A lack of experienced renewable energy engineers could put contracts for nine new wind turbine projects in jeopardy as there are not enough suitably qualified people to install the turbines at their designated locations in the Firth of Forth and Moray Firth in the Scottish Highlands.
The Green Village News Tagged ‘wind farm’
Lack of Engineers Put Offshore Wind Farm Development at Risk
Saturday, January 9th, 2010Antiwind Super Group NAWAG Could Cause Problems For Wind Farm Developers
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
At a time when governments and organisations are striving to make commitments to cut carbon emissions, the source of the UK’s energy is a bone of contention for many. Discussions about nuclear, new generations of coal fired power stations and carbon capture and storage (CCS) are discussed almost daily, and the arguments about wind power are certainly high up on the agenda.
Despite being a technology that is used successfully by a number of other countries around the world to meet power needs, and the installation of new wind turbines and wind farms across the UK being a flagship policy for green energy companies such as Ecotricity and Good Energy, wind energy certainly has its enemies as well as its advocates. Across the UK, more than 200 anti-wind action groups exist, 30 of which have joined together to create the National Alliance of Wind Farm Action Groups (NAWAG), headed up by chairman of corporate communications and public affairs at PR group Weber Shandwick, Jon McLeod.
Proposed Viking Wind Farm In Shetland Generates Controversy
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Sitting at the top of Scotland with 22,000 inhabitants, Shetland receives more than its share of wind, making its small wind farm of 5 turbines, including Betsy, a 660kw turbine believed to be the world’s most efficient wind turbine in existence, very well placed.
Betsy reaches outputs of between 52 and 59% of the potential maximum output for the turbine; one reason why it is difficult to argue against the effectiveness of a full scale wind farm were it to be approved and built on Shetland. Not everybody is happy with the proposals for the Viking wind farm however. Although the proposed development could provide 20% of the energy needed to power Scotland, islanders have expressed concern about the detrimental effect the building of the site, including access roads and quarries, would have on the island’s environment.
London Array Spells Success For Wind Power
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
The plans for the London Array, originally proposed in 2001 and which have stood in jeopardy for the last few years have finally been approved thanks to new funding secured by the UK government in last month’s Budget.
German energy giant, E.ON, the company responsible for the majority of Denmark’s wind power and for building half of the off shore wind farms in the world, DONG Energy, and an Abu Dhabi government controlled fund, Masdar, have come together to make the London Array a reality, investing £2.2bn in the development. Work on the onshore farm will begin this summer, with the offshore farm development due to begin in 2011.
RSPB Raise Support For Wind Farms
Friday, May 1st, 2009
The RSPB have carried out a huge amount of research into the effects of wind farms on bird populations in the past few years. Although their stance was originally that on-shore wind farms were bad in general, they have now started to embrace the possibility of erecting turbines on specific sites.
Last month, the conservation charity started talks with the government to increase the speed at which on-shore wind farms are developed and to plot out a wildlife sensitivity map to enable wind farm developers to site their turbines in areas that will do the least damage to bird populations.
Going Nuclear – Energy Companies Undermine Renewable Energy Projects
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009Major energy companies E-on and EDF are putting pressure on the government regarding renewable energy development. They say that unless the government reduces the amount of projects and funding planned for wind farms and wind energy generation, they may be forced to rethink plans to invest in a new round of nuclear power plants.
Greenpeace have long been concerned about the relationship between nuclear and renewable technologies, and as reported in the Guardian, head of the energy solutions unit at Greenpeace, Nathan Argent, commented that Greenpeace has
“always said that nuclear power will undermine renewable energy and will damage the UK’s efforts to tackle climate change – now EDF agrees.”
Greenpeace opposes nuclear power, stating that it is not the solution to climate change. They also bring attention to the “incompetent at best” methods of nuclear waste disposal for years.
In an era where most of the population is well aware of what happened at Chernobyl, and those that didn’t live through it have seen films and photographs and heard stories of what has been left behind, perhaps there is a cautionary tale here that the people at the top of the energy companies are conveniently ignoring. It’s all too easy to gloss over the mistakes and accidents of the past as if they didn’t happen, and with a rationale that they have the solution to dwindling reserves of fossil fuels, and arguments that when run at capacity, nuclear is safe, and with no CO2 produced when energy is generated from it, no wonder the governments turn their heads.
Let’s hope future projects for renewable energy don’t end up being another casualty of consumerism, because let’s face it, if people needed less energy, renewables alone might have a chance to show their worth.
Going Solar in the Sahara?
Monday, March 16th, 2009Experts at a Copenhagen global warming conference have suggested that installing a network of solar panels in the Sahara desert could satisfy the needs of Europe’s energy demands. Dr Anthony Patt from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Africa commented that this, coupled with the installation of wind turbines grouped in different farms across the north of Africa would be able to provide enough energy for the whole of Europe. He stated that the lower cost of renewable energy combined with the technological advances we have seen of late would make it a viable option for imported energy for the continent.
The huge network of solar panels that would be installed if this plan was approved would work by using a system of mirrors which would focus the sun’s energy on small pipes containing water or salt, and would cover an area the size of “a small country”. The idea is that heat from the sun would either boil the water causing steam, or melt the salt, and the energy produced as a result would be used to drive turbines creating energy that can then be stored for a number of hours, making it better than wind generated power, as wind power is costly to store. It is expected however, that even if the plans are given the green light and funding, that local communities in Europe will not support the laying of transmission cables near to their homes.
The Green Village asks the questions whether, although the pioneering and investigation into using solar power and wind power to meet the needs of European homes and businesses’ energy use is a good sign, is it fair that other countries have to be used to generate this power, or should we instead be doing more to reduce our requirements in the first place? Could plans like this breed complacency towards saving energy because people feel that everything is fine because the Sahara has enough sunlight throughout the year to keep us all going? And if plans do go ahead and it proves be successful, what’s to stop other developed countries wanting to expand the site to another ‘small country’ worth of panels to keep themselves going too? Share your views below.
