[BBC News] Island wind farm 'a viable plan'

[Celt]

We need to consult Mike. He's a visionary making profit with these type of things.

 

Cprrection:

 

He's a visionary making profit for himself.

 

Back on thread.

 

 

As there are many different types of " Windfarm/Turbine " technology open to the normal householder, i keep wondering why the local planning dept keep knocking them back.

 

There are so many packages now which don't impact on the envoiroment and would only cost what the property owner was willing to to put in place, why do they keep knocking it back?

[triskelion]

Because domestic wimd turbines are kind of sucky.

[oldmanxfella]

A wind farm. What a great idea - its a shame that we'll be paying the current £450m pissed away on the MEA for generations otherwise we might have actually had the money to implement such an environmentally friendly scheme.

[WTF]

Surely wave/tidal power generation would make the most sense here.

Far less environmental damage.

 

 

no use, america has declared war on the moon and it is to be destroyed, no moon, no tides.

[WTF]

Because domestic wimd turbines are kind of sucky.

wrong!!, because if we all get our own turbines, who will be buying the mea's most expensive to buy in europe electricity? we will still get taxed anyway to clear the debt. if 1 or 2 folks put up a turbine, they may save a few quid over 20 years, but we are not going to be allowed on mass to boycot the mea.

[triskelion]

Because domestic wimd turbines are kind of sucky.

wrong!!, because if we all get our own turbines, who will be buying the mea's most expensive to buy in europe electricity? we will still get taxed anyway to clear the debt. if 1 or 2 folks put up a turbine, they may save a few quid over 20 years, but we are not going to be allowed on mass to boycot the mea.

Its unlikely they'll save any quids over twenty years, and I think I'm right in saying that your standard domestic wind turbine has a lifespan of only about 15 years. In almost all cases they do not pay back over their life time, and use more electricity to make than they save. They perform even more porrly in urban areas. We could all have our own little windturbines, but we'd still need the MEA.

[Slim]

wrong!!, because if we all get our own turbines, who will be buying the mea's most expensive to buy in europe electricity? we will still get taxed anyway to clear the debt. if 1 or 2 folks put up a turbine, they may save a few quid over 20 years, but we are not going to be allowed on mass to boycot the mea.

 

They wouldn't be anu use for everyone. Most built up areas are too sheltered for wind turbines to be any use. Far better to have woppin great big ones for everyone than little ones spread around.

 

Stuff like solar and ground source make more sense for domestic use.

[Cronky]

I just cannot see the point in this. They will still have to cater for peak demand in December. If, like this morning, there's no wind then the turbines will be useless.

 

Then there will be the cost of maintining a power source that will be idle for some of the time.

 

And then, of course, there is the environmental impact. We have a beautiful island and the sight of these turbines on exposed ground will be grotesque in my opinion.

 

So no, I'm not a fan (pun intended) and hope the project dies a death.

[WTF]

I just cannot see the point in this. They will still have to cater for peak demand in December. If, like this morning, there's no wind then the turbines will be useless.

 

Then there will be the cost of maintining a power source that will be idle for some of the time.

 

And then, of course, there is the environmental impact. We have a beautiful island and the sight of these turbines on exposed ground will be grotesque in my opinion.

 

So no, I'm not a fan (pun intended) and hope the project dies a death.

 

 

the thing with turbines and wave power, even solar, is that when they are making electric and demand is less, the excess is stored in batteries. during peak times, the batteries supplement the system. it may even be a case of that the batteries are used all the time and they just get charged as and when by what is producing electric at the time? i don't think it is a case of no wind no power, it isn't like a sail boat.

 

as to the appearance of these turbines, i don't have an issue with it. we need power in todays world, and i'd rather see a field of majestic turbines spinning round than a mushroom cloud from sellafield.. perhaps the turbines could be telescopic with folding blades so when there is no usable wind they retract into the landscape? either way, it is barely any worse than half the buildings that have sprung up in recent years. perhaps they can be made to look like huge palm trees with the blades like palm leaves.

