The £48,000 wind turbine that will take four centuries to pay for itself: New structure will generate just £5 of electricity a month
Daily Mail -
- 60ft turbine built in area where there is no wind in Aberystwyth
- Taxpayer-funded turbine built in a sheltered valley, away from windy coast
- Turbine produces so little electricity it will take 400 years to repay the bill
A wind turbine built with £48,000 of taxpayers’ money has been producing so little electricity it will take more than 400 years to repay the bill, it emerged yesterday.
Despite being in a windy, coastal town, the 60ft structure was built in a sheltered valley and managed to generate only an average of £5 worth of electricity a month.
Now critics have branded the scheme ‘an obscenely expensive vanity project’.
The turbine was erected at the Aberystwyth offices of the Labour-controlled Welsh government in 2009 with the aim of reducing its carbon footprint.
But after years of scepticism – and in response to a freedom of information application – the assembly finally admitted yesterday that the turbine had generated just 33kWh of electricity a month.
Officials blamed mechanical problems, which meant the turbine had been able to work at only quarter capacity until the start of this year.
It is now operating at 68 per cent of capacity, but the electricity it generates still works out at less than £9 a month.
Read more: dailymail.co.uk
Source: http://www.oneworldchronicle.com/?p=18171
