Many home turbines fall short of claims, warns study

[Legal Beagles]

Home wind turbines are generating a fraction of the energy promised by manufacturers, and in some cases use more electricity than they make, a report warns today. The results of what is thought to be the most comprehensive study undertaken of the industry show the worst performers provided just 41 watt-hours a day - less than the energy needed for a conventional lightbulb for an hour, or even to power the turbine's own electronics.
On average the turbines surveyed provided enough electricity to light an energy-efficient house, but this still only represented 5%-10% of the manufacturers' claims, said consultants Encraft. The findings will be an embarrassment for an industry which was an early winner from the small but high-profile rush to adopt green technologies. Trendsetters included the actor Pete Postlethwaite at his country house in Shropshire and novelist Iain Banks at his home near Edinburgh. Opposition leader David Cameron applied for permission for a turbine on his west London home.
But the results also prove that when turbines are put up in the right places they are a good investment, said Matthew Rhodes, Encraft's managing director. "Sadly, an average semi-detached house, like the areas where most people live, where there are obstructions like trees and buildings, are poor locations," he said. The "vast majority" of customers had been poorly advised, said Rhodes: "There's a risk they [customers] will go off the whole agenda."
The study, funded by the British Wind Energy Association and the government, looked at turbines made by five manufacturers in four rural, 10 suburban and 12 urban sites for a year. It found the best performing turbines would generate "clean" electricity equivalent to that needed to manufacture them in less than two years, while the worst performing ones would take 40 years.
However, Alex Murley, the BWEA's micro-generation expert, said the study had been skewed unfairly, with few sites, and too many in areas with poor wind.
New codes of conduct for manufacturers and installers had been introduced, he added. The latest BWEA figures show 1,000 building-mounted small turbines had been installed in the UK by the end of 2007, with 900 of those installed during that year.

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[Guest]

Re: Many home turbines fall short of claims, warns study

Typical Guardian claptrap.

Wind turbines are a total waste of space, money and time and not only home wind turbines, but practically all of them. Not one single powerstation has ever, or could ever be shut down because windpower is so unpredictable it needs other sources available at a moment's notice.

This is my favourite windpower story.

Urban turbines struggle to turn a profit - Times Online

Urban turbines struggle to turn a profit

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

Having spent £13,000 on installing a wind turbine at his home, John Large is disappointed at the return on his investment, which amounts to 9p a week. At this rate, it is calculated, it will take 2,768 years for the electricity generated by the turbine to pay for itself by which time he will be past caring about global warming.

The wind turbine was installed at the engineer's home in Woolwich, southeast London, four weeks ago and has so far generated four kilowatts of electricity. An average household needs 23kw every day to power its lights and appliances. Mr Large said that his difficulties highlighted the problems faced by consumers who wanted to buy wind turbines to save money and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Like many small turbines, the model owned by Mr Large puts power directly into the national grid, but the requirements of the grid mean that power can start being transferred only once blades have been turning fast enough for several minutes nonstop.

Despite the wind usually being sufficient to turn the blades of Mr Large's turbine, it has been unable to generate a constant supply that can be put into the national grid. Unless a minimum generating capacity has been met, all the power that the turbine is capable of producing is lost. Mr Large questioned the ability of the micro-generation industry to make clear to the general public all the pitfalls.

Highlighting the range of turbines available, the need for planning permission, the difficulties in receiving grants and the electronics that need to be installed with the mini-wind-mills, he said: "I'm an engineer and I'm generally au fait with it, but when you put all these together you get a load of huff for very little puff." Mr Large says that the turbine's performance fails to match its specifications. This claim is dismissed by the manufacturer, Proven Energy, which along with the installing company, Sundog Energy, says that Mr Large ignored advice that the site was unsuitable.

Mr Large denies this claim, but he and Sundog are in agreement that more and better information about wind energy needs to be made available. Martin Cotterill, of Sundog Energy, said that, although turbines generally worked well in exposed places, it was difficult to find suitable sites in urban areas because of turbulence and obstructions blocking the wind. He said that it was a common misconception that wind that was sufficient to make the blades go round would always generate power. "Just because a turbine is turning does not necessarily mean it's a turbine generating," he said.

Mr Cotterill said that the industry had been encouraged to try to establish international standards for wind turbines. Groups such as the British Wind Energy Association were trying to agree standardised data so that consumers had information on performance that was easy to understand. He added: "There's been a massive increase in the number of people wanting wind turbines. We take a lot of calls from people then we have to explain that it's inappropriate for them. Solar panels are much better for an urban setting."

Despite so little power being generated by his new turbine, Mr Large remains enthusiastic about the potential for power production by micro-generators. "I'm undaunted," he said. "I feel like I've been sold a pup but it's not a bad experience - it's a learning experience. Maybe I was a little bit ambitious."

Notice how, given that this story was written in February last year and having been proven wildly and dangerously wrong on global warming, the "scare-them-into-submission" scam now is "climate change."

These dangerous and gullible fools claim our climate had always been stable until we built factories and cars; clearly there were no ice ages, no Medieval Warm Period, no Roman Warm Period, no Holocene Optimum, no warmer interglacials, without man to heat them.

The key thing to remember is that electricity (that is actual electrical energy that can do work, such as produce heat or light) cannot be stored. Unlike oil or gas, which can be easily stored electricity cannot. It must be generated and delivered at the precise moment it is needed. To reach consumers, electricity must travel from the power generating plant through miles of transmission and distribution lines until it reaches its final destination where it will be used – and it must be delivered at the right current and voltage at the right time, every time, all the time.

This simply cannot be achieved with wind power because we cannot know when the wind will blow – and because electricity cannot be stored, we cannot “save” it when the wind blows for use when the wind does not blow – which is two thirds of the time.