Windfarms are go!

JonB · Post by **JonB** » 01 Nov 2009, 21:02

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... prize.html

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 01 Nov 2009, 21:28

When windfarms are counted in gigawatts they start looking serious.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 01 Nov 2009, 23:27

Phwoooaarr! Size matters (said with the accent)

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 02 Nov 2009, 12:21

Although for obvious reasons I support wind farms, this one will probably be rather an eyesore. North Norfolk is a beautiful stretch of coast. Still, needs must.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 02 Nov 2009, 18:37

Lincolnshire has an equally beautiful coast and the fifty-four off shore turbines built last year just add a little interest on the horizon.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 02 Nov 2009, 20:48

Should be placed onshore - every moat should have one.

As should every floating duck house.

(Err - I suppose they would be be offshore ...)

neckiep · Post by **neckiep** » 02 Nov 2009, 21:43

Biff said
"Lincolnshire has an equally beautiful coast" .

Would that be Skeggie or Mablethorpe?

sorry neighbour!

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 02 Nov 2009, 21:53

If you stand on the beach at Maybo or Skeggie and look out the view is improved by the windfarms. You wouldn't want to look the other way.

(We have a beach hut at Sutton-on-Sea which is a very nice place, as is the rest of the Lincolnshire coast.)

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 03 Nov 2009, 00:37

biffvernon wrote:If you stand on the beach at Maybo or Skeggie and look out the view is improved by the windfarms. You wouldn't want to look the other way.

The Lincs. coast can't be all that great then

(Joke.)

Of course wind farms are interesting features; in otherwise dreary landscapes like the Cambridgeshire fens, you might describe them as beautiful. However, the Norfolk coast is beautiful as it is and wouldn't, with the best will in the world, be improved by wind farms from horizon to horizon. Unlike Lincolnshire's, Norfolk's coast is not flat: there are wonderful marshes right next to the sea, then heaths, and even cliffs in places, that rise above it.

There is already a wind farm off the Norfolk coast, near Hunstanton. I certainly wouldn't describe it as an eyesore, but then it is much smaller than the new one proposed. I don't know.

It's true that man-made structures can enhance a natural landscape. (After all, virtually the whole landscape of Britain is man-made, in one way or another.) The bridges across the Menai Strait, for example, are stunning. In fact I must confess to finding the chemical plants of Ellesmere Port beautiful too. At least from a distance

I'm not complaining.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 03 Nov 2009, 08:07

Ludwig wrote: The Lincs. coast can't be all that great then (Joke.)

Better than the Cambridgeshire coast.

Of course the turbines are not on the coast - they are half a mile and more off-shore, and frankly, the sea at that distance looks pretty much the same from whatever bit of coast you happen to be standing on.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 03 Nov 2009, 13:47

James Allen, wrote:UK's Ofgem proposes $1.63 bil injection to connect wind farms

UK energy regulator Ofgem proposed Tuesday funding arrangements of up to GBP1 billion ($1.63 billion) over the next two years to connect new wind farms and other renewable generation to the electricity transmission grid.

Some 90% of that investment is earmarked for Scotland, Ofgem said. The proposed arrangements, which are pitched to ensure progress for the most urgently needed projects, amount to 20% of the total investment in electricity transmission needed over the next 10 years, Ofgem said in a statement.

The remaining 80% of the proposed GBP5 billion, 10-year investment program will fall into a period of new regulatory controls that come into play when the current controls run out in March, 2012, said Ofgem.

"Ofgem has put forward a plan that could inject up to GBP1 billion into
national electricity grid investment," said Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan in the statement. "This is needed urgently to handle the growth in wind power and other renewable generation that is arising from Britain's drive to curb climate changing emissions."

The three transmission companies--National Grid Electricity Transmission, SP Transmission and Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission--put forward proposals for 20 transmission investment projects spread over the next 10 years totaling some GBP5 billion.

Ofgem is effectively proposing to fund GBP1 billion worth of costs incurred up to the end of the current price control review that runs to March 31, 2012.

However, Ofgem is currently in the last stages of a two-year review of
the 20-year-old incentive regime, which ties revenue and expenditure growth to the retail price index plus or minus percentage points, that forms the basis of its regulatory thinking.

It will decide on arrangements for the remaining GBP4 billion investment once the new regime is in place from April 1, 2012.

source

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 03 Nov 2009, 15:04

Apparently the tories are thinking of pulling the plug on OfGem's Strategic-Thinking function altogether.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 03 Nov 2009, 15:41

Oh no - OffGem have only just started taking the future seriously.

Why is it everytime you think Labour are diabolical, the Tories manage to demonstrate that they are even worse?

Norm · Post by **Norm** » 03 Nov 2009, 17:44

A week ago I drove down from Sweden to southern Spain. There are windfarms springing up all over the place and in every country. Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Spain. It seemed like every other hill you see new windfarms. I make this journey every six months and I notice when I see one but this last time, I just lost count! I never realized just how big this thing has become.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 03 Nov 2009, 18:18

biffvernon wrote:Oh no - OffGem have only just started taking the future seriously.

Why is it everytime you think Labour are diabolical, the Tories manage to demonstrate that they are even worse?

Exactly. People have forgotten how totally uncaring about public welfare the Tories are. They are the last thing we need in the current situation. Of course Labour would have to introduce swingeing spending cuts, but at least one feels they'd do it reluctantly.

Above all, what we need in the current situation is for the nation to pull together. The Tories will not encourage this: they will encourage the pursuit of narrow self-interest, and they will promote the idea that the disenfranchised, the poor and the powerless are so out of choice.