What are the basic premises underlying wind powered electricity generation?
• Earth is undergoing global warming. • Human activity, especially the production of CO2, is causal. • It is possible to materially reduce worldwide CO2 production. • Wind turbines are an effective and economically feasible means of producing electricity • Wind turbines are environmentally friendly • Off shore wind turbines are superior to land based turbines • How certain are these premises? • The book Superfreakonomics has an interesting discussion of this. • Roger Underwood, Carbon Forestry: A Cautionary Note This article, forwarded by Jim Macgregor, is written by an Australian forestry expert. It is worth reading. • How green is wind energy? • Eric Rosenbloom “A Problem With Wind Power” {from Jim Doyle] Despite their being cited as the shining example of what can be accomplished with wind power, the Danish government has cancelled plans for three offshore wind farms planned for 2008 and has scheduled the withdrawal of subsidies from existing sites. Development of onshore wind plant
