PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
♦
While you’re recovering from Christmas, getting your breath back for further excesses at New Year, just take time to read this little piece.
◊
BRYN BLAEN WIND FARM
Just over a year ago, I wrote Corruption in the wind?, which was primarily about the Hendy wind farm, but I also mentioned the linked Bryn Blaen installation. And it’s Bryn Blaen I’m concentrating on here.
The six turbines of the Bryn Blaen wind farm lie to the north of Llangurig, the village you pass by if travelling north-south on the A470, and through which you pass if leaving the A470 to take the A44 down to Aberystwyth.
Bryn Blaen wind farm is owned – in the first instance – by Bryn Blaen Wind Farm Ltd, which was Incorporated May 18, 2011, though the company was originally known as Development Securities (No 74) Ltd. The project was funded with five loans from Close Leasing Ltd, a Manchester finance company that seems to have a keen interest in renewables.
Hendy wind farm not far away is owned – ditto – by Hendy Wind Farm Ltd, which was also Incorporated May 18, 2011, this time as Development Securities (No 71) Ltd. Thus far there is just one charge with Close Leasing Ltd.
(Development Securities (No 72) Ltd is now Rhoscrowther Wind Farm Ltd. More on Rhoscrowther in a minute.)
The immediate parent company in each case is DS Renewables LLP, which is in turn owned by U and I Group PLC. The U and I Group is a property company focused on London, Manchester and Dublin, but its portfolio extends beyond these cities and is not restricted to commercial and residential property.
Like most of its ilk the U and I Group pretends to be something better than just a property speculator. This clip from the 2019 accounts says it all.
In fact, at 229 pages, the 2019 annual report and accounts is quite a tome, though much of it is self-promoting bullshit.
Bryn Blaen appears on page 26, where we also find mention of Hendy and Rhoscrowther wind farms. The figures on the left are the ‘Previous target’ column while those on the right are ‘Realised gains/losses’.
We see that Hendy and Rhoscrowther have realised nothing; this is due to Hendy still being under construction, while Rhoscrowther was denied planning permission for a third time in April 2018 and appears to be dead in the water.
Bryn Blaen on the other hand has made a return of £4.7m, quite remarkable seeing as its turbines have never turned. This was being reported in January 2019 and little has changed, though I should report that some turbines have shaken the dust off recently . . . almost certainly powered by diesel generators, and done for the benefit of an increasingly sceptical local audience.
The reason Bryn Blaen is not generating electricity is hinted at in the image above, where it mentions ” . . . increased costs in connecting to the grid”. This alludes to a major problem. To wit, there isn’t the capacity on the existing local infrastructure to carry anything generated by Bryn Blaen.
All explained in this remarkable letter from concerned locals to Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs in the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’, on December 18. You must read this letter.
You’ll see that it mentions a figure of £33,245,067. This can be found on page 7 of the 2019 accounts for Bryn Blaen Wind Farm Ltd, as ‘Assets under construction’.
Though a closer look at page 7 of the accounts (shown below) tells us that Bryn Blaen Wind Farm’s true assets are in fact just £2,076. The thirty-three million figure is made up of debts, and page 15 explains that these are £21,410,000 in bank loans and £12,934,555 owed to U and I Group PLC.
(Wow! If debts can be counted as assets then Jac is rolling in it!)
All of which means that Bryn Blaen wind farm is just a pachyderm of a very pale hue, desecrating the Welsh countryside for no discernible benefit to anyone. And yet . . .
On page 9, paragraph 2.2, of the Bryn Blaen Wind Farm Ltd accounts we read the passage below. The implication is that the debts (certainly the bank loans) will be repaid when Bryn Blaen is disposed of at the end of February 2020.
Which suggests that someone is going to buy a wind farm that cannot export any electricity it might generate . . . which is why it has generated nothing in the two years of its existence!
This episode raises a number of questions:
- Why did the Planning Inspectorate overrule Powys County Council to give planning permission in August 2016 to a project that the most cursory investigation would have revealed was utterly useless?
- Are there other examples like Bryn Blaen?
- Turbines that have generated nothing for six months can be demolished, so will Lesley Griffiths now do as protesters request and have the Bryn Blaen turbines demolished at developers’ expense?
- The U and I Group plans to re-submit a planning application for Rhoscrowther wind farm on Milford Haven Waterway; can we therefore assume that Lesley Griffiths will be instructed to approve this application?
