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Technical Issues for Wind Energy

The objections to windfarms are basically that :

	they damage the environment they are supposed to save and
	are technically a very poor form of renewable energy. The technical  problems are are as critical as the environmental, particularly in arguments over planning.

Their technical defects arise mainly from three characteristics

	Sheer inefficiency - their operating capacity onshore is only about 30% on average.
	Intermittency - availability cannot be predicted
	Distribution issues, which mean they have to be backed up with reliable generation capacity.

These issues are covered in Sections B and C of The Case Against Windfarms (The Scale of Development Required and The Problem of Intermittency)

The problem of intermittency has become a very live issue since the Government introduced the New Electricity Trading Arrangements.
Go to NETA dishes the dirt on wind energy - The weakest link?

Limits to Renewables

This article was published in World Energy, the Journal of the Institute of Energy. It is reproduced by permission of the authors and the Institute. The article represents the views of its authors, rather than those of the Institute of Energy. It is likely to open a lively debate because it undermines a lot of assumptions made about the amount of energy we can expect from wind power.

Country Guardian has not attempted to summarise the points made; for a quick summary, refer to the Conclusions at the end. It might be worthwhile to define the difference between 'power' and 'energy'. In the context of wind turbines the power is the   Installed Capacity: the energy produced is the output, which varies from zero to 100% of the power, but averages between 25% and 35%.