Original article: Save Our Scenic Moray
“So… if you don’t want wind power what alternatives do you propose?”
A fair enough question but one that does not have a single or simple answer.
As a society we are reliant on electricity. People in developing parts of the world look at our lifestyle and want it the same things, we take for granted, themselves.
In our own country the demand for electricity is increasing by around 2% every year.
Therefore it is logical to say that we have to find new scources of energy, preferably non polluting to deal with the national demand.
This study by Dr J R Etherington presents a detailed and unemotional argument against wind farms (.pdf file 325kb) and is well worth reading.
But there is more to it than that. We need to get our polititians and local government elected represetatives to stop dreaming up grand schemes and start with the basics. It’s a bit like the problem with Law & order…. we don’t need more laws to stops mindless yobs … we need proper enforcement of existing laws.
The same is true of Energy. There are alternatives to the fetish for giant wind farms to supply the needs of our National grid, without pollution, such as Nuclear, Coal & Gas with modern CO2 capture technology. For example, the government has approved a £350 million clean-coal power station to be built near Doncaster. The state of the art 430 megawatt power station has the capability to be extended to 1,000 megawatts and will use the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) that will provide pollution free energy. World wide it is estimated that there are 1,000 billion tonnes of coal reserves; in the UK the figure is 100 million tonnes.
Even a former co-founder and leader of Greenpeace, Dr Patrick Moore, believes that Nuclear Energy is the best way forward. Read more.
SOS Moray is not against renewable energy, but we do believe that Wind Farms are NOT the way forward. As a country, we cannot continue to install Generating Capacity based on a system that cannot deliver electricity when it is demanded.
Our electrical generation must come from power sources that can deliver on demand.
- Wind energy is not efficient in terms of its electrical output as it is not controllable or constant.
- Transmission losses incurred by sending electricity from one end of the country to the other through the National Grid are enormous.
- Renewable energy should be consumed close the point of generation to minimise transmission losses.
- At absolute best, wind energy can only be regarded as a “supplement” to our electrical needs and NOT a solution.
There are other technologies that, because they are not big & sexy, do not seem to have inspired our political masters, but they exist and would help involve more people as part of the solution.
1. Save Energy. Boring but effective.
Wind Turbines vs. Energy Saving – a case study
There are 1,628,000 houses in the UK with pitched roof and no roof insulation*
3780 kWh of energy are lost by each such house each year.*
Insulation to 1990 Building Regulations standard would save 3375 kWh p.a.*
The annual output of a 750 kW turbine is 1.64 m units.
Insulating 485 houses would save that amount of energy each year.
New funding arrangements will give wind energy a subsidy of 2p per unit.
The annual subsidy of the turbine will be £32,850.
The cost of insulation is a one-off £122 per house, say £60,000 for 485 houses.
Over the 100 year life of the houses, the energy saving cost averages £600 pa
Saving pollution by insulation is 55 times more cost-effective than saving it by wind turbines!
*Source: Pilkington Insulation, UK Mineral Wool Association
2. Micro Generation
Why do we not do more to promote local electricity generation when there is proven technology that could help make a difference? True, individual micro schemes are small scale and to think that the National Grid could be replaced by “local” green schemes is pie in the sky, but helping more of the population to be part of the solution must surely be more effective than imposing inefficient and un-reliable wind power schemes over large areas of the country and off the coast?
Micro Hydro Power. Unlike big hydro electric schemes, these are small and almost invisible once installed. “No one ever built a wind mill if they could build a water mill.”
Ground source heat pumps. Making use of the constant heat stored under ground. Expensive to install, but very cheap to run once fitted.
Fuel Cells. These are the “holy grail” of renewable energy and hopefully mankind’s ingenuity will overcome the technical difficulties.
3. Feed – in Electricity
PV cells. Fitted to the roofs of factories, shops and houses Photovoltaic (PV) cells essentially convert daylight into electricity.
Already in Germany, more than 300,000 solar systems have been installed in three years and micro-generation provides nearly 12% of all the country’s electricity. Householders can earn 8% to 10% returns on investing in their own home systems and in some cases pay their mortgages with the income earned.
Granted, they don’t operate at night, but daylight is predictable and relatively constant (compared to wind), so feeding in PV generated supplies to the National Grid is much easier to manage.
The fact that individual houses & businesses would be generating electricity means that more people become part of the solution, rather than simply being consumers.
PV Cells in use
3. Tidal Stream Power.
In simple terms, a Tidal Stream is the flow of currents at sea and is not simply the way the tide goes up and down at the beach.
Why the Scottish Executive is not doing more to encourage this type of technology is beyond us.
Wind is not Reliable – Tidal Streams on the other hand are predictable, in the same way High and Low tides are predictable.
Wind is not Constant – Tidal streams, in simple terms, run in one direction for around 6 hours and then in the opposite direction for 6 hours. 24 hours a day … 365 days a year.
Check it out on the Highlands & Islands own web site!
4 Bio-Mass
The term bio-mass covers a range of different fuel sources: short rotation forestry (e.g. willow & poplar coppice), wood wastes, sugar crops, starch crops (wheat, maize), woody plants, oil crops, agricultural wastes, municipal solid wastes and refuse, industrial wastes. The heat produced by burning can be used to produce steam and generate electricity using a turbine. The waste heat can also be utilised, such schemes are called combined heat and power (CHP). Biomass causes CO2 emissions but the CO2 released is equivalent to that taken up by the biomass as it grew. There is therefore no net release of CO2 from the growing and burning of biomass. Biomass sources produce virtually no sulphur emissions.
As Moray is the heart of Scotlands Whisky country it’s only appropriate that one of the areas processing plants for distilery bi-products (Combination of Rothes Distilleries) has recently applied for planning permission to generate power.
5. Hydro Electric
With relatively little fanfare to the outside world, Scotlands newest Hydro Electric Scheme completed tunnelling operations in January 2008 and is on target to start generating electricity in March 2009.
One of the important benefits of hydro power is that it can be switched on very quickly to meet sudden increases in the demand for electricity. Under the right conditions, this plant will be able to reach full output in just 30 seconds….unlike a wind farm.
Also, unlike a wind farm, the entire working operation is hidden underground.
Glendoe Hyro Scheme
