A reminder to choose your site carefully

"A wind turbine which cost the taxpayer almost £50,000 but generated just £5 of electricity a month is to be scrapped.
Installed outside an office of the Welsh government, the turbine was part of its plan to become more environmentally friendly.
Despite the fact that civil servants were warned the 60ft turbine was being placed a location that was too sheltered and would not experience enough wind, they went ahead and paid £48,000 for it."



Full article here -Daily Mail

First- I wouldn't trust the Daily Mail particularly, but second- this happens all the time. I used to work at factory that put up a wind turbine as a marketing ploy, it looked 'responsible'.

Two new wind turbines up near me (in the Midlands, UK), to power the sewage processing plants have had to be turned off- as they mess up the radar for the airport. The airports fault- they did originally say it would be fine. Expensive new stuff is now being installed to enable the turbines to be turned back on- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-27393177

Maybe they need to install a wind machine to spin the turbine. And then a solar panel to run the wind machine. And an artificial sun to... wait a sec.


This is a classic example of an Eco miss step. Unfortunately with tax dollars.

Charli Wilson wrote:, but second- this happens all the time. I used to work at factory that put up a wind turbine as a marketing ploy, it looked 'responsible'.

Two new wind turbines up near me (in the Midlands, UK), to power the sewage processing plants have had to be turned off- as they mess up the radar for the airport. The airports fault- they did originally say it would be fine. Expensive new stuff is now being installed to enable the turbines to be turned back on- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-27393177

I want to echo this. I don't know these specific stories you mention, but I've seen more than enough greenwashing go on to believe that this happened. People with the money want to do the 'right' thing. People with the product tell them what they want to hear. People with the know-how try to warn - or aren't put in position to warn - the people with the money that this application is the dumbest thing they could do with their money. People with money listen to salesmen over people with know-how. People with know-how curse. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That sounds like government.

I'm finding I have to plan for what I'm going to do. No trees now but I will have some. Want to make sure my mills are going to get wind in the future.

I've seen examples right in my neck of the woods.
... Homeowner built an incredibly sturdy rack for his solar panel array. Sturdy big beams cemented into the ground. Tradewinds were not going to be a problem for him. But he built it way too far from his house, thus it was going to cost him a fortune to run big gauge wire from his panels to his house inverter. He bit the bullet and did it.
... Another home builder didn't track the path of the sun during the day & year prior to erecting their solar panels and solar water systems. Turns out that the location only got good sun during the winter and then only during the morning.
... A new wannabe farmer planted an entire orchard of macnut trees without having the pahoehoe lava hammered for each tree. The trees grew so-so for a couple of years then blew over in the first windstorm. He lost the entire orchard.