The scandal of Bryn Blaen should be a matter of national concern, so don’t just leave it to the locals – you write to Lesley Griffiths, and to your local AM, asking what the hell has happened. Insist on Bryn Blaen being demolished. And demand more stringent checks on local grid capacity and other issues before planning permission is granted for any future wind farms.
◊
WORSE TO COME?
At the risk of being accused of beating a familiar drum I am going to conclude this short piece by looking at the National Development Framework 2020-2040.
For those who may not be familiar with this document, it is the supreme planning guidance for Wales to which plans such as councils’ Local Development Plans (LDPs) and all sub-national strategies must conform. I wrote about it in August.
The NDF is big on renewable energy, as the map below shows. What isn’t given over to wind and solar ‘farms’ is largely accounted for by urban areas, National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the proposed ‘National Forest’, and the vast area north of Aberystwyth promised to the Summit to Sea ‘rewilders’.
But I can’t help wondering what’s planned for that area between the A5 and the A458, east of Dolgellau.
Though I suppose the really big question is – who is going to benefit from this National Development Framework?
The individual beneficiaries will be landowners (often absentee), property developers like the U and I Group, and other English ‘investors’. Proving yet again that wind power is more about cashing in on the subsidies than with replacing fossil fuels.
But over and above the individual beneficiaries the National Development Framework is for the benefit of England.
Wind and solar farms won’t provide jobs for Welsh people. And we already produce far more electricity than we consume; yet as with water, we are not allowed to make a profit from what we export. (Though ‘our’ water and electricity can be sold back to us at over-the-odds prices.)
The National Development Framework allows Wales to be exploited as never before, but rather than standing up for Wales our current crop of politicians will rhapsodise over it.
Labour, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dems will bleat about Wales ‘making its contribution’ to ‘saving the planet’, etc., when, in reality, they’ll be turning our beautiful homeland into an al fresco power station. What isn’t covered by wind and solar farms will be retirement and recreation areas for England. Zimmer frames and zip wires.
Tory and Brexit parties will of course support anything that makes money for their pals in the financial sector . . . no matter how shady the deal, no matter how heavy the price Wales has to pay.
The Union with England has never worked to Wales’ advantage, but then, that was never the intention. Yet devolution, we were told, would provide ‘Welsh answers for Welsh problems’; but as Bryn Blaen, the National Development Framework, and countless other examples make clear, devolution is just a pitifully transparent veneer of ‘Welshness’ for continuing exploitation.
If we are to survive and progress as a nation it can only be done by prioritising our interests and focusing on independence without any distractions or self-imposed divisions. So let’s continue building momentum in 2020 on the broadest possible front.
♦ end ♦
While the latest annual accounts of Bryn Blaen Wind Farm Limited states there is
£21.4m in outstanding bank loans, and
£12.9m owed to U and I Group PLC (the out of town shopping centre developer)
we also see that Mr Steven John Radford, of 25 Stanhope Road, Bowdon, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 3JZ is a common director in the ownership tree.
https://tinyurl.com/so7htra
Bryn Blaen Wind Farm Limited (07638774)
owned by….
DS Renewables LLP (OC364669)
owned by…..
DS Jersey (Renewables) Limited.
This is an offshore company in a tax haven.
I also did a bit of digging into Mr Radford. A company he set up just a few weeks ago is T R Bowden Ltd. The name is explained by his initials with Bowden being the village where he lives.
CapM you deliberately throw around the word “Denier” as an insult. This word has only come into regular use over the past few years by the “Greenies” who equate people who do not agree with their confused ideology, with the slur of being “holocaust deniers”. You cannot deny one thing CapM and that is that you use it as a slur which collapses your argument. Not so long ago the then BWEA British Wind Energy Association set up a public web site where opponents to useless Wind Turbines were named on a list, together with the ominous threat from BWEA of “We know where you live!”. This led to a Police investigation of their threatening behaviour. Prosecution was not taken as the Crown said that the people who were listed with threat already had their names and addresses in the public domain due to letters they had, had published in newspapers. However, one “listed” elderly lady who lived alone in an isolated place in central Wales had her home broken into. Not one of many valuable items she possessed was stolen, however, her Campaign Files in trying to save the Landscape were all trashed. An obviously sinister act. These are the dirty tricks of people you are “in bed with” CapM. Do you deny that? Read what Brychan has to say about your hollow shallow comments CapM.
