Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[nic]

Get the turbines up. Hell o a night south on the boat last night. Did the turbines on Fair Isle spoil the view?? No it made it even more peaceful and natural looking.

 

So the only major issue is view?? Pants.

[cheryl.hughson]

hi nic, view isn't the only major issue, infact its not as big an issue as to what damage the windmills may cause to the peat hills, not to mention the generators that would be installed which could affect local's health.

 

I have to admit, some windmills (like the burradales) are beneficial. Its when the scale gets too out of hand that we have to think about it.

[Ghostrider]

This is what Viking want to turn us into....

 

"Windmills split town and families".

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080816/ap_on_re_us/a_bitter_wind;_ylt=AkqdHn_KdFZXKqe0ctw5ZSlH2ocA

[PressedCurdsOfMilk]

"The Scottish Government has condemned a Westminster decision to shelve a planned subsidy for renewable energy schemes in Scotland's islands."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/scotland_politics/7576480.stm

[Styles]

Its a disgrace, so much for the UK government wanting green energy.

[ArabiaTerra]

A disgrace, I agree, but not entirely unexpected. The thing is, given the recent eye-watering rises in conventional electricity costs (and more to come), I doubt if this will make much difference to the financial viability of the windfarm in the long run.

 

Though it does confirm the governments hypocrisy on this issue as with so many others.

[paulb]

then lets dig the peat up and use it in a standard power station. i wounder if the bills would go down. then once we have burnt up all the peat we can stick up loads of turbines and use the power in our stoage heaters

[PJ of Hildisvik]

Laugh if you want to but the best policy Shetland could take to combat global warming would be to leave the carbon sink of the proposed wind factory alone, and embark on a massive program of afforestation using CT funds and employing hundreds of people to do the planting thus creating the biggest natural woodland in Britain!

There, problem solved.

[lala]

Another lurker - that's me by the way - I'll come plant. Trees are always a good choice ... not sure how hot they get yer bath tho ?

[paulb]

plant trees on this rare valuable blanket bog. no please we only have a little bit. by the way you cant plant trees in blanket bog they dont survive and if you found one that did it would drain the water from the peat.

 

why not remove the peat from near the turbine use it as fuel. its going to be dug up soon with all the turf digging anyway. repair the damage with composted waste and thus we have fertile land for all of your little trees.

 

the peat is classed as a renewable resorce so use it,

[lala]

class dismissed - i bow to your superior knowledge

[PJ of Hildisvik]

Of cause all the precious blanket bog should be left untouched, but there are areas where trees would do well.

Look, it's as simple as this , if the interconnector goes ahead the VE farm will just be the beginning, there will be sausage all blanket bog left to protect.

This project has nothing to do with combatng global warming, it's about making money for the council when the oil money has gone.

WAKE UP PEOPLE.

[Styles]

Whats wrong with makeing money? I say rip up the blanket bog if it makes plenty of cash for the Shetland people, there is plenty more in Shetland.

[Ghostrider]

^^ If it was a sure fire cash cow like Sullom is and has been the mercenary in me might just be appealed to, but its not.

 

Sullom was a simply straightforward providing of facilities and services for an agreed "rental", the rentor covered the vast majority of the capital investment, the council investment, and subsequently the risk to Shetland was relatively small.

 

In the case of Viking Shetland's entire reserves are at risk, and the council are running the "business" themselves, not some massive highly profitable multi-national as at Sullom. Do you trust the council to run any business and turn any profit with their track record, let alone the maximum theoretical projected profit. I sure as hell don't.

[paulb]

then lets make sure that any wind farm is used to provide shetlands heating needs first. it seems to work for the halls on a small scale. the bogs are only a product of tree felling in the bronze age. but reforesting shetland will spoil the beauty of the drive from voe to lerwick. anyway the commercial planting of foreign trees produces acidic conditions that kill life in the burns which would also kill all those trouty things in the lochs. have a look at the trees in kergord they seem to be struggling a bit. use to live near a small 20 turbine farm it always looked ok and no damage to the ground. in fact why not set a levy of say 1% to improve shetlands enviroment.

by they way who is going to pay to restore sullom voe when its finished. what about the voe they filled in with all the peat they shifted. were there any major disasters because the peat was shifted. the same with scarsta they shifted thousands of tonnes of peat to build that the area looks ok.