Would YOU want 14 wind turbines out side your house?

Question

Am I a nimby?
If I am ,then I would like to put my point across within all of these comments.
After my visit to the meeting I knew nothing about turbines except that when I drove past them on the way to Cornwall I thought – what wonderful looking things – big- and probably doing a good job!
Facts are;----
1 . They never earn in energy what they cost to build and run with energy used now and are lifed for 20 years.
2.They only run at 25% of rated value because of the wind.
3.They will be paid for by the tax payer-(you)-- a extension on local nuclear plant is paid for by power company.!
4.They cannot produce power when needed— ;when there is a demand surge the wind cannot be turned up and power cannot be stored.
5.They are built ,installed,operated by non u/k workers.
6. Eyesore and kill scores of birds.
So, here we have industrial turbines planted in the middle of a wonderful area of nature and beauty, they don`t pay for themselves, don't cost power company anything,they cost us, generate power when it`s not needed,giving jobs to foreigners.
Put them on high moor land where there are no houses to see them and there is more wind ?
As I say to the pro greens--- would you want to buy my 75% recently devalued house at full price so you can invite your friends around to view the industriall site from the lounge window?
I think not! You prefer to campaign from a safe distance in your nice house.
I have to tell my son in years to come--- Here`s your inheritance son , sorry it`s not worth much but youv`e been sacrificed for the political common con? Green!

Answer 1

I am a Nimby too

NOT IN MY BACK YARD!

but.. they are putting them up :(

its ridiculous, I went to so many meetings with my coop supervisor about this, and there are tones of people that think they are fine! And I tried to make a group on facebook to stop it, but alot of my friends think they are good.. and they dont F*cking understand how bad it is.

sorry just venting.

But same here!

Ontario Canada.

Answer 2

1. Not true. It would take 15-20 years for someone like me or you to pay it off. However, there are many factors along the whole life-cycle and sale of the energy that will drive profits.

2. They're not designed to run all the time.

3. Good, that means we get the profits.

4. No but, the current installed capacity is less than the minimum demand. And when the European grid is installed it will be able to meet demand.

5. Other countries are ahead in this due to higher investment. You have to have the investment to build the work force.

6. Cats kill more birds than wind turbines, cars kill more birds than wind turbines, the list goes on.



Your facts aren't facts they're fears.

Answer 3

Climate change is the most serious problem that humanity faces and the impact of burning fossil fuel is widely recognised.



The bottom line is that if we are serious about tackling climate change we have to look at renewable energy. The most commercially viable and technically mature option we have is wind power.



We are not going to meet our Kyoto targets and government targets on renewable energy without it.



Tens of thousands of modern wind turbines operate throughout the world.



In Britain we have the best wind resource in Europe, with three times the amount of wind blowing across our island than we need to meet our electricity needs.



The government aim is that we generate 10% of our power needs from renewables by 2010.



Wind power is the key to this plan - it's the most economic way, it's here now, whereas wave and tidal power are five to 10 years away from full commercial use. When other forms of energy are available these wind farms can be removed leaving minimal damage to the environment.



The wind industry is expected to be generating 7% of the nation's electricity needs this year. The electricity generated from a single wind turbine in a year is the equivalent to the electricity needs of a thousand homes over the same period - at the same time preventing the emission of 4,000 tonnes of CO2.



As for our birds the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds information leaflet) said they'd not seen any major adverse effects on birds from wind farms. And a recent paper said the greatest threat to birds was in fact climate change. How many birds do you imagine die every year flying into power lines?



You can take all the miss information, produced by those nimby groups but wind farms are the price we all have to pay in order to give our children and grandchildren any inheritance at all.



As for campaining from a safe distance as I told the local nimby's when they came to my house, I would not sign their petition even if the proposed site was in the field next to my house.

Answer 4

Composting Weatherstripping Recycling Front-Loading Washing Machines Drought-Friendly Landscaping Renewable Building Materials

Answer 5

U think that having a windfarm kills green??? Try thinkin of a hydroelectric dam....the whole bloody valley is flooded, plus no rain no current. And besides, if there werent no wind mills where u saw em, what do u plan to do?? run around chasing butterflies...get real dude, every power source isnt perfect, where do you think the radioactive waste form nuclear plants go to? Underground and undersea.... Plants which burn hydrocarbons release tons of effluents into the air...They are thinking of geothermal energy but thats gonna be way too expensive to setup and run...and dont even go for nuclear fusion reactors, they will be ready in the 100 years to say. So dont go criticising anothers ingenious idea just cauz u hate to see the land get destroyed...

Answer 6

The nearest wind turbines to me are about 3-4 miles away and I never really notice them. There's plenty of space between there and here, so sure, throw 'em up!





1. Repeated by every single anti wind farm campaign ever. Where do they get these from!? Certainly not from studies performed by engineers which passed peer review. See:

Brice & Meunier (2009) "Life cycle analysis of 4.5 MW and 250 W wind turbines" Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Volume 13, Issue 8, pp 2104-2110

(4.5MW turbine produces about 12-15 times the energy used to make it)



Also:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/3m51630210q0q078/

This turbine produces the energy used to make it in under a year. Same here:

http://library.witpress.com/pages/PaperInfo.asp?PaperID=17822







2. Their running rate or 'capacity factor' depends on where they are. The average across the UK was 30.4% in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Wind_power_usage

This is fully accounted for when costing wind farms.







3. Wind farms are subsidised with certificates called 'ROCs.' Each company has to have a certain number of ROCs each year - if they don't have enough then last year it cost 3.7p per kWh to 'buy out.' In reality, they will make renewable power if it is cheaper to do so, so the costs are much lower; in '08/'09 it was 1.9p per kWh according to OFGEM. If we provided all our electricity renewably like that, then electricity prices would increase by under 20%, which is less than the variation you get from gas price fluctuations in a single year.



I'm not aware of a single nuclear power station that has been built without some kind of government support; perhaps you know of some. Our decommissioning bill to the taxpayer is many tens of billions. Meanwhile, fossil fuel plants receive huge indirect subsidies from the NHS (who pay for their healthcare costs) and from everyone who suffers any other damage from pollution or global warming.



4. Partly true, but according to engineers at national grid this is a problem we can pretty easily solve.

http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Operating+in+2020



5. Bit of both. How much of the money we pay for gas, coal, uranium and oil goes to British workers? I'm in the North East atm and we're getting several new factories thanks to renewables investment.



6. Putting them near very vulnerable bird species is a bad idea. If you're not near an endangered species flight path then they actually kill fewer birds per kWh than traditional power sources do! In point #1 you wanted to consider the whole costs of making power, which I agree with. So when looking at bird deaths from fossil fuels, you shouldn't only look at the ones that die in the power station machinery, but ones that are killed by mines, air pollution etc.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.02.011

At least one study shows that wind turbines, unbelievably, lead to fewer bird deaths. And if you're interested in saving birds, cars and cats are a much better place to start...

Answer 7

Would YOU want to live next to a coal, nuclear, or natural gas plant?

Would YOU like to breath in noxious gasses that will cause breathing problems including COPD and asthma in you and your children and even cancer?

Would YOU like to look at smog and smoke going into the sky?

Would YOU like to see the effects of acid rain on all the trees in your area?



Didn't think so, I'd pick turbines over that any day.



but we shouldn't be putting them in residential areas anyway, unless you live on a mountain, a huge open field in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of the ocean because these are the areas with the best potential for wind power.

Answer 8

I would want 14 wind turbines outside my house only if I lived near Wrigley Field in Chicago.