Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[PJ of Hildisvik]

We still need a FOSSIL FUEL power station to back up the windfarm, do we not?!

[ArabiaTerra]

I thought it was bio-fuel. Anyway that's only for in case the inter-connector breaks. Which is unlikely.

[PJ of Hildisvik]

^^^^Do you agree with bio-fuels then?

[ArabiaTerra]

It depends what you mean by bio-fuels. The first generation have been a problem because they were using food crops and land which could be used for food crops which pushed up prices and caused shortages, however, scientists are busy working on making bio-fuels from farming waste such as stubble and animal dung. These should be much more sustainable.

 

Of course cutting down trees and burning them is also a bio-fuel and a perfectly sustainable one provided you replant the trees.

[PJ of Hildisvik]

Willow plantations is good, but cutting down rain forests and planting sugar cane as a bio-fuel is 100%bloody criminal.

[crofter]

You can't use Sullom Voe. It uses fossil fuels.

 

So, assuming VE go ahead and build a windfarm, what do you think is going to happen at Sullom Voe?

 

Building a windfarm is not going to result in less fossil fuel being burnt anywhere. But you are correct that it might be a better investment than the stock market, although this depends on the numbers and nobody seems very sure about them yet.

[Guest Anonymous]

Then your precious peat could be re-instated and everyone would be happy.

How, pray tell, do you reinstate peat? You've obviously never had a tusker in your hand.

[JohanofNess]

How, pray tell, do you reinstate peat? You've obviously never had a tusker in your hand.

 

Was wondering that myself.

[ArabiaTerra]

You can't use Sullom Voe. It uses fossil fuels.

 

So, assuming VE go ahead and build a windfarm, what do you think is going to happen at Sullom Voe?

Well, it's not going to happen immediately but I think it will go something like this.

 

Transport is the biggest user of oil, but alternatives such as hydrogen, electric and bio-fuels are nearly ready to be deployed on a commercial scale. When this happens there will be a collapse in the demand for oil which will lead to a collapse in the wholesale price due to over production (the pump price, however, will stay high due to taxes to combat global warming). This will lead to the closure of the most expensive oil fields in the world, among which are the North Sea and the Atlantic. When they close so will Sullom.

[ArabiaTerra]

How, pray tell, do you reinstate peat? You've obviously never had a tusker in your hand.

 

Was wondering that myself.

Well if you dug it up and moved it somewhere then presumably you could dig it up again and put it back. Seems simple enough.

 

And what's a tusker got to do with it?

[Fjool]

^ I don't think peat would really behave properly any more after digging it up. It would lose loads of water for starters. It's closer to a living thing than a type of building material.

[JohanofNess]

^ I don't think peat would really behave properly any more after digging it up. It would lose loads of water for starters. It's closer to a living thing than a type of building material.

 

Spot on, you don't want to go near it in any major civil engineering project if you can avoid it.

 

Building a wind farm is one thing, you can't just dig up peat stick it in a massive pile for decades then move it back. It's bad enough bunding topsoil.

[Guest Anonymous]

How, pray tell, do you reinstate peat? You've obviously never had a tusker in your hand.

 

Was wondering that myself.

Well if you dug it up and moved it somewhere then presumably you could dig it up again and put it back. Seems simple enough.

 

And what's a tusker got to do with it?

 

Simply, by this post, you have demonstrated your complete ignorance about peat.

[ArabiaTerra]

Fair enough, I will bow to your superior knowledge on the digging of peat (It is 20 years since I last worked in da hill.)

[Njugle]

Well, it's not going to happen immediately but I think it will go something like this.

 

Transport is the biggest user of oil, but alternatives such as hydrogen, electric and bio-fuels are nearly ready to be deployed on a commercial scale. When this happens there will be a collapse in the demand for oil...[]........ When they close so will Sullom.

 

^This statement, i 'm genuinely sorry to say, i think is naive. I'd take a wager that this collapse in demand is a long way off, high oil prices are doing great things for government and private funds.

 

Secondly, the peat comment is absurd - as others have said.

 

Thirdly, (in response to an earlier comment) investment in salmon farming has been pretty successful in terms of employment and the economy, it's a shame that most of it has become ultimately Norwegian owned but it still has a huge economical benefit.

 

Fourthly, the idealistic view of this wind utopia falls short on economic practicality. The farm will be profitable dependent on subsidy and capped transmission charges. The cost of electricity will go up as a consequence of investment in the technology (as stated at one of the first public meetings by a senior rep of SSE) . The cost of government/european subsidy will have to be raised from usual sources, ie you and i, so to pay for this electricity we will have subtly higher taxation and unsubtly higher electricity bills. Now, saving the planet may cost a few bucks somewhere along the line, i know that, but it's maybe just as well to let the mega wealthy corporations carry on figuring out how to replace fossil fuels than to sell our soul on this fragile, entirely externally politically dependent gamble (that may under perform in the predicted extreme weather we are expecting, if you want to factor in global warming and add another 'if' to the proposal).

 

The power station at SVT may become bypassed for gas eventually, existing infrastrucure would pretty much already allow it, rather than remain the best way to power shetland.

 

The new/old gremista power station would not be 'switched off' completely, it would still have to be run, inefficiently(under minimal load), and maintained.

 

And, "multiple burradales" as someone else mentioned could be providing heating for most if not all the homes in Shetland. I love Burradale, it's really great, aesthetically and environmentally. Schemes like this could, through individual or district heating schemes, help remove the huge reliance shetland has on kerosene for home heating, the most popular means currently in our rural community. That would be a huge step forward in 'saving the planet.'

So with burradale providing 20% of the lecky, the newer schemes providing a lot of the heating and a new efficient generating station at Dales Voe, subsidised (bonded to a return fee to the CT) solar and micro generation we could be massively above EU environmental targets in a relatively short space of time, with minimal risk to the reserve funds and no substantial envronmental impact.

 

And all before the super boffins release the already-designed energy production techniques they are sitting on,( poised to bring the oil industry crashing down).

 

Just a thought or two, before bed.