I don’t use the term “Denier” as an insult. if you find it hurtful perhaps you could suggest an alternative that could be applied to you regarding your opinion on manmade climate change.
What’s your version of a “Greeny Arty Farty”. lol
Can someone explain to the numb skulls, and to Attenborough and Thumberg , and all the Greeny Arty Fartys, and innumerate Politicians, that the biggest driving force behind Climate Change on Planet Earth is the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and its erratic Solar Winds which are of immense power. We have always had climate change and always will. Sometimes great extremes of change and no doubt human activity contributes to climate change in some very minute way. The giant Solar Winds influence our own planetary Jet Stream. Our grannies old coal fires played a very tiny part. Of course we must preserve all of our resources by cutting back on the enormous selfish wastes of most developed countries. Politicians in the Wales Assembly Government like Drakeford and Lesley Griffiths are chasing dragons and tilting at wind mills. It is people like them that will destroy Wales and by a minute, teeny weeny tiny part allow the planet to exhaust its resources. Thumberg and Attenborough should vent their volcanic spleen onto the pseudo science of the Greenies like Drakeford and Lesley Griffiths.
By the way Brychan you normally talk sense,but if you think domestic storage heaters can be the answer you must think again. I must go now as I left a hot cup of Coffee in the kitchen to type this up. It will be cold now, as you cannot simply store mass energy – not even a cup full of coffee in a ‘vacuum’ flask. Storage heaters were a scam a few years ago to get us to buy more electricity off the suppliers during hours of low demand. Do you remember that Liberal Democrat Assembly Minister Mike German, in the Days of the Lib Lab coalition in Cardiff, who was a Music Teacher,?He claimed that excess Wind Turbine energy could be stored in batteries. He never said what size the batteries would be. Maybe he meant a big lake on a hill like Dinorwic, but he never ever explained how, simply because he did not know any of the real answers. That’s politicians for you!
Storage heaters are misnamed and often used incorrectly. They work on the principle of temperature gradient. The concept is that the ‘core’ is hot and you release the heat according to need. They need to be used correctly to be efficient.
The old ones had two controls, dials, input (charge) and output (a flap to allow are to convection of heat by air venting through the core). They are not radiators and often misused as such. More modern ones come with electronic controls are can be used more efficiently. Input charge is moderated by forecast, output flow is moderated by ambient tempreture and hourly preference (like a dialy programme of combi gas boiler).
Gridflash.
50% Fossil Fuel
26% Nuclear
14% Wind
10% Imports
Germany has banned storage heaters in rented dwellings as it negates their gas import policy of imports from Russia by the Nord2 pipeline. Yet Sweden/Denmark (wind), Norway (hydro) and Finland (nuclear) has made them compulsory, and offer free upgrades to the new versions. Cities also sponsor night storage district heating installations.
Question – It’s now 2020, by 2030 gas central heating will be illegal or prohibitively expensive. If your children want to live in a house, what central heating system would be best for them? I still have a million tonnes of anthracite under my back garden, form where I can see where the tide is, even on windy days. Gas is not an option.
Germany ? Check Gridwatch Germany. Note how much electricity they produce from FILTHY LIGNITE….BROWN COAL………and Hard Black coal !
Why? to send millons of Mercs, BMWs, Opels, VWs etcetc…….worldwide…..WHILST WE SHUT DOWN OUR MEAGRE INDUSTRY AND BEHAVE LIKE GOOD BOYS !
We buy German cars….MADE FROM ELECTRICITY FROM GERMAN COAL-FIRED POWER STATIONS ., EVEN FILTHY LIGNITE !
Germany has 80 million population; UK has 65 million !
CHECK ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION [ or production] PER CAPITA AND TELL US WHICH IS THE HIGHER………GERMANY OR UK !!
Here’s a link to a site that specializes in debunking pseudoscience, garbage science and plain old garbage that some (sometimes many) people insist is fact.
https://skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-global-warming.htm
Regarding those “authorities” and their acolytes who are now denying that the current climate change is manmade, they were a few years ago invariably denying that climate change was happening at all.
Those deniers who want to stay ahead have for a number of years accepted that the current climate change is manmade but are denying that it will be as bad as predicted. Dyn Gwyrdd it looks like you’re already a couple of laps behind the leaders in this Deniers Derby.
