Selfsufficientish.com

Surprise, surprise. Some of the biggest windfarms are just as much use as Martin's famous chocolate teapots on suburban rooftops.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6969865.stm

The big farms need a windload factor of at least 30% to be efficient. Many are below that and one case the factor was just 3.3%! In other cases, the windfarms have not even been connected to the national grid.

In other words, windfarms are stuck in the wrong place because of all the bribes (sorry, grants and subsidies) that are blowing about.

there's a programme about it on radio 4 at 9 tonight - I have a feeling that it may be a bunch of "anti-wind" nutters who've been doing the rounds lately, who try to claim that they're all rubbish because they're not turning all the time!
I dislike grants (and the national grid) on principle, but as has already been said by a government spokesman - subsidies are paid on production - hence if they site them badly, they'll take longer to pay back!
I spend an awful lot of my time gently explaining to people that their site is NOT suitable for wind, but I do know that if you're in the fortunate position of being able to gain consent for, and can fund a medium size turbine (250kw or so), even down here in the windless south, you'd be barking mad not too.......with the economies of scale, medium and large turbines pay back fast (without a grant of any sort in sight!).
We did the sums for a site (average windspeed 6 m/s)- which showed that a second-user 250kw turbine would pay back in around 3 years, a new one in 5-6........(with a genuine lifespan of 20 years, that's a very good investment, particularly as energy prices ain't never coming back down!)