SO NOW WE KNOW

For all those who were wondering why our occasional visitor Athena knows nothing about wind power, the answer is now clear. She reads the Daily Heil.

Recently, the Heil ran a story which Athena couldn't wait to tell us about. According to that appalling rag, the UK's wind power industry is responsible for a toxic lake in China. Why? Because of the rare earths used in wind turbine manufacture. They're not actually all that rare, but they are difficult to extract. Lots of acid is used, and that has led to the existence of a huge, poisonous lake. Oh dear.

Well, let's not get too discouraged. Those same rare earths are also used in aeroplanes, computers and laptops, mobile phones, iPod headphones, batteries, solar panels ... and currently, about 4% of Britain's offshore wind turbines use them. But there aren't really any onshore turbines in the UK which currently rely on these rare earths (actually, the one used in turbines - of the offshore variety - is called Neodymium).

Now, that's odd. Because the pro-renewables group VVASP has repeatedly said how keen it is on offshore windfarms. And yet these are the ones which tend to use Neodynium for their permanent magnets.

But let's hope that Athena is as good as her word and is now getting rid of all her computers, laptops, mobiles, iPods and cancelling all flights. You know, just to be consistent.

Approximately one per cent of all the rare earth metals produced by China are used by Europe's wind power industry. Neodymium, which does get used in turbines, accounts for about one-fifth of China's rare earth production. So it's rather misleading of the Daily Heil to pretend that Britain's wind industry is causing the poisoned lake problem. In fact, most of the rare earths go to Japan to be used in consumer electronics. So Daily Fail hacks working away at their computers are as responsible for the problem as anybody.

And China is finally accepting that its global image as a dreadful polluter is doing it no favours, so it has started to regulate these things. This will mean that high-tech industries will start looking elsewhere for the rare earth metals - where there is a level-playing field of regulation, there's little cause to go to China for these substances.

So, by reading the Daily Wail and insisting, against all common sense, on actually believing it, Athena is getting herself horribly and hopelessly confused.

Anyone who really wants to know about the Daily Heil's disgraceful lack of interest in the facts and its dreadful treatment of its innocent victims (non-wind related) is invited to go here and have a bit of a read:

http://nosleeptilbrooklands.blogspot.com/2011/01/true-story-of-daily-mail-lies-guest.html?spref=fb

You'll probably never want to read that fascist bogroll ever again.