We’ll have to wait and see what the next thing deniers will insist is not happening is. However we’re probably not going to have to wait that long before they’ll need to cough up that little gem..
There are three faults with that article, CapM. They are listed as follows..
(a) The data on spectroscopy analysis of greenhouse gasses in the atmousphere filter out water vapour (H2O). Clouds act as a moderator (dampener) of the effect. Warmer air holds more moisture and therefore more cloud cover is formed, which reflects thermal effects of sunlight. See H2O in the graph.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/11/methane-the-irrelevant-greenhouse-gas/
(b) Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas, four times the effect of CO2, however, it is much lighter than air gasses and due to ionisation in the upper atmosphere, it is broken down, so does not persist more than a few years.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/11/methane-the-irrelevant-greenhouse-gas/
(c) The ice core CO2 record of Greenland presented is only for the last 1000 years (effect of industrial emissions), but we have data of the last 50,000 years (effect of natural processes) which paints the same picture.
Whilst it’s true that man-made emissions of CO2 is a factor in ‘global warming’ it is only one factor in natural global warming. The question is how significant is the factor, and if the restorative activity of mankind can negate the natural processes.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH-v6-LT-with-2016-projection.jpg
Last 20 years.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_December_2018_v6.jpg
Last 40 years.
The terms “deniers” or “acceptors” have no place in scientific analysis. We need to look at all of the data to form conclusions.
In looking at wind farms as a solution we also have to factor in the environmental damage they do, both in terms of construction emissions and also in terms of their efficacy due to the need for fossil fuel augmentation of demand (energy storage) and fossil fuel augmentation when their output falls (geographic spread). One thing we do know, building and subsidising wind farms that provide no electricity to the grid like at Bryn Blaen is destructive.
Financially and environmentally.
“The terms “deniers” or “acceptors” have no place in scientific analysis. We need to look at all of the data to form conclusions.”
You and I are not qualified or experienced enough to look at all of the data and form conclusions on climate change.
In the same way that you and I are not qualified to look at all the relevant data and then prescribe the way to treat a brain tumour.
If you do think you are in a position to come to a conclusion on climate change then that’s down to things like arrogance, ego and delusion. What you and I can do is exercise quality control in what sources we accept.
Man made Climate change denial is similar to denial of evolution. The preachers of both faiths have to continually shift their arguments into smaller and smaller corners as new evidence squashes their previous arguments. Once you can recognize the techniques and m.o. of one type of alternative reality pusher it’s possible to identify others of a similar ilk.
I suggest that in order to recognise how climate denying sites manipulate your opinions you spend time looking at genuinely skeptical sites.
ME.
I am qualified in both mechanical and electrical engineering, but for many years have worked on the financial side. Previously London based, €40bn, Japanese owned company and before that a Swedish company involved in bulk shipping, ferries and offshore construction. In the last few years, however, I fill my time with railway based ‘retirement work’. That however, is not relevant. You raise it. I always pride myself, as an engineer, in the technique of explaining difficult concepts in simple terms, no matter who they are and from whatever background, helping people understand concepts and getting to the root of how things work.
My political views are evident.
DENIAL.
May I introduce you to a piece I wrote on this blog last year.
https://jacothenorth.net/blog/the-myth-of-temperate-forestation-as-viable-sequestrate-of-carbon-dioxide/
It starts with the phrase “Global warming is a reality”.
DATA.
The references I have made are to data supplied from published by NASA satellites for global temperature, and the Greenland ice core data is the same as those provided by yourself, only I have removed the manipulation, the truncation of the dataset to a smaller time segment to fit a pre-conceived political agenda.
EVOLUTION.
You mention this in terms of “deniers”. It’s important to understand the process in order to accept the concept. For example, mankind did not evolve from an ape. Both apes and man have a common ancestor, an important difference. This is backed up by fossil record and DNA chronology. The data that defines the process. In the same way we must approach the issue of global warming. It is not a question of ‘faith’ or ‘scientist know best’.
SCIENTISTS.
Have met lots of these in my time, with various specialties. One thing is common. They all base their work on objective data. A good way to spot a fake, a BBC journalist masquerading as a scientist, a politician with a pre-conceived agenda, or even absentee schoolgirl with emotional issues, it is to question the evidence. When, Where and How are good questions, but the most important question is “Why?” There is a need to understand the process if any action is to be successful. That includes everyone, including you and I.
