ArabiaTerra

^^^

Eshaness, by Ryan Leith... (Mad Bugger). (No idea why this won't embed, perhaps a mod could fix it?)

No more schemes are allowed just now because we don't have the interconnector. The Interconnector is the upgrade. Once we're connected, we're part of the grid.

PapaStour, can you please explain to me why you should have the right to force your bigoted, bronze-age morality on the rest of us? The solution is simple. If you don't like gay marriage, then don't marry someone of the same sex. So you'll be advocating for forced marriage for all single mothers and single fathers then? A complete ban on divorce where there are children involved? Come on now, let's hear all your plans for interfering in the lives of others and trampling all over their rights. We're all on tenterhooks here. Absolutely. I have always seen gays as political pawns for larger interests that are more about the dissolution of the family and religion. I think nothing of the "gay lifestyle", Then don't live the "Gay lifestyle". And out comes the tinfoil hat brigade. Population control. Well that might actually be a good idea, don't you think? Considering there are now 7 billion people living on a planet that can comfortably support 3 billion. Militant anti-religion atheists. Militant, eh? Yeah it's all over the news every day. Atheist suicide bombers blowing up religious congregations, murdering anti-abortion campaigners, shooting schoolgirls in the head and throwing acid in their faces because they dare to attend church, burning priceless works of historical religious literature and blowing up thousand year old religious statues... No, wait? Hang on a minute... Perhaps it's time we did take a stricter line against the religious barbarians among us. Imagine a world where the Catholic church preached family planning from the pulpit and ran health centres in it's churches providing contraception on demand and abortion when required, instead of grooming alter boys for rape and using women as slave labour. Imagine a world where every mosque contained a school where girls were given even a basic education, and where rape victims weren't forced to marry their rapists on pain of being murdered by their own families to save their "honour". Imagine a world where the fundamentalist christian churches didn't use every means at their disposal to force creationism into school science classrooms and use their money and influence to sponsor laws which would subject gay and lesbian people to the death penalty. Where they didn't picket clinics providing contraception, women's reproductive healthcare and abortion services. Where they didn't sponsor laws which would criminalise rape victims who get pregnant if they seek an abortion because that would be "destroying evidence". ...what's that? Oh, yes, I suppose I am a "militant atheist", since you ask. I mean, just look at that "militant" rant I posted above. What do you mean, "that's not what militant means", damn it, I worked hard for that title. I read all the atheist websites and I even post comments sometimes. How much more militant do you expect me to be... Oh,... that's what it means. No, I don't do that. I guess I better shut up then.

Sorry, MJ, but you're just wrong about that: http://www.vikingenergy.co.uk/your-questions-answered.asp#Q12 And anyway, the Interconnector makes our local grid part of the National Grid, so we will be like any other part of the UK grid.

Yes that is true if only one turbine were to fail in each windfarm. But because the probability of failure increases with the number of components it is likely that for every failure at Burradale there will be a great deal more in the larger windfarm, if everything else is equal. The problem is exacerbated when you introduce critical components like the interconnector or convertor station, a complex machine by itself, any failure of one of those items will very quickly reduce the capacity factor of the Viking windfarm towards 0%. It is fallacy to claim that because Burradale achieves a capacity factor of around 50% Viking will do the same. It won’t. But everything else isn't equal. The VE turbines will be larger and less complicated, newer designs. Personnally, I think the VE windfarm will be at least as good, if not better than the Burradale one. But there's no point arguing about it. We'll find out once it's built.

Absolutely, it would be great with any of the new renewable generating systems. But the thing you have to account for is that tidal and wave are still at the prototype stage and even when they do go in to commercial operation they will be significantly more expensive than onshore wind. It all depends on how much extra you're willing to pay for your electricity. Are you willing to see your electric bill more than double in order to keep the windmills off the hills?

The necessary contraptions onshore to top these things up are the 103 windturbines.

