Biggest wind farm

[Logged On]

I know someone who's made a pretty penny - or two out of these wind turbines....

 

North Sea Logistics - Specialist transfer of personnel and equipment to and from offshore turbines.

 

We're getting one soon too, 65 miles off the Northumberland coast at the Dogger Bank fishing grounds.....

[Ruskins Trees]

green energy con.

 

1) The wind does not blow all the time, when it blows too hard they do not generate electricity.

 

2) Solar farms are not as efficient when cloudy and do not work when dark. In addition they take farm land, producing food, out of production

 

3) Both of the above only produce energy when they can, not when it is needed.

 

4) We are an island surrounded by water, with tides and waves that can produce energy 24 hours a day (granted tides have a ebb time).

 

Why are we not investing huge amounts of money in tidal/wave energy?

[Shane]

Why WE are not investing huge amounts in any particular energy harvesting method??

 

I fear it will ALWAYS be about money.

As long as the government's decision makers have the slightest vested interest in keeping an old supplier going or 'helping' a new one then thats the way it will go.

 

Maybe if WE all got off our arses and pooled our money instead of moaning, WE might get somewhere.

 

Once again our democracy system waters down the decision making by putting it in the hands of .....oh you all know the rest of it.

[Rich Rule]

We were at saltburn beach last week , with a good wind blowing i could see at least 4 turbines not working

 

I went to Redcar beach for a Lemon top about 3 weeks ago.

 

There was about 1500 ravers on the beach of their tits with hard core techno blaring.

 

I honestly don't see the problem with the things myself, windmills not ravers. It is just a part of sustainable living and is a sign we are trying to do something about the environment.

[TIMON]

I went to Redcar beach for a Lemon top about 3 weeks ago.

 

There was about 1500 ravers on the beach of their tits with hard core techno blaring.

 

I honestly don't see the problem with the things myself, windmills not ravers. It is just a part of sustainable living and is a sign we are trying to do something about the environment.

 

 

Perhaps we should find ways of harvesting the energy of the ravers.

Converting mdma into electricity, that would be cutting edge technology.

[matelot]

green energy con.

 

1) The wind does not blow all the time, when it blows too hard they do not generate electricity.

 

2) Solar farms are not as efficient when cloudy and do not work when dark. In addition they take farm land, producing food, out of production

 

3) Both of the above only produce energy when they can, not when it is needed.

 

4) We are an island surrounded by water, with tides and waves that can produce energy 24 hours a day (granted tides have a ebb time).

 

Why are we not investing huge amounts of money in tidal/wave energy?

 

I 100% agree we should invest in tidal.

 

Solar and wind still have their place though. The main drawback of these power sources (unreliable power generation) can be partially overcome by storage and flexible pricing.

 

Ok, there is no brilliant way to store electricity at the moment. However with smart electricity meters the price of electricity can be altered so that electricity is cheaper when the wind is blowing.

 

At the moment wind turbines are switched off when there is too much wind... If the electricity price was lowered at these times people would do their washing etc when it was cheaper.

[Goaty]

I 100% agree we should invest in tidal.

 

 

 

Solar and wind still have their place though. The main drawback of these power sources (unreliable power generation) can be partially overcome by storage and flexible pricing.

 

 

 

Ok, there is no brilliant way to store electricity at the moment. However with smart electricity meters the price of electricity can be altered so that electricity is cheaper when the wind is blowing.

 

 

 

At the moment wind turbines are switched off when there is too much wind... If the electricity price was lowered at these times people would do their washing etc when it was cheaper.

 

 

Even though we would lose energy, why not pump water by surplus solar power or whatever in the day uphill to a reservoir, then release it by night or at peak times to create hydroelectric.

 

At least over a hundred years ago the Vulcan ram pump was design to use moving water to move water to a high head height. They could be utilised.

 

People are only interested in government over subsidised schemes than are inefficient but put ticks in boxes.

[waterbuoy]

Even though we would lose energy, why not pump water by surplus solar power or whatever in the day uphill to a reservoir, then release it by night or at peak times to create hydroelectric.

We already are (at least in both Scotland and Wales)

 

Agree re tidal energy - I live less than 5 miles from three channels where the tide exceeeds 9 knots every day of the year, and at a predictable time. It will be harnessed in due course, but one of the biggest restrictions to tide/wave/hydro is the lack of a grid connection.

[openspaceman]

At the moment wind turbines are switched off when there is too much wind... If the electricity price was lowered at these times people would do their washing etc when it was cheaper.

 

Interestingly enough there is already a mechanism for doing this without smart metering that we cannot use because of the way our grid is structured; when the grid comes under load the frequency dips so they bring more capacity on line to bring it back to 50Hz. The "peak lopping" generation used sells much more expensive electricity to the grid compared with the base-load from coal,oil and (latterly) nuclear generation. If a consumer could sense the frequency and only buy cheap electricity when the frequency were higher than 50Hz for non scheduled tasks like freezers and washing machines then the peaks could be levelled and better use made on unscheduled supplies from renewable sources.

 

We already are (at least in both Scotland and Wales)

.

 

Yes and there are two lovely walks on the hills surrounding the Dinorwig and Festiniog upper reservoirs.

[openspaceman]

 

At least over a hundred years ago the Vulcan ram pump was design to use moving water to move water to a high head height. They could be utilised.

 

 

I've worked on estates with ram pumps and they fascinate me. Twenty years ago my boss bought a farm in the Hampshire hangers, his wife wanted to make use of some renewable energy and wind-power was out because of the aesthetics. PV at that stage was way too expensive, so I bought him a biomass boiler which he never installed and still lies rusting in a shed.

 

As there is a 30 metre drop from the top field and house to the stream at the bottom I calculated the family electricity use was about 30kWh a day and could be supplied by storing 300 tonnes of water in a top pond and running it to a turbine by the stream. What I never worked out was if a ram pump could lift that much water from the stream in a day.

 

Working for petrolheads has meant I've never been able to indulge my interests in renewable energy