We must also call out shysters, like Bryn Blaen, which Jac is doing on this blog.
Your extensive CV is not so extensive as to identify you as anyone other than someone with an interest in climate change and going by the large variety of topics you post on one of many interests.
You tend to cherry pick data that suggests evidence against the accepted (by 95% plus of professional experts) view of man made climate change. You are by no means unique in this approach. For generations the tobacco industry’s defence of smoking was based on jumping on the gaps in research that showed smoking was harmful. As time passed more and more research and data gaps were filled. Same is happening with Man made Climate change. For all your experience and qualifications your seem to have missed what’s happening
Wrexhamian is right. It goes back 700 years, at least, 100 Years War. Then it was the English King wanting the glory of being King of France. And the plan was to use the French possession (Aquitaine) to pay for the necessary wars in, er, Aquitaine. Clever, eh? Ended in tears of course. At some point the locals rise up against being exploited for such nonsense. So we could have a long wait here in Wales…….
Off topic but highly relevant to how the privileged few see themselves as superior and entitled to their privacy.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/29/call-for-inquiry-into-government-leak-of-honours-list-addresses
What’s wrong with the public knowing where for example, Sir IDS lives. If I was a disabled person being screwed around by some shitty organisation contracted at great expense to make my access to meager benefits difficult or impossible I would be tempted to get around to his mansion and render him disabled also just so the cnut knows how it feels. What’s so unreasonable about that ?
On the other hand if some genuinely worthy person does a lot of good in his/her community one might be tempted to send a bunch of flowers or a gift voucher.
All this squealing is about protecting the elites and it’s about time they felt a bit vulnerable.
… and if that’s not enough, then try this one !
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/28/bbc-put-presenter-on-a-plane-to-interview-greta-thunberg
What a shower of tossers with hardly any awareness of their own double standards. At least the Swedish kid is a transparent act but these Beeb weirdos are something else. And they gets paid for it !
Soon we’ll get a vacuous programme full of horseshit about the wasteful lives we lead with no acknowledgement that journos and other camp followers are among the biggest wasters of the lot.
The whole windfarm racket is yet another open goal that the Party of Wales is shooting wide of by ignoring it through lack of political will and an insane ordering of their political priorities. Bryn Blaen is exactly the sort of local issue that Plaid should be confronting if they want a cat in hell’s chance of capturing the Senedd in 2021.
While Plaid stand around fretting over irrelevancies,Gwlad, Gwlad will, I hope, kick up a stink over local issues like Bryn Blaen, because any political party that ignores such issues will haemhorrage votes to whichever party brings these issues to public attention.
Yes, Leslie Griffiths should put this particular windfarm out of its misery, and soon; but what worries me is the power of the Planning Inspectorate to act as the final arbiter over any planning decision in Wales. The fact that the paltriness of devolution makes it well-nigh impossible to challenge the Inspectorate’s edicts is no excuse for a future Welsh Government to not even try.
The ‘Welsh Government’ has always wanted us to believe that the Planning Inspectorate answers to it, when in reality it answers to the Department for Communities and Local Government in London . . . but it has a cupboard in Cardiff. Not so long ago the WG promised us our very own planning inspectorate. Which obviously contradicts the earlier claim. If we do get ‘our own’ planning inspectorate it’ll still answer to DCLG from under another layer of flim-flam.
Regarding these three wind farms, Hendy was turned down by the Planning Inspectorate, which should have been the end of the matter, but Lesley Griffiths stepped in and argued that it was a ‘project of national significance’ and should go ahead. This was very unusual. As we know, Bryn Blaen has produced nothing in two years. And even though Rhoscrowther was ultimately turned down by a judge U and I Group still seems to think it will go ahead.
It all suggests to me that the U and I Group has friends in high places who can swing decisions for them.
But I thought the Planning Inspectorate could over-rule the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs. If not, and the final decision rested with her, then, yes, there’s something very suspicious about her decision.
As for Wales’s proposed Planning Inspectorate, on which I had some naiive hopes, what’s the point of wasting more money on salaries if they’re only gong to be a bunch of rubber-stampers?
It transfers the costs of the Planning Inspectorate from from London to Cardiff.
Which makes perfect sense. Though I guarantee that operational control remains in London.
So nothing changes, except that we get to pay for the privilage of having planning decisions made that will in many cases be against Welsh interests. Perfect, just bloody perfect.
