Wind Farm

[Seventhseil]

Along with AC DC being the best scottish band in the world it seems those in high places have been listening...... although not on Seil, the seilichan reports the planning application for a 25 turbine farm in Reara forest.......yipee!

Perhaps between the wind farm and the bio mass from the trees this area will contribute more than hot air......

[Pentlandpirate]

I think wind farms are a disgusting blot on the landscape. Unfortunately the SNP has led itself down the only road left to it, one that will disfigure Scotland's greatest attraction.....until someone realises the folly of them and dismantles them all again. In the meantime our generation will have to live with this 'pollution' of our countryside.

Even the Labour Party in Westminster has seen the error of its way and acknowledged Britain cannot do without nuclear energy. Give me one nuclear power station any day rather than the 30 or 40 (whatever it is) whole windfarms which it takes to produce an equal amount of energy.

[NickB]

.
They are not that ugly. Galicia has hundreds of them and personally I don't think they are that much of a blot - there is a certain grace about them. Unfortunately wind is not reliable - it is far from unknown for the whole country to be covered by a massive high pressure system, so wind cannot be relied on for any part of base load. Wave is equally futile, as when the wind stops there is a good chance that wave activity will be reduced over the same period.

Tides run every day in a very predictable way, and although the power available varies by a factor of eight between Springs and Neaps there is still a minimum output that can be relied on. The environment is hostile, but the sub-sea industry in Aberdeen is the best in the world after thirty years of building gear for the rigs.

Wind was easy and lots of companies jumped onthe subsidy bandwagon. Hopefully the Scottish government is going to give tidal power a big boost with its Saltire Prize, but again I am afraid they may end up going down the dead end of wave power at the expense of tidal.

I was sufficiently interested in this topic to put up a small site with some useful links last year - http://www.tidestream.co.uk . The Lunar Energy solution looks particularly promising.

[Pentlandpirate]

People can accept almost anything if it is all they have known. But for those who have grown up with a natural horizon, should a wind farm be planted in their line of sight, they will always wish they could turn back time and see the land as God made it.

[Seventhseil]

Yes the Labour government in their wisdom have decided that the french government via edf will provide Britain much needed nuclear power...... great, just when you thought there was nothing left to sell. As for a natural landscape....raera is a forestry commission site which has non native sitka spruce which generally are not particularly good for bio diversity as booger all else can grow beneath them. As can be seen by the moon scape left after they are removed. Fair enough turbines may not be to everyones taste aesthetically but neither are nuclear,coal or gas power stations.

Tidal power seems good, but already SNH are weighing in with their tuppence worth over the "damage" they may do to sea animals, so effectively every new technology will encounter the same Luddite "enviromental" distain that wind power will.

[canUsmellthat]

I think wind farms look quite nice...

Going way off topic now, where the hell did this site spring from ???

http://www.localmouth.com/go/oban-seil

[Eric the Viking]

raera is a forestry commission site

Wrong! Raera is an entirely private forestry plantation - sub divided into plots - A coniferous tax break - most likely owned by snooker players, rock stars and Terry Wogan.

[Seventhseil]

Ok its privately owned, but it still is a man made change in the local enviroment.

[Bit of a Mink]

Sorry Pentland,
I dont agree with what you said there. I dont consider an area of forestry commision to be a "natural horizon" at all and I am all for wind turbines.
Do we really want all our energy to come from nuclear sources? I'm afraid that wind power and those whotsits that are powered by the force of the sea are the only way forward.
You may only hope for an incident like that in Lincolnshire, ie, when a suspected UFO decided to try to takeout a wind turbine by wrenching off one of the blades. Incidently, that blade has never been found, the damaged area was found to very, very hot and the area is still cordened off.

[khartoumteddy]

if it was a hot air farm wouldnt they do well

teddy

[Pentlandpirate]

I suspect it will only be a matter of time before they discover wind farms and tidal flow energy sytems have a devastating effect on our environment. How long before they discover that the airflow around significant wind farms is great enough to change the micro-climate in that area, killing off forests, plantlife and affecting the wildlife there? Similarly tidal systems will affect the weed growth in the sea nearby, affect the currents and surface wave movement. The more we have of these 'environmentally friendly' systems, the more they will negatively affect our environment, and that's even without the visual impact they will have.

Your first sight of a wind farm is awe inspiring. But see them blot your favourite views and your mind will change very quickly. Where will it end? England is to have a 168 ft tall white horse in the South, some "33 times bigger than a real horse". Perhaps Scotland should have a 200 ft tall Highlander stood on top of Arthur's Seat.

[canUsmellthat]

How many windfarms do you see situated in a forest??? As for tidal affecting weed growth and surface currents...

