Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[Twerto]

Does This mean that Shetland is officially the windiest place in the world?

[Njugle]

I've just been telephone surveyed by IPSOS MORI about the proposed windfarm. The developers must be credited for employing a method such as this, but i did find a couple of the questions 'leading'. There ws the open question as to what i actually though of it, which is good. Had that question not been there i would have been a bit more skeptical about the survey results and future promotion of the scheme.

[Njugle]

I'm not sure if anybody mentioned this before, but it would seem that the Isle of Lewis is facing a very similar future to Shetland with the proposal to build a massive wind farm at Bragar, the scale of the farm has been determined by the requirement to have the grovernment provide an interconnector to the UK mainland. It seems to be meeting a pretty mixed response there too.

Story from the Scotsman

[McFly]

^^^Have you been watching "Coast" too Njugle?

[Njugle]

^ Yup! I tuned in about half way through the bit about the wind farm and did a sort of mental double take at the similarities between their situation and Shetland's.

[Twerto]

^^^Have you been watching "Coast" too Njugle?

 

what i want to know is why shetland isnt making its own gas from peat

[earlofzetland]

Excerpt from the Scotsman article:

 

"Even the developers admit the wind farms will have some adverse effect on the environment, conceding that hundreds of rare birds would be killed in collisions with the huge rotor blades. "

 

You would have to think Shetland would be the same!

[Rasmie]

I can't get to grips with the finances involved in this wind farm.

 

Are the sic borrowing half a billion pounds in our names to buy into this?

plus maybe the same again to get the cable to the mainland?

I undersatnd that these farms can't make money without a green intervention price that the suppliers are currently forced to pay.

When the UK has gone for cheap nuclear power and they change the rules are we going to get stuck with debts and windmills that we can't handle?

If this is such a good investement why isn't someone doing it without our money?

Why do rich Icelanders need SIC money to build a pier at Sella ness (sic)?

Why do rich Faroese need £5M for their boaty.

Are we going to be ripped off big time again?

Do we weant to live in the shadow of these giant monstrosities - should get rid of the tourists forever I suppose!

Do you trust the SIC to handle such amounts of money?

[earlofzetland]

I filled out the online questionnaire and also found the questions a bit leading.

 

Everyone I’ve spoken to about the proposed windfarm are totally unclear of the huge scale of the venture. Ask them if they are in favour of the windfarm and they say yes. Explain to them the size of the turbines, the distance it may cover and all the different points it will be visible from and they are surprised. Suddenly there opinion on the windfarm is not so clear cut.

 

I think Viking Energy should either put all the images from there website into the Shetland times or have some sort of leaflet drop. The images previously printed in the Times weren’t really a true reflection of the scale of the windfarm (one turbine seen from Kergord). I think this is too important an issue to just ask people to have a look at our site and download a 10mb pdf file.

 

I am not 100% against the windfarm, it looks like its going to go ahead whether people like it or not, but it’s affect must be minimised to the utmost extreme. There have been a few bad moves in the past. For example, the quarrying of Mavis Grind and the removal of tonnes of sand from St Ninian’s Isle. I wouldn’t want to see a repeat of these mistakes.

[Njugle]

My response to the telephone poll was to say that i am happy with a windfarm, but had reservations about the scale of it and didn't think it should be a case of 'all or nothing'. It should be developed in stages and when it gets big enough then stop at that. In discussing this with people since then it has been suggested to me that perhaps they are proposing a massive windfarm so that when they downsize it to a reasonable size, it's detractors will see it as a victory and then everybody wins. The interconnector situation in Lewis would seem to ring true here as well, perhaps it is necessary to plan a huge scheme to have any chance of persuading government funding of the cable.

[trout]

Relevant news topic regarding proposed Lewis wind farm:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6170069.stm

[trout]

Heres an interesting paper on disturbing peatland carbon sinks and the lack of understanding of how this damage alters carbon emission levels as well as the cycle of sink creation and movement.

 

Current disturbance and the diminishing peatland carbon sink

 

It's based on boreal forests in Canada but the science isn't a world away from Shetland.

[Sudden Stop]

Heres a crazy idea for someone to blow holes in:

 

If the transmission of electricity via cable over very long distances isn't efficient, why not copy the PURE idea of using the wind powered generators to produce hydrogen.

 

Perhaps it's not something that could be started up straight away but could Sullom Voe become the production, storage and eventual shipping point for it? Something that could be considered as the terminal winds down over time.

[ArabiaTerra]

What a fantastic idea!

[clanchief]

I know several people who are uncomfortable about the scale of the windfarm being planned for Shetland. There is a suggestion that we are sleepwalking into this development & by the time the Shetland community wakes up, the project will be a reality with all the necessary planning permissions etc in place.

 

It is surprising that there is no organised opposition to this project, or is it a fact that the majority are in favour?