Wind Power

Chris Skelton · June 29, 2008

No; not CAR-wind power! But, Electricity! The Government just announced aims to have 15% of power from 'Renewable"sources ....by 2020!

Well yippee! But Navarre in Spain ALREADY produces 75% of its power from wind!! 75%!!!

All they can say is stuff about how "consumers will expect higher bills to pay for this". Where has all the North Sea oil money gone? Into 'consultancy fees"etc?

So; will bills reduce once the windmills are up?

Whoops. Pigs are flying (gas powered?)

And flying off to live in Spain may be an option?

Mike_B · June 30, 2008

Sadly bills won't reduce, because producing electricity from wind is blimmin expensive compared to gas. Not to mention very unreliable (needs constant wind, too much or too little and they don't work properly). Something conveniently forgotten when the greenies go on about how renewables can save us all. Virtually all renewable energy (not sure why they call it that, wind isn't renewable, it just 'is') is unsuitable for providing a steady base load, and even less suited for providing peaks and troughs supply. Tidal drops to zero twice a day, for example; waves require wind; solar requires sun. All drop out to zero for reasons beyond the control of the operators of the power station.

Nuclear is where it's got to be at, really. The gas and oil is running out, coal is getting more expensive and is filthy (not to mention radioactive itself - 100 times more so, on average, than an actual nuclear plant (1) ) which only leaves nuclear as a viable, known option. Build the waste burial sites and get on with it, before the rolling blackouts start.

(1) Extract from a University of Wollongong, Australia, document:

...it was found by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), that for 1982 the total release of radioactivity from 154 typical coal plants in the United States was approximately 97,318,510 megabecquerels, the equivalent of the radioactivity in 3200 household smoke detectors. They also found that the radiation exposure from an average 1000 MW power plant comes to 4.9 person-sieverts a year for coal-fired power plants and 0.048 person-sieverts a year for nuclear-fired power plants.

This factor of 100 just looks at the nuclear fired power plant by itself. It doesn't include the complete nuclear fuel cycle, which starts with ore mining, goes to fuel processing and operation of the reactor, and finishes with waste disposal. In that case, the radiation dose from a nuclear-fired power plant increases to 1.36 person-sieverts a year.

Source here: Link

Jiberjaber · June 30, 2008

.... Into 'consultancy fees"etc?....

Oi - we have to make a living somehow, these things dont get put up by themselves etc :)

Besides, if there weren't any consultancy fees, there would be no insurance on who to blame when it goes wrong :)

aido · June 30, 2008

I found this an interesting read on this kind of subject:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/20/ma...carbon_free_uk/

(See I'm not really all beer and fat girls!)

WylieCoyote · June 30, 2008

Spain always pleads itself as a poor country. The reason why they have so much nice stuff these days is because they take so damn much out of the EU. I'm told that Spain takes out of the EU pretty much the same amount as the UK pays in to be a member of the EU. How did they get 75% of their energy from renewable resources? Easy, we paid for it.

I say ditch the EU, block up the channel tunnel and then we can go back to being great again. Europe is what's ruined this country.

Rant over

Chris Skelton · July 2, 2008

.... Into 'consultancy fees"etc?....

Oi - we have to make a living somehow, these things dont get put up by themselves etc :)

Besides, if there weren't any consultancy fees, there would be no insurance on who to blame when it goes wrong :)

Maybe I should have said "unelected quangos" instead, as Jiberjaber.inc is obviously a stirling enterprise, a glowing example of British ......

As to Spain getting Euromoney. I think it's more that they think about IMPROVING life. Whatever happened to the 'windfall' that I recall being heralded in the 70s/80s from North sea oil? Do we see wonderful improvements to our infrastructure here? While France invests in its Nuclear power stations and rail and road systems.......etc!