Giant Hampshire wind farm scheme scaled down (From Daily Echo)

"county councillor Jackie Porter said she did not oppose the wind farm as the UK needs to develop alternatives to coal and oil-based power."

Why? There has to be a 'spinning' back-up from a conventional power station anyway, in case the wind is too light or too strong.

We need to exploit shale gas, which has slashed energy prices in the USA, and nuclear could cover the bulk of our needs. This wind-farm fad is a religion to some, and making others very, very wealthy.

A start, but still 14 to many, and I believe still unproven to be economically viable.

Agree with AD and HB. THe problem is a wind farm no matter how big "Scales itself down" every time the wind stops blowing. County Councillors like Jackie Porter are uninformed meddling idiots who will kill people when the power cuts start..

Death to NIMBYs!

Kingnotail,

Thank you for your informative contribution to this discussion.

At least EDF are trying to get people to realise that harvesting energy from the wind has only small amounts of pollution incurred, during the manufacture of the turbines..

If humans are going to use copious amounts of electricity, then some of the countryside will have to be sacrificed so our children can continue to live in a stable environment.

We won't have a stable environment from wind farms. The only truly green, stable source of energy is nuclear.

I know there are concerns about nuclear power, but we are not situated on the edge of any tectonic plates, so these power stations are as safe in the UK as they can be.

Wind is expensive, horribly unreliable, ugly, and remarkably noisy. Also, when you look at energy consumption to build the turbines, and de-commission them after a relatively short operational life, they provide possibly the most expensive and damaging forms of intermittent energy.

Their use is about money. This has become a scam. Trouble is, many people have been fooled by the Green's pseudo-science.

Fieldbean wrote:
At least EDF are trying to get people to realise that harvesting energy from the wind has only small amounts of pollution incurred, during the manufacture of the turbines..

If humans are going to use copious amounts of electricity, then some of the countryside will have to be sacrificed so our children can continue to live in a stable environment.

.. too late, I fear.

The planets profligate frenzy for exploiting geologically sequestered carbon, without having any regard to the consequences, has almost certainly put us on the cusp of irreversible and society threatening climate change.

This seemingly never ending debate over electricity generation is, in fact, a cynical diversionary tactic by the fossil fuel lobby. Yes, electricity is vital to our society today, but only contributes a tiny percentage of anthropogenic CO2e.

While this ‘renewables debate’ over electricity generation rages, the vast majority of CO2e added to our fragile atmosphere comes from transport, industry, agribusiness, etc. Alas, while wind-farms are argued over ad infinitum, this aspect of our collective myopia is being totally ignored.

When I had a smallholding in Kent, due to the usual windy conditions I built a small traditional looking windmill powering a 24vt lorry alternator with the electricity stored in batteries to light the stable and sheds. The wind died almost from day one, never to return whilst I lived there. On a recent visit I noticed the windmill had gone, I also noticed it was very un-windy.

freefinker wrote:

Fieldbean wrote:
At least EDF are trying to get people to realise that harvesting energy from the wind has only small amounts of pollution incurred, during the manufacture of the turbines..

If humans are going to use copious amounts of electricity, then some of the countryside will have to be sacrificed so our children can continue to live in a stable environment.

.. too late, I fear.

The planets profligate frenzy for exploiting geologically sequestered carbon, without having any regard to the consequences, has almost certainly put us on the cusp of irreversible and society threatening climate change.

This seemingly never ending debate over electricity generation is, in fact, a cynical diversionary tactic by the fossil fuel lobby. Yes, electricity is vital to our society today, but only contributes a tiny percentage of anthropogenic CO2e.

While this ‘renewables debate’ over electricity generation rages, the vast majority of CO2e added to our fragile atmosphere comes from transport, industry, agribusiness, etc. Alas, while wind-farms are argued over ad infinitum, this aspect of our collective myopia is being totally ignored.

While this ‘renewables debate’ over electricity generation rages, the vast majority of CO2e added to our fragile atmosphere comes from transport, industry, agribusiness, etc.

So Mr Fink, if you object so much, I presume you do not use resources produced from all of the above? You just sit back and whine like the rest of the naive planet savers?

forest hump wrote:

freefinker wrote:

Fieldbean wrote:
At least EDF are trying to get people to realise that harvesting energy from the wind has only small amounts of pollution incurred, during the manufacture of the turbines..

If humans are going to use copious amounts of electricity, then some of the countryside will have to be sacrificed so our children can continue to live in a stable environment.

.. too late, I fear.

The planets profligate frenzy for exploiting geologically sequestered carbon, without having any regard to the consequences, has almost certainly put us on the cusp of irreversible and society threatening climate change.

This seemingly never ending debate over electricity generation is, in fact, a cynical diversionary tactic by the fossil fuel lobby. Yes, electricity is vital to our society today, but only contributes a tiny percentage of anthropogenic CO2e.

While this ‘renewables debate’ over electricity generation rages, the vast majority of CO2e added to our fragile atmosphere comes from transport, industry, agribusiness, etc. Alas, while wind-farms are argued over ad infinitum, this aspect of our collective myopia is being totally ignored.

While this ‘renewables debate’ over electricity generation rages, the vast majority of CO2e added to our fragile atmosphere comes from transport, industry, agribusiness, etc.

So Mr Fink, if you object so much, I presume you do not use resources produced from all of the above? You just sit back and whine like the rest of the naive planet savers?

.. no choice Mr Hump, as you well know. Modern industrialised society was constructed mainly on the back of fossil fuels. Indeed, our out of control and unsustainably huge global population increase could not have happened without fossil fuel exploitation.

Not a whine at all. Just feel they are an industry passed their sell-by date – the problems they cause are now outweighing the benefits. They make efforts to clean up their act, but society now has to quickly wean itself off their primary product if we are to avoid a global catastrophe.