That was going to be my argument, but I figured some douchebag would come on and say something like "WELL, THAT ONE PLANT IS EQUIVALENT TO 50 WIND TURBINES AND I'D RATHER HAVE ONE OF THOSE THAN 50 OF THE OTHER!!!"
man we got like hundreds near my place kinda like 20 miles out....best view is either sunset or sunrise...ill get a pic of it so u guys will see but anywayz if they build a windmill that BIG imma move out even though im 15:ices_rofl
One big turbine is less expensive than several smaller turbines, requires less manpower/machinery/time/materials to put together and maintain, is more efficient and requires less space. Plus it means you don't need a bajillion turbines on a wind farm (as pictured in the above post) for the same amount of energy. And if you still insist on stuffing the land full of them, you'll get a lot more power.
Well, the problem is lot of these things are being built in Europe and other countries where people actually care about the environment and the governments are actually taking initiative. Over here, we just have our tiny little wind farms so we can say we do it too
No we have silly idiots in charge who decide to spend money on silly renewable sources that will never work just because they're green rather than spending money developing ways to sort out the current issues with nuclear power generation. A quick google shows that France has 1.3% of energy from renewable sources (so likely less than 1% from the wind turbines plastered all over the place). IIRC the figure for the UK is about the same.
German wind farms provide 6% of German power (and 28% of the worlds wind energy) and Germany has a lot more land suitable for wind farms than most. If you've ever been or driven through Germany you'd also soon realise that you're never far from one and they really are the prominent feature of some really beautiful areas.
Last time I checked hydro was a renewable resource, so that's 12.4%. Still not a lot but a damn sight better than 1.3%. There are countries far better than that too (20% wind in Denmark as previously mentioned. Norway is 99% based on hydroelectric for the power we produce ourselves). Renewable resources are far from "silly" as long as you focus on the right ones.
I agree with you about nuclear though. It's mostly FUD that's preventing it from being more widely deployed these days. The dangers of nuclear are wildly exaggerated.
I wasn't disputing that fact - I was stating it. I'm on your side here! I just didn't feel like stating all the facts and figures.
Agreed. Nuclear is surely going to play an even greater energy role in the future. But people are still hung up on things like Chernobyl and 3-Mile-Island.
Thanks for pointing that out. I have hydroelectric power as an intelligent way of generating electricity in my mind, separated from the other renewable sources (wind, solar, tidal), which are all silly generate a nominal amount at huge cost and are normally separated from hydroelectric in the statistics.