The Carbon Trust & Met Office have said that the grant of £2500 for these on domestic urban houses should be examined "as they may not generate enough to offset the emissions created from their manufacture".
Didn't someone say exactly that, in here some year or so ago?
I cannot remember who it was!
Anyway, if you want to annoy the neighbours, apply now as the grant might not be around for much longer. How much taxpayers money has gone down this drain todate?
The world turns.
But sadly, not many domestic windmills.
We needed this recession, to get people actually calculating cost and net carbon benefit of all this ecobollox.
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote
I thought there were other European countries who had made some investment in this technology that were now turning away from wind turbines on account of the whole "life-cycle cost vs output" argument.
Phil
same with electrical solar power it takes more power to create a solar panel than the panel will produce in its entire life
They said that windmills were a waste of space in Urban environments, but suggested they might work in rural areas - I have my doubts.
B&Q were promoting them heavily last year around here - in an urban environment. Bloke up the road fitted one, three weeks later it came back down.
There was also a world shortage of the grade of silicon needed for their manufacture.
It's probably more responsible to encourage their use nearer the equator than here, where power distribution is much less developed, what other power generation there is is relatively more poluting, and the panels operate more efficiently.
Ecobollox - what a great word!
Incorrect.
Read
In fact the whole document is a good read!
You need very large ones to have any hope at all of producing viable energy.
Gust of wind?
Waste of space :-)
Actually IF wind turbnes always turned at peak output, they wouldn't be a bad idea.
The problem is they don't, and the cost of accomodating the power they put out when they do, and transferring it from where they work to where its wanted, and backing the whole lot up with other generation when they dont work, is what kills them ultimately.
You end up with a massively overspecified grid, and windmill arrays, needing lots of energy storage, to get not very much out.
They exist purely because European edicts mandate a certain amount of 'renewable' power be put on the grid, irrespective of cost, or carbon cost for that matter..
Its just another example of silly leftish thinking: start with a problem, think of a solution - any solution - make it a legal imperative, and sit back feeling smug.
Then notice that the legislation he actually worsened the original problem you were trying to solve..
And keep very quiet about it..
Its not just the ecobollox sphere either.
People take drugs. This is supposed to be bad for them, So make drugs illegal. Next thing is there is a massive profit to be made from illegal drugs, and the addictive ones and the high prices associated with the illegality lead to terrible lifetstyles for addicts, combined with a need to commit crime to supply the habit.
Result, every needle freak in your local town needs to either deal drugs to 10 other people, or start breaking and entering.
Add in more police, more prison places, costing the whole country more. And leave the addicts out in the cold, unable to actually stop. Oh, and deny them medical treatment.
Result. Far more addicts. Far more crime, far more cost to the country.
I believe I heard on the radio that post congestion charges, the cars in central london are less, but the jams haven't changed at all.
I believe I also heard that since we also deny routine contraceptives, and anti-VD education to teenagers (mustn't encourage them must we), and also subsidise single mothers, we now have the highest proportion of teenage mothers in teh West..
In the context of domestic windmills can you define "very large".
B-) Be nice to know the real reason. 3 weeks is not really long enough to to find out the control unit consumed more power than it was generating. Conducted noise into the building?
There is a one not far from here that has been up quite a while, mind you it's in an exposed and windy position so may actually produce power. Having said that of the half dozen or so turbines that have appeared in the last year or so this is the only "B&Q type" all the others are free standing column mounted jobbies that look very much like Proven Energy
2.5kW jobbies with rotors 3.5m in dia.
B&Q have a 28 day return policy.....
But the banning of drugs although often touted as in the interests of the individual, is more often justified by their deleterious effects on society. And where you can at least discuss/argue the effects on individuals, the effects on society of their illegality are clearly in the direction you posted.
Wonderfully, even legitimate 'drugs' are restricted to the extent that many people have to import them. Ridiculously, some of them are even available on the NHS if the doctor is willing to write a prescription but many GPs refuse. (This refusal is partly because GPs appear to live in abject fear of being had up in front of the GMC. And partly due to utter ignorance.) Which represents another income stream for dodgy internet drug dealers. (It can be difficult to know whether a particular internet pharmacy is wholly legitimate - or not.)
Knee-jerk reaction (not to be taken literally) is that routine contraceptives shouldn't be denied to teenagers - rather they need to be mandated. :-)
Evidence?
But there's a hell of a lot of investment going into it's production and the production processes for photovoltaics. Sadly many manufacturers have only recently realised they have a lot to learn from the semiconductor industry about processing silsicon.
The message from snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) contains these words:
I have been toying with the idea but I still have considerable doubts even if the planners decide to allow one. Planners will allow monster windmills in AOBs but are much less inclined to do so in a green belt. I have yet to get an answer out of the local council.
ISTM that the larger the turbine the better the chance of making an economic investment but at the end of the day even the larger ones are only economic because of subsidy and subsidies can be withdrawn without notice.
Most companies are extremely coy about how much an installation will actually cost which is a sure sign that their products wouldn't be economically viable except by accident of continuously rising prices.
By the time I get an answer from the council I may have sufficient wind data to see whether I do have a chance of making a a go of a nominal 6 kw turbine. I can't afford to finance a larger one and a smaller one would just be a waste of money.
I want one of these
me too. They have a certain "koolness" factor, don't they? :-)
Nice idea, especially as all the heavy gear is closer to the ground. Wonder if axial loading is a problem?
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