Monday
Jan052015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill WWF spivs are spinning
Jan 5, 2015 Energy: solar Energy: wind Greens It hasn't taken long, but the story put out by WWF over the weekend about windfarms meeting nearly all domestic demand during December is being torn to shreds.
Euan Mearns gives the claims a good going over here:
Their press release is biased, vague and ambiguous, and journalists may be forgiven for reaching the wrong conclusions and miss reporting it. It would appear this is the intention.
And David Mackay, the former chief scientist at DECC, is having a go on Twitter too.
.@LangBanks "Home" is a misleading unit - total power cons'm'n in all forms is about 24x greater than "all homes" http://t.co/6rcs7UnGKU
— David MacKay FRS (@davidjcmackay) January 5, 2015Update on Jan 5, 2015 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
Anoneumouse sends us the new logo for WWF.
Reader Comments (55)
click on link to see a new WWF Logo
"Throughout the year wind provided enough power for the electrical needs of 98 per cent of Scottish households" (WWF)
Really? That sounds about as convincing as "97% of scientists".
Anon's revised logo looks very apposite.
Does WWF stand for the World Wrestling Federation because I'm sure that a wrestler would know more about climate science than these boof heads.
Wherever there is a gross lie or a distortion ... it seems we also find the WWF.
Love the logo!
That is Wonderful! So Scotland can now shut down all its nuclear and coal plants. Leave one power station open for the 2% . Cut the interconnectors to the damnable English and power off into the future and save the planet for the rest of us. Who would have thought it could be that easy?
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/933/0110153.pdf
Anoneumouse, ROTFLMAO.
I always wonder how many people are fooled by the wind power hype.
Richo, I think it means Whimsical Weather Forecasts.
"Anoneumouse, ROTFLMAO." said TinyCO2!
Same here, it is a delicious skit and rather apt motif - WWF and WTF - is all about the dark hole of uncertainty, what is a known known - that, the WWF are full of 'it'.
I am sure we would all support WWF, if they now severed any cable connecting their offices to the National Grid,
Do we expect anything like the truth from WWF? WWF = World's Whoppers Factory
Their latest advert says the ice is melting and the polar bears and penguins are at risk.
However, the Antarctic ice is at an all time high but there again when did Big Green ever bother about the truth?
Excellent logo, Anoneumouse.
Certainly cheered up my first day back at the grind :-)
Good to see David MacKay chiming in. Total energy = 24* homes seems a lot to me, but I'll take his word for now. But the point is, wind may have almost powered all homes, but then nothing else.
Great Logo :-)
Happy New Year to all BH readers.
Not quite sure I understand this article but the headline seems clear enough: 'Islanders get cheap electricity to keep wind turbines turning'
Is the Scottish Government's new energy policy to encourage people to use more electricity?
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/environment/consumers-to-use-more-clean-energy-to-keep-the-turbines-turning.115195690
As always with this guff and to paraphrase a famous Zen riddle:
Unlike the Zen riddle though, the answer is a bit more obvious.
Great to see David Mackay's book referenced here but it IS very long and touches on many subjects
Does anyone know of a reference work whereby the information on renewable energy is broken up into useable bite sizes?
For example how much energy a home uses and how that is split into heating, cooking etc.
How much electricity a wind turbine of x size produces (in the real world)
How much energy it takes from the grid when the wind isn't blowing
How many tons of cement needed to embed the turbine,
How much solar power you get from a solar 'farm' of 40 acres consisting of x panels and how much power is produced each month i.e production drops off dramatically after October)
Costs of each unit of electricity produced in the real world by each means etc etc
tonyb
Buttons, please!
"Their press release is biased, vague and ambiguous, and journalists may be forgiven for reaching the wrong conclusions and mis-reporting it. It would appear this is the intention."
What on Earth would make one think that?
Arrogant panda says "kiss my a.." To anyone asking for truth and perspective
- Is that the graphic's message ?
