Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[paulb]

a very high percentage of farmers in the UK have or are planning to have renewables. I don't see what the big deal is.

[unlinkedstudent]

a very high percentage of farmers in the UK have or are planning to have renewables. I don't see what the big deal is.

 

Perhaps this?

 

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/4297-recipe-for-more-division.html

[paulb]

that chap is an anti from the start. re wetting the bogs is not new and is straight forward. been done in quite a few places. whats wrong with controlling the hoodies and making the area better for the birds that the antis care so much about. ask a crofter what a hoodie can do to lambs and sick animals. trust me its not nice.

[shetlandpeat]

It will be the same old thing. At every step there will be doom and gloom. Generally folk gripe louder than say they are happy. A recent planning application here showed that. The protesters thought they had it in the bag and was going to get a refusal, they did not realise there were far more in favour. I am also sure I remember someone saying that most of the voices that were on the radio when discussing this did not have the local dialect.

I may have been mistaken, it goes against some of the feeling here against those wanting to move up, as they seem to be the ones who care.

Of the 350 (mere) crofts, how many are food producing compared to the ones that are not. It seems the division is being created by those who may not be getting a share, I am sure that if they were, there would be less noise from them. How can someone be jealous of someone elses compensation?

These folk will now concentrate on making this project as costly as they can, as it is already happening, they will still get the turbines, but with less for the islands.

I wander what authority Mr. Mackenzie has to be able to predict all of the doom, and I would make a bet said crofter will take the money, in the end.

[unlinkedstudent]

that chap is an anti from the start. re wetting the bogs is not new and is straight forward. been done in quite a few places. whats wrong with controlling the hoodies and making the area better for the birds that the antis care so much about. ask a crofter what a hoodie can do to lambs and sick animals. trust me its not nice.

 

I wasn't aware that wetting bogs on tops of hills at that altitude had been done.

 

I see you've skimmed over other bits, but perhaps this for thought:-

 

http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/Decision%20letter.pdf

 

or

 

http://m.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/21/windpower.renewableenergy?cat=environment&type=article

 

So, those birds are protected and those peatlands protected but not Shetland's?

 

'Money is the root of all evil' - So you can have a wind turbine on one crofter's land, for example, 5' away from his neighbour. One gets paid a fortune, the other gets disturbance/eyesore/ice whizzing off it in winter and gets zilch? Money going to grazing committees (if it exists here) where it might sit in their coffers and not being distributed? So that's okay?

 

What happens if the crofter decides yes in the first instance but then changes his mind? Oh, that's right, s/he can't. Likewise, the crofter dies and their son/daughter take over the croft.

 

There's a vast difference between a small wind turbine being placed on croft land and a huge, whopping, industrial wind turbine. THAT'S the problem with renewables on croft land.

 

Of course, there's no double standards on the part of the Energy Office by denying permission on the two mentioned above to here, now is there?

[ArabiaTerra]

http://m.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/21/windpower.renewableenergy?cat=environment&type=article

 

This example is completely irrelevant. They wanted to build it in the middle of an existing bird reserve. That's why it was refused.

[shetlandpeat]

'Money is the root of all evil' - So you can have a wind turbine on one crofter's land, for example, 5' away from his neighbour. One gets paid a fortune, the other gets disturbance/eyesore/ice whizzing off it in winter and gets zilch? Money going to grazing committees (if it exists here) where it might sit in their coffers and not being distributed? So that's okay?

 

Crofting I always thought was about sharing. I am sure they won't keep the money for themselves.

 

What happens if the crofter decides yes in the first instance but then changes his mind? Oh, that's right, s/he can't. Likewise, the crofter dies and their son/daughter take over the croft.

 

The deal is with the present owners. The contract will reflect that, they don't have to sign, do they? They will sign another document saying they decline any compensation. Is that not what happens?

 

There's a vast difference between a small wind turbine being placed on croft land and a huge, whopping, industrial wind turbine. THAT'S the problem with renewables on croft land.

 

As far as " So you can have a wind turbine on one crofter's land, for example, 5' away from his neighbour. One gets paid a fortune, the other gets disturbance/eyesore/ice whizzing off it in winter and gets zilch? " is the same no matter how high. It is also about specifics, the general view which you are banding about in your hatred of turbines on Shetland does not take into account each case. Ice forms on anything upright, you forgot however blades flying off for miles, fires, explosions, bird offal, illness, madness and vibration.

 

Anyhow, WHAT is the problem, size you say? How else would you then generate the quantity of electricity?

[stilldellin]

^ They say the bigger they are the more difficult the erection but I wouldn't know.

[shetlandpeat]

You are right, the bigger they are the more difficult it can be to get them up. Hang on though, this is not new. There are thousands of huge ones around the country and the EU. I would think they have the handle on it now.

