Eamon Ryan, the Green Party leader, thinks the State is not doing enough about climate change and not borrowing enough money from the European Investment bank :
The end game for the Greens and the Left is a bloated state, high taxes and debt enslavement for future generations. The irony is that if the Greens wanted to stop climate change the first thing they would do is call for an end to budget deficits and governments spending beyond it's means. After all, this would meet the definition of sustainability according to the Brundtland Commission :
Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.
If you take taxation out of the Green parties policies there is nothing left. Last week Energy Minister Naughton admitted in the Dail that he was bound by the SEA Directive. He has to hold public consultations before bringing in new wind energy guidelines. Eamon Ryan said he could not understand why there was a delay. The SEA Directive is 12 years in operation and he says he never heard of it. He was minister for 3 of those years.
ReplyDeleteMy local farm supplier and hardware shop bought in a crate of incandescent light bulbs 10 days ago. It measured 4 feet X 4 ft X 3 feet high. There had to be several hundred bulbs in it. They were all sold yesterday. Perhaps the new energy saving bulbs are not all they are cracked up to be. Broken ones release dangerous mercury into the atmosphere. I suspect even intact ones may be harmful.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of technical problems affecting large wind turbines. Here is an advertisement for a concrete technician.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.irishjobs.ie/Jobs/Concrete-Repair-Technician-7950706.aspx
There are also huge problems with the step down gearboxes transmitting the torque of the 18 revvs per minute blades into at least 1,750 RPM at the alternator. If you can imagine 2 mw alternator in strong winds resisting the torque transmitted thorough the gearbox placing enormous strain on bearings, housings and shafts. It only works in grandfather clocks where the energy transmitted is small and very regular. Even these eventually wear and need replacing and new bearings fitted. The wind is partly absorbed by the blades and transmitted to the alternator, some wind gets through but the rest exerts pressure of the tower (tending to push it back). The pressure is at its worse at the joint with the base and acts in changing directions with wind direction. Add the vibrating nature of the resistance and the concrete (or steel) will yield. This is very hard to fix, I don't think pouring resin into the cracks will work. It means that the carrying value of wind farm assets is much less than normal machinery depreciation value. If an investor thinks his shares in a wind farm is the new purchase price, less 25 years depreciation less residual value, he is in for a surprise when he realizes it will need major repair costing half new price after five or six years. It is the same principle as the evolution of trees in a forest, the taller they grow the more light they can compete for, but there is a limit at which the roots cannot sustain it upright any longer. Size does matter. Perhaps its another hit for banks that don't know the difference between the price and the vlaue