Wind Farm

walsworth

walsworth

Journeyman
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Jul 19, 2006
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North Herts
An horrendous great wind farm is to be built off the Kent coast. I think these are a complete and utter waste of time and money. They are not efficient and must take eons to recoup the build cost, they are an absolute eyesore and God knows what effect they have on the ecology.
Wind Farm
 
I'd rather see them placed offshore than on hilltops, where they are indeed an eyesore.

I don't know anything about the economics, but the ecological impact is presumably not too bad given that Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are in favour.
 
I haven't a problem with wind farms as far as the landscape/seascape is concerned but I do wonder about their efficiency. Seems they have to be "locked-down" if the wind is too strong?!
 
What's wrong with "wave-power"? We are surrounded by sea, which never stops moving. The wind farms grind to a halt on a still day and, as Colin says, have to be locked during high winds.

Apart from something on the scale that is going across the Severn Estuary, quite a few places in Scotland have small coves with the wave turbines in them, much less obtrusive, surely?
 
They have one at Gt. Yarmoth and it brings work and despite people not wanting it there at first they have now found it's atracting more fish and crabbs, I don't mind them out in the sea and that's also more windy there as well. So in the long term should be better for all of us whats worse than miles of electric pylons for miles and miles.
 
Get on and do it - it brings jobs, creates electricity, is green, yada yada. Don'y know why people are moaning about it to be honest. They're really not that much of an eyesore or a nuisance, they have them all over the place in Southern Spain.
 
There are so many things which look less lovely and are just as incongruous to the natural landscape - acres of hydroponic greenhouses, industrial estates, Ikea warehouses, cooling towers (although I like their cuddly shape!), any amount of heavy industrial processing plants like oil refineries, airports, multi-lane highways and grids, and, as Andy says, huge electric pylons, which look like cyborg armies marching aggressively across miles of fields. I think there's nothing more unattractive about the modern energy windmill than the old-fashioned flour grinding one - they're bigger, but neither is the old style unobtrusive. Both look rather serene when they're turning, I think, and remind us that, at least, a natural element is powering them.
 
I don't mind the wind turbines, as Krizon says, they are rather serene.

It just surprises me that we have had such alternatives as wind and wave turbines available for so long but are only just beginning to actually consider their use on a larger scale. Scotland has had hydroelectricity since the 70's. The one thing the UK and Ireland are not short on is water, so it puzzles me that 30 years on we are still viewing alternative sources of power with suspicion. Anyone remember acid rain?
 
Whilst I love much of the Co. Durham scenery, you can't eat a view, as they say. Britain is the windiest country in Europe and I swear to God we are one of the windiest counties up here. We might as well make full use of it as a resource. There are far worse sights than wind turbines.
 
Shadz - yeah, and yet we say 'no' to desalination plants that would supply us with virtually endless water. How do people think Dubai keeps its grass so green - by painting it? There's always some pathetic bleat about the cost. No problem when it comes to hoovering up a few Eurofighters, though, so that we can defend the rights of some godawful little tribal desert somewhere in due course.
 
My understanding is that wind turbines are a damned fine defensive measure in their own right Krizon!!! Apparently they play havoc with the on board radar, as well as the weapons and navigation systems of low flying fighter jets. And that's before the damage they can do should you be unlucky enough to fly into one!!!
 
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Well, if they're going to fly that low, Warbs, they should be hauled before the Wingco! Crikey, they're only eighty feet high, aren't they?
 
krizon said:
Well, if they're going to fly that low, Warbs, they should be hauled before the Wingco! Crikey, they're only eighty feet high, aren't they?
Click to expand...
More like 4 times that, very few are below 100 metres.
These are the ones that a local farmer wanted to build locally. The graphics here will give you an idea of how big they are getting.
http://www.westonturbines.org.uk/?paged=2

The whole exercise is for the Government to say that they are doing something about Global Warming that people can see. The damn things are very inefficient and will never recoup the capital costs. I don't know yet who is going to build them but I'll bet a pound to a pinch of shit that it won't be a British company, or if it is they will import the labour.
 
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Those are seriously massive, I must agree - far bigger than those milling artistically in the background at Yarmouth, for example. Whatever happened to self-generating houses via solar panel roofing?

Wals, you and Mordy will be happy to know that Old Moore's Almanack 2009 is predicting that 'new' coalmines will be opening up in the UK in a while!
 
I thought there was going to be some sort of govt. legislation that all new-builds had to have 'elements' of solar panelling in them, so as to self-generate enough energy to heat the water, etc.? So, what happened there?
 
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