PP, I think you won't be swayed by anything but nuclear power and that's that...we can only hope that the future of our planet does not rest on such people who are so adverse to trying new and innovative ideas...

What type of car do you drive???

[Pentlandpirate]

A Proton

How many windfarms do you see situated in a forest???

Raera Forest?

[Sandy MacSeil]

Ah agree wi' PP a hunner' percent - them daft green technologies urnae suited to providin' baseload an' thur no as ecofriendly as folks think. They're puny wee weys, unreliable and ur only suited to local toppin' up stuff, The main thing is wull it be fossil fuel baseload or nuclear and, from the point o' view o' cleanliness and efficiency, modern nuclear is the only richt way forward.

[NickB]

Ah agree wi' PP a hunner' percent - them daft green technologies urnae suited to providin' baseload

I thik you will find it was me who said that, referring to wind and wave. There is no reason tidal turbines in sufficient quantities couldn't provide a reasonable percentage of base load however.

Apart from the environmental burden on future generations nuclear power (or NewKiller as our US friends would say) is simply uneconomic when the true costs (including decommissioning) are included. I hope Wee Eck sticks to his guns on this one. New hydro, clean coal and efficiency measures can fill the gap until renewable technologies mature - although I am sure there will be NIMBYs screaming about every new hydro scheme.

- W

[longshanks]

nuclear power ...... I hope Wee Eck sticks to his guns on this one.

Nick MacB is refering to Salmon's promise not to use nuclear power in an independent Scotland (independence, unfortunately looking ever less likely since the Westminster rescue of our banks).
If, the quaintly named "Wee Eck" does stick to his guns then, an independent, Scotland will have to disconnect from the U.K. National Grid because it is clear that both Nu-Labour and Barack Cameron are commited to massive investment (hopefully paid for out of bankers' bonuses) in nuclear power.
In that case our lights will go out, no amount of wind, wave, tidal, bio, hydro will replace* what we'll lose from being connected to the grid and having access to the electricity created by nuclear plants in England, Wales and France.
*well it would, obviously, but to build them we'd have to desecrate our landscape and use all of our national budget (tax funded) over many years.
Unfortunately, MacB, you're refering to yet another (L.I.T. etc) of the fishman's own goals.
As far as I'm concerned all these green power sources are just hippy dreams. If they are so good we would have been using them for centuries; they've been known about since pre-industrial times.
We have two ways forward
1. Nuclear
2. Coal
Unfortunately that arch green, Lady Thatcher, closed all our coal mines after a chat with Al Gore so Nuclear must be our future.

Shankers (glowing by choice)

[Sandy MacSeil]

We'll agree to differ, Nick, eh? The last thing I want tae see ur tidal barriers aw ower oor coastal waters, or piddlin'-power windmills built (an' fawin' oer!) oan peat bogs and beauty spots. There's nae such thing yet as clean coal an', o' a' the methods, nuclear leaves the wee-est environmental burden, as you ca' it. It's just ignorance that makes fowk feart o' nuclear plus the fact that in the past it wisnae done richt. Onywye, yin disadvantage o' fossil fuels wiz shewed here this past week when some bu%%ers stole aw the deisel frae the local primary school. They widnae hae been sae keen fur tae nick a uranium fuel rod (unless they wiz terrorists!). Watch yer oil tanks, fowks! Fossil energy crime huz struck Seil!

[Pentlandpirate]

Build a nuclear power station to look like a giant windmill and everyone would be happy!

[longshanks]

A map of the wind farm test sites has gone up in the box outside the shop.

Whoever did it wrote "Proposed site of wind farm test sites" across the top of the map, and helpfully coloured in the lochans.
Now
The "P" and the "R" of "proposed" is written over Loch Seil. Loch Seil he coloured in.
So
It now reads "oposed site,,,,"

Magic!

By the way B&Q have now withdrawn their home windturbines due to the fact that most buyers found that they didn't even generate enough electricity to power their internal electrical functions so were draining electricity from the grid!

I think I need a nappy now.

Shankers (buying shares in uranium miners by choice)

ps Sandy; you're not funny, we don't speak like that round here and it seems as if you're taking the mickey out of those who do speak the Doric or the Brogue or whatever it is you're trying to sound like.

[Seventhseil]

The British government are comitted to nuclear..... but only if the French goverment via GDF and EDF pay for it. I agree that renewables can not supply all our power needs but thats not a reason to completely disregard them .

"French energy group GDF Suez and Spain's Iberdrola have announced the creation of a partnership to build nuclear power stations around Britain. "

"The French state now holds approximately 35.7% of GDF Suez".

"British Energy sold to EDF, both clean-up and new-build will be dominated by large French companies, which are themselves controlled by the French state".
(BBC News and Wikipedia)