Wind farms

[Red Herring]

I do a lot of sailing around the Thames estuary and the place is full of them. I wouldn't mind if they would do something useful and turn them on to generate some decent wind when it's a calm day, but otherwise the majority of them seem to just sit there blotting out the horizon.

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

Down in Cornwall there seem to be a lot of wind turbines.

There is a lot of NIMBYism because it spoils a view but I don't think that it does - to me, it doesn't look worse than something like Angel of the North. If people complain because of the low frequency noise that's one thing but when they're in the middle of a field or even out at see, I think they're fine and to be encouraged (to a degree).

What are people's thoughts on them?

There is only one Angel of the North so you can more or less like it or ignore it,but there are thousands of windmills.

My problem with them is cost.How can they represent a sensible sustainable energy policy when they only produce when the wind blows,and that is unreliable and does not correspond to demand.The result is that wind energy has to be backed up and duplicated by other producers so we have power at all times.This cannot be efficent.As for the offshore "farms" they must be just the same,only vastly more expensive to build and maintain.
Im all in favour of "green" energy,but not this nonsense.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

Im all in favour of "green" energy,but not this nonsense.

Slight derail I suppose but what do you consider the alternatives?

[Biker Biggles]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

Slight derail I suppose but what do you consider the alternatives?

If we spent as much R&D money on alternatives as we have pi$$ed away on wind we might have got workable tidal power(100% predictable and reliable)or geothermal up and running.Who knows what is possible if we get rid of the all consuming wind lobby vested interests?

[NTECUK]

read this "The UK could meet a fifth of its power needs – the equivalent of nine nuclear power stations – by exploiting geothermal power, a new report into the technology has found.
But the report found that the current subsidy regime does not provide sufficient incentive to develop the technology in the UK".
Shame looks quite a good plan

[phi-dan]

Annoyingly, most of those options have been researched extensively in Cornwall, but haven't gone anywhere due to lack of research investment. There's an underwater power socket near Hayle / St Ives for wave power projects to connect to - so far only one test setup plugged in. There was a huge geothermal research station in a quarry just outside Falmouth, but that got scaled back. There is also a substantial number of solar farms. One of my friends owns an alternative energy company, and despite a portfolio of solar, hydro, geothermal and wind, it's only the wind that gets any attention
Edit: there's also a couple of waste to energy schemes that are fighting to get started.

[maviczap]

I'm not against wind turbines, in the right place they look fine. I can see hundreds off my coastline. But they're far far away & aren't an eyesore. Why can't they be designed to be like windmills?

Around these parts they've provided useful employment opportunities in unemployment black spots, so that can't be a bad thing.

But until the lights & Tv start to go out, no ones going to start rattling our Governments cages to get some proper alternatives going.

I'd like to see tidal, solar, Bio plants & geothermal being put to better use.

A colleague of mine is on his local parish council and they're looking at getting their village to pay & install a bio plant, which on a small scale is great for rural communities. The cost to each resident wasn't that high.

The Nimby's around here including Griff Rhys Jones have stopped a Solar energy field being developed, which according to the plan would have been hidden behind hedges. Ok it was going to be somewhere in the Stour Valley which is very picturesque, but if you can't see it whats the problem?

A power station burning straw as fuel near Eye was also objected to. The local farmers thought the price of straw would go up!

A solar field was built just off the A14 & it looks better than the slurry lake next to it.

So let the lights start going out, so that folk can't watch Strictly Come Bake Off and see what happens.

[NTECUK]

If the lights go of during strictly come x factor sure surely that's a good thing ?? ?? ?? ??

[maviczap]

Yes, from my point of viewit'd improve Saturday nights 3000%

But the impact would be stunning

Originally Posted by maviczap

if you can't see it whats the problem?

They make a low frequency noise which some people can hear better than others and if you can hear it from your house, that could be considered a problem