The 53% quoted for burradale is capacity factor, ie 53% of nameplate capacity. But I am not sure if that is for 5 turbines or if it is from stats for the original 3. The figures I was given from VE covered the Burradale system over the first 10 years of it's operation. I would quote the e-mail, but I lost it after a computer crash a while ago. Agreed, unless the problem is with the converter station itself, in which case you would lose 100%. But I'm pretty sure any gas turbine station up here exporting South would also need a converter station as the HVDC link is needed to reduce transmission losses over the cable, so this would be irrelevant.

What's the difference?

This is not really a fair comparison though AT. If gas was used as base load generation you would see it provide much higher capacity factors. Gas fired power stations are much easier to take on and off line than coal or nuclear so gas plants are the first ones shut down in times of low demand, resulting in lower capacity numbers. Windfarms on the other hand are not capable of reaching capacity figures much beyond those published for Burradale, and remember the Viking energy windfarm, being a much more complex machine than Burradale, is unlikley to achieve anything like the same capacity factor. I beg to differ. Gas turbines are jet engines. They need a lot of maintenance (I used to work on the ones at Sullom). And they are used as base load. And as far as the VE turbines being more complex than Burradale? What on earth gives you that idea? Sure, they're bigger, but that's all. In fact the trend in windmill design recently has been to reduce the complexity of the machines by removing the gearboxes so the VE turbines will likely be more reliable than the Burradale ones.

From the VE website:

Bollox. The capacity factor of gas is around 60%. The capacity factor of Burradale is 53%. (The most efficient windfarm on the planet) Gas costs money. Wind doesn't.

Actually, we're not bankrupt, at least not financially. The debt is a lie. Apart from disagreeing about whether the government needs to cut the welfare bill, I agree with everything you say here. I've been a victim of the benefits system too and anyone who thinks it's a picnic or an easy life hasn't got a pink clue what they're talking about. Nobody chooses to be on benefits when there are reasonable alternatives available such as decent jobs which pay a living wage. But that's the crux of the matter: A living wage. When the only alternative you've got available is 50-60 hours a week at minimum wage which after rent, bills etc leaves you only a few pounds better off, if at all then can you blame people for playing the system? I don't.

So why do these companies spend millions lobbying the government about the tax code? Why do these companies buy a broom cupboard in Geneva, screw a brass nameplate to the door and call themselves Swiss? Fair enough, you could say it's the governments fault for allowing these things to go on, but when it's the corporations and the rich who provide the bulk of political parties funding, who do you think will be calling the tune? The system is corrupt, from top to bottom. Actually, Dyson left because they couldn't get planning permission to extend their factory (thank you, nimby's) and a new one in Malaysia was cheaper than building a whole new one here. On the subject of offshoring in general, it's a difficult problem as long as there are third world hell-holes where international corporations can get away with sweat-shop conditions and slave wages. One solution would be import taxes to equalise the price between imports and domestic production, but that would just mean they re-located to inside the EU where we couldn't levy such taxes. That's the way the deck is stacked and that's what the whole globalisation thing is all about. Why do you think all the corporations are pushing so hard to lower trade barriers all the time? The system is corrupt, from top to bottom. How do you buy shares when you have no money because you have no job because some corporate pond-scum has off-shored your job so he can buy himself a second yacht? The system is corrupt, from top to bottom. Who said anything about stopping companies from making a profit? These companies would still be profitable even if they paid their taxes. And if they aren't, then they are parasites and shouldn't be operating in the first place. The thing is, the whole global economy is seriously flawed. The idea that there can be infinite growth on a finite planet is pure insanity, yet that's the system we are now in. Capitalism is the best system we have ever tried for generating wealth and technological progress, but it has been hijacked by the super rich. The difference between the rich and the rest, even here in the industrialised west, is approaching levels not seen anywhere since before the French Revolution, and we all know how that ended. We need comprehensive reform from top to bottom.

that would make sense. i wonder what a gas pipeline costs in comparison. it would generate a lot of skilled jobs. could easily be built at sullom. what a good idea. but it would have to be a lot bigger interconnector that what is planned. No, it doesn't make any sense at all. There are already pipelines laid to take west coast gas into the east coast network via Sullom, which runs to St Fergus. Why on earth would they want to generate the power in Shetland then send it south over an interconnector, when they can just pipe it straight to St Fergus. More pointless scaremongering.

