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[waspy]

I'd much rather have them than a barron waste land where nothing grows  

[Bandit127]

They have a small part to play in a diverse portfolio of generation.  Like it or not we need new nuclear (in fact we should have started building them about 5 years ago).

2MW each -  based on current UK winter demand figures = 28286 turbines in total....

And, as someone else said, 0.05% of a nuclear power station.

Nuclear power has big risks for quality of life, wind power has much smaller risks.

It's not a risk but a certainty that our quality of life will severly be affected if we do nothing, in most of our lifetimes.

In that context both Wind Turbines and Nuclear get my vote. Yes, I would live next to either if I had to. And I probably SHOULD have to, like it or lump it.

[TheBoy]

if my leccy bill is anything to go by, I need my own nuclear power station  

[HerefordElite]

Personaly I think we should build giant hamster wheels underground  and use the growing prison population to walk round all day and earn their keep

but i'm sure some euro do-gooding tw4t will say it's against human rights or some crap

[waspy]

if my leccy bill is anything to go by, I need my own nuclear power station  

 
As you know TB, i could manage with a hamster & wheel  

[FRE07962128]

They have a small part to play in a diverse portfolio of generation.  Like it or not we need new nuclear (in fact we should have started building them about 5 years ago).

2MW each -  based on current UK winter demand figures = 28286 turbines in total....

And, as someone else said, 0.05% of a nuclear power station.

Nuclear power has big risks for quality of life, wind power has much smaller risks.

It's not a risk but a certainty that our quality of life will severly be affected if we do nothing, in most of our lifetimes.

In that context both Wind Turbines and Nuclear get my vote. Yes, I would live next to either if I had to. And I probably SHOULD have to, like it or lump it.

Totally agree Bandit if we want to continue using electricity in increasing quantities.  If we want a life powered by electricity, and just imagine what life would be without it, we all need to accept all forms of power generation running on the technologies available currently.  

One day mankind will create very advanced, completely clean and totally non-polluting methods of generating electricity, but until then we live with what we have.

In my lifetime there has been a constant promise of a very cheap, realible, and totally clean produced electricity (yes, nuclear power was presented as this once!), but it hasn't happened yet and I think I will be well gone when it finally arrives!

[Martin_1962]

I have many thoughts about wind turbines - unsuitable for base load or peak load so you either need to change how you use it or need lost of fast cycle gas turbines to fill in.

A small cluster looks nice, but a lot ruins the scenery.

We NEED the following.

Better usage, following the wind if you like so use the electricity when it is there, less wasteage, a lot more nuclear, some more modern coal fired stations.

We cannot use wind alone as every lake in the country would be needed for storage.

The Severn barage must not be built - it will ruin the whole estuary.

I would rather live 2 miles from a nuclear plant than 2 miles from a coal plant

[Jay w]

i like the look of them and the noise it something i could live with.......

However there does come a point where they could become too overpowering, and 28000 would certainly be well past that point

[Kevin Wood]

Exactly as Martin says, they look like they're doing a great job, but in fact are as much use to our national grid as a choccy fireguard.

Dumping loads of cheap energy into the grid when the wind happens to be blowing, without a means to store it to cover peak demand, just encourages the proliferation of less efficient, more dynamic fossil fuel plants to cover the load when the wind isn't blowing. Net effect on CO2 emissions, global warming, acid rain or whatever "myth of the day" you subscribe to - bu66er all.

Statistically the country's peak electrical energy demand occurs in around mid February - a time of year when we can have calm conditions for a week at a time. There have to be other plants on standby, burning fossil fuels, ready to cover for this eventuality so why bother with wind? Invest in something like nuclear that gives us some promise of energy security rather than the 3 day weeks that'll happen if Russia tightens the screws on our coal and gas supplies and the wind 'aint blowing.

Kevin

[Chopsdad]

I never had a problem with them until an planning application was submitted in the next village 1m away and I read the campaign to halt progress. Very interesting reading.

