Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Wind Turbine Installations - What Few See
A friend of mine lives in Kenmore, a bonny wee village which nestles at the east end of Loch Tay. Her nearest town is Aberfeldy, a short drive away. For those of you who have never visited the area it is an area of startling scenic beauty and attracts thousands of visitors each year. Robert Burns wrote a song about the Birks of Aberfeldy and this particular area is a magnet for walkers and cyclists.
Between Aberfeldy and Dunkeld is Griffin Forest, known nationally as part of Perthshire's Big Tree country. The whole area is referred to locally as 'the Griffin'.
The locals of Aberfeldy and surrounding districts have long protested about the creation of Scotland's third-largest wind farm on the Griffin, but sadly they lost their fight and the wind farm is now underway. It was opposed by Perth and Kinross council but the matter went to a public inquiry, following which the Scottish government decided the plan should go ahead.
I've heard first-hand about the months of inconvenience to road users - there is very little public transport in this area - with the months spent altering bridges and strengthening and widening roads, which can support the delivery of the £200 million development's 68 turbines; each with 125-metre blades.
Until I watched this video, showing a trial run of the transport vehicles, I had no real concept about the length of the vehicles which will travel from Rosyth under police escort. Four deliveries are planned a week, one on a Monday and Tuesday and two on a Wednesday, when there will be morning and afternoon trips. This process will continue until October.
Not only will it affect the local area, the roads from Rosyth to the Griffin will also face problems with the convoy of three abnormal load vehicles and at least one additional escort vehicle; delaying journey times. Tayside police has indicated that it may take up to 90 minutes to reach the site from the A9. If I say it would take me about 15 minutes for that journey it will give some idea of the disruption this will cause. The local area will lose £millions in tourist revenue this year as traffic will not divert from the A9.
The only people who want this wind farm appear to be the Scottish government who are determined to hit their carbon targets; the same targets which could be met in simpler and more sensible ways.
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19 comments:
Rosie, that might not be the only thing locals might see............
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/planning/onshore-wind/shadow-flicker/page18736.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbIe0iUtelQ
Check out the Daily Mail article on the green credentials of the magnets used in wind turbines.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html
So much for the bottom falling out of the AGW scam. It seems to have its claws sunk firmly into far too many of the decision makers...
Here in Spain the countryside is also beautiful. It's obviously different from Scotland's green and lush forests but it has a charm all on it's own. Mostly mountainous especially on the road from Coin to Tarifa. You drive on the mountain road and the view out to sea is breathtaking... except for the bloody windfarms.
Spain windfarm project has been hailed as a major success but those of us living here know the truth of it. It's an utter failure in every way possible.
Total Failure of Spain's Windfarms
Attached to this website is the official report from Spanish Experts.
Jings Joe, that would drive me mad. Thanks for the links.
Thanks for the link Dave. I think I used it in a previous wind farm post but it's a serious point.
The fighting about has gone on for years Julia with most folk objecting - even the council. But we can't upset government targets can we?
Thanks for the link Sue. I'll let you know what this looks like from a famed tourist route in the area.
We had the plant lorries go through our small village. Monsters with extra driver steering the rear wheels. They were quite nippy and didn't cause too much bother - more of a photo opportunity. I'm an objector but have to admit there is a wind farm I pass quite often and I now do not notice them. Obviously, different for tourists.
The trouble with all these "green" activities, no-one ever does a true "end to end" assessment of their greenness. This should be considered over the life cycle of the project and include all costs and environmental harm that would not have occurred if the project had not taken place.
But this is never done, only running costs are considered. How green are our low energy bulbs, the time that you take all the sourcing of materials into account, together with the special disposal arrangements? How green are these battery driven cars going to be when you take into account the the manufacture and disposal of the batteries after a relatively short life? Look at Prescote's plan to knock down rows of old terraced houses in the north of England because they had poor insulation and replace them with modern, well insulated properties, when a rough calculation showed it would be 50-100 years before the energy used in building them would have been saved!
This green madness is everywhere!
What will be interesting for comparison, is the predicted annual MWh generated in order to get approval; vs the actual MWh generated in the first 12 months of operation.
The latter figure being NOT (necessarily) the quantity publicised by the farm's developer / owner, but by the actual amount of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), as issued into the formal ROC Register.
@Joe Public - to answer your question (and many others) you can look here:
http://www.ref.org.uk/roc-generators/search.php
Click on the "Search" option and then enter the country, followed by wind in the 2 technology drop down menus, then hit "Search" at the bottom.
The resulting lists can be sorted by clicking on the header link. The best in Scotland was a surprising 47% annual Load Factor (LF), but the majority are in the 20 - 30% range...
John, these wagons will hold up the lives of many for months and all the road works over the last 12 months have made them miserable enough.
I don't think I'd miss 68 of them if I lived in the Aberfeldy area - not even on a foggy day.
There are vast profits involved EP or the installers wouldn't be able to afford the changes to roads, bridges etc.
Not even the greenies in this area supported this. That must say something.
Ah Joe I see MD has given a link for that. Off to read it. Thanks MD.
Anthony Watts has posted on this only a few days ago under the heading "The Reality of Wind Turbines in California". Note that as soon as the grant money runs out many of these uneconomical monstrosities become ugly rusting hulks.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/19/the-reality-of-wind-turbines-in-california-video/
That must be the longest vehicle I have ever seen on british road. It's almost comedy long. Pity they are all getting so much help to rape the countryside.
Thank you Jock. I really should have mentioned the fact that when the subsidies stopped the whole project did too. As will happen of course when only the richest in this country can afford to pay electricity bills.
Without us subsiding our own. electricity bills more and more, less and less older folk will manage to survive in their own homes because they can't afford to keep warm.
Yet some pensioners are called 'rich' although I've yet to find the definition of that even though I've googled, yahooed, binged and on other engines.
I omitted to say it's collapsible too Richard. Once the components are delivered, it can be shrunk to the size of a 'normal' articulate and therefore won't need a police escort.
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