Ofcom gets puffed out over wind turbines

Yet another reason...

why wind farms are such a waste of time.

Let's forget about them and find something else.

How about Nuclear.

Static buildings, smaller footprints, low emissions, no shredded birds...

Solution #1:

Stop using such unreliable crap as microwave links that tend to be screwed up by humidity never mind wind farms.

That report.

"....the conclusion is only that more research is needed."

The gravy train is arriving on platform one. All those wishing to fill their pockets doing sod-all^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hthis valuable research should board now.

I think we can draw at least one conclusion

Wait till our yoof discover that the reason they can't txt &c any more is the hippies and greenies and don quixotes and their windmills.

Kids - saving the planet from the carbon cult - give them a chance.

Title?

So how come other countries are littered with wind farms and not having these problems?

Food

There is only one good use for Microwaves.

End of story.

If you don't own the land, you don't have any right to an un-obstructed view, whether that be from your window, your TV antenna or a comms link.

@ General A. Annoying

You missed out

"Dependence on foreign, non-renenable fuel"

Unless you know of any UK Uranium deposits?

Wind, does get importd from other places, but at a significantly lower cost.

HVDC grid network for round-the-clock renewable energy.

We had a microwave link at uni, they then decided to replace with IR connections. On the coast. Where it gets foggy.

Oh look, the network is down.

MW-Tx ---> Windfarm Rx -> Underground cable under wind farm -> Windfarm Tx --->MW-Rx

I'm not too sure about the overlapping microwave caused by original/rebroadcast signals. Would it be hard to limit it only to the Fresnel area?

@Alistair @Luther, you have just failed the Turing test

For that do I get the big fat 10 or the skinny nul? You ain't seen nuffink yet. For my next trick, the Rorschach test.

...any UK Uranium deposits?

Sellafield car park? (Well we've got to do *something* with it.)

Vertical Sails?

I assume that vertical rotating sails as used on some sea-going vessels have been ruled out for some reason. They could be as tall as necessary and would probably not be so alarming to some people. I know almost nothing about RF propagation characteristics but it appears from the report that it is the indeterminacy of radar cross-section that causes the problems. The Fresnel effect has been known about for a long time and can be allowed for given a stable line-of–site scatter and attenuation. Call me silly but I would suspect that a vertical (cylindrical) sail would be perceived as a more stable interruption or disturbance. The diameter of the current rotor designs relates directly to the attenuation which is further compounded by the incidence angle which varies in direct relation to the prevailing wind direction. The radar cross-section of a vertical sail might not appear to vary so significantly as a result of wind direction. Some variation will result from feathering used to control the speed. One advantage of vertical sail is that the gearbox and electrical power conversion gear does not have to be balanced on top of the tower – it would be at ground level where access for maintenance would be better.

Vertical wind turbines would probably has less effect on the local avian population and aliens in their UFOs would probably think they were just chimneys so life would be better all round.

Tongue... Meet Cheek.

Wind farms are VITAL if we are to meet our power generation needs for the future... We need to replace Drax, and our government has a cunning plan to build 7000 offshore wind turbines (one per day until Drax shuts down) sadly this is not possible and is not being done either, the tools are not available. Even then, the wind does not blow all of the time, so a "conventional" power station will need to be kept on standby to step in at these times.

I've just had a mad idea, why don't we just build the conventional power station and forget about the 7000 useless wind turbines, with the money saved we could build another dozen "conventional" plants and sell electricity to the French.

Remember, even microwave systems won't work if we don't have the power and without the wind turbines we won't have to concern ourselves with cigars.

As far as "renewables" go, we live on an island with the second highest tides on the globe, so tidal power would make more sense.

Jagged Stumps

In 50 years or sooner when windfarms are discredited as they surely will be, where will the money come from to recover the rotting towers?