Ironical that the country famous for its windmills won't let you put up a windmill.
Well, it's not the government or something. There are lots of farmers who put up small-to-medium-size wind turbines, and I've read that while they need a permit and have to comply with some safety rules the process is straightforward and easy to do. They have the space for it....
In my situation my neighbours' houses are connected to mine and so are their backyards. I imagine I would never be able to get a permit to erect a wind turbine in a densely populated area like where I live. I just might get away with a small Savonius attached to my chimney or something (which I am going to try), but that's not going to put much of a dent in my power consumption.
The cost of panels here is greater than the value of the electric power they produce over their life.
The cost, yes. The energy, no. It still makes sense, energy-wise. Mono- and polycrystalline panels typically recover their invested energy in about 4 years (depends on their use and location of course), while amorphous panels usually recover it in about 2 years (but have a much shorter overall life).
That's whey I feel that, at least initially, grants and incentives are needed. That way, demand increases, production increases and if I remember my high school economy lessons correctly that should lead to lower prices.
There is also the disposal problem at the end of their life.
I should think that nearly all of the panels mass should be able to be recycled. The almuminium frame can be melted and re-used, as can the glass panels. I don't know about the silicon, but I guess the electronics indusrty could use that.
Has anyone figured out how much of it's power your country could get from wind power?
Certainly. In our pieces of land reclaimed from the sea ("polders") where the land is flat and open there are lots of wind turbines. Usually large ones, 1MW and up. There are plans to put up a field of turbines in the North Sea where the wind is blowing even harder. There is some opposition from the shipping people (understandable, accidents etc.) and the environmentalists (which is beyond me, they worry about bird strikes etc.). And there are people who think wind turbines are ugly and just don't want to see them. We even have a word for that: "horizonvervuiling" (literally: "horizon-pollution").
Still, only about 2-3% of our power needs are met by wind energy, the rest is mainly natural gas (the Netherlands sit on a large natural gas field), some oil and a minute amount of solar energy. I think there is much potential for wind energy, but as the mainstream political parties are not interested in it I don't see large-scale application soon.
