1. Save Energy. Boring but effective.
Wind Turbines
vs. Energy Saving - a case study
There are 1,628,000
houses in the UK with pitched roof and no roof insulation*
3780 kWh of energy
are lost by each such house each year.*
Insulation to
1990 Building Regulations standard would save 3375 kWh p.a.*
The annual output
of a 750 kW turbine is 1.64 m units.
Insulating 485
houses would save that amount of energy each year.
New funding arrangements
will give wind energy a subsidy of 2p per unit.
The annual subsidy
of the turbine will be £32,850.
The cost of insulation
is a one-off £122 per house, say £60,000 for 485 houses.
Over the 100
year life of the houses, the energy saving cost averages £600
pa
Saving pollution
by insulation is 55 times more cost-effective than saving it by
wind turbines!
*Source: Pilkington Insulation, UK Mineral Wool
Association
2. Micro Generation
Why do we not do more to promote local electricity
generation when there is proven technology that could help make a
difference? True, individual micro schemes are small scale and to
think that the National Grid could be replaced by "local"
green schemes is pie in the sky, but helping more of the population
to be part of the solution must surely be more effective than imposing
inefficient and un-reliable wind power schemes over large areas of
the country and off the coast?
Micro
Hydro Power. Unlike big hydro electric
schemes, these are small and almost invisible once installed. "No
one ever built a wind mill if they could build a water mill."
Ground
source heat pumps. Making use of
the constant heat stored under ground. Expensive to install, but very
cheap to run once fitted.
Fuel
Cells. These are the "holy grail" of renewable
energy and hopefully mankinds inginuity will overcome the technical
difficulties.
3. Feed - in Electricity
PV
cells. Fitted to the roofs of factories,
shops and houses Photovoltaic (PV) cells essentially convert daylight
into electricity.
Already in Germany, more than 300,000
solar systems have been installed in three years and micro-generation
provides nearly 12% of all the country's electricity. Householders
can earn 8% to 10% returns on investing in their own home systems
and in some cases pay their mortgages with the income earned.
Granted, they don't operate at night, but daylight
is predictable and relatively constant (compared to wind), so feeding
in PV generated supplies to the National Grid is much easier to manage.
The fact that individual houses & businesses
would be generating electricity means that more people become part
of the solution, rather than simply being consumers.
PV
Cells in use.
3. Tidal Stream Power.
In simple terms, a Tidal Stream
is the flow of currents at sea and is not simply the way the tide
goes up and down at the beach.
Why the Scottish Executive is not
doing more to encourage this type of technology is beyond us.
Wind is not Reliable
- Tidal Streams on the other hand are predictable, in the same way
High and Low tides are predictable.
Wind is not Constant
- Tidal streams, in simple terms, run in one direction for around
6 hours and then in the opposite direction for 6 hours. 24 hours a
day ... 365 days a year.
Check it out on the Highlands &
Islands own web
site!
4 Bio-Mass
The term bio-mass covers a range
of different fuel sources: short rotation forestry (e.g. willow &
poplar coppice), wood wastes, sugar crops, starch crops (wheat, maize),
woody plants, oil crops, agricultural wastes, municipal solid wastes
and refuse, industrial wastes. The heat produced by burning can be
used to produce steam and generate electricity using a turbine. The
waste heat can also be utilised, such schemes are called combined
heat and power (CHP). Biomass causes CO2 emissions but the CO2 released
is equivalent to that taken up by the biomass as it grew. There is
therefore no net release of CO2 from the growing and burning of biomass.
Biomass sources produce virtually no sulphur emissions.
As Moray is the heart of Scotlands
Whisky country it's only appropriate that one of the areas processing
plants for distilery bi-products (Combination of Rothes Distilleries)
has recently applied for planning permission to generate power.
5. Hydro Electric
With relatively little fanfare
to the outside world, Scotlands newest Hydro Electric Scheme completed
tunnelling operations in January 2008 and is on target to start generating
electricity in March 2009.
One of the important benefits of
hydro power is that it can be switched on very quickly to meet sudden
increases in the demand for electricity. Under the right conditions,
this plant will be able to reach full output in just 30 seconds....unlike
a wind farm.
Also, unlike a wind farm, the entire
working operation is hidden underground.
Glendoe
Hyro Scheme