" Green Energy Sources " Not A Universal Solution, page 1

The city of Tsukuba , Japan is waking up to the realisation that their flagship environment friendly wind farm power station is an embarrassing failure . And has , since completion consumed 43 times more energy than it has produced .Angry public and officials want to know why the multi million pound project was ever approved , in an area where wind speeds are rarely more that 25% of the levels needed for sustainable wind energy . Now the official government ombudsmen are investigating claims of corruption which have dogged the project . Also it is revealed than generate power , the turbines were been driven by motor power to ` save face ` and create the illusion they were operating correctly .

www.timesonline.co.uk

The thick summer air above the Yatabe Minami elementary school sags with humidity. The playground swelters without the slightest hint of a breeze and on the top of the highest trees, the leaves do not even flicker. Below them, the sails of the gleaming Darius-Savonius generator stand embarrassingly still.

Welcome to Tsukuba, the town that prides itself on being the most hallowed scientific research centre in Japan and the site of perhaps the worst electricity wind farm in the world: in the 12 months it has been operating, its million-pound windmills have consumed 43 times more power than they have generated.

The situation has appalled experts in the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. The director of its Industrial Technology Research Institute director, Shunji Kawamura, said: “Judging from the wind status within the city it should have been perfectly clear the windmills would never work.”

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

To be fair , the biggest bugbear of this project is the poor planning decisions and the alleged corruption which led to scientific advice being ignored and common sense abandoned .
There are some very successful wind turbine farms , that do show an operating “ profit “ , but even in windswept areas , the cost of installation and the environmental impact are questioned .Build and development costs are often offset by government subsidies and tax breaks which mask the true cost , a tactic which opponents of wind power claim paints a misleading picture of their true cost and actual efficiency .

Also wind power is inherently unreliable , and output cannot be slaved to demand – unlike more conventional power generation schemes . where ever wind power is used , there must always be reserve conventional capacity to ` take up the slack ` should the wind farm go off line due to low wind speed .

Lastly , the impact of wind energy on wild life , particularly birds is hotly debated . Studies in the US show that Californian wind farms have a significant impact on raptors and other endangered species . While Danish investigations of their impact on migratory geese show that they have no statistical impact on those birds .

Related News Links:

Article decrying " green energy benefits "

www.theherald.co.uk

Article extolling the benefits of wind power .

www.theherald.co.uk

Paper which claims wind power is costly and inefficient .

www.aweo.org

[edit on 14-7-2006 by ignorant_ape]

[edit on 7/14/06 by FredT]

[edit on 23-7-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]