[Frances]

have you worked out the size + cost of the batteries to supply even a single house on a calm day - the supply networks can use several geographic seperated wind farms to even out some peaks + troughs, by changing the supply frequency slightly up/down energy can be stored/removed from spinning turbines (this gives a small margin) - large storage systems are pumped storage (IMO totally impractical on the Island), compressed air in old salt mines (there is a salt system around pt of Ayre but doubt if can be used) or import/export from neighbouring networks eg Denmark uses the much bigger German network this way - we have the 90MW link to UK - another link would be a useful safeguard if we ever want to make extensive use of wind or better still tidal power. However we are stuck with the Profitt turbines for years unless the cost of gas goes through the roof at which point having a second cable link becomes a necessity - there is a 500MW link going in between UK and Ireland pity we couldn't get a tap off that.

[Roger Smelly]

From what i have read on wind power a lot of people are now seeing the home units as a good way to charge your car up in the future, when we are all going to be driving electric cars.

 

I am looking forward to seeing the TTXGP bikes to see how good they are, too many people are being negative towards electric transport but its just really starting to develop and the savings to be had could be great.

 

Stick a wind farm off jurby it has to be the wind capital of the island.

 

What i am confused about is where the 5% of the islands power that comes from the energy from waste plant goes to because we seem to be paying twice for that

[Frances]

1 litre of petrol is approximately equivalent to 10kWh - - 30miles/day at 10miles/litre (ie not a 4x4 - my smart gets about 12-14 miles/litre on long runs nearer 10miles/litre on start/stop) is 30kWH - might be possible though domestic turbines are not that efficient so I'm guessing you would be hard pressed to get 2kW from a good site (I seen quoted that a 1.75 metre turbine will generate 1kW of power at speeds of 12.5 metres per second, a pretty strong breeze) - thus at 1kW you couln't get enough energy - power available goes as third power of wind speed - half the wind speed and power drops to 12.5%

[WTF]

the thing is we don't need a 240 volt 60 watt bulb lighting our front room. it could be a tube or LED's, far more efficient??. we also don't need a vehicle that does 0 - 60 in 8 secs and able to do 140+mph. i accept your figures, but we don't need to match the 'petrol' or 'gas' performance figures to live in warmth and light and travel round the island at a moderate pace. considering how many folks live here, it shouldn't be too much grief to supply a significant proportion of our needs through wind and wave. we could even ration electric so you can't use too many amps at a time in one house hold. you choose what you want on at the time. if you go over?? it all cuts out. as it is we have 100 amp fuses in our supplies, all we need is say 40 amp trips instead, and we would have to choose. no electric shower,oven and kettle on at the same time, inconvenient perhaps, but maybe an option??

 

either way, WE will have to pay for proffits wet dream one way or another, and opting out of the mea and the duty on fuel with electric cars, isn't going to help us 'save money', we will just loose it elsewhere in taxes and duty. we have been saddled with a huge debt that there is no getting out of paying it... look at how quick petrol prices came down when people stopped buying it for one day in protest!!

[Frances]

have you still got 60W bulbs - Energy efficient bulbs are 10 for £1 in SE England - subsidized by EDF. However though I'm a fairly careful single person house (electric cooker, shower etc + a small computer (about 60W total) I still use about 6-7kWh per day both here and also about the same in Peel (similar setup though a little smaller in surface area) - this does not include gas for heating , my own estimate is about 5-10kwH/day (must check out figures) averaged over year - Peel possibly more as gets more wind + is damper (+ less sun).

If we want to save energy we need significant changes to acceptable house design - victorian houses are not easy to make energy efficient.

[Sebrof]

the thing with turbines and wave power, even solar, is that when they are making electric and demand is less, the excess is stored in batteries. during peak times, the batteries supplement the system.

 

Batteries are never used by commercial electricity suppliers. The cost would be astronomical. The only sort of storage that makes economic sense is pumping water into a high dam, or in the case of tidal systems, into a vast lagoon. This is the thinking behind the Severn Barrage project.

 

S