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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barred Wobbler" data-source="post: 1543431" data-attributes="member: 69394">I've never been other than completely honest with myself, or with anyone else as to why I object to windfarms and if you bother to look at the many posts I've made on the subject elsewhere on this forum you will be able to see for yourself, however I came onto this thread because the topic of bird killing had been raised and answered accordingly.To summarise why I don't like windfarms, and I freely admit I don't, here are the reasons.They come from someone with a love of birds and a knowledge of the energy industry.1) They are a extravagant use of land and they despoil the area well beyond the sites where they stand. They also contribute to habitat loss not only from their base construction, but from the many miles of service roads required to build and maintain them.2) They are an un-neccessary expense added onto the power bills of each and every one of us, whether we like it or not. This money goes to subsidise the developer for ring-fenced electricity that actually costs more to produce than other means and would be uneconomic if they had to compete on the open market. Yet for each 2MW turbine the developer can expect to receive around a quarter to a million pounds per year per turbine in ROC payments. In addition the landowner can receive about £10,000 per year per turbine from the developer. 3) They are thoroughly inefficient, producing power for only about 26% of the time (DTI figure), in other words they only work for about 2 days out of 7.4) Even when they do work the power they produce is miniscule in comparison to other forms yet they take up hundreds of square miles of land. It takes about 2,000 large (ie 2 -3MW turbines (most of the ones we are familiar with are "small" ) to produce the same amount of electricity as a normal power station that only needs about a square mile of land.5) They do not displace any other generation. Because of intermittency conventional means of generation have to be kept in spinning reserve, with all their labour and other costs, and of course their emissions for the 5 days out of 7 when the turbines don't turn.6) They kill birds.7) I can't be bothered to list the other reasons.In other words, they are an expensive scam, foisted on us by developers who see a quick buck and politicians who "know a good thing when they see it" and they use them as a green figleaf so that we think "something is being done" when the opposite is the case.No dishonesty here, I think. There is much dishonesty elsewhere.</blockquote>

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