At www.off-grid.net we like wind turbines and solar panels, but we oppose large arrays of them. We believe in distributed power – consumed at the place of production.
Big wind farms attract big government subsidies, paid for out of taxes. Spending large amounts of public money adds to politicians sense of self-importance but in the case of solar or wind farms this money goes straight into the coffers of large companies, who could perfectly well afford to build power generation without subsidies if there was an economic case for it.
Meanwhile, small-scale energy producers are disadvantaged – forced to pay over the market price for solar and wind energy if they want to receive the same subsidies, and subject to the same onerous planning restrictions.
It would be more far-sighted to subsidise energy producers who did not sell their power into the grid, but instead created mini-grids, selling direct to neighboring consumers.
And big wind farms, along with solar farms and big hydro-electric projects are only marginally better for the environment than gas-powered or nuclear powered generating stations in our view.
They are slightly less polluting, but still highly wasteful of resources and still lose up to 30 per cent of the electricity they generate in the process of transmission around the country, or between countries.
They still leave energy production in the hands of a tiny oligopoly of Utility companies who spend more effort trading the energy between themselves than they do increasing efficiency and reducing costs to the consumer.
The big eco-pressure groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth also love wind farms and solar farms. But they seem to have spent so long ingratiating themselves with big business and politicians that they have forgotten why they are here and become like those they once opposed.
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The problem is population.
The nwo will Reduce population for sustainability by using depleted uranium in the fracking process.
Please forgive my Captain Obvious comment, but for the benefit of those whose opinions are formed by the various corporate-owned, conglomerate media outlets that control the airwaves (and brainwaves) of the general public, I must point a few facts that are never mentioned when these monstrosities are covered (i.e. sold) in news stories as environmentally friendly green energy producers.
These projects have an overall negative environmental impact when all the downsides associated with them are considered. Not only are their benefits limited as this article states, but they waste good land – one of our most precious and limited resources. The acres they clutter could be used otherwise, like to grow food, or as a nature preserve. And speaking of clutter, they are also a terrible eyesore. They are always atop a hill, so their visual polluton impacts the scenery from long distances. Perhaps their most disturbing environmental impact is that they are put up with no regard for the flight patterns of migratory birds, and many species (some endangered) have been maimed and mangled by these gigantic spinning blades while navigating to the nesting grounds that thousands of generations before them have instinctively traveled to.
The author makes an excellent point, that every last one of these corporate giants is only motivated by their bottom line. They don’t create anything unless there’s a large profit to be made. They don’t care about solving the environmental problems they’ve created. But they do ‘clean up’ so to speak…in spades.
Friends, support small businesses. Stop feeding the monster before it devours us all.
Very well said Nick, I agree with every word.