Happy New Year, bawb…
BADFINGER – Mynydd y Gwair yn y Cefndir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x1MZEDQbtA
Mynydd y Gwair in the landscape backdrop to the tragic Rock Group BADFINGER (who were close associates of the BEATLES). BADFINGER recorded their hits in a silent ‘recluse’ at Mynydd y Gwair – then just the grazing domain of hill cattle and Welsh sheep owned by solid Welsh speaking hill farmers – – now a droning barren Common of alien machines for the profit of aliens!
It was proposed that “community fund” from Mynydd y Gwair wind farm was to be channelled through Swansea Council for Voluntary Service (260136) and operated for the benefit of the city and valleys.
Strange, as this charity was wound up and closed at the charity commission in 2002. A new charity was set up using the old name as cover. This is called SwanseaCVS (1063242) and bizarrely it’s operational area extended to Carmarthenshire and the Vale of Glamorgan.
https://www.scvs.org.uk/myg-commfund
When the wind farm was commissioned a promise of £240,000 per year for the community fund, from Innogy the wind farm operator, but as of 2018, the income statement of SwanseaCVS only shows an income of £3,000 in that year, which appears to be an ad-hoc payment. The majority of the funding to SwanseaCVS is actually from WCVA (the all Wales third sector funding stream), direct grants from the Welsh Government, Swansea Council and the health board. SwanseaCVS pays £91,430pa to ‘key management personnel’.
https://iam.innogy.com/-/media/innogy/documents/ueber-innogy/innogy-Innovation-und-Technik/mynydd-y-gwair/Mynydd-y-Gwair-Community-Fund-Structure-2017.pdf
So where is the remaining £237,000 going?
Who is administering the fund?
We see that there is in fact “Community Liaison Group” which is mainly made up of Swansea councillors and an Innogy executive. The last published minutes of this liaison group (Jan2018) tells us that they are still struggling to get the last few turbines up and running, which indicates the ‘community fund’ was not yet triggered.
https://iam.innogy.com/-/media/innogy/documents/ueber-innogy/innogy-Innovation-und-Technik/mynydd-y-gwair/clg-minutes-jan-2019.pdf
The latest announcement on the Innogy website in 2019 does now say that all 16 turbines of 127m in height are now generating, so there should be income of £237,000 shown in the accounts of SwanseaCVS due to be published 31st March 2020.
Swansea CVS is currently formed as follows.
Cherrie Bija, formally employed by BBC Children in Need.
Cllr Pamela Morgan (Gorseinon East) and is deputy mayor.
Saskia Hamer who’s a Dutch national.
Chris Mann who’s the Brecon Buddhist and former Powys councillor.
Anna Tippett who’s practice manager at Kingsway GP surgery.
And others.
Jac, you ask the question of who would buy a wind farm not connected to the grid in the first quarter of 2020. The answer is nobody. It appears that the Bryn Blaen wind farm is just a mechanism of front loading a payment from the liquidity instrument provided under the renewable power purchase agreement (PPAS).
https://windeurope.org/wp-content/uploads/files/policy/position-papers/Financing-Wind-Energy-Beyond-2020.pdf
A financial bond is lodged by the UK Government for access to the European Fund for Strategic Investments. This is part of the ‘book value’ the UK government ‘owe’ the European Union, as part of its historical agreement to fund wind farms. The reason why the ‘sale’ announcement is suddenly dated it the first quarter of 2020 is that the divorce balance sheet is to be crystallised at that point in time. Nothing to do with generating electricity.
If these things are being built by riding roughshod over rural communities and yet it has nothing to do with generating electricity then it is a racket. A racket in which Welsh politicians are willing participants.
There’s more rackets in renewable than in an Andy Murray kit bag.
As we’re on the subject of bags, the Carmarthenshire ‘blue’ recycling bag is see-through. I therefore complement the eminent director of Cynnal Cymru for recycling electric car brochures from Cardiff showrooms. My only criticism is that if the Plaid Cymru candidate was actually resident in the constituency she’d know the changes to collection days over the Christmas period.
https://www.nathanielcars.co.uk/new-cars/mg/zs-ev/
Just ask for the Mari Arthur discount.
Gravells of Cydweli can supply that car. Anything else is tantamount to Trimsaran.
Has it got the range?
