The UK adopts wind - at last!

[Sodafin]

Finally - Britain is getting serious about using 21st century energy!

Britain will produce 25% of its energy needs from wind - which is probably quite a sensible and achievable figure, and means Britain has a good mix of nuclear, wind and other forms of production. It also means Britain stays in the race economically on the production of energy products, although no great surprise that one of the lead contractors is a Norwegian company!

The BBC reports:

Successful bids for nine new offshore wind farm zone licences within UK waters have been announced.

A consortium including Npower and Norway's Statkraft won the licence for the biggest zone, in Dogger Bank, which could produce nine gigawatts of energy.

Turbines in the nine zones could generate up to 32 gigawatts of power, a quarter of the UK's electricity needs.

BBC News - New UK offshore wind farm licences are announced

 

[hjmick]

Britain will produce 25% of its energy needs from wind

Only if the wind blows...

 

[Sodafin]

Britain will produce 25% of its energy needs from wind

Only if the wind blows...

That is true, of course, but perhaps less true than you might imagine.

For one thing - 25% is an average, not a peak. On peak days the figure can be much higher than 25% - Spain has peaked at more than 50%.

There is a lot of science that goes into where the wind mills will be located, and in this case technical advances have been made that will allow some mills to be sit in 60 metres of water more than 200 kms from land - because that is where the wind is most constant.

 

[Mr. H.]

Evidently there are no Kennedy's living in Britain.

 

[RadiomanATL]

I read the subject wrong.

I thought this story was about a sudden release of pent up flatulence.


moving on...

 

[feudal22]

Britain will produce 25% of its energy needs from wind

This is really2 good. Others country should follow Britain as wind are clean and renewable energy. Congrats to Britain!

 

[Colin]

I read the subject wrong.

I thought this story was about a sudden release of pent up flatulence.


moving on...

That's confined to 10 Downing Street!

 

[Old Rocks]

Here in Oregon, in spite of the fact that we are not really one of the states with a very high wind potential, we are putting in mills just as fast as they can be made. And nobody is losing money on them.

While the wind is not constant in any one spot, it is seldom that it is not blowing somewhere. Yes, you do need baseline power. Nuclear, in spite of the cost, geo-thermal, and hydro serve this purpose admirably. A real distributed nationwied grid would go far to even out the alternative energy fluctuations.

 

[Douger]

Britain ........ Forgive them for waiting so long.
Being another Third world Empire, like the US, it takes them a while to catch up with the rest of the world.

It's neat what countries can do when they're not bombing people back into the sto....... I mean spreading freedom and democracy, across the globe.
Costa Rica Is 99% Powered By Renewable Energy

Pickens is on the right track..............30 years late
$2 Billion Wind Turbine Order Is Largest Ever

Then you have this "third world" nation.
http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/5197/elecnor-group-obtains-five-wind-farms-in-brazil

And another " third world hellhole"
Latin America's largest wind farm in Chile - UPI.com

And what is the Mpyre up to ? As usual, the glassy eyed, brainwashed,flag waving, stooges with badges are working hard at "protecting and serving"......... their corporate masters.
They would have tazered that evil, communist, anti - 'murkin slut, but there were too many cameras.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUMqiZ3XQi0[/ame]

 

[Sodafin]

Well, England is still well ahead of Finland, so I can't complain too much!!

 

[myloem]

Scotland is a pretty constantly windy place. Also when you put the wind turbines off-shore a couple of miles the wind speeds are higher, more constant and if you put them far enough off-shore less visible and objectionable to those on shore.

 

[Toronado3800]

Nice post. Interesting how hostile some folks are. Like how wrong can anyone be about how windy it is anyplace in England. Folks should know how windy its been and where since they're ancestors have been on the same rocks since Roman times.

I'll be interesting in the difference between projected power generated and actual generation. Also the cost / benefit analysis. Something like "the government spent 10 million dollars on turbines to save 5 million in natural gas fees". Or something like the carbon footprint. But hey, I'm all for this. I'd rather pay the Fins to build a turbine than use up some coal or worse bid up the price of Iranian oil.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I've always known those Brits were full of "wind"...

Well, all of them except for Colin, Bootstrap and Roomy.