Or donation hungry panda, turns it's back on the truth
- As it munches through 300Kg of £10 banknotes everyday
Anyone complained yet to the Advertising Standards Authority about the WWF tv commercial, with the doom-laden voiceover and pictures of polar bears and penguins on little ice floes, stating that their numbers and habitats are 'under threat', so 'send us your money'..?
Isn't this basically fraud..?
He's pretty clear about the 24x figure
Total energy consumed in ALL forms in the UK is 24 times greater than : the unit "home" (used to represent 1 homes electricity use) times the total number of actual homes.
- I do keep saying stop thinking that most energy is consumed in the home and that by switching your broadband router or phone charger off you are saving the planet. Every little doesn't count for much.
When 98% of Scottish homes have every electrical appliance switched off, the Windmills provide all their power.
There, fixed it for you, World's Worst Fraudsters....:o)
As far as I can make out from their website, they are just regurgitating propaganda put out by DECC, so I think we can take it that it is all a complete load of bollocks
Salopian
I wonder where the DECC propaganda originated from. Now if perchance it was from WWF ....
Stand well back or disappear in the implosion!
"20.0% capacity factor for the whole of 2014, which seems about right." Euan Mearns.
That's a really appalling performance, the worst year for wind generation we've ever seen by a long way. Some of the months of 2014 have had very poor capacity factors, according to figures from the Elexon portal:
April 24.3 %, May 19.3 %, June 11.1 %, July 15. 9 %, September 12.1 %.
You begin to wonder if this is partly down to mechanical breakdowns on the scale revealed by Professor Gordon Hughes?
At these rates we pay £1m for a 1 MW windmill and instead get a 200 kW windmill. £5m/MW! But somehow this is cheaper than nuclear?
stewgreen, people are deliberately conned into thinking that the bulk of CO2 emissions are waste and not essential energy use. The last time I filled out one of the carbon footprint calculators it gave me a different carbon footprint depending upon what the rating of the appliances I entered, regardless of having accurate usage values entered for gas and electricity. It made it look like the lower rated appliances could magically emit more CO2 despite using no more energy. Everyone has the idea thart it's somebody else who is wasting all that energy. I think it should be a legal requirement for anyone preaching on CAGW to wear their personal and business CO2 footprint on a badge at all times.
What really bugs me, is that during December, we've had almost almost identical weather in the Marches as Scotland, either no wind at all or howling gales, so where is all this wind-generated electricity coming from?
Ivor Ward,
As an expat Scot now living in the other half of The Auld Alliance and a green Gaurdian reading brother living at "home" I echo your sentiments 100%. It needs something like that to shock people back into reality.
( Lapogus I know that you're well equipped to last out the initial shock until normal service is partially resumed)
Hey guys don't forget we saving the planet even more with our low-powered vacuum cleaners to suck up the organic quinoa spilt on the floor.
I guess it's apposite that WWF have chosen an evolutionary dead-end as their logo
TinyCO2
Is it not the case that the better the appliance's rating the more efficiently it uses the energy and therefore consumes less of it. A fridge or freezer will reach its working temperature quicker if it is better insulated and so will switch itself off sooner, for example, and less in the way of "top-ups" while it is operating.
I agree with your suggestion that those who preach "carbon economy" (for want of a better phrase) should tell us what their own carbon consumption is.
But there again, they're doing all this to "save the planet" and that has to come first. All this swanning round the world on luxury trips to luxury resorts is a terrible thing; be grateful they are prepared to do it so we don't need to.
Do animal-lovers donating to the WWF know that they're funding cheerleaders for the wind turbine industry?
WTF has that got to do with Wildlife?
@Jack Hughes - Not just vacuum cleaners, at the end of February, the EU Eco-fascists are introducing new power restrictions on domestic ovens and hobs. Great news for food-poisoning bacteria.
kellydown
It kills it?@kellydown - the wind turbine industry does an excellent job of killing raptors and bats, all of which are endangered and/or protected species in the UK. In fact, in the case of raptors, more are now killed by wind turbines than are poisoned or trapped by farmers and gamekeepers. Perhaps it's time the WWF was given a very clear reminder about this.
