Who's got the wind up.

Wind Farms, any thoughts, not sure if we have been here before.

Must admit they dont seem to be a reliable source of electricity.

I 've never seen any turbines turning on the one on Romney Marsh, but then I only go down that way in good weather.
It does however appear true that we will have to keep other power stations stoked up and running just to provide power when there is no wind.
So are they really worth all the hassle and money being thrown at them.

I saw something on the news today about a small plant producing gas from sewage.
It seems much more viable to me as I'm sure we will never run out of sewage.:D

 

There are a couple of windmills down the road in Newport. To us wind farms are something new, but I worked in Denmark for a while in the early seventies and they already had them. Saw my first automatic door there as well.:hehe::hehe::gnthb:

 

Was the automatic door wind powered?

If so did it work in foggy weather?
http://windfarms.wordpress.com/denmark/

 

Hi pete,

Its true that the payback time for the embedded energy of a wind turbine nearly negates the power we'll get back from it, but when the Russians( or any other country along the pipeline turns the gas off, we'll be glad of the power.

Most of our power stations are now run from gas, so if the gas stops, so does our electric.

We already have pump storage stations on the grid that use excess electric to raise water to mountain lakes so it can drive turbines when needed, essentially the grids batteries, so wind power can be stored just the same.

The biogas plant is very good news, the only byproduct is fertilizer.:gnthb:

China has biogas plants in most towns, they've been doing it for years while we sat on our backsides using up north sea gas.

I'd build a biogas unit myself, if I had the time.

 

Small scale water turbines would be a good addition too. Instead of one big turbine, many small ones for local power generation. It would also create installation/maintenance jobs.

 

I agree we should not rely on Russia, but thats where the anti nuclear thinking has got us, we still have nuclear weapons, but we cant use it for peaceful means, or so it seems.

 

It's big time here. We can see three up on the mountains (hills) from our deck .. t'other half calls them the Mitsubishi Triplets ...... :hehe: We have places here with dozens of them ... neither of us have a problem with them. The are not intrusive as far as we are concerned and a way forward. You can actually buy mini household ones here ... they are so neat .... :thmb:

Here you can sell your electricity gained from them back to the electricity company at five times the cost of electricity ... and banks will finance you because you can do the payback in about five years.

 

Got my wires crossed there Victoria, thought you could see 3 nuclear power stations from your garden, then when you said you could get a small one for the home.....

 

Sorry Ziggy, missed the nuclear bit .. think I was typing and doing other things when the other posts were posted (I am a woman multi-tasking :dh

I am only talking about wind turbines ...

 

Exactly John, why are they not going to build a new one a Dungerness, could it be that they want the Lydd airport to take off, and as such would not fit in.

A jet liner crashing on a nuclear power station is not a good thing to happen.

 

Yep we can get mini ones for one house as well.

If we only had three it wouldn't be so bad, we have hundreds of them cropping up everywhere, I think one of the biggest farms in the world is in the thames esturay.

Main point is, are they cost effective

 

France seems to survive on Nuclear energy and has many such plants. Unless we move soon we shall find ourselves in an overpopulated country with insufficient powwer to sustain a modern economy.
There is another option in creating power via burning waste products but I guess that would not be acceptable to the green franchise..........

 

Submarines can have nuclear powerplants which last for decades and if the figures are to be believed can provide enough power for a city the size of Southampton.

Tidal power I think it under-realised but suffers from the same problems as sea power, the environment. Was a program the other day and never really realised it before but the sea can destroy pretty much whatever we put out there. However lighthouse structures seem to survive okay, so why not wave driven turbines in that sort of structure ?

Then again what do I know .. lol

 

T'other half says a few years ago he thought they cost £1 million each ... so who can answer that question?