One good thing so far is the social aspect of the complainers, and the fors. Thinking about other folk they do not know, worried for their livelyhood and well being. A care for the environment as well. It sounds good.

[paulb]

oh the smuttiness of those comments love it.

 

ynlink its been done in the northern pennines much higher and wetter than here. all they do is block the drains that have been installed its NOT DANGEROUS. you cant build a turbine within 5 meters of feet of a border. those crofters that won't have a turbine on there land still get money. but honestly UNLINK YOUR GETTING DESPERATE are you saying your now opposed to the improvement and protection of the rare birdlife.

http://www.westpenninemoors.com/files/uploads/pdfs/leadflets/WPM_Hab_Sp_Moorland.pdf

 

http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/looking-after/biodiversity/biodiversity-action-plan/dark-peak/dark-peak-objectives

 

so we must recognize its a standard plactice to improve the peat land and to isure that it remains are carbon sink

[stilldellin]

Peat posted :-

There are thousands of huge ones around the country and the EU. I would think they have the handle on it now.

 

And how many have our wind that you keep extolling the virtues of ? How many days wasted at great expense on a remote location waiting for the wind to drop ?

[shetlandpeat]

They have built some structures in the most inhospitable places throughout the world. It is a shame you cannot share the confidence in man to be able to succeed in adversity. Surely, that question should be asked by a resident to the body charged with construction.

I will await a response you get.

 

Would be any different to the risks and challenges to building them off shore do you think, wind and the sea. I do not think it will be too much of a problem, there will be plans to cover that I think.

 

The turbines will be difficult to build cos of the wind, they will then be inefficient because of the wind. S.I.C. have stats on their web site about the winds and other weather conditions.

 

Imagine if everything was 100% efficient, how good would we be.

 

Perhaps shops are inefficient, they are shut longer than they are open in many cases, yet continue to use huge resources to keep them going.

 

Is it that you do not like the look of them, really. If someone were to build a house near you with high ceilings, would object and go for refusal at planning as it would be inefficient?

 

Roads are only used some of the time, when they are not used, are they inefficient?

 

With the existing turbines scoring top marks, as far as how long they spin for, are you not suprised that there are going to be more. I feel that is where any campaign should have started.

[stilldellin]

^ On the ropes are you Peat, I ask again just where all these thousands of 145 metre turbines have been erected with the same wind as Shetland ? I await your reply with great interest.

[shetlandpeat]

Where did I say thousands of 145m turbines? I said huge. Twister!

 

Well I would be damned for using google to do any research. Here however is something I found earlier when looking at ALL the points.

Lewis, is it windy enough there?

 

They even talk about crofters, nice folk that they are...

HERE

 

http://www.energynorth.co.uk/News/First-major-wind-project-approved.aspx

 

It is not really the hight of the turbine structure but its hight above sea level..

 

Anyhow, it is all about a balance.

 

You can tell them to stop as they cannot do it anymore because they may not be able to build them..

 

They think they can build them in New Zealand as well.

 

At a minimum hight of 330 metres, plus the hight of the turbine, that is 475 metres.

 

http://windenergy.org.nz/documents/conf11/kjoynt.pdf

 

Then, although not quite a turbine, we have our very own Winter Hill transmitter, 309 metres tall, with a total hight above sea level being around 778 Metres. I have been up there, well, to the base. Quite breezy.

 

Although I may have not satisfied all your criteria, there are many, thousands of turbines at different levels all over the world with varying windspeeds though I think the Outer Hebrides could match directly, are they at the same hight above sea level?

 

I will leave you to do the nit picking...

 

Your protest, as I said should not be at me. So then, it gets windy....

 

If man can assemble a space station in space, do you think they cannot build a wind turbine where it is windy..?

[unlinkedstudent]

paulb, your last post is hidden but no, I'm not getting desperate. You have conveniently ignored the issue concerning the whimbrel and have chosen to concentrate on the hoodies. FYI, yes, I did ask a crofter for their opinion and their opinion is that it is bonxies and blackbacks that cause more problems, plus you don't see so many hoodies at the equivalent altitude of the Kames.

 

Okay, so AT pointed out about one windfarm application I mentioned ... but not the other; you both appear to be loathed to comment on that.

 

SP, re grazing committees - it may or may not be the case that their constitution or whatever states that monies paid to the committee stays within their coffers.

 

Also paulb, you refer to the Pennines concerning blocking of drainage. The Pennines are not Shetland. Have the Pennines in the past experienced landslides when they blocked off drainage? Isn't it along similar lines to altering the flow of a river? Somewhere, something has to 'give'; nature is a tad like that ... and she doesn't tend to take action overnight or within a few months or sometimes years but sooner or later, she 'bites back'. Likewise, I'm advised that it depends on how far gone peat is for you to be able to 'restore' it ... or are VE now God/Goddess and have the power/ability to bring back the dead?