Once you're at the top, it seems your very incompetence will be rewarded
One of the more conspicuous features of British life nowadays is how many people who are, in one way or another, found seriously at fault, such as by failing to do their job properly, are nevertheless allowed to get away with it without having to pay any penalty. We see almost daily examples, as when the head of a major news organisation, forced to resign in what should be disgrace, walks away with £11 million; or a senior council executive fired for incompetence is then given a grotesquely inflated pay-off, such as the former head of Haringey social services compensated with £1 million for her wrongful dismissal after the Baby P scandal.
Even more familiar are the cases of people who make every kind of mess of a job they are overpaid for and never get sacked at all, such as those “quango queens”, who move effortlessly from one post to another, hopelessly out of their depth in every one. “What does it take to get sacked,” we may ask, “if you are at the top of an organisation in modern Britain?”
The Renewable Energy Foundation [1] today published a new study, The Performance of Wind Farms in the United Kingdom and Denmark,[2] showing that the economic life of onshore wind turbines is between 10 and 15 years, not the 20 to 25 years projected by the wind industry itself, and used for government projections.
The work has been conducted by one of the UK’s leading energy & environmental economists, Professor Gordon Hughes of the University of Edinburgh[3], and has been anonymously peer-reviewed. This groundbreaking study applies rigorous statistical analysis to years of actual wind farm performance data from wind farms in both the UK and in Denmark.
The results show that after allowing for variations in wind speed and site characteristics the average load factor of wind farms declines substantially as they get older, probably due to wear and tear. By 10 years of age the contribution of an average UK wind farm to meeting electricity demand has declined by a third.
This decline in performance means that it is rarely economic to operate wind farms for more than 12 to 15 years. After this period they must be replaced with new machines, a finding that has profound consequences for investors and government alike.
WWF and Greenpeace ought to hang their heads in shame
John McCarthy once said, “He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense”. Or become politicized tin-shakers pushing absurd “independent economic analysis” it seems
There are some charities to which I would not give a ‘wooden nickel’, and I am a passionate charity giver. Top of the pile: Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). If they stuck to the task they were originally set up for things would be different. But they haven’t. Both are today highly politicized groups – as Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore confirms – spending large chunks of donations campaigning on issues about which their sum knowledge could fill the back of a postage stamp. Climate science and associated issues, for instance.
The dynamic duo charity campaigners have just published a new report, A study into the economics of gas and offshore wind, conducted for them by the consultancy Cambridge Econometrics for New Economic Thinking.
Christine Metcalfe claims UK Government and the EU have breached a fundamental tenet of citizens’ rights under the UN’s Åarhus Convention
A community councillor from Argyll is mounting a landmark legal challenge against the UK and the EU at the United Nations in Geneva this week over their renewables policies, on the grounds that the public is being denied the truth about the alleged benefits, and the adverse impact, of wind power.
Christine Metcalfe, who represents Avich and Kilchrenan Community Council, claims that the UK Government and the EU have breached a fundamental tenet of citizens’ rights under the UN’s Åarhus Convention, and she will appear before the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to explain why.
Mrs Metcalfe will present her council’s case at a hearing before UNECE’s Compliance Committee next Wednesday alleging that the UK and the EU are pursuing renewables policies which have been designed in such a way that they have denied the public the right to be informed about, or to ascertain, the alleged benefits in reducing CO 2 and harmful pollution emissions from wind power, or the negative effects of wind power on health, the environment and the economy.
Alan Jones is Australia's most popular talk back presenter. Alan Jones is a phenomenon. He is described by many as Australia's greatest orator and motivational speaker. Alan has the mind and capacity to make complex issues understandable to the largest Breakfast audience in Australia.
Alan Jones talks to Dr Alan Watts about the effects of wind power.
Wind Wise Radio is a forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the role of wind energy in our attempt to help solve the problems of human created climate change. Please join us every Sunday Night, between 7 and 8pm, for an hour of live interviews with leading experts, discussion, exchange, rumour, tête-à-tête, and chat about industrial scale wind and the alternative energy juggernaut.CLICK to visit WindWiseRadio.org
David, Lisa, and Harley discussed the windswept world of wind development including what’s happening in Vermont, New Hampshire, the NAFTA entaglement in Ontario and the Australian Senate Inquiry.
We will also turn our attention to Scotland and hear from Inverness Councilor Jim Crawford who is reviving the Countryside Party to fight industrial wind. As reported in the Press and Journal: - (login)
The independent politician – who is a founder member of the organisation and a longstanding opponent of turbines – also accused First Minister Alex Salmond of “grandstanding” over the green energy issue.
He said the SNP leader was on a mission “to be regarded as some sort of world leader”.
ED DAVEY, the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, has taken legal advice to have his Conservative deputy stripped of his responsibilities for green energy policy in an increasingly bitter coalition battle over wind farms.
Davey appealed to David Cameron over comments made by John Hayes, the energy minister, who is a firm opponent of onshore wind power.
The fallout comes as Britain’s onshore wind-farm industry is under threat from councils using new planning rules to block the construction of thousands of turbines.
Earlier this month Hayes insisted no more wind farms beyond those already planned would be built. “Job done ... end of story,” he said.
Last night it emerged that after the prime minister failed to take action Davey consulted lawyers in an attempt to have Hayes stripped of his responsibility for green energy policy.
Electricity bills could rise by £75 a year by 2020 to fund a new generation of wind farms and nuclear reactors, it emerged last night.
And by 2030 annual bills will go up by an estimated £178 under all the Government’s green and fuel poverty policies. A green energy strategy to be unveiled next week will treble the costs levied on bills from £2.35billion a year to £7.6billion.
Click source to read FULL report from Tamara Cohen and Matt Chorley
Alan Jones is Australia's most popular talk back presenter. Alan Jones is a phenomenon. He is described by many as Australia's greatest orator and motivational speaker. Alan has the mind and capacity to make complex issues understandable to the largest Breakfast audience in Australia.
Alan Jones talks to Steve Cooper, Anne Gardner And David Mortimer about the health impact of wind farms. (Tuesday November 13, 2012)
Never has an undercover video sting delighted its victims more. A Greenpeace investigation has caught some Tory MPs scheming to save the countryside from wind farms and cut ordinary people's energy bills while Lib Dems, Guardian writers and Greenpeace activists defend subsidies for fat-cat capitalists and rich landowners with their snouts in the wind-farm trough. Said Tories will be inundated with fan mail.
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WWF and Greenpeace ought to hang their heads in shame
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