Also, unlinked, on the subject of what's morally correct in the benefits system (seeing as you brought it up): Should you police the system so vigorously that for every benefit scrounger you catch, you also deny benefits to 1 genuine claimant? 5 genuine claimants? 10 genuine claimants? Or should you accept that there will always be fraud and concentrate on making sure genuine claimants get what they are entitled to. And according to the figures Distortio posted above, ten times as much benefits are unclaimed than are fraudulently claimed. Surely a moral system would insist that ten times as much be spent making sure those entitled to benefits received those benefits, than was spent pursuing the frauds. There are many things you can say about the ConDem benefit reforms, but that they are moral is not one of them.

Ok, then. Here's my suggestion for dealing with the "problem" with the benefits system: Leave the system alone. The previous system had problems with fraud, sure, but no more than any other complicated bureaucratic system. Compared to the problems with corporate tax dodging and the tax dodging of the oligarchs, it is trivial, a drop in the ocean. Yet instead of concentrating your ire where it should be, you have bought into the Government propaganda that it is some massive problem that is bleeding the country dry. This is not true. It's just the usual government smoke and mirrors to divert attention from the real problem which is the rich who are robbing us blind. Ok, so I went a little overboard there, I apologise. I just get so angry and frustrated when I see otherwise intelligent people falling for this crap. The rich caused the problem. The rich are the problem. But they also own the government, or at least, the Tory party. Please don't let them fool you as they have so many others.

How many more have collapsed but haven't been reported? Given the obsessive and fanatical opposition to windfarms in the right-wing press which swarms all over any perceived flaw in the turbines, I would guess:- none.

So no one borrowed money from the banks and failed to pay it back? So no one is claiming benefits they ain't entitled to and also working cash-in-hand, thus also being in the tax dodging bracket? It shouldn't be all about money. What about morals? Is it right that someone can be working a 40 hour week yet take home less than someone on benefits who also does fiddle the system? Or should we all adopt the attitude, "To hell with it, so and so is fiddling the system so we should too."? GB PLC - bankrupt? I've never said the bankers were innocent but two wrongs don't make a right, do they, or are you saying they do? Still waiting to hear more answers on how you'd make it fairer for all. Just to pile on to Distortio's most excellent points above: Why the hell should the poor have to pay for the mistakes of the rich? Bwh-ha-ha-ha! How the hell can you bring up morals in this situation? Please tell me all about the morals of Starbucks, Google and Amazon. Tell me about the morals of Philip Green, Boots or Tesco, Cadbury, Walkers Crisps and Diageo Tell me about the morals of George Osborne, whose first move as Chancellor was to cut taxes on the rich by 5%. I think you need to develop some morals of your own, unlinked, instead of getting them, wholesale, from the Tory press. Edit: A side order of empathy wouldn't go amiss, either.

Unlinked, this isn't a generic concrete problem that happens to be occurring in Shetland, this is a problem specific to blocks made by a certain manufacturer during the oil construction boom in the late 70's/early 80's. This manufacturer is long gone. I've heard a couple of different reasons why these blocks were flawed: One is that the cement used was imported from the Eastern Bloc and was not up to standard, the other was that the manufacturer simply didn't use enough cement in the blocks in the first place. I've no idea which reason is true if any.

Another thing to consider is that the ping from a satellite connection is awful (signal has to travel to the satellite and back to ground, a 40,000 mile round trip), so anything which requires responsiveness such as on-line gaming will be unusable.

Now this is really good: http://www.speedtest.net/result/2471854438.png The after 6pm bottleneck seems to have gone.

You have to replace them, which if the whole house was constructed using them... A big job.

I watched it in HD. It did freeze up occasionally but never for more than a few seconds. It was a bit jittery when the torches were going into the galley tho' which was annoying. On the whole, a pretty good production. Oh, and what happened to the turning movement in King Harald Street? Was I just not paying attention, or did they cut short the procession due to the weather?