Wind turbines - can be DIY made?

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:57:10 +0100 (BST) someone who may be "Dave Liquorice" wrote this:-

Oh the text is in the message alright, but that is not the point. I quoted it, as I made clear in the message. My point is that you falsely claimed that I had written it. Glad you seem to accept that now.

I did.

Please indicate where I have failed to standby that quote?

I could have edited out bits of it I suppose, rather then quoting the whole thing, but then people would have whined about something else.

I have just looked at tariffs for Edinburgh in uswitch.com. Pay on receipt of bill. The cheapest was Atlantic with 16.40p (and 9.84p per unit above 900 units per year). The most expensive, ignoring the green ones was Npower, 21.01p (and 10.45 above 728). While there have been large increases in prices recently it does show that the quote was in the right ballpark.

[TINNEws]

Well having been to Germany recently I have to say that I think they make a real mess of the landscape. Driving across the North of Germany my guess would be that you're just about never out of sight of a wind farm. I was amazed at how many there are there. What proportion of their electricity is now generated by wind?

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 15:23:19 +0100 someone who may be tony sayer wrote this:-

The great flexibility of hydro stations means they can do many tasks. For example they can be scheduled to run for a few minutes in a surge and then stop. Then run for a few minutes in the next surge. Others run most of the time, others only during the day, others can be held at instant readiness to cover emergencies.

Hydro stations can also be doing several things at once, for example the small turbine at Foyers can be generating purely as a hydro station. Some of the output of this turbine will go into the system and some will go into keeping the two pumped storage turbines ready for action. These two turbines can be kept in readiness for long periods, without emitting any greenhouse gases, but they are ready within a few seconds to keep the lights on. Their 300MW will not cope with the failure of Sizewell B, but they are adequate to deal with likely problems in the North of Scotland. I have seen a figure of over 10,000 stop-starts in a year, which is over 27 a day.

This flexibility is a great attraction and it is good to see that construction has started on more recently, Glendoe being the largest at the moment. However, this flexibility does mean there can be confusion, whether accidental or deliberate, about what such stations can and do get used for.

[Andy Hall]

OK, makes sense. It's easy enough to traffic shape to control bandwidth where the WLAN connects to the fixed service. Quite an achievement to do this. I imagine that you don't have the easiest of terrains where you are.

[Mary Fisher]

And several are.

[Bob Eager]

I'm not one of those people. There's a wind farm out to sea right HERE. It's awful.

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:05:38 +0100 (BST) someone who may be "Dave Liquorice" wrote this:-

They state very clearly what their angle is, unlike some participants in the discussion (not this particular discussion, but the general discussion about sustainable electricity). I was also careful to provide a link to the source of the quote, unlike some, so people would be aware of where it came from.

Had they wanted to do that then they are unlikely to have provided a link to the annex.

Noted.

I also note that they provide a link to the Keele rebuttal of the REF assertions regarding infrasound by the link to the annex.

[Andy Hall]

That's dreadful. I thought that they were supposed to be a long way off shore to avoid the visual pollution. (e.g. if you're in Kent, Holland would be good) How far out is it?

[Bob Eager]

About 5 miles. But given the size...and I'm only a mile from the sea! They dominate the seafront.

[Roger]

The message from David Hansen contains these words:

I spend some considerable time earlier in the day responding to this and several other messages but the have so far not appeared even on zetnets server and I think they may well have disappeared into a black hole. I have repeated some at least of what said the first time around in this response but I have other things to do with my time over the next 24 hours so don't have the time to repeat everything and no doubt so of the wording will have changed although the sentiment hasn't.

Claiming there hasn't been a single instance where there was not some wind somewhere in the UK is of no consequence particularly as they don't even limit their claim to wind sufficient to generate any electricity. If the average for the whole UK wind farm industry is 0.27% - 0.30% of rated output then there must be substantial periods where the overall output is considerably below average.

More exaggeration.

You moved the goal posts so I was merely moving them back to where they were. In any event it doesn't take a genius to devise a scenario where a whole power station is unexpectedly taken out of service.

[Adrian]

Bob Eager ( [e-mail]) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Where are you?

[Andy Hall]

That's really unacceptable. Either they should be smaller or further away.

[Bob Eager]

Herne Bay, Kent.

[Bob Eager]

Well, they seem big. 115m high.. 30 of them.

[Andy Hall]

115m !!!!! You're joking.... (No you're not).

[Adrian]

Bob Eager ( [e-mail]) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I don't see the problem in those at all. But then, I quite like the things anyway.

[Andy Hall]

I think they're awful and completely ruin the seascape.

At least Dungeness is one small area and that's it. A far better solution.

[Mary Fisher]

:-)

Thanks for that url, it's now saved. Very useful ammunition :-)

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

There are 30 Kwik-Fit signs???

What on Earth were the planner thinking about? Just the one in the picture is ugly enough - in my opinion!

Mary

[Andy Hall]

Ammunition..... The Guns of Navarone springs to mind. I am sure that they could have dealt with this eyesore.

30 quick bangs and back to how it should look.