Here is the real time grid demand for electricity and from what generators this power comes from. It is updated every 10mins, from the same data.
This view illustrates the peaks and troughs.
https://gridwatch.co.uk/
This view graphically the sources of supply.
http://grid.iamkate.com/
There are three important things that are apparent.
(a) Demand doubles in the day compared to night time.
(b) Overall, 30% wind, 30% nuclear, and 30% gas, with 10% imported.
(c) Gas generation and interconnector imports fills the troughs.
It is blindingly obvious looking at the data that the easiest way to reduce the amount of fossil fuels (gas) consumed in generating electricity is to move the demand from day-time peak to night-time trough.
Method – Night storage domestic heating.
So if, instead of subsidising more wind farms and diverting this market intervention to grants to households to convert from gas central heating to night storage heating, it would result in the following..
(a) Reduce the amount of fossil fuel used to generate electricity.
(b) Reduce the amount of fossil fuel burnt in peoples homes.
It is also evident that wind is ‘stable’ in the winter months if there is a wide geographical spread. It’s windy in Wales when slack in the east of England, then a few hours later slack in Wales and windy in the East of England due to wind being dependent on the prevailing south westerly anti-cyclone flow. This would suggest the any new wind farms be built the other side of the landmass, not all densely concentrated in Wales. Generating balance and flow consistency.
It is also evident that there’s currently a constant a 7Gwh feed from nuclear. This makes up 50% of low demand at night and 15% of the high demand during the day. As these power stations come to the end of their working life, this generation can be replaced with tidal lagoons which could generate the 7Gwh constant base line by building both on West and East coast of the landmass where there is a 3 or 4 hour difference in oscillation.
https://www.tidetimes.org.uk/swansea-tide-times
RwE paid £26million in lobby fees to organisations to bring this analysis to the attention of the UK and Welsh governments. I insist on only accepting a tenth of this sum with my analysis published here, and the donation of the land at Bryn Blaen, Hendy and Rhoscrowther to a land trust for nature conservation owned by the communities affected in exchange for the wind farms being built on the Fens of Anglia where renewable generation is actually needed for supply resilience.
Nonsense ! Wind energy is TRIVIAL !
If the country needs 60000MW on a cold CALM FROSTY DAY……..there is NO WIND ANYWHERE ACROSS THE UK !!
The whole UK wind energy system is OFTEN generating below 1000MW ! Check it out !
You are dreaming if you think wind energy can power much at all !
In 1976, there was VERY LITTLE WIND ACROSS THE UK FOR OVER 3 MONTHS !!
For goodness sake….talk SENSE !
If a compact gas fired power station generates 1000MW….it needs 2000 x 400 ft wind turbines to EQUAL it……….but Wales is only 8015 sq miles. So that is one wind turbine PER SQ MILE ON A QUARTER OF WALES………..FOR A MEASLY , TRIVIAL 1000 MW !!
BUT on windless calm days ,those 2000 wind turbines produce ZILCH !! WHAT THEN??
THEY STAND THERE DOING NOTHING….LIKE A GIGANTIC GOLGOTHA !
Wind is only the equalisation of air pressure……..which blows from HIGH to LOW !
Next day it is often DEAD CALM after a windy day….even in West Wales.
Common sense !!
Equalisation of atmospheric pressure from high to low does not occur in a straight line, not by direction, nor time. This is because of the rotation of the earth. It ‘swirls’ forming cyclones and anti-cyclones. These rotating air masses also track west to east, in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere, pulled along by the ‘jet stream’ in the upper atmosphere. The coriolis effect.
This results in increased wind (anti-cyclones) on the west coast arriving 4 to 6 hours earlier than the same wind on the east coast of the British Islands land mass. It is for this reason that wind generation consistency over a period of time is best achieved by geographical spread of wind farm arrays. It will be calm in Ceredigion when it’s windy in Cambridgeshire. The over-concentration of wind farms in Wales results in a lack of consistency in generation, in E&W only 30% efficient.
As at 8 years ago, now even more concentrated.
Scotland has it’s own planning laws and generation policy and as a result has a much better efficiency rating from installed capacity, approaching 40%. It has two clusters of mega-arrays onshore. In Dumfries, Ayrshire (southwest) and in Angus, Caithness (northeast). So as anti-cyclones pass over Scotland the wind is ‘farmed’ across a much wider area, providing a much more consistent feed to the grid. See map, above. This is further enhanced with the Cavan to Tyrone and Antrim to Ayrshire 500Mw interconnector, giving and average of 6-8 hour spread of and given ‘efficient window’ of wind generation.
