More Hot Air

Regular readers know I hold no love for so-called nobles and royalty. They are vestigial remnants of feudalism and serve no purpose in modern society. In a rare turn of events, however, I find myself liking Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. To wit:

The Duke of Edinburgh has made a fierce attack on wind farms, describing them as “absolutely useless”.

In a withering assault on the onshore wind turbine industry, the Duke said the farms were “a disgrace”.

He also criticised the industry’s reliance on subsidies from electricity customers, claimed wind farms would “never work” and accused people who support them of believing in a “fairy tale”.

Getcha some, Dookie-boy!

One of the main arguments of the anti-wind farm lobby is that because turbines do not produce electricity without wind, there is still a need for other ways to generate power.

Their proponents argue that it is possible to build “pump storage” schemes, which would use excess energy from wind power to pump water into reservoirs to generate further electricity in times of high demand and low supply.

Oh for the love of God... Now they want to create full-blown (pardon the pun) Rube Goldberg machines in order to avoid building simple and functional power plants. What's next? Slaves on treadmills?

Finally, we have this little gem:

Criticism of their effect on the environment has mounted, with The Sunday Telegraph disclosing today that turbines are being switched off during strong winds following complaints about their noise.

That's right: when the turbines are operating most efficiently, THEY SWITCH THEM OFF.

It ain't easy bein' green...