Re: At least nuclear power plants doesn't make bats' lungs explode...

AdeV wrote:
On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:32:32 +0000, Sam Nelson wrote:

Sounds like bollocks to me. I think wind turbines should continue to be fought on known quantities; that they're ugly, noisy, and ***.
Well, they aren't ugly---they're beautiful examples of a technology designed
to catch what would otherwise got to waste.

They're not pretty by any definition. I suppose one small one on it's own doesn't necessarily constitute an eyesore, if it's next to - say - a 1950s urban sprawl.
Once you get two or more of them together, then it just gets ugly, fast.

I disagree. The largest windfarms I've seen (Rhyl Flats and Anglesey) are both in otherwise featureless areas that don't look any worse for them at all IMO.

I've stood within a few feet
of the base of a 2.3MW machine at Blacklaw, from where you can hear the
`swoosh' of each blade as it goes past, but walk back up to the car-park,
and you can't hear anything, except the wind, which was there anyway. In
what circumstances are they noisy?

The smaller ones are - as I understand it - noisier than the large ones. Having not stood anywhere near a large one, I couldn't confirm that.

Early ones were pretty noisy. Standing on a ridge quarter of a mile from a line of ten of them and at around the same elevation, I was struck by the constant droning sound. But that was in the late nineties after they were first installed. Nowadays, they can barely be heard over the sound of the wind itself.

Beats me what you mean by `***'.

They're big and ugly for starters. They only work between fairly narrowly defined wind speeds. They only work well if the wind speed is both constant AND near the upper speed limit - this almost never happens.

Depends where. Well sited wind farms hardly ever stop. The ones on Anglesey produce sufficient to power 70% of the island's homes.

They're as good as impossible to synchronise with the grid -

Nuclear is no better in that regard. That's why pumped storage stations like Dinorwic are needed.

No, they're not any sensible part of any energy provision. Tidal power is infinitely better, for example.

Aye, but for really serious production you're looking at massive and controversial projects like the Severn Barage, which have potential downsides so huge they can't be ignored.

Nuclear fission is OK, fusion would be better if it ever worked. Solar is fine if you live in a sunny country, hydro if you're in the mountains. TBH, the most sensible energy supply for the UK would probably be burning coppiced willow or poplar in a wood-burning power station. It would need a lot of land, though; you could kiss pretty much every major green space goodbye.

Interesting you should say that. Anglesey Aluminium is the single largest consumer of electricity around here and they're just finalising plans to build their own biomass power plant. Except that they're owned by Rio Tinto, so will probably have the plug pulled.
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