A £50,000 taxpayer-funded wind turbine is to be scrapped after it was revealed that it produced just £5 of electricity a month, according to the Daily Mail. The turbine was installed outside a Welsh government office despite warnings from Civil Servants that it was being installed in an area that was too sheltered to get any wind.
Based on the current power output, it would take 757 years for the turbine to pay for itself, as it generates just 33 kilowatts of energy a month, equivalent to £5.28 worth of electricity. In addition the manufacturers of the 60ft turbine have gone into liquidation and are therefore no longer in a position to maintain it.
A spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “It beggars belief that tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was squandered on a scheme with such a minuscule return.”
The manufacturer of the turbine, Quiet Revolution, are said to have warned the Welsh government that they had chosen a poor location for it. It is rumoured that politicians were so keen to prove their green credentials they ignored the advice from their own experts. The result was that the turbine produced so little energy that it was not worth maintaining.
Turbine expert Paul Burrell said: “It’s very important with any wind turbine to ensure they have unobstructed access to wind from all directions.
“Unfortunately, the Welsh government’s turbine was located in a valley two miles from the sea.
It was also located next to tall buildings, so even if there was a strong wind it was displaced by the time it reached the turbine.”
News of problems with the Welsh turbine will add to growing concerns about wind farms that are costing significant amounts of money but produce very little energy. There is also growing evidence that they are dangerous.
Last month Breitbart London reported that a new wind farm had been linked to the premature births of over 1,600 mink at a fur farm in Denmark. It is not clear how the wind farm caused the problem, but it has led to significant harm to the animals concerned.
Wind turbines have also been linked to a variety of symptoms in humans, including insomnia, nausea and headaches, although the government remains reluctant to investigate.