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Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy


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The biggest and most contentious thing ever to hit Shetland, and councillors think it's a waste of money to carry out full consultation?? That phrase if the Shetland people didn't want it, it wouldn't happen, is beginning to sound more and more hollow.

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^^ If the council won't consult and discuss Viking with the public to the public's full satisfaction, be that through a referendum, as many public meetings at it takes etc, etc. The next council elections will become the referendum that they never held, with candidates standing with the sole reason of supporting or fighting VE, and folk voting for whichever one represents their opinion.

 

Such a one issue election will do the council no good, as once the dust has settled the collection of characters put together by such means will be considerably worse of a council than the present one, as few if any of them will have been elected on their suitability to govern, only on their opinion on VE.

 

VE needs to either be consigned to the nearest skip, or approved, but whichever way, to the satisfaction of the public, before the next elections, or we'll end up with another council term even worse than the present one.

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I dont agree with that ghostrider.

Plenty of practical minded people see this project for what it really is.

Its got nothing to do with saving the environment and the possible money to be made hangs on a subsidy for which there is no cast iron guarantee.

Many of these practically minded people would make far better councillers than what we have at present.

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I dont agree with that ghostrider.

Plenty of practical minded people see this project for what it really is.

Its got nothing to do with saving the environment and the possible money to be made hangs on a subsidy for which there is no cast iron guarantee.

Many of these practically minded people would make far better councillers than what we have at present.

 

Here, here Gorgonzola. It will end up as another second rate night club.

As I am also a practical minded person! (And so is Styumpie)

 

And a Picture say so much more than 1000000 words can

 

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/304/0/e/White_Elephant_Logo_by_Mehranmahmoudi.jpg

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I dont agree with that ghostrider.

Plenty of practical minded people see this project for what it really is.

Its got nothing to do with saving the environment and the possible money to be made hangs on a subsidy for which there is no cast iron guarantee.

Many of these practically minded people would make far better councillers than what we have at present.

 

I agree with you. My post relies on certain presumptions, firstly that taking an approx average of the various allegations of support/opposition for VE, from both camps, being that Shetlanders are pretty much split down the middle on it, you're liable to end up with a council equally divided if the are elected on the basis VE is the main issue. Which doesn't exactly create a combined pool of individuals likely to cooperate and compromise when it comes to deciding on other decisions.

 

Secondly, an election in such circumstances runs IMHO a high risk of those who shout their anti or pro VE views loudest, being those who attract the votes. The other characteristics and assets, or lack of them, of the individuals concerned likely becoming of very poor secondary importance to too many voters.

 

Shetland desperately needs a council comprising sensible, practical minded, talented folk with all of Shetland's best interest at heart, electing one while such a large single issue as VE is still up in the air and causing the strength of feeling and division it is, is IMHO more likely to ensure we end up with a council which has a majority of people who make a lot of noise, so got noticed and heard, but have little behind the noise to back it up.

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As several thinking people have pointed out in this post the planned windfarm will have zero effect on saving the environment. If every last bit of Shetland moor was scraped from the rock and we had one big bonfire the effect on the world’s carbon footprint would be negligible.

Its purpose is solely to make money. With less of these things being built in the south, a Shetland farm will become even more economic, which it would be in any case because of the best wind resource in the UK.

 

We mustn’t be short-sighted here. VE will only be a small step in getting into the renewables market. Energy from the sea is a far superior source. Power from the tides is virtually unlimited. But we have to start with wind because the marine technologies aren’t up and running. If we don’t move on this then others will and we will lose out big time.

 

I agree that these turbines do not present the best view but once we are powering Europe from wave/tide they can be removed.

 

The young people of Shetland will not forgive us if we miss this opportunity. (They will just leave instead). It is a serious mistake to depend on Total gas, other nation’s uranium and oil, etc. These will become increasingly expensive but the seas around us will continue to provide 24/7 long after we have gone.

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^^ I'm still to be convinced that the technologies required to harness marine energy from Shetland waters haven't been up and running for the better part of 50 years, but are being forgotten and ignored because in most other locations their drawbacks and inefficiencies do not make them particularly viable. I may be wrong, but IMHO those drawbacks and inefficiencies are mostly rendered null and void by Shetland's unique geography and tidal characteristics.

