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Are wind farms green?

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Published Date: 01 February 2008
Dig up a peat bog and release tonnes of . Manufacture thousands of tonnes of concrete and transport it hundreds of miles. Manufacture thousands of tonnes of metal, transport it, build it. Put in the infrastructure to deliver electricity to the other end of the country. Erect monumental pylons sunk in concrete; more transport, more harm to the environment.
If we presume somebody has done the sums to calculate the cost to the environment of concrete, steel production and transport, why are not these numbers at the forefront of proposals? Add in decommissioning after a comparatively short wind farm life and can you come up with a green answer? Or is the North of Scotland to become a junkyard for electrical archaeology?

GREGOR RIMELL

Broomlea

Newtonmore, Inverness-shire



Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 31 January 2008 8:53 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 01/02/2008 10:22:38
Looking at this objectively (which rarely happens nowadays), would there not be just as much use of concrete, steel, transport etc when building a conventional power station?

If so (and I strongly suspect I am right) then where exactly is the argument?

Also, why would electricity windmills have a short life? I don't follow that logic at all.
2

Upbeat,

01/02/2008 12:52:21
Sometimes letters are Impossible to comment on due to editorial controls .....an important point is made elsewhere today.

The debate as to whether it is the local community , or wider society that should determine best practice over Wind energy planning consents in Scotland rears its ugly head.

If Wind energy were the ideal there would be no debate. That such developments have consequences for the majority while the minority alone benefit , is an important issue.

To turn the argument on its head. Britain can be said to need a high speed rail link the length of the country. This would link Scotland in with the extensive network of such lines across Europe. It would prepare this country for the 22nd century when mass air travel may not longer be viable.

Following the argument that local communities should always have the final say on planning , this link will never be built. For obvious reasons.

Surely it is as wrong for any local community to have the final say over wind energy issues, and seek to rubbish those who see the bigger picture, as it would be for any local community to bar completion of a project of national importance, against all demands and evidence in favour ?
3

Neil,

Glasgow 01/02/2008 13:14:29
The letter is quite correct. High Octane while a conventional generator would use much more steel & concrete than a windmill it requires 1,300-2,000 windmills to replace one large conventional generator (except that windmills need back up so the conventional power has to be built anyway).
4

fred bloggs,

Edinburgh 01/02/2008 15:09:35
A 2MW wind turbine has a foundation of around 800 tonnes of reinforced concrete containing around 100 tonnes of cement.

The manufacture of cement releases around 600kg of CO2 per tonne, so 100 tonnes releases 60 tonnes of CO2.

Taking the 2MW turbine to have a capacity factor of 30% it will generate 2000 x 0.3 x 24 x 365 = 5 million kWh of electricity per year.

Coal powered generation emits 0.6kg of CO2 per kWh, so 2MW of coal generation releases 1200 kg or 1.2 tonnes of CO2 per kWh.

Hence, in a year 2MW of coal generation, assuming a 90% capacity factor, releases 1.2 x 24 x 365 x 0.9 = 9460 tonnes of CO2 per year.
5

fred bloggs,

Edinburgh 01/02/2008 15:14:53
5. correction, - the last sentence should read:

Hence, in a year, 2MW of coal generation, assuming a 90% capacity factor, releases 1.2 x 24 x 365 x 0.9 = 9460 tonnes of CO2.
6

Colin, Glasgow,

01/02/2008 22:12:01
Vattenfall, the Swedish state-owned electricity company, have done a lot of analysis of the lifecycle CO2 emissions of their systems. They use a lot of hydro and nuclear, but also wind and bio-fuelled co generation. This is their overall lifecycle analysis (graphs p.22).

http://www.vattenfall.de/www/vf_com/vf_com/Gemeinsame_Inhalte/DOCUMENT/360168vatt/386246envi/2005-LifeCycleAssessment.pdf

In summary the amount of CO2 emitted per kWh of electricity by source:
Nuclear 3g
Hydro 5g
Wind 10g
Biomass 15g
Solar 70g
Gas 400g
Coal 700g

The following document is one of the detailed EPDs they do for wind. It has some interesting artefacts, such as the fact that wind power produces a certain amount of high level radioactive waste during its lifecycle. This is because the manufacturing requires electricity and 30% of European electricity is nuclear.
http://www.vattenfall.com/www/vf_com/vf_com/Gemeinsame_Inhalte/DOCUMENT/360168vatt/386246envi/2005-EPD-WindPower.pdf
7

Gdgy,

dndy 01/02/2008 22:58:33
"Dig up a peat bog and release tonnes of . Manufacture thousands of tonnes of concrete and transport it hundreds of miles. Manufacture thousands of tonnes of metal, transport it, build it. Put in the infrastructure to deliver electricity to the other end of the country. Erect monumental pylons sunk in concrete; more transport, more harm to the environment."
What is your point? Generating usable energy costs energy!
Unless you want to be tied to nuclear with its long term disasterous problems or are saying just have the power produced somewhere else with all these energy costs anyway then this argument dissolves into five letters - NIMBY
Wind energy can provide a "free" non-polluting and low C method of obtaining energy - we are not really talking about why only where!!!

 

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