@kellydown - the wind turbine industry does an excellent job of killing raptors and bats, all of which are endangered and/or protected species in the UK. In fact, in the case of raptors, more are now killed by wind turbines than are poisoned or trapped by farmers and gamekeepers. Perhaps it's time the WWF was given a very clear reminder about this.
And the RSBP!!
http://www.rspb.org.uk/whatwedo/projects/details/205403-the-effects-of-wind-farms-on-upland-birds
As if they don't know the answers;
http://warmwell.com/raptors.html
And their own research shows the same;
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CD0QFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snh.gov.uk%2Fdocs%2FA694668.pdf&ei=FLeqVNKVLI3garyFgogC&usg=AFQjCNEQTaz4h4Ipo1zYhgSf73QRtWuUwg
Mike Jackson the software gave me a greater CO2 footprint if I put in less efficient appliances which is impossible if I've already entered the exact energy used. How much energy you use also depends upon how long you use them and how many items of eqipment there are. It MIGHT reduce a future footprint but it can't alter a historical one. Propoganda was built into the software.
I think the likes of DECC, WWF and all the other climate charlatans are well aware of the abysmal performance of windmills in 2014. They are pre-empting the bad publicity by putting out tortured statistics that paint a very different picture and relying on the short attention span of most of the general public having switched off interest before the truth is revealed. In this election year I look forward to a political party writing a manifesto that pulls the rug from under the greens; rumour has it that there is one!
TinyCO2:
I was. At first, I thought it a wonderful advancement. Then I started to look at the evidence.Now I know better.
@ Steve Jones: Please don't de-rail this thread into an advert for Nigel Daley and his bunch of ex-NF/BNP nutters.
Nice one, Anoneumouse.
Jan 5, 2015 at 4:59 PM | Salopian
That wasn't my intent but feel free to nominate another party prepared to take an objective view on climate change and the futile mitigation measures that have been written into law. Unless the current political system is given a good shake up then look forward to more of this sponsored lying in future.
I'd be curious to know if Scottish wind causes some negative export costs, as it does in Ontario, Canada http://coldair.luftonline.net/2014/12/electricity-in-ontario-as-2014-ends.html Also, listen to this podcast interview of Parker Gallant, he does great work analyzing Ontario electricity generation http://www.zoomerradio.ca/uncategorized/podcast-goldhawk-fights-back/gfb-podcast-parker-gallant-december-29th/
@Steve Jones: I am a retired Civil Servant, I gave up voting for, or supporting any political party over 20 years ago having realised that they are all a load of dishonest self-centred shysters, so my dislike for your comment has nothing to do any with political bias. It just really annoys me that the likes of you keep popping up on sites such as this saying it will all be solved if we vote for you - despite the fact that your party has no manifesto, let alone a policy on this subject.
Mike Jackson:
Having just replaced my 20 year-old upright freezer for one with the same spatial footprint (a critical fit) I'm faced with a freezer that holds about 25% less frozen food than the old one. Why? Because the amount of insulation in the walls of the freezer make its internal dimensions that much smaller. [sigh]Anoneumouse: It's weird, but if you stare at that WWtF panda long enough you could swear it's winking at you.
Jan 5, 2015 at 6:54 PM | Salopian
I am neither a member of UKIP nor have I voted for them yet. You have made a number of incorrect assumptions in your last post but I will avoid getting into a slanging match with one of my elders.
Happy New Year to you nevertheless.
@Steve Jones: "You have made a number of incorrect assumptions in your last post "
Please clarify, or retract.
Does WWF stand for the World Wrestling Federation because I'm sure that a wrestler would know more about climate science than these boof heads.
Jan 5, 2015 at 10:39 AM | Unregistered CommenterRicho
How many of their beat-ups have happened?
So how about "Waiting for the Wheels to Fall off"?