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Man Astonished By Prince Philip's Frank Views!

angrysoba

Philosophile
angrysoba
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Osaka, Japan
A guy who sells wind turbines is given an earful by Prince Philip. The same guy is astonished by Prince Philip's frank views:

When Esbjorn Wilmar, of Infinergy, which builds and operates turbines, introduced himself to the Duke at a reception in London, he found himself on the end of an outspoken attack on his industry.

“He said they were absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace,” said Mr Wilmar. “I was surprised by his very frank views.”

Mr Wilmar said his attempts to argue that onshore wind farms were one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy received a fierce response from the Duke.

“He said, 'You don’t believe in fairy tales do you?’” said Mr Wilmar. “He said that they would never work as they need back-up capacity.”
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-philip/8901985/Wind-farms-are-useless-says-Duke.html

So there you go. Unlike the monarchy, and its hangers-on, windfarms are absolutely useless.
 
So at an event unrelated to Windfarms some random guy approaches the Prince and asks him his opinion. This bloke thenreports the private conversation to the press to cause some controversy and push his own company?
 
Captain_Swoop said:
So at an event unrelated to Windfarms some random guy approaches the Prince and asks him his opinion. This bloke thenreports the private conversation to the press to cause some controversy and push his own company?
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I imagine that's exactly what happened, yes.

Well, he managed to get me talking about his product.
 
Unlike the Queen, Prince Phillip has never been known for his tact or diplomacy. He was always good for at least one good gaff a royal tour
 
Well, it's not like he (Phil the Greek) is some completely unreconstructed petrol-head;

But Charles isn't the first "Solar Prince" - his father can lay claim to that title. Prince Philip installed a solar hot water system over 30 years ago at Sandringham.
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http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=739

Environment – Prince Philip has a keen interest in the state of the natural environment. He has put this into practice by using alternative energy sources for his official car. In the 1980s he used two electric Bedford vans to travel around London. Currently he uses a Metrocab powered by Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
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https://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalFamily/TheDukeofEdinburgh/FactFile.aspx
 
shemp said:
Why was he astonished by viewing Prince Philip's frank? Was it a foot-long?
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Don't you remember why Lady Di was so disappointed after her wedding? She had always thought that every ruler had twelve inches.
 
Why is it a 'Gaff' when Phil says what he thinks? He is second in command (Ok not in practice). If I was him I would say what I wanted as well.
 
Checkmite said:
Was he wrong?
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Only in part, by using a basket of renewables you can eliminate some of the fluctuations in capacity. But every joule generated is one less that produced by fossil fueled plants.

Fossil fuels also get an effective subsidy because they don't have to factor in the health and environmental costs of running them - those are dealth with by the state. Also the environmental costs of de-commissioning and environmental clean-up is also often met by local authorities. Renewables and nuclear get bashed because they either have to factor in these costs (as in the nuclear industry) or they are very minimal (as in solar, wind, wave and tidal).
 
He seems mostly unimpressed with the notion of solitary on-shore windmills, at least that was my impression.

Perhaps it's the advertising. A lot of home wind turbine manufacturers around here make a selling point out of the fact that since the windmill is tied into the house's grid, that if you use less electricity than it makes, the excess is actually sold back to the electric company who credits your bill.

I don't have any exact numbers, but I have trouble believing that actually happens often enough for it to count as a selling point. Lower bills I can see. Making enough to sell back to Power? Yeh, not likely.
 
angrysoba said:
A guy who sells wind turbines is given an earful by Prince Philip. The same guy is astonished by Prince Philip's frank views:

When Esbjorn Wilmar, of Infinergy, which builds and operates turbines, introduced himself to the Duke at a reception in London, he found himself on the end of an outspoken attack on his industry.

“He said they were absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace,” said Mr Wilmar. “I was surprised by his very frank views.”

Mr Wilmar said his attempts to argue that onshore wind farms were one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy received a fierce response from the Duke.

“He said, 'You don’t believe in fairy tales do you?’” said Mr Wilmar. “He said that they would never work as they need back-up capacity.”
Click to expand...



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-philip/8901985/Wind-farms-are-useless-says-Duke.html

So there you go. Unlike the monarchy, and its hangers-on, windfarms are absolutely useless.
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Wow...

A-frakking-men, your highness.
 
Checkmite said:
He seems mostly unimpressed with the notion of solitary on-shore windmills, at least that was my impression.

Perhaps it's the advertising. A lot of home wind turbine manufacturers around here make a selling point out of the fact that since the windmill is tied into the house's grid, that if you use less electricity than it makes, the excess is actually sold back to the electric company who credits your bill.

I don't have any exact numbers, but I have trouble believing that actually happens often enough for it to count as a selling point. Lower bills I can see. Making enough to sell back to Power? Yeh, not likely.
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One of the widespread issues, as I understand it, in some countries, is that unused power will go back into the grid but power companies won't pay you for it. Unless you have some way of storing your power I think this would indeed happen. Consider at night for example; if it's windy and you're not using heating or anything overnight you're still generating power that's just going straight into the grid. I can't speak for anyone else but our house's overnight power consumption rate is well below what a personal wind generator could produce.
 
gumboot said:
One of the widespread issues, as I understand it, in some countries, is that unused power will go back into the grid but power companies won't pay you for it. Unless you have some way of storing your power I think this would indeed happen. Consider at night for example; if it's windy and you're not using heating or anything overnight you're still generating power that's just going straight into the grid. I can't speak for anyone else but our house's overnight power consumption rate is well below what a personal wind generator could produce.
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True, but I'm not sure it matters. During the day I imagine many use substantially more than the windmill puts out; and the power company charges you according to how much your meter moves over the course of a month. Allegedly, during the times when your windmill is putting electricity into the grid, your meter should run backward.

As I said, at the end of the month, even allowing a few occasions of backward-meter-running, I'm guessing only an extremely tiny minority's meters will register a net upload rather than net consumption.
 
gumboot said:
Most of them seem to me like he just has a very dry sense of humour. I never had much of an opinion of him but after reading those I quite like him.
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Yeah, the one on the list he actually apologised for as an actual gaffe was
While touring a factory near Edinburgh he said a fuse box was so crude it "looked as though it had been put in by an Indian".
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He was thinking "cowboy", had a brain-fart and it came out "Indian"
 
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