Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[banksbroo]

I keep catching myself referring to the windfarm as the Viking Energy windfarm. But then I remember they are only half the entire project. So the extensive consultation exercise only related to half the project. The assurances and guarantees only related to half the project. As for Scottish and Southern, we have heard very little.

Then I begin to wonder what the other half are thinking about, and I discover I have no idea what Scottish and Southern Energy are thinking or doing.

I wonder when they will make public statements about their plans?

[Pooks]

With other windfarm projects starting to become a reality then will the Shetland windfarm really be a necessity to power the rest of the UK? Just read a piece on the BBC site about the 'World's largest offshore wind farm' which could be built off the coast of Devon.

 

Full story here

[Njugle]

I heard a politician, i forget which, on a programme this morning saying that the ^farm was being held up as the local authority was not happy with the plans for where the cables come ashore. Nice to see a bit of integrity from a local authority on such matters. No implication intended.

[Fjool]

What was their objection to the location?

[Njugle]

Didn't specify:

 

Alistair Darling interview transcript[/url]"]The Tories are just as bad. Last December I approved one of the biggest off shore wind farms this country has ever seen and it's stuck because the local council has objected to where the power lines come ashore.

[Ghostrider]

Do wind turbines manufacturers subscribe to the Henry Ford school of thought for Model T purchasers back in the day, as regarded customer colour choices and only offering black, and offer them in any colour you like, providing it's white?

 

Clearly I spend far too much of my time on this site, as I'm not only noticing the pics that do the rotation in the header, I'm studying and analysing them........no good can come of this, believe me.

 

However, considering the level of disquiet concerning the windfarm proposals which centred on their visual impact, which incidentally I agree with. I cannot help but wonder, after getting analytical with the pic of the five that appears above, which in white as they are, are very much "in your face". If those guys, or indeed a much larger number, were painted an "attractive" matt battleship grey, or something similar, would they really be all that noticable against our predominant land/sea/sky scape?

 

Just avoid the mistake that sheep netting fencing wire manufacturers made when they started producing it in a fetching bright green, to "blend in" with it's surroundings, by painting them a bright blue or something. The green on the wire is very welcome I'm sure in locales where it's surroundings are a nice green for 9 or 10 months out of the 12, but equally, if not even moreso of an oddity than the bright silver coloured stuff it replaced, round here where the numbers are turned on there head and it's only in a nice green enviornment for 2 or 3 months at most.

[Njugle]

......

Clearly I spend far too much of my time on this site, as I'm not only noticing the pics that do the rotation in the header, I'm studying and analysing them........no good can come of this, believe me.

 

I commend your scrutiny Ghostrider. FYI that pic was taken from the sea, off the west side, about 2 miles out, The windmills aren't on the hill they appear to be, they are on the one a further two miles behind it. It's a bit of perspective on the 'visiblity' of the proposed newer, bigger ones in some ways. Food for thought.

[Ghostrider]

^^^ Ahhhh...That clears up another point of pondering, I didn't think there was any possible land near where that shot appears to be taken from, but given my not always perfect geography skills, and the trickey possible with a long lens these days, I'd decided to leave the jury out on that question, permanently.

 

On a standard Shetland "gray day" which is pretty much what that shot typifies, it's very difficult to describe those as much else than both ugly and obtrusive. One thing that picture has proven to me, or at least made me call in to question, is that although I would have expected to become somewhat sanitized to their presence the more I saw them. In fact, the opposite appears to be the case, the more times I see them, the more obvious and uglier they appear to become.

 

It definitely seems to be an issue that deserves an extended period of consideration and reflection before any true opinion can be formed.

[islandhopper]

... aye folks ... forget about that rubbish.

 

There are pics with turbines in the background bigger than turbines in the foreground ...

 

There are turbines in the foreground with full views of the shafts ... but if you do measure the diameteres of the rotors and put them in relation to the height of the shafts you will easily find out that the height of the shafts is reduced by some 20% to 25% ...

 

Bloody rubbish to blind the innocent.

 

In case you want a simple tool to remeasure then search google for the mbruler tool und remeasure rotor diameters and shaft heights ... and recalculate the ratio as you can get it from the VE site ...

 

ALL THE PICS published so far by VE are not set up to scale ... bet a cask of non existing Shetland whisky on that ...

[Pooks]

Err. Might just be me but I think there are some crossed rotors here. I think the pic in question is the one that appears now and again at the top of the Shetlink pages. Nowt to do with VE diagrams.

[Njugle]

Nope, you are correct Pooks, and to re-inforce the point, islandhopper, i'll bet you a hundred cases of your finest German beer that the picture that appears on Shetlink is an entirely 100% accurate view of the windmills at Burradale, no air-brushing or resizing involved!

[islandhopper]

Nope, you are correct Pooks, and to re-inforce the point, islandhopper, i'll bet you a hundred cases of your finest German beer that the picture that appears on Shetlink is an entirely 100% accurate view of the windmills at Burradale, no air-brushing or resizing involved!

Absolutely agreed, Njugle ...

Despite that: Knowing the site, having a guess from where the pic was taken, having three or four pics of this site from different positions in my own stock and knowing that the turbines installed have a smaller capacity and that they thus might be a bit smaller over all than those planned for the windfarm, it was just that pic which fired me to have a "closer" look at the VE pics ... with the result as discribed above ... :-D

[Njugle]

Radio Shetland tonight had it to be that the SIC have had to sell their share of VE to the charitable trust (if i heard correctly) because, surprise surprise, it is not permitted for a local authority to sell/produce energy.

Somebody didn't do their homework very well.

As has been said before it never appeared a workable arrangement whereby the local authority would be providing their own planning guidance to the Scottish Executive. Etc.

 

Also of note tonight, there are plans afoot to place an anemometer of sort atop Mossy Hill, to measure wind activity; an article very well presented by our goodly local Beeb radio staff, as they also subtly pointed out that removal of the former dishes up there has left several large redundant concrete pads, which could be useful for, erm, something. I think it was Scottish and Southern who are running the study, but i didn't hear it very well, can anyone confirm this?

[hairyian]

Also of note tonight, there are plans afoot to place an anemometer of sort atop Mossy Hill, to measure wind activity; an article very well presented by our goodly local Beeb radio staff, as they also subtly pointed out that removal of the former dishes up there has left several large redundant concrete pads, which could be useful for, erm, something. I think it was Scottish and Southern who are running the study, but i didn't hear it very well, can anyone confirm this?

 

Cue: BBC Radio Player - Good Evening Shetland

 

It is BT. Well, it is a BT site?

 

Apparently, for no particular reason, they have wondered how windy it gets up there.

[Pooks]

Perhaps they plan to turn it into an entertainment arcade with rollercoasters and the like. They are bound to need accurate wind measurements for such a venture aren't they?