Germany's Energy Problems

We are not alone in our protest of green taxes on our energy bills - The Germans also have the problem.

Angela Merkel decided last year that nuclear would no longer be Germany's main supplier of power and renewables were the future.  German has promoted solar power for many years. but now it's inefficiency has caught up with it. It seems 56% of all green energy subsidies go to their solar systems which produce only 21% of subsidized energy.

The relationship is just the reverse for their wind energy projects and they're not doing so well either. For the same cost, wind supplies at least five times as much electricity as solar and even biomass plants are three times more efficient.

For a while it seemed that at least the German solar industry was benefiting from the generous subsidy rates, but the green economic miracle has, in the case of the solar industry, turned out to be a subsidy bubble.

In a country with a similar climate to Scotland, in the north at least, solar was never going to stand alone and would always need propped up by government money. I'm sure the Scottish government is taking note of Germany's renewables problem and if not, why not?

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The Waning Wind

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said this week that lower than expected wind speeds and rainfall had led to a 12% fall in renewable electricity generated between April and June compared to the same period in 2009.  This is the second fall in renewable energy production this year and follows a smaller but still notable decline between January and March, again compared to last year.

With a sharp drop in output from nuclear power stations as well, greenhouse gas emissions from each unit of electricity generated will inevitably have risen, at a time when the UK has pledged to cut such pollution and is pressing other countries to do the same.

Speculation is mounting that the government is considering cutting the feed-in tariff subsidy for small scale renewable equipment and 69 industry figures and other experts have sent an open letter to the government warning such a move would 'shatter' confidence and put future investment in 'mortal peril'.

A spokesman from RenewableUK, the industry lobby group, said: "Clearly we need to deploy more renewable devices if we expect to get more in the energy mix.  Hydro and wind power will vary from year to year, as do other technologies, but we know that they can and do contribute significant amounts of electricity."

They really don't have a clue do they, yet I (and you) will continue to pay subsidies to those folk who have installed a couple of solar panels on their roofs, or a windmill in their back garden, after having been taken in by the propaganda.

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photo: offshore windfarm near Prestatyn, north Wales

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The Truth Emerges Albeit Slowly

The UK now has more wind capacity installed than the rest of the world put together since the turbines of the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm came on stream last week.

80% of the construction jobs for the Thanet farm went overseas and RenewableUK, the national body for Britain's wind industry, is warning 50,000 jobs could be at risk if manufacturers base their offshore wind operations outside the UK.  Labour promised £60m to upgrade the infrastructure at Britain's ports to attract manufacturers to the UK but that money is vulnerable in the Coalition Goverment's Comprehensive Spending Review.

This means the thousands of jobs the Scottish government insist will be created in the Scottish renewables market may never exist. In Scotland Strathclyde university is one of the best engineering universities in the world , yet we're unable to produce windmills and have to out-source them to Europe and further afield.  It doesn't make economic sense.

To add to our woes, the UK Energy Research Centre - a Government funded academic think tank - has reported it costs nearly twice as much to generate electricity from an offshore wind farm as it does from a conventional power station.  Instead of costs falling as predicted, in the last five years the cost of buying and installing turbines and towers at sea has gone up by 51%.

The true cost of wind is likely to be much higher than the 15p a unit outlined in the report because wind is intermittent and the National Grid is forced to rely on a fleet of gas and coal power stations to back up the supply when the wind fails.

Yet we continue with the crazy plan of building more and more of these inefficient and costly windmills.  When is someone going to shout stop?

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There's No Ill Wind for Civil Engineers

Several times I've said there's money to be made in wind and North Wales based Jones Bros has proved it by reporting pre tax profits of £2m, up 33%.

The civil engineering company employs about 30 people in Scotland and its biggest building project is the 60-turbine Crystal Rig II wind farm in East Lothian (that's not it in the picture). It is also building a wind farm near Aberdeen. The firm, which has an office in Linlithgow, said contracts in Scotland now total 27% of turnover.

Managing director Huw Jones said: "We had another year of further solid progress, despite the economic recession and a very competitive market. A big area of expansion for us was the energy sector, where we worked for both renewables and conventional energy producers.

"Considering the ongoing uncertainties in the economy, we have a very healthy order book of work going forward, which will enable us to continue our expansion strategy. The future is looking very positive."

The future does look very promising, especially when domestic consumers are faced with a rise in their utility bills just in time for winter, as always. It's not only the engineers who will be laughing all the way to the bank but the utility companies too, while more and more of our elderly perish from hypothermia.

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The Wealth in Wind

Occasionally I have to read an article twice to ensure that my reading skills are fairly accurate. This was such a re-read.

Energy firms will receive thousands of pounds a day per wind farm to turn off their turbines because the National Grid can't use the power they are producing. The National Grid fears that on breezy summer nights, wind farms could actually cause a surge in the electricity supply which is not met by demand from businesses and households.

