Good news for Hull

[Naughty Cal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-26725473

[Athy]

About time too. I was quite shocked to read, last year, that although we have dozens of wind farms in England, all the turbines were imported. Building them in Britain will help the economy, even if the parent company is foreign.

[cotswoldsman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-26725473

Just wonder how this fits into your opinion on Benefits as each job will cost the tax payer about £75,000. For the sake of clarity I have no problem with my tax being used to create new jobs

About time too. I was quite shocked to read, last year, that although we have dozens of wind farms in England, all the turbines were imported. Building them in Britain will help the economy, even if the parent company is foreign.

i agree

[b0atman]

Good news for Kingston

[Athy]

Yes, Jamaica badly needs new investment.

[Naughty Cal]

As it will have a longer term benefit to the wider economy I have no problem with the money being spent training people to carry out these new jobs.

 

This move can only be a good thing for the area.

[8 Hairy Feet]

UK City of culture 2017

[b0atman]

probably a bit iffy taking a narrow boat up the River Hull anyone taken a narrowboat round to the Ancholme for a few ciders at Brandy wharf ?

[Nightwatch]

If I remember correctly, there was a company on the Isle of Wight making these things and about three/four years ago they closed and continued to make them abroad somewhere like Sweden or somewhere.

 

Martyn

[Naughty Cal]

probably a bit iffy taking a narrow boat up the River Hull anyone taken a narrowboat round to the Ancholme for a few ciders at Brandy wharf ?

 

Theres loads of narrowboats do the river hull, Beverley Beck and the Ancholme.

 

Not iffy at all if your know what you are doing and pick your weather window.

[jodansgang]

Good news for his sidekick, Emu, as well I suppose.

[PaulG]

Personally I think it is pretty clear that wind farms are a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

 

The current contribution by wind power to the National Grid as I type this is 0.88 GW, or a mere 2.05% of the total UK demand of 43 GW.

 

We are currently importing more 'leccy from Holland (1GW or 2.33%) than all those windmills put together!

 

According to Wikipedia we already have 5,276 wind turbines with a theoretical output capacity of over ten gigawatts.

 

However our political masters seem to have decided that we need these monuments to green stupidity, so if we are buying them anyway, I would rather they were built in Britain.

[Machpoint005]

Personally I think it is pretty clear that wind farms are a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

 

The current contribution by wind power to the National Grid as I type this is 0.88 GW, or a mere 2.05% of the total UK demand of 43 GW.

 

We are currently importing more 'leccy from Holland (1GW or 2.33%) than all those windmills put together!

 

According to Wikipedia we already have 5,276 wind turbines with a theoretical output capacity of over ten gigawatts.

 

However our political masters seem to have decided that we need these monuments to green stupidity, so if we are buying them anyway, I would rather they were built in Britain.

 

Bit of a lack of joined-up thinking here -- a fair old bit of Dutch electricity is produced by the wind and other renewables (although nothing like as much as Denmark or Germany).

 

Monuments to green stupidity? I don't think so. They do actually produce energy, you know.

If I remember correctly, there was a company on the Isle of Wight making these things and about three/four years ago they closed and continued to make them abroad somewhere like Sweden or somewhere.

 

Martyn

 

Just turbine blades, I think.

Germany, Denmark and Spain are the biggest manufacturers of multi-megawatt turbines in Europe.

[PaulG]

 

Bit of a lack of joined-up thinking here -- a fair old bit of Dutch electricity is produced by the wind and other renewables (although nothing like as much as Denmark or Germany).

 

Monuments to green stupidity? I don't think so. They do actually produce energy, you know.

Well yes. They do produce energy - just!

At the time of writing their contribution to the national grid is an average of 189 watts per installed turbine.

[cotswoldsman]

Well yes. They do produce energy - just!

At the time of writing their contribution to the national grid is an average of 189 watts per installed turbine.

The ones they will make in Hull are nearly twice the size of anything built now and will be able to produce 300 W we will triple the amount of wind farms still we could continue with gas power stations and rely on that Russian gas

[PaulG]

Well yes. They do produce energy - just!

At the time of writing their contribution to the national grid is an average of 189 watts per installed turbine.

To put that 189 watts into perspective, when Bradley Wiggins won the 2011 National 10-mile title his average power output was 476 watts.

[cotswoldsman]

To put that 189 watts into perspective, when Bradley Wiggins won the 2011 National 10-mile title his average power output was 476 watts.

And your point is we should open a factory making Bradley Wiggins look alikes

[Naughty Cal]

And your point is we should open a factory making Bradley Wiggins look alikes

And have farms full of them cycling non stop

[PaulG]

And have farms full of them cycling non stop

What a wonderful idea.

[Nightwatch]

How much will it cost to feed all these Bradleys?

[Naughty Cal]

Or buy their bikes.

[PaulG]

Wiggo's Tour De France bike was estimated to cost about £10K.

So 5,276 bikes would only be £52 million or so. Much cheaper than wind turbines.

Get them made in Hull!

[Naughty Cal]

I dont think thats a very good business plan.

 

Who else wants a £10k bike?

[Machpoint005]

Well yes. They do produce energy - just!

At the time of writing their contribution to the national grid is an average of 189 watts per installed turbine.

 

I'd like to see the source of that information because even at a 20% load factor it would mean the average turbine was rated at 1kW. That is ridiculously low. Does the source include all those millions of plastic windmills sold at the seaside, for example?

At this very moment, wind energy is contributing about 1GW of power to the grid. You may have a decimal point misplaced.

That's over 2% of the total and it's renewable ie doesn't consume anything.

It isn't even a windy day.

[PaulG]

 

I'd like to see the source of that information because even at a 20% load factor it would mean the average turbine was rated at 1kW. That is ridiculously low. Does the source include all those millions of plastic windmills sold at the seaside, for example?

At this very moment, wind energy is contributing about 1GW of power to the grid. You may have a decimal point misplaced.

That's over 2% of the total and it's renewable ie doesn't consume anything.

It isn't even a windy day.

Edited to say that I wasn't talking about the design rating. I was talking about the real world numbers at that time.

 

It's the difference between the output figures that are published for turbines e.g. "enough power for [insert figure of your choice] homes" and the reality of what is actually achieved.

 

Divide one gigawatt (1,000,000 watts) by the number of turbines (5276). I make it the figure that I quoted.

 

2% of the total is pathetic given the massive investment involved.

 

It's not all renewable. They actually consume power when they are not turning.

 

For example, there's an oil heater in the gearbox, and there are lights, sensors and instruments, dehumidifiers for the nacelle all of which take power from the grid when the turbine is not generating.

Edited March 26, 2014 by PaulG