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My windmills
This is a special day. 25 years ago my mother called me and asked if I would like to invest in some windmills. We had lived in Jutland some years before and now they were putting up 3 huge windmills just behind our old house.
It was easy to finance the project. We could all buy shares and there were even a bank that promised to finance it all. The windmills would pay themselves back in about 10 years and an insurance made sure that if they failed (broke down or something) the payment would be ensured (even thou no further pay-offs would be given).
I got 60 shares. It was a nice income over the years. When people later started to talk about CO2 responsibility, I could see I got more money from the windmill shares that I paid in electricity myself, so I knew in regards to electricity I was more that neutral, even thou I had a lot of computers back then browsing and playing games on the internet.
Today we got together to celebrate the 25 years that has passed. Of cause the windmills are small compared to today's standards, especially with the boom in the industry over the years. Huge windmill parks are located off shore, connected to the new smart grid that slowly is replacing the old grids in most of Europe. Other countries provide energy the way they do best making the grid effective all years. When the wind is not blowing the sun is shining somewhere on the grid and when its cloudy dams provide power from the water. Somewhere in Europe energy flows into the system at all times.
But standing here next to these old mills together with the other shareholders this spring 2020 sure bring memories of how it all started back in the previous millennium...
Views: 52
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Comment by Mita Williams on March 23, 2010 at 6:09pm
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I have family in Denmark and I know that at least of one of my uncles have shares in a windmill. Where I live, in southern Canada, wind turbines are being developed but with strong opposition. Which got me thinking... Do you think the possibility of local and personal ownership of windmills have helped with their acceptance in Denmark?
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Comment by Bjarne Fich on March 23, 2010 at 7:21pm
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I think the general awareness of green energy is high in Denmark. We have quite some resistance to windmills as well, mostly regarding the view and noise from them. Even the huge offshore windmill parks meet opposition.
I don't think local and personal ownership has changed much. Those who oppose windmills are not those who take part in them and vice-versa. So no change of "votes" there.
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Ah.Good to know!
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I tent to agree that we should continue to study the impact of the offshore parks on the environment. I do know that the park here in Denmark (currently the largest in the world) continues being studied.
But I would also have to consider that while people discuss whether or not to build these offshore windmill parks, they continue to build coal based power plants. The impact on the environment and wildlife from these plants are many times as bad as the worst case scenarios we can expect from the offshore parks.
But sometimes these offshore construction has a positive impact on wildlife as well. Sometimes ships are sunk in order to create artificial reefs, that provide fine habitats for fish and plants.
I personally think that most of the opposition and negative studies are funded by political agendas by lobbyists who wish to have their own will (and typically we talk about economical gain) in the matter.
But as I started writing, I agree we need to study these project carefully - but in my opinion the goal of these studies should allow us to build the next parks even better.
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Comment by Maarten Pakvis on March 23, 2010 at 10:54pm
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I like the idea of being co-owner of a windmill, enabling people to actively participate in that market. But, since the issue of the environment came up, I would like to share some ideas on that.
Several scientists have argued that building too many windmills will create serious disruptions in the flow of air and therefore for example movement of clouds (wind=energy=normally used to "blow" the clouds inlands). They argued that a large offshore construction could slow down the wind around 5 km/h and that this would create drought in certain areas and therefore be harmful.
Have you heard this argument and what is your view on it?
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I haven't heard that one before, but I do know that windmills create turbulence. But this also causes mills placed behind each other to become less effective. Windmill parks are therefore created in such a way that they don't shadow for each other. So the creation of a park it self would not be effective if the hind-most mills would have 5 km/h less wind. Therefore a park would not be created in such a way.
I also know that the main engine in the wind patterns lies very high up in the air. The jet stream lies 6-15 km up in the air, so even a 250m high windmill can't disrupt the weather in general (even if some minor local effects was possible).
They are still discussing placing an test area in Denmark to study windmills - but so far haven't agreed on a location. These test windmills will be offshore mills (250m) placed on land close to the coast. The purpose of such a test site is among others to study the possible issues you mention.
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