kids and grand kids of a decent life. Neither do I want to line the pockets of the shysters who push these things. Outside of certain niches, wind turbines are a hopeless dead end. In years to come this will become painfully apparent, but by then it will be too late for the people of East Stoke.

As for being a NIMBY. If you like labels, then sure. Not In My Back Yard. Not In My Neighbours Back Yard and certainly Not In My Kids Back Yard.

Football, Honesty and Consequences

So the English World Cup bid was resoundingly rejected. It looks like the bid has been publicly punished for the publicity and scandal surrounding corruption in FIFA. With just the English vote and one other vote from the FIFA board, a clear message was sent. FIFA were not happy with the publicity surrounding their corrupt officals .

There has been lots of talk about whether the exposes on the corruption in world football should have been airbrushed or re-scheduled.  But to do so would have been to quietly collude with the fraudsters.

Honesty, like freedom has a heavy price and sometime severe  consequences.

At least we have done the right thing.

And look on the bright side - It will save us 15 Billion quid.