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Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy


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nfortunately we don't have Geo-Thermal in Shetland, but it solved Iceland's problems, it emits only 5% of emmissions compared to burning fossil fuels, and powers 89% of all Homes in Iceland, it's also used in all sorts of other things, ie, swimming pools, soil warming, fish farming, drying of timber and wool etc.

Digging up thousands of tons of ancient peat and releasing all that trapped carbon into the atmosphere, plus wrecking Shetlands enviroment with Europes biggest onshore windfactory, aint the way to go.

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My limited understanding is that this approach to geothermal can be used anywhere, and doesn't require hotspots:

 

http://www.bassfeld.eu/Energy/energy.html

 

> It is no longer essential to drill into hot water reservoirs or

> to recreate these artificially in hot dry rocks.

> The systems can be installed anywhere.

 

As such, I would be keen to build one (Or several.) to supply not just ecological friendly produced power, but sustainable and low cost (Below market rates.) local energy to the local population and industry to give it an edge over the competition.

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If geothermal (GEOHIL for example.) technology could be employed to solve the problem instead, would that be more welcomed ?

 

Care to expand on that Nigel? Most links about GEOHIL are unfortunately in German(Swiss?) and so a definition is not so easy to come by.

 

It does seem to be usable anywhere, drawing heat from a single well, but how the system works differently from other heat extraction systems eludes me.

 

Not sure if the proximity of the oil fields would be a factor too?

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There is a PDF file which explains somewhat how it works via the link I just posted, though my ability to understand it myself is limited, I've been keen for a while to investigate it further. (Though chatting with some greens they tell me it cannot possibly work, yet they have had working systems for 20 years, so what gives!)

 

I do wonder about the oil fields, but they might well be a benefit in some manner, one might have to purposely choose spots where your not going to hit oil! (With experience of hole drilling I imagine thats a plus for the area to be considered, and survey data of the existing area being perhaps greater than other areas of the UK.)

 

 

Shetland strikes me as the kind of place which may welcome attempts at this or something else ecologically friendly, yet pushes industry and jobs as a priority. (Thin film solar arrays might be another approach (Nanosolar.), or even one of the new Dr Bussards Polywell fusion reactors if the eagly awaited results from the latest experiments by MIT folk point to a go for further development work.)

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^Always appreciative of alternative thinking.

 

I see from the news that Viking Energy have appointed leading image consultants. To be honest i thought they were doing an admirable job in handling their own PR until recently, regardless of what i think of the proposal itself.

 

I wonder it the PR firm will employ someone to sit and watch Shetlink and answer questions. Hmm, sounds like a good job. I could be persuaded to turncoat for a consultants wage....hmmm.....

 

 

I'm here it's me you want! I'll say whatever you like! Here, take my soul too, i want the money!

 

:P

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This also now means VE don't have to personnally face the Shetland public, how conveinient!

 

VE had a large display areal booked for last weekends "Shetland Showcase" exhibition but for some reason they cancelled and their space had to be reallocated. Maybe they are not ready to face the public!

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Its surely going to cost £10,000. They were trying to justify it on the radio today saying it was to help people who are not getting the message.

Maybe the anti lobby should hire them too, as VE perhaps need some help as they are obviously not getting the message either. :wink:

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The thing that really infuriates me about Viking Energy hiring (at our expense) "image consultants" is that they were saying on the radio that some people just don't know very much about the project. That is only because they are not telling us anything about it.

 

We know they have detailed plans of where the roads through the hill are going and where they are double (most of them) and where they are single track. They already have plans of which already existing roads they will be widening to get the huge lorries and cranes up to the tops of the hills - why aren't the people who live next to these roads being told what will be happening? The lack of information is what breeds 'scaremongering' to use VE's very own words.

 

They know where they will be putting the substations and which routes the overhead cables will go back from the turbines to the converter also what voltage each line will have capacity for. This especially is information that people need to know. What about the poor people of Voe they willl be surrounded by turbines and probably high voltage overhead lines will be criss crossing the village too. The only answer that you ever get from VE about the overhead lines is that Shetland has a no pylon policy and so there will be no pylons. Well maybe there should be as these lines may be of such a high voltage that they should be suspended way up high or buried. Then again maybe not but how will we know unless they tell us?

 

All we have got from them so far are a few bubbles on a map and photos taken on dull days when you wouldn't be able to see the windmills very well. Why cant the Shetland public see the detailed plans now is it a publicly owned company or not? The only reasons that the information hasn't been made public is either that Viking think we are too stupid to understand or that it is not as favourable to them and will be shocking to the rest of us and that it may actually spur more people into objecting to the whole proposal.

 

Why can't we see the partnership agreement? Is it so obviously stacked in SSE's favour that there would be an uproar? Is it so dodgy that there would be an outcry?

 

The whole project is so murky I think that the image consultants will certainly earn their £10,000 if they can convince us all not to be very worried indeed.

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It would be far cheaper for them to just open a forum like this (or come here and chat with us..) to respond to questions and give out answers/information.

 

I wonder for example why they didn't consider vertical windmills which could be used to create less of an eyesore on the landscape by being shorter.

 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/1288371.html

 

> Vertical windmills, like the Wind Tower (right) from Windaus Turbines

> of Ontario, can crank out 50 percent more power than conventional,

> horizontal-mounted designs.

 

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2005/11/new_vertical_ax.html

 

> They claim several advantages for their design including:

>

> Less dangerous to birds

> Very quiet operation

> Lower maintenance costs because their critical equipment is

> more accessible

> Lower capital costs due to simpler design

> More acceptable because of lower profile - less visual pollution

> Superior handling of high gusts of winds

 

You could even imagine building them into a hillside, rather like a modern day version of Persian windmills, only have the wind go through the hill and end up with them underground and out of site. ;-)

 

 

I would also have thought this might be an issue too (Unless its already been mentioned..):

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3300814.ece

 

> Wind farms ‘a threat to national security’

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^ They used to come here and 'chat' but i think the time spent to answer every new complainant who signed up and didn't bother to read the previous answers was impractical. They made a valiant effort for a while though.

 

 

I wonder if the International Mire Conservation Group have any interest in the VE proposal. They were very interested in the plans for Lewis and may have been instrumental in the campaign that halted the plans there.

 

I hear from Ireland that EU restrictions have greatly reduced 'sausage-type' peat harvest in the name of moorland biodiversity conservation. I also wonder if the land that VE plans to use has been classified as being of intrinsic ecological value under the same system. :? ie., bulldozers can't be good for fragile ecosystem biodiversity if sausage machines aren't. I think the bare earth form of peat harvest in has pretty much halted altogether, though hopper-type continues. There is also a peat harvest facility in Cumberland that is to close to protect the moorland there.

 

All worthy of consideration.

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