Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[Bright Eyes]

Getting back to the windfarm-

 

Having viewed the simulations of Dave Hammond and Twerto I have been having another look at the photo simulations on the VE website.

 

http://www.vikingenergy.co.uk/draft_images.asp

 

I will concede that these are only simulations and I am no expert but the more I look the less convinced I become of the accuracy of what we will actually see.

Some of the pictures seem to miraculously 'loose' turbines in the distance. eg the picture from Hellister Weisdale under scenarios A and B.

My monitor may be old but I can't see any turbines in the picture. Studying the layout map there is a line of turbines along the west side of kergord valley and a cluster of 9 + on the hills at the head of the valley. If we consider how visible the Burradale turbines are from various points around Shetland, and the fact that the Weisdale transmitter is less than 50 m high and highly visible from a lot further away than where this view is taken, then I do not believe that turbines of 140m height will disappear into nothingness as this photo suggests.

 

Then there is the view in photo 2b Weisdale, clearly taken just north of the Mill. This is deceptive to the public on a number of counts.

1. It is a conveniently narrow field of view, so it can not show the line of turbines immediately to the left which will be towering over the viewer.

2. For the same reason it does not show the line of 12 + turbines stretching north along the Kames which the viewer will be able to see by turning his head a few degrees to the right.

3. The image only shows 6 turbines, the ones behind have again 'disappeared.'

 

Then look at Image Kergord scenario A which is taken from roughly the same spot as the one above. In this one the turbines seem to have shrunk considerable and are marketly thinner. OK- so this might be a different layout and they may be slightly further away but VE needs to make it clear exactly where these things are going to be sited and then produce simulations which give the public a REALISTIC view of how Shetland is going to look if scheme goes ahead, not simulations subject to the best possible spin.

 

How about a simulation of what this converter station will look like complete with all the pylons etc. Yes - the P word- something else VE has so far failed to mention.

[merkin]

 

 

The SIC, in whatever guise it uses, cannot, IMHO, be trusted with an single investment of the magnitude of the one on the table.

 

 

Well said, I totally agree!

[crofter]

Getting back to the windfarm-

 

How about a simulation of what this converter station will look like complete with all the pylons etc. Yes - the P word- something else VE has so far failed to mention.

 

I am fairly certain that David Thomson has stated there will not be any pylons.

 

EDIT:

To address this before it gets too engrained:

The images contained no pylons because there will be no pylons associated with the Viking Windfarm project. Full Stop.

 

(Page 3 of this thread)

[groilick]

Getting back to the windfarm-

 

How about a simulation of what this converter station will look like complete with all the pylons etc. Yes - the P word- something else VE has so far failed to mention.

 

I am fairly certain that David Thomson has stated there will not be any pylons.

^^^^

David Thomson said at da Althing debate that da 'da power lines could be either abune or below grund and dat he didna care which dey wir'.

[Styumpie]

Having viewed the simulations of Dave Hammond and Twerto I have been having another look at the photo simulations on the VE website.

 

http://www.vikingenergy.co.uk/draft_images.asp

 

That photos are utterly misleading, the contrast has been ramped up so much that the turbines are nearly invisible, they will stand out a hell of a lot more than that, just look the ones at dale on a reasonable day. A true simulation will Increase the visual impact by a huge huge amount. If they are not willing to be honest with the simulation pictures, then what else have they go to hide.

[Guest Anonymous]

I see some of the people who are posting here in favour of the windfarm have some kind of wild almost fanatical belief that this project which if built .Will in fact play a major part in slowing or maybe even halt this global warming we have created through the burning of fossil fuels durung the last 2 - 3 hundred years.

But where in all this do you factor in that 30,000 years ago the ice caps stretched all the way to the Medditerrian and the sea level was maybe 100 metres lower.

What caused this melt when there was no internal combustion engines around during those 29,700 years?

[merkin]

 

Having viewed the simulations of Dave Hammond and Twerto I have been having another look at the photo simulations on the VE website.

 

http://www.vikingenergy.co.uk/draft_images.asp

 

I will concede that these are only simulations and I am no expert but the more I look the less convinced I become of the accuracy of what we will actually see.

 

How about the one 'Lang Kames South Scenario A & B' Sandwater junction? Given the closeness of the viewer to the turbines they do not look like twice Bressay the mast in height.

When I was a bairn I remember there being a turbine somewhere along the north road. Any one know where this was, how high or have any pictures?

[Hardwadder]

 

When I was a bairn I remember there being a turbine somewhere along the north road. Any one know where this was, how high or have any pictures?

 

I remember it well. It was pretty big, poised on the hill on the right hand side as you travel up to Dales. I don't think it ever actually produced anything but it looked fairly impressive. I doubt if it would have been the size of the porposed VE turbines, though.