Wales is so saturated with wind farms it’s hardly worth connecting any more. It’s now time for England to do some planting, but I hear the shouts of opposition from CPRE. They’re ruined our landscape for far too long. In fact, it’s now time to chop them down and ship those redundant blades east.
Come off it Brychan ! An anti-cyclone is a HIGH PRESSURE ZONE…..with very little wind.
It can cover the UK from west to east. If the UK needs 60000MW in winter, then that entails 120,000 x 400 ft wind turbines of 2MW installed capacity[ which produce 0.5MW each ON AVERAGE.
But the WHOLE UK is 94,500 square miles……..so where the efin hell do you put 120,000 wind turbines, when the noise from ONE can carry 2 miles at night?
But under that ANTI-CYCLONE , very few will be producing any electricity.
Check out gridwatch.templar.co.uk when the next High Pressure [CALLED AN ANTI-CYCLONE] settles over UK.
Wind energy may only contribute 1000MW or less……..so “night storage” won’t solve your problems.
How can you CLOSE FOSSIL FUEL POWER STATIONS , when the next High Pressure makes WIND TURBINES USELESS ?
Read “The Wind Farm Scam” by Dr John Etherington to LEARN !
In the summer of 1976 I was on the beach and I had no need for electricity but England did steal all the fresh water.
As at 1100hrs 31/12/2019 to current GB electricity supply is as follows.
50% Fossil Fuel
26% Nuclear
14% Wind
10% Imports
This does not include the winter heating of domestic consumers on gas.
The media keep going on about ‘climate emergency’ and politicians keep telling us about the contribution of wind generation as a means of meeting renewable targets. The reality of what we have is a Bullshit Emergency.
Is there a further breakdown for wind into onshore and offshore?
There is no publicly available output statistics but there are capacity statistics. In 2019 the was 14Gw of onshore (60%) and 8Gw of offshore (40%), capacity which ran at 30% efficiency.
Although the offshore construction and maintenance costs are higher, the maintenance method results in offshore wind farms having better capacity utilisation. Onshore turbines are fixed on failure whereas offshore turbines have routine maintenance windows depending on weather and vessel disposition.
Like any bit of machinery (car, for example) routine replacement of gearbox, clutch, bearings, and fluids each year preventing breakdown occurring is more costly up-front but keeps you on-the-road and running more efficiently, whereas running the machine into the ground and only replacing parts when it stops running reduces costs in the short term but when breakdown occurs it’s catastrophic, resulting in the fix or scrap decision.
This results in a much higher offshore number of operational turbines in any given array being available to produce. So although installed capacity is 60-40, the available capacity is more like 50-50, running at 30% efficiency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_Kingdom
Onshore wind farms are installed on sites where they are tolerated. There is a myth that the mountains of Wales are better than the flat land of England in installing onshore wind farms. A wind turbine does not need strong gusty winds found in mountainous areas (flutter and shear). This causes inefficiency. What is required is constant, consistent, and moderate air-flow. So from an engineering point of view the arrays ‘mega-turbines’ are best sighted in the fens of eastern England. This also affords better maintenance access and lower installation costs. This is where better capacity utilisation is found. The sighting of onshore wind farms is more as a result of politics and influence rather than engineering efficiency.
Offshore sites are determined by geography. Need for shallow water, clay sub-sea strata for piles, and proven smooth seabed for cable interconnections. Off the coast of Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Lothian in the North Sea are better, rather than the sub-sea mountains of the Celtic sea and the tidal distubance of sediment in the Bristol channel.. The only exception on the West coasts being Lancashire/North East Wales.
Hope this answers the question.
Brychan, you are a mine of information. But how many people realise that ‘gusty’ wind on hills is less productive than a steadier wind on flat land. (and of course, at sea.) Though once that is realised then an obvious question presents itself – Why are so many wind turbines on Welsh hills when it would be more efficient, more practical, and cheaper all round, to locate them on flatter ground?
And the answer comes in two parts. First, the English don’t want them. Second, the ‘Welsh Government’ welcomes wind turbines because they can be presented as ‘investment’ (though always from over the border or overseas), they bring jobs (but in reality none), and they allow virtue signalling about ‘saving the planