Giant wind farm plan thrown out

[William of Walworth]

If electricity prices, in particular, get high enough, then it would really be viable for everyone to start having little wind turbines and solar thingies on their roofs, and maybe CHP boilers, selling any excess back to the grid.

This is exactly the sort of area where, in only an imperfectly better society even, publicly owned/managed housing (particularly large estates) could take the lead in pioneering such projects -- economies of scale in intalling more heat efficient boilers, windmills to power an estate, solar panels, better insulation etc.

As far as I understand them though, the current rules re. spending on public housing dictate that any improvement costs must be met strictly from tenant income -- for so long as housing remains Council anyway. So the high initial costs of investing in better/greener heating eficiency, etc. on an estate like mine, will be a bigger deterrant than it should be -- later savings won't be allowed to be an offsetting factor.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

If electricity prices, in particular, get high enough, then it would really be viable for everyone to start having little wind turbines and solar thingies on their roofs, and maybe CHP boilers, selling any excess back to the grid. Big companies would also benefit, because they would most likely be the ones making the machinery for all this.

See:

BBC News article about micro-generation

Giles..

Edited to add BBC link

Some companies certainly would benefit, but the major gas and electric companies would not and could be expected to lobby against any government encouragement of such schemes. If you're one of the big utilities, stuff like giant wind farms and nuclear plants are much better suited to your business model than measures that reduce demand.

 

[Giles]

Some companies certainly would benefit, but the major gas and electric companies would not and could be expected to lobby against any government encouragement of such schemes. If you're one of the big utilities, stuff like giant wind farms and nuclear plants are much better suited to your business model than measures that reduce demand.

But do you think that their lobbying would be effective, given the government's highly-publicised aims of reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

Also, as I said earlier, the "tipping point" will come when electricity prices get high enough (and look like staying high enough) that the case for microgeneration becomes obvious, and people just start doing it.

Giles..

 

[Udo Erasmus]

To return to the original theme of wind power.

What are people's opinions on offshore windfarm's?
They seem to me to be the way forward, yet some environmental groups such as RSPB campaign against them.

On-shore or off-shore? Or both?

Interested to hear people's opinions

 

[tangentlama]

it's yet to be proved that birds won't figure out how to fly lower or higher than the blades. a little symbol should be put on the windmills anyway, just for their benefit: to be viewed aerially from overheadas well as from 4 compass points on the mast. a picture of blades with mangled bird sillouttes and the height they need to fly over safely measured in natural phenomena of some landmark and a non-mangled happy bird. we already know that birds know how to recognise bird sillouettes in the sky. why not try?

we should try it with a project that can be halted easily if the birds can't figure it out. then back to the drawing board. i want proof that it will affect the birds or that birds can't read signs and/or adjust to changes in their environment.

perhaps you think i'm very silly now, but at this stage there's a pressing need to try installations, and to be able to dismantle them and move them somewhere else if it's really not working! at this stage, the data gathered post-installation on suitability of sitings would be invaluable to future installations.

it's a bit silly to complain about wind farms and wildlife at this point in the game of life and evolutionary technology, when just one nuclear mistake could cause all of cumbria to be uninhabitable for a few millenia. yes, thanks, we have sub-atomic knowledge which could cause a permanent bug in genetic code for all living creatures or even create a second star in our corner of the galaxy.

is the nuclear lobby behind any of these objectionable objections?

i've heard that nuclear power stations aren't so brilliant for wildlife either.
has anyone from urban75 ever been to Heysham in Lancashire and listened to the birdsong?


i wonder if those houses we can see in the photograph would rather have a windfarm behind them, or that nuclear power station? do they want Heysham 3 in their backyard? http://www.lancasterukonline.net/news/reactor.htm

 

[MikeMcc]

To return to the original theme of wind power.

What are people's opinions on offshore windfarm's?
They seem to me to be the way forward, yet some environmental groups such as RSPB campaign against them.

On-shore or off-shore? Or both?

Interested to hear people's opinions

A combination of both is useful. It's just that they don't generate a lot of power per turbine (in the order of a few MVA) and distribution from them is also a problem. Considering that the car-carrier that sank a few years ago was then rammed twice, despite all the bouys and the presence of a guard boat then I don't hold much hope of shipping avoiding them either. Personally I believe that there is a need for a wide range of different sources to try and maintain a good security of supply.

 

[clv101]

i wonder if those houses we can see in the photograph would rather have a windfarm behind them, or that nuclear power station? do they want Heysham 3 in their backyard? http://www.lancasterukonline.net/news/reactor.htm

Here's a photo I took a couple of weeks ago:

It's my local nuclear power station, Oldbury on the East bank of the Severn Estuary, 15 miles north of Bristol. Opened in 1968 it is scheduled to close during 2008 with the loss of 435MW from its two reactors.

My notes on Nuclear Britain.

 

[guinnessdrinker]

it's yet to be proved that birds won't figure out how to fly lower or higher than the blades. a little symbol should be put on the windmills anyway, just for their benefit: to be viewed aerially from overheadas well as from 4 compass points on the mast. a picture of blades with mangled bird sillouttes and the height they need to fly over safely measured in natural phenomena of some landmark and a non-mangled happy bird. we already know that birds know how to recognise bird sillouettes in the sky. why not try?

we should try it with a project that can be halted easily if the birds can't figure it out. then back to the drawing board. i want proof that it will affect the birds or that birds can't read signs and/or adjust to changes in their environment. [/url]

one advantage of wind power over blocks of flats in London is that it would control the flying rats population...

 

[MikeMcc]

It looks like things are getting tight on the gas supply again:

Gas Balancing Alert story from Telegraph

 

[clv101]

It looks like things are getting tight on the gas supply again:

Gas Balancing Alert story from Telegraph

See my article and subsequent discussion here: Gas Emergency Looms

 

[Louloubelle]

Some stuff about the deaths of eagles resulting from windfarms
I've only glanced through this and I'e got to go in a moment but this stuff looks really serious

http://mark-duchamp.spaces.live.com/