Did you know the noise and shadow affects have been linked to sleeping disorders and all production has ceased in France pending more research....http://www.againstnewlandswindfarm.co.uk/

So yes I still like them.......... in someone elses back yard  

[Bandit127]

I never had a problem with them until an planning application was submitted in the next village 1m away and I read the campaign to halt progress. Very interesting reading.

Did you know the noise and shadow affects have been linked to sleeping disorders and all production has ceased in France pending more research....http://www.againstnewlandswindfarm.co.uk/

So yes I still like them.......... in someone elses back yard  

The effects on sleep of having no heating in February and a cold bath/shower to get up to are probably more disturbing on sleep than a big rather fan.

That we have to do something is not optional. The rest is in the detail. And it will certainly involve your back yard and mine, one way or another.

[Chopsdad]

I never had a problem with them until an planning application was submitted in the next village 1m away and I read the campaign to halt progress. Very interesting reading.

Did you know the noise and shadow affects have been linked to sleeping disorders and all production has ceased in France pending more research....http://www.againstnewlandswindfarm.co.uk/

So yes I still like them.......... in someone elses back yard  

The effects on sleep of having no heating in February and a cold bath/shower to get up to are probably more disturbing on sleep than a big rather fan.

That we have to do something is not optional. The rest is in the detail. And it will certainly involve your back yard and mine, one way or another.

I'm ok though - just a stones throw from Sellafield

I think their output is equivalent to 3 or 4 windy fans.

Joking aside, the site is opportunistic and no where near windy enough for 3 turbines - which can hardly be called a farm, and is just a firm out to make a quick buck.

[FRE07962128]

Exactly as Martin says, they look like they're doing a great job, but in fact are as much use to our national grid as a choccy fireguard.

Dumping loads of cheap energy into the grid when the wind happens to be blowing, without a means to store it to cover peak demand, just encourages the proliferation of less efficient, more dynamic fossil fuel plants to cover the load when the wind isn't blowing. Net effect on CO2 emissions, global warming, acid rain or whatever "myth of the day" you subscribe to - bu66er all.

Statistically the country's peak electrical energy demand occurs in around mid February - a time of year when we can have calm conditions for a week at a time. There have to be other plants on standby, burning fossil fuels, ready to cover for this eventuality so why bother with wind? Invest in something like nuclear that gives us some promise of energy security rather than the 3 day weeks that'll happen if Russia tightens the screws on our coal and gas supplies and the wind 'aint blowing.

Kevin

That is very true as much as Russia needs to sell this fuel for the cash it requires for it's expanding economy.  The problem comes when it proves to be politically timely to Russia to "blackmail" us into accepting what their aims may be at that particular time.  The Georgia issue is  very small compared to what they could get up to.

Thank goodness we still have a "nuclear deterant" weapons system and we still have wind turbines and nuclear powered electricity generating plant available to us ; but we are just going to require a lot more of it for our future security!

[justme]

The only reason for the existance of wind turbines Government grants

They produce an output for 23% of the time. For the rest they take from the power grid, and that's when they are positioned in the very best places they are not and never will be efficient.

If you happen to live in a built up area then, as proven quite recently they are completely useless. The wind behaves in a completely different way.

The saddest part of this debate concerning nuclear, coal, gas, or oil, fired, we as a country no longer have the engineering capacity. Regarding nuclear we no longer have the ability.

  
But of course we dont need it now, it's all the Service Industry, arent we going to regret it, youd better believe it.

Even sadder we allowed the sods to do it.

[Kevin Wood]

The saddest part of this debate concerning nuclear, coal, gas, or oil, fired, we as a country no longer have the engineering capacity. Regarding nuclear we no longer have the ability.

We have gone from being the pioneers of this, and many other technologies in the 50's and 60's to being totally at the mercy of overseas companies today.

Kevin