[petrocelli_]

Bright Eyes made a very good point about some of the VE images. Here is the Hellister one with the windmills slightly enhanced to show their true perspective.

 

I know a few of you think there are others which are out of proportion but I canna do much aboot them if they are, sorry.

 

If anyone has photoshop or similar you can go into the PDFs and enhance the windmills to get them to display better.

 

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg249/petrocelli_/newHellister2.jpg

 

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg249/petrocelli_/newHellister.jpg

 

Don't have time for any more comment at the moment as I've been hired by Sustainable Shetland to do some PI work on the VE directors. If there's any monkey business, you can rest assured I'll get to the bottom of it!

[ArabiaTerra]

 

When I was a bairn I remember there being a turbine somewhere along the north road. Any one know where this was, how high or have any pictures?

 

I remember it well. It was pretty big, poised on the hill on the right hand side as you travel up to Dales. I don't think it ever actually produced anything but it looked fairly impressive. I doubt if it would have been the size of the porposed VE turbines, though.

I remember this one too, and I always wondered why it never seemed to be turning. I heard, long after it was gone, that it was never intended to produce commercially but rather was a test bed for the technology which was always being overhauled and tinkered with. I believe it belonged to the Hydro.

[Ghostrider]

^^ Are we talking about the Hydro's experiment on Sursetter Hill at Voe here? I can't remember whether I ever saw that thing or not, so can't comment on size etc, but I'd be very curious to know just exactly what made the Hydro decide not to persue their experiment any further than they did, and what it is Burradale has achieved that has persuaded them to become involved again.

 

I could be quite wrong as I'm working from memory here, but I seem to recall that Hydro experiment one didn't hold up the best to some of the more extremes of the Shetland winter weather, which, if I were a cynic, I'd conclude that in the VE deal SSE see it as damage, destruction, downtime etc of the infrastructure as not being their problem.

[ArabiaTerra]

^^^ That'll be the one. It was a 2 bladed affair and as far as I remember it was a successful research project. The reason it wasn't followed up, I would imagine would have been due to the "Dash for gas" in the early nineties when all our power needs could be met from the North Sea gas reserves and oil was 9$ a barrel. (and climate change wasn't even on the governments radar)

 

As far as the vulnerabilities to the extreme Shetland weather go, I think the lack of problems from the Burradale farm would be a far better measure of the general reliability of windfarms today.

 

Having said that, the Sussetter Hill turbine did survive the New Year hurricane in '92 (I think) without falling over.

[Bright Eyes]

Here is the Hellister one with the windmills slightly enhanced to show their true perspective.

 

 

Thanks for the artwork Petrocelli. Thought you had retired????.

Maybe VE should re release their photos with a bit more realism and a little less spin.

 

To address this before it gets too engrained:

The images contained no pylons because there will be no pylons associated with the Viking Windfarm project. Full Stop.

I sincerely hope that he has explained this to SSE.

 

 

When I was a bairn I remember there being a turbine somewhere along the north road. Any one know where this was, how high or have any pictures?

 

 

 

For information this written by Merkin. Don't think I'm old enough to remember this, would be interesting to see a picture though.

[Mutton]

The report ‘The Economic Impacts of Wind Farms on Scottish Tourism’ was undertaken by the Glasgow Caledonian University. The research was commissioned in June 2007 to assess whether Scottish Government priorities for wind farms in Scotland are likely to have an economic impact – either positive or negative - on Scottish tourism.

 

The report looked into four areas of Scotland: ‘Stirling, Perth & Kinross’, ‘Caithness & Sutherland’, ‘Dumfries & Galloway’ and ‘Scottish Borders’. The findings of the report include:

 

• The results confirm that a significant minority (20% to 30%) of tourists preferred landscapes without wind farms.

 

• A much higher percentage of respondents indicated that they would not visit an area if a wind farm was constructed (17.8%).

 

• Most individuals appear to prefer a landscape from their accommodation without a wind farm (68%) but there is also a substantial proportion that is neutral (28%) and a few who positively like wind farms (9%).

 

• The results of the internet survey suggest that the average tourist is prepared to pay around 20-25 per cent more for a room with an unspoilt room than they are for a room with a view of a wind farm.

[crofter]

Viking Energy think they will be a tourist attraction!

 

http://www.vikingenergy.co.uk/faqs.asp#Q43

 

"Despite claims and protestations to the contrary, there is no evidence that wind turbines have a negative effect on tourism in a region. A MORI poll in 2002 found there was a potential positive effect.

 

The poll concluded that "When asked whether the presence of wind farms had a positive or negative effect ... over half (55%) of respondents maintained that it had a generally or completely positive effect, while one in three were ambivalent (32%). Less than one in 10 (eight per cent) felt that it had a negative effect".

 

The Environmental Impact Assessment will consider the potential effect of the windfarm on tourism."