Wind farms – crazy!

We briefly touched on this debate a while ago when I confessed to not knowing much about it apart from liking the idea in principle. Several enlightened charioteers guided me gently into the font of knowledge and as such I have been looking out for similar stuff in my occasional BBC dippings.

Found this yesterday…..BBC LINK…. what a mad world we live in! Can’t even blame the government for this one!

Meanwhile I saw an interesting episode of “Coast” last week where they went to a natural gas field processing plant in Norway where up to 30% of the Uk’s gas is supplied, but only for the next 40 years before it runs out. It seem the Norwegians don’t need any of it because they have so much hydro-electric power. Good on them I say, but why doesn’t the UK use it too?

Mrs C, who always has a slightly different view of the world as she hates all politics with small p and capital P said – can’t we just lower the amount of electricity we use and find more efficient ways of using it?

Well, probably, but not in the Highlands it seems!

I do tend to turn off things when not using them, but to save me cash not to save the planet! But I do frown heavily and disapprove of stupid things, and this story struck me as a classic example of stupidity!

Author’s note: I am neither pro or anti wind farms, have no agenda nor mean to cause any offence with this blog. I am not a AGW activist, I am not trying to provoke or influence!

9 thoughts on “Wind farms – crazy!”

  3. You may not be, but I am definitely against windfarms, this idiocy notwithstanding. They are expensive, never will be cost effective and ruin miles of countryside and coastline, and you still need fossil fuel or nuclear stations online to cover for them when the wind stops. Hydro electric is not a major option in this country as there are not enough mountains with suitable rivers. Tidal power is one option, but the greenies will object to the nice dicky birds getting their feet wet.

    There are plenty of suitable, safe, more effective and, in the long term, cheaper alternatives. Thorium based nuclear power springs to mind and the even longer term, fusion power.

  5. What FEEG and Bravo said…

    … especially about the greenies.

    At some point there has to be a discussion about who and what can live in the limited space known as Planet Earth. If we are going to allow all those who want to reproduce to reproduce then we are going to have to let ‘the nice dicky birds’ get their feet wet.

  6. Absolutely Boadicea! Greenies tend to be well meaning at times (as it appears to me – don’t take that as an endorsement of them, I can’t stand their guilt ridden holier than thou look down noses attitudes), but they fail to see the bigger picture and don’t seem to take human nature into account. Bit like communists and socialists!

    Necessity is the mother of invention as someone jolly famous once said and I’m sure this will remain the case.

    Humans have ruined many species, but saved many against what nature has thrown too. Let’s hope common sense and healthy debate results in our longevity without money being the primary driving force. A naive idealistic viewpoint I know, I’ll grow out of it!

    I have said before, nuke power is fine by me and from where I sit there appears lots of ways to gather energy effectively and efficiently. I don’t want to live in a Mad Max like world in 40 years!

  7. Renewable power has to be the way forward: I don’t think the right technology has yet been developed, though in the meantime maybe suntraps are the answer?

  9. PS. If you’re interested, you can see the contribution to current demand being made by the different types of power generation installations here, http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
    (and by non-generation systems, also.)

    Wind in the UK currently generating 0.37 gw from an installed base of 5.2 gw, (-ish) 7% of capacity and 1% of demand.

    Waste of money.

Add your Comment