The larger a windmill is, the less efficient it is in capturing energy and the greater the percent cost of the stand, which is the largest cost. Yet windmills keep getting larger, which means less efficient.

The size is rationalized in the usual way: larger is assumed to always be better and more efficient. It's not true for windmills. But the real reason for the ever increase in size is that there is more money to be made constructing large windmills, and no one cares about the cost, as long as rate-payers get soaked for it and have nothing to say about it.

The real efficiency of a windmill is determined by the number of blades and smallness. The number of blades determines how much wind goes between them without the energy being captured. The smallness determines rotational speed, which also determines the amount of wind that goes between the blades without benefit.

Large windmills must be reduced in rotational speed to prevent the tip speed from approaching 200 miles per hour. At greater tip speeds, vibrations and noise become excessive. To keep the tip speed from being excessive, the number of rotations per minute have to be reduced as size increases. So the very large windmills have extremely low rpms (rotations per minute).

Lower rpms for larger windmills means more wind going between the blades without capturing the energy. The result is a lot of expensive metal without as much energy per unit of cost.

So the larger windmills get, the larger the percent of the cost is in the expensive stand and the lower the percent energy captured relative to total cost. Yet the deciders couldn't care less, which shows ulterior motives for the whole concept.

What the wastefulness of windmills shows is that the whole concept is nothing but a rip off for the contractors who get cost-plus contracts. That means they can spend more money and get paid for profit in addition to expenses.

The deciders above the level of the contractors go along with it, which means they too have ulterior motives. Their motives in creating unnecessary expense indicates they are striving for expensive systems that only the rich can afford.

Rationalizing with renewable energy is more fluid than usual due to the extreme complexity. At the superficial level, there is no meaning to the rationalizing, because it all depends upon the details. The details are never picked apart and related to the end points. So superficial statements have no meaning.

For example, the large size of windmills is rationalized in terms of getting farther above the ground to capture more wind. That point disappears in irrelevance compared to more important points related to efficiency. The point is slightly true but irrelevant.

A more extreme example is the claim that renewable energy is "on par with coal." Such a superficial statement without explanations has no relationship to reality. The end result would be the only relevance; and it shows that the price of electricity increases by a factor of ten when renewables increase to 15% of the total electrical power of a system as occurred in Germany and England. The price increased by a factor of 4 in California with about 5% renewables.

Another type of rationalizing that is total fraud is using the "name plate" rating for the amount of electricity renewables produce, while operating conditions average about 20% of the name plate rating. Variations reduce the average output far below the name plate rating.

The biggest fraud in renewable energy is ignoring the transmission lines. At first, previous transmission lines were used, which adds no cost for that purpose to a few renewables. But already, previous lines are becoming over-loaded, and new lines are needed. The lines are too expensive for the purposes, which is holding up the whole process.

The amount of increase in transmission line length for 100% renewables would be a factor of tens of thousands—totally out of the question for cost and not enough metal on planet earth for one tenth that amount.

Of course 100% renewables is beyond absurd; and there hasn't been significant increases for several years due to the insurmountable obstacles.