Just thought with all the latest chatter regarding red diesel and cost it may interest some of you to see some of the technological advances being made in Power Generation, which are being commissioned as we speak. Just recently on a cruise ti NI we spotted this marine current turbine, you can see a photo of the Seagen installed in the Strangford Narrows in may latest album NI 2008. also if you go to the following website you can get more info on the beast. www.marineturbines.com
Lets have more of these machines which utilise our most natural, sustanable, non-polluting resources and carefully select the sites being most appropriate, perhaps the same pile structure could accomodate a Wind Turbine also................may have opened a can of worms here, ouch.
They must be a much better bet than these ghastly wind turbines! More predictable power, the energy available is on a totallty different scale to the pathetic wind things!
Imagine how much energy it takes to move the North Sea up & Down 4 metres every tide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad there is someone else who hates wind turbines-a local estate realised the financial potential of this-all UK and EEC grant funding plus massive tax kick back and 200 miles from where the power is needed-result total destruction of some very beautiful and remote scenery-not of couse visible from the road according to planning enquiry and restricted in numbers.
Well for it not to be visible would need some suitable shaped charges to half height of masts and as for numbers more being added daily!
Also not averse to moving mast sections along A82 mid day-thats the windy tourist road up The Great Glen-and they come in at about 25ft wide and 80 ft.long!
Thirty or so years ago a friends father who engineered the main road to Skye proposed a barrage with turbines and locks across narrows to Skye when Skye Bridge was first placed on agenda-this could have generated all of Scotlands current fossil fuel powered electricity.
My long late grandfather was an engineer with the Belfast Engineering firm Hugh J Scotts and his career long interest was in trying to get a tidal power plant at the Strangford Narrows. Never managed to convince people back then when oil was cheap and plentiful but the idea always seems to make far more sense to me than wind farms. I have sailed past the Irish Sea wind farm array in very light winds when all the blades are stationary - so no output, just all the fixed costs. I have also sailed past them in a gale and - what a surprise, they don't work when it is too windy either - what a total waste of everything. The whole of life costs of making, installing, servicing and eventually de-commissioning the wind turbines must far outweigh the output benefit. I believe the manufacturers of such arrays and misguided eco warriors have had the politicians and tax payers over a treat on wind farms as any sailor knows that the wind is only predictable to the extent that we know it won't always be at the strength we want it. Tides on the other hand in places like the Strangford Narrows can be entirely predicated to provide massive low speed turbine turning power for set periods. I would of course not like to see all our favourite narrow channels obstructed to install tide turbines but trying to farm the wind is a ridiculous concept.
Well guys, what are the alternatives. There is a lot of misguided opinions about the efficiencies of wind power. I to do not support the proliferation of these large windfarms in inappropriate areas, but we do have sites that could be fully utilised for windfarm development, such as abandoned quarries, open cast coal site etc, and certain areas off-shore. The fact that a turbine stands idol from time to time can be for many reasons, low wind, high damaging wind, grid faults and maintenance. The hard facts are that every windfarm has a capacity factor, this capacity factor os between 33 & 40% of design capacity per annum. I would further expose the myth that they are heavily subsidised by the tax payer. This is totally incorrect, as any incentives finished with the expiry of the old NFFO contracts, these were put in place to stimulate the industry in the early 90's. The only incentives now are ROCS and carbon offsetting, which is open to all of us.
The return on investment for the average wind farm is 5-15 years and this includeds de-commissioning, considering a design life of 20-25 years how can this be construed as inefficient and damaging to our environment. The units are toatlly re-cyclable and have not lasting damage to the environment, they can be de-commissioned in a matter of weeks.
Of course there are always other alternatives, but maybe not practical or cost effective, solar power fro instance has a payback of between 30-40 years, so who is brave enough to invest in this technology??
We need to focus on the fact that this country needs to be more self sufficient and to achieve that we need a balanced energy policy with a combination of generation sources, including nuclear power (if we are to satisfy our insatiable appetite for power and energy) so all you nimbies out there take a long hard look at your own carbon footprint and if you can convince yourself that you don't need wind power and can propose a more appropriate sustainable and deliverable solution the lets be hearing from you.
As far as Phils comments on moving turbines along unsutable roads at innapripriate times, then this has got to be down to your local councils and police lacking project specific traffic managment, which should be part of the planning conditions, maybe you should express concerns to them, but just remember if you need to move your boat overland, I am sure this inconveniences some other road users. More tollerance and understanding would be desirable in our persuit of a solution.
What is interesting about the current crop of WIND FARMS, is that the plug has been pulled on the biggest one - the THAMES ARRAY, by Shell, apparently it was their money behind it all - yes behind EON or whomever else it was pretending to fund these things, and Shell have said - " on second thoughts they aren't viable" so no money!
(Not viable because of the increased costs in manufacture - use lots and lots of epoxy resin, generators have been redisigned and have doubled in cost - we all know they needed to be as at least 50% are broken at any given moment - just visit the Dutch/Belgian coasts - also the maintenance and installation costs were not correctly factored in!)
I think this is the only way we will be saved from monstrosities like this, if they work and they are economic, they'll get funded if not they wont.
The tidal stuff though seems so much more sensible and powerful.
Interesting outcomes...for whales, turtles, dolphins and large schools of fish which just happen to wonder into a zone of heavy rotating blades! Cheap fish tonight me dear! Special from the beach! Efficiency of generation?...with the amount of strangulating rubbish to be found in our seas...plastic bags, condoms, ropes, nets..the odd lost diver or container downstream! Not least those wonderful barnacles which would just love the circus ride and attachment as the blades become unpolished through frictional contact with silt sand etc. Er yes, cost of monthly cleaning and clearing ? Divers don't come cheap? Good energy generation idea but I think there are few more practical aspects which have yet to be evaluated and fully declared in terms of impact and cost!
If you look at the original post you will see the link to the design and then you'll see how cleverly they vave overcome this.
As for the sea creatures I think they'll work it ot and as there wont be fishing near them they might even have somewhere to spawn that isn't constantly ripped to pieces by our nature loving fishing folk
I'd think Davids sea creatures might also learn to spawn around offshore wind farms too.
It's interesting that only one respondent is in favour of wind generators - despite the fact that they are proven to work, albeit dependent on wind and inconsistent. I'm just back from Holland and they are widespread and very few were stopped.
There is total approval of the tide generator which also stops generating at every slack tide and is unproven. I believe the one example is limited to generating power at 1/8th it's potential at the mo.
I hope the tide generator proves successful, and we remain market leaders. Yachts will run into it - as they run into all other structures. It was less than a month before a yottie ran into the Millennium Bridge - luckily no damage to bridge, just a bent mast to yottie. Will the tide generator slice the bottom out of stray yachts?
As Possy says, "and if you can convince yourself that you don't need wind power and can propose a more appropriate sustainable and deliverable solution the lets be hearing from you.?" ..... Silence so far Possy.
