Boro Power {Was: Re: TOT - "Community solar farm"?}

[Dave Liquorice]

> riverside-stadium-8111025

"The 1.5MW turbine will provide all the electricity required for the stadium for the next 20 years, replacing power that would otherwise be drawn from the National Grid."

*ALL* the electricity required for the stadium for the next 20 years? I know the Riverside is a bit breezy but the wind doesn't always blow.

Will they cancel matches if the wind isn't blowing or will they fail over to the diesel backup generator(s) that all major stadiums have to have (*1) or just draw from teh grid?

"Cleaner, cheaper energy is the goal for Boro which will be the first major football club and sports venue to use a wind turbine to become self-sustainable for electricity use."

What complete an utter bollocks. I guess what they are really doing is fudging the figures by looking at a meter in the grid connection and seeing if it's nett import or export. Given that the biggest load at the stadium isn't on that often(*2) and the size of the turbine that's probably not that dificult to achieve.

(*1) Like Hull did during the match a week or so ago when there was a local power outage. (*2) The pitch lights, probably not far short of 500 kW.

[Martin Brown]

It is pretty breezy there I can believe it stands a good chance.

I think you are being a bit unfair and literal minded here. The thing is sized so that the stadium will be energy neutral with a slight net export of energy to the grid. The region is well served with supergrid lines due to the planned Enron facility that never got built...

The turbine capacity is in the right ballpark - pun intended ;-)

[Tim Streater]

There's a big difference between "energy neutral" and "the 1.5MW turbine will provide all the electricity required for the stadium for the next 20 years".

People are being told the second when in fact the first is what they are going to get.

It's the same with wind in general. We're told that wind provided 12% or so of our requirements last year (or whatever it was), so the naive then think that if we build n times as many turbines to get that up to

100%, we'd be sorted. Simples, eh.

[Dave Liquorice]

otherwise

Only removing the spin and gloss. The non-thinking will read that quote and take it at face value.

Energy neutral is not the same as "The 1.5MW turbine will provide all the electricity required for the stadium for the next 20 years, replacing power that would otherwise be drawn from the National Grid."

That quoted statement has one meaning and only one, the turbine will provide all the electricty for the stadium, story end of.

Yes it is sized to be a nett exporter but they will still draw from the grid, erog it's not supplying *all* the electricity demand of the stadium. If they bunged a few big batteries around it that would be different and also enable the other statement:

"Cleaner, cheaper energy is the goal for Boro which will be the first major football club and sports venue to use a wind turbine to become self-sustainable for electricity use."

To be less of a total lie. Self-sustainable means *no* input from elsewhere.

Of course the assumption that they won't cancel or abandon matches when the wind doesn't blow could be wrong or they fall back onto, the required to have, backup diesel gensets.

[Jim Newman]

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

[Jim Newman]

Bollocks.

and I suspect you know it.

I know you have objections to your local renewable energy site, but really, the argument you are trying to put, makes you look like a total green ink ranter.

But if you wish to stand by it - that's fine by me.

[Jim Newman]

[Tim Streater]

What is a bit more complicated than what?

[Jim Newman]

Whether it really matters what naive people think.

[Tim Streater]

Not if the naive people all then vote Green or try to prevent fracking or go around saying how wonderful renewables are.

[Dave Liquorice]

Oh good, I was just wondering what you knew that I didn't. B-)

There is talk and I think a feaseabilty study being done about a hydro plant utilising the old mill race that runs under the town.

That would go with the 400 kW existant hydro plant that uses a couple of old reserviors that were built maybe 200 years ago to provide water for the water wheels powering the old lead mines/smelters.

Some one did have a plan for 5 x 2 MW wind turbines on one of the fells. That got quietly dropped even before the wind surveys were carried out. A web site appeared with reasonably accurate visual representations of what 5 jumbo jets on sticks would look like, given scale by the local TV mast which they would dwarf and some factual information relating to "rated capacity" and "actual generation" etc, initial local support evaporated...

[Jim Newman]

Like I say, it's a bit more complicated than that.

But never mind.