[ExI] Efficiency of wind power.

[John Clark]

On Apr 7, 2011, at 4:31 AM, Eugen Leitl wrote:

> Recent study says 65% of total electricity production in
> Germany could be done with wind power -- in theory.

I don't believe that number, current wind farms produce less than 30% of the power they were supposed to and their output is very irregular. See: 

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/04/06/whoa-windfarms-in-uk-operate-well-below-advertised-efficiency/

And wind power is not inexhaustible, if wind farms become common that 30% figure will drop even more; and environmentalists will bitch about disrupting wind patterns killing birds looking ugly and making noise.  

As for solar cells, they use indium and tellurium and there is not enough in the earth's crust to make enough cells to make a serious dent in the problem. Maybe substitutions will be found but they wouldn't be a solution to global warming; solar cells are black and only about 20% efficient, so 80% of the light that would otherwise be reflected back into space is converted directly into heat. And I just can't see powering a steel making blast furnace with solar cells. The only technology that is ready today to take over from fossil fuels is nuclear fission, moonbeams just aren't going to work.

  John K Clark   





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