Electricity cannot be stored so one solution, known as the 'balancing mechanism', is to switch off or reduce the power supplied. This system is already used to reduce supply from coal and gas-fired power stations when there is low demand.

But shutting down wind farms is likely to cost the National Grid - and ultimately us, the consumers - far more. When wind turbines are turned off, owners are being deprived of not only money for the electricity they would have generated, but also lucrative 'green' subsidies for that electricity.

The first successful test shut down of wind farms took place three weeks ago. Scottish Power received £13,000 for closing down two farms for a little over an hour on 30 May at about 5am.

Coal and gas power stations often pay the National Grid £15 to £20 per megawatt hour they do not supply. Scottish Power was paid £180 per megawatt hour during the test to switch off its turbines. It raises the prospect of hugely profitable electricity suppliers receiving large sums of money from the National Grid just for switching off wind turbines. Just a few months ago the Telegraph reported customers are paying more than £1 billion a year to subsidise wind farms.

A National Grid spokesman said: "The trial is something supporters of wind energy should welcome, as it gives evidence to their case that wind generation does not bring insurmountable problems to balancing supply and demand."

Is it any wonder Forth Ports PLC want to put two of these giants slap bang in the middle of the River Tay at Dundee? Within the next two years an offshore turbine, more than 500ft tall with a diameter of 475ft is due to make an appearance in British waters. The designers of these turbines say there are no reason why offshore turbines should not get even larger.

Some years ago now there was a public outcry at farmers being paid to keep land fallow (the EU arable set-aside policy). This policy was scrapped with the introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Suppliers can't really lose where wind farms are concerned. Time we rebelled against paying higher electricity prices for a system which supplies a minimal amount of our power.

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Turbines in the Tay

Dundee Road Bridge from Fife

Dundee has one of the most attractive city scapes in the country. As a child I used to marvel at the view across the river Tay to Fife from many city streets but the town councillors were never talented enough to pass the better plans to develop the waterfront into one of Scotland's finest. Long before the 1960s some town architects and planners had spectacular ideas which never gained planning approval and instead, in the 1960s, it was decided to demolish the waterfront and bring the road bridge right into the city centre, accompanied by monstrous buildings such as Tayside House.

In recent years the town council have acknowledged the waterfront area is a disaster and buildings such as Tayside House are to be demolished to make way for the 'Dundee Waterfront Vision' which hopefully will include a branch of the V & A. The whole project will be exceptionally expensive but Dundee deserves some tender loving care. In days gone by it contributed greatly to the Scottish economy with little reward.

However, now the Port of Dundee (owned by Forth Ports PLC) want to place two giant wind turbines in the river. The plan for the 127 metre high structures at Stannergate (not far from the city centre) will ruin the city's skyline angry residents have claimed. Forth Ports and Scottish & Southern Energy have claimed Dundee could become a 'powerhouse' of renewable energy if the turbines are given the go-ahead.

Placing two windmills in the middle of one of the most lovely estuaries in the UK is certainly not going to enhance the view from either side of the river. These monstrosities are completely inappropriate for the city's new waterfront.

It's nothing to do with Dundee being a 'powerhouse' for renewables either and I agree with residents that this plan is all to do with Forth Ports wanting to make money and nothing to do with Dundee. If renewable energy was the reason why haven't tidal and wave power been considered?

A spokesman for Forth Energy said: "At this stage of the project we are keen to hear from local residents and stakeholders to get their view on our proposals." You will, believe me, you will hear from those interested. Why this project has reached this stage defeats me. Once again, Dundee town councillors have let the people down by allowing this project to reach this stage.

Have a look at the animation video and imagine two 127 foot wind turbines just yards from the shore. It's enough to make even the toughest Dundonian weep.

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Let's Hope Climate Change is Breezy

Wind seems to be in the news this week. Or the lack of it in this part of the country.

Yesterday the Scottish government confirmed rights had been granted to companies to build two enormous wind farms in the seas off Scotland's east coast.

About 850 turbines will be built off Fife in the Firth of Forth and in the Moray Firth off the north-east coast, under the plans.

Announcing the winning bidders yesterday, Mr Salmond said there was "no greater opportunity for our country" than offshore renewables.

He said he believed the 1,000 existing Scottish jobs in offshore renewables would multiply 20 fold to 20,000 by 2020. The huge offshire wind farms, if built, would have the combined capacity of 4.8 gigawatts (GW) - enough to power more than two million houses - roughly every home in Scotland. When combined with existing plans for 6.4GW of offshore wind farms at ten other sites round Scotland, announced last year, there would be more than 11GW capacity.

At peak output they are expected to operate at more than 40 per cent efficiency.

Now I don't want to be a doom-monger but this is worrying. More worrying is the fact that onshore production has been nearly non-existent in the past weeks. Add that to the National Grid's cost ideas and I can see the consumer price of energy becoming completely unaffordable for many. What do we do then?

Lallands Peat Worrier also has an opinion.

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One Scientist's Opinion

Courtesy of Dr Grumble

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