 

Its just a case of lateral thinking, and thinking outside of the box.

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^^ Perhaps if the amount of energy (if you pardon the pun) being exercised on trying to shove VE down our throats and also the amount of subsidiaries available to wind farms was spent on researching marine energy then marine energy would be on an equal footing with wind?

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The Shetland News letter Think of the Future http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/2010/November/letters/Think%20of%20the%20future.htm by Bert Morrison hits several nails firmly on the head. It is clear that many who are against these windmills cannot remember Shetland pre-oil. This is not their fault as they either weren’t born or have arrived on our shores more recently.

 

It was indeed a grim, grim place, and that was when agriculture, fishing & knitting were more promising than today. In the 60’s any young person with ambition got a one way ticket oot da sooth mooth on the Clare.

 

These times will come again – in fact we can already see them coming. So those against the wind farm had better come up with some major alternative which can economically sustain Shetland. Everyone having a peerie generator tied to their lum will not cut it.

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The Shetland News letter Think of the Future http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/2010/November/letters/Think%20of%20the%20future.htm by Bert Morrison hits several nails firmly on the head. It is clear that many who are against these windmills cannot remember Shetland pre-oil. This is not their fault as they either weren’t born or have arrived on our shores more recently.

 

It was indeed a grim, grim place, and that was when agriculture, fishing & knitting were more promising than today. In the 60’s any young person with ambition got a one way ticket oot da sooth mooth on the Clare.

 

These times will come again – in fact we can already see them coming. So those against the wind farm had better come up with some major alternative which can economically sustain Shetland. Everyone having a peerie generator tied to their lum will not cut it.

 

The writer of the letter never knew Shetland pre-oil either.

 

*If* Viking can deliver, and its a hell of a big "if" given the glaring holes, thinly covered cracks and dangerous assumptions the whole plan so far appears to be riddled with, not to mention the massive un-necessary risks, we *may* retain our current unsustainable local lifestyle from the profits, for a little while longer. Whether that unsustainable lifestyle has been "good" for Shetland thus far, and/or whether continuing it will be "good" for Shetland is one whole other enormous debate.

 

Windfarms rely on goverment subsidies for a frightingly large proportion of their income.....windfarms are a fast growing sector of industry, and as such eveybody and his aunty is jumping on the bandwagon. Before getting all excited about the random numbers placed between the £ signs and decimal point the locals who are so desperate to board that bandwagon bandy about, take a moment to research previous business sectors which have relied on government subsidies for significant portions or their income, or who have had fast growth periods with the bandwagon that creates. It does not all make pretty reading by a long shot....Those who do not learn from history, are destined to repeat the same mistakes.

 

The windfarm itself I'm largely indifferent to, I'd agree with those who allege it will be ugly and is far too big, but living in one of the few places in Shetland where I don't have to see it, I can afford to be selfish about it and say I don't give a damn.

 

What I do object to, is that yet one more time the SIC/CT, call them what you will, as its all just (wo)men with too many hats, have to take the Rolls Royce option, and throw money around like confetti. If VE is going to go ahead, there are so many different ways that both it and the cable could be financed, that would cost us so much less, and put so much less of our nest egg at risk. Yet here we are, apparently the "only way" comes off sounding like an all or nothing bet in which we pay for an absurd proportion of the initial bill, and risk an obscene amount of the nest egg.

 

I find it unbelievable, and it leaves me almost speechless, that the same entities who have presided over and been heavily criticised for past "investments" like Smyril Line, SSG, Judane, etc, the inglorious debacles that have been the Bressa Brig, anything connected with Dave Clark, and the new AHS, to name but a few of their less than shiny moments. Are being allowed to steam straight on ahead just as they please with this without hardly a murmur as to viability of the business plan, or the sums at risk.

 

I can only pray that it is not the same person(s) who said the Smyril investment plan was "good", or the same person(s) who recommended fighting the LHT was a "good" idea that are saying VE is "good". Or pre-oil era conditions will be here very much sooner than even the most cynical SIC critic would fear.

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