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Wind farm terms are misleading
Credit: The Galloway Gazette | 13 January 2013 | www.gallowaygazette.co.uk ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Why is it that everything to do with wind technology is not what the wind industry claims it to be?
Indeed, a wind turbine is not a turbine, but simply a wind-driven electrical generator (WDEG). To be sure, actual turbines are to be found in coal, gas, oil, hydro and, yes, nuclear power stations. It does not take a genius to recognise that although these power stations use different sources of energy, all employ turbines and generators. Another misleading term is “wind farm”, which is no more than a collection of wind-driven generators, and Charles Parsons, the inventor of the steam turbine must truly be turning in his grave.
The term “wind turbine” is simply a clever marketing ploy to seduce the ignorant and gullible, a pretence that a costly, disfiguring and ineffective machine is to be regarded as a much more sophisticated and efficient device than it actually is. Most importantly, the public should recognise that landowners are more than happy to be seduced by the wind industry and its subsidies, skipping all the way to the bank, while you, dear reader, have to be content with ever increasing energy bills.
The wind industry has been very successful in its marketing efforts by conning not just the public but politicians, engineers and the media alike, and I leave you to assess the full idiocy of the term “wind farm”. Looking at the immediate future and our energy requirements, folk should recognise the UK is potentially sitting on one of the biggest shale gas fields in the world.
In the United States the price of shale gas has collapsed from $12 per thousand cubic feet in 2007 to around $3 today. Think what this will mean to global economies – market forces will alter the geo-political map of the world since we will not be dependent on countries such as Russia and the Middle East for our gas supplies in the future. It is not an understatement to say, a new gas age cometh, for, make no mistake, gas is the best future energy source as globally the planet can provide us with about 250 years worth of gas supplies, possibly longer, if common sense prevails and energy conservation is pursued in a much more meaningful manner such as using LED technology for lighting and thus offering a 90% saving in energy use. Tidal and ocean current generation, plus solar panels, should also be part of the energy equation, not forgetting co-generation whereby your central heating boiler also generates electrical power. So let us hope the new year will usher in a period of true enlightenment and the false prophets to be seen in their true clothing.
Dave Haskell,
Golygfa Frenni Fawr,
Newchapel Road, Boncath, Pembs.
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