Seeing the Round Corners

April 9, 2018

THE WIND INDUSTRY – ANOTHER FEDERAL CHARITY

   There area a number of issues that are completely ignored by proponents of electricity generated by wind farms, but two of the most identifiable and damning are dirty electricity and ground current. Of course, the most identifiable is contingent on three things:  those identifying being objective, willing to acknowledge results of legitimate studies and to have the information included in the massive hype now ongoing for wind energy – the same type of hype that was a part of the ethanol debacle and solar energy.

An expert on dirty electricity, Magda Havas, a professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, provided the following descriptive list of what goes into motion when turbines operate:

  • as wind is turning turbines, it is generating power;
  • power is stored in DC current (meaning it does not oscillate back and forth;
  • current must then be converted to an AC current with a 60-cycle frequency; and
  • to convert it to 60-cycle frequency, it must go through an inverter and that produces electricity. 

   Havas is considered an expert on the effects of wind turbines on human health and has testified in more than 12 countries about electromagnetic pollution.

Dave Stetzer of Stetzer Consulting, explains dirty electricity this way:  “When electricity is converted from a direct to an alternating one, the current oscillates at the 60-cycle or 60-hertz frequency but carries an additional 20 kilohertz of dirty electricity on top of it, and that 20 kilohertz is like a fingerprint – if you are near a wind farm and see 20 kilohertz you know it is from the wind farm.”

Stetzer also provided this information on a study he conducted:

  • study period was 572 days;
  • study group was 30,000 dairy cows;
  • ground current flow, even as little as 10 millivolts, milk production dropped more than 90 percent of the time.

   Professor Havas explains what happens to cows near wind farms:

  • cows are often seen lifting their feet to break the circuit and keep the current from running through them earning them the name of “dancing cows”;
  • electricity is actually flowing up one leg and across the body, then down the other leg;
  • the current flows right across the reproductive organs;
  • miscarriages or difficulty conceiving are commonly recognized as issues related to ground current moving through an animal’s body;
  • ground current coupled with dirty electricity creates an even worse problem, resulting in issues like mastitis or foot sores that will not heal and swollen joints;
  • often new-born animals in the area are born with deformities;
  • sadly, people living on the wind farms complain of symptoms similar to those seen in animals; and
  • electricity dissipates internally to the human body at as little as 2 kilohertz.

   Is it any wonder both Havas and Stetzer say 20 kilohertz from a wind farm are reason for great concern. Stetzer who has been qualified as an expert by the courts, says information he provides is not psychosomatic, but are “cold, hard facts and the results can be measured.” Stetzer does add that only part of the human population are sensitive to the dirty electricity, citing an analogy to that of how not everyone has an allergy to peanuts.

Stetzer and Havas offer a solution to fix the dirty electricity and ground current problem:  filter it. Stetzer, referring to the characteristics of the electricity wanted, said “We want only the 60-hertz frequency, not the 20 kilohertz one. You can filter the frequency so only the 60-hertz frequency can go through.” The catch? Filtering is going to cost some money, and to Stetzer’s knowledge, there is not a wind farm project that has ever been constructed or equipped with such a filter.

Reader’s should recall, the COST of installing scrubbers on coal-fired power plants to capture the carbon dioxide emissions is the reason for refusal by owners of such plants to do so.

Development of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) has long-been urged as “essential to meeting climate goals.” The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) provides these significant points on carbon capture:

  • Carbon capture, use and storage technologies can capture over 90 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants and  industrial facilities.
  • Captured carbon dioxide can be put to productive use in enhanced oil recovery and the manufacture of fuel, building materials, and more, or be stored in underground geologic formations.
  • Almost two dozen commercial-scale carbon capture projects are operating around the world with 22 more in development.
  • Carbon capture can achieve 14 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed by 2050, and is viewed as the only practical way to achieve deep decarbonization in the industrial sector.

   There are other benefits for captured carbon dioxide according to the C2ES. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) carbon dioxide has been used to extract additional oil from developed oil fields in the U. S. 

U. S. companies are not leaving the search for new technologies up to their government or foreign countries. Investment in new technology has resulted in innovation such as jet fuel and automobile seats as just some ways to re-use captured carbon emissions. As added incentive, the NRG’s COSIA Carbon XPRIZE has researchers exploring even more uses such as transforming carbon emissions into algae biofuels and building materials.

Think what could have been accomplished had the $176 billion in subsidies given to the “biggest players” in the U. S. wind industry had been instead bestowed on the technology solution carbon capture, use and storage would have made possible for the world.

According to C2ES there are signs of bipartisan support growing in the U. S. Congress and at the state level to accelerate carbon capture deployment. That would involve partisan bills to extend and expand a federal tax credit known as Section 45Q for carbon capture and would also be helpful in unleashing private capital for more projects.

Incentivizing carbon capture has some impressive supporters:  Western Governors Association, Southern States Energy Board and National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

There are a number of industrial processes using large-scale carbon capture including coal gasification, ethanol production, fertilizer production, natural gas processing, refinery hydrogen production, and most recently, coal-fired power generation. This information brings to mind this question:  How many times have readers seen or heard “carbon capture, use and storage” used in all the hype and publicity for ethanol production and natural gas processing?

Details of how carbon capture is accomplished, CO2 Transportation, CO2 Storage and Carbon Storage Regulations are lengthy and will be covered at a later date on Seeing the Rounder Corners. The website for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions includes a list of Carbon Capture Milestones beginning with the 1972 Terrell gas processing plant in Texas, and lists many projects, the most recent being the 2017 ADM Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage Project – a project that can capture 1.1 million tons of CO2 per year.

The reader's comments or questions are always welcome. E-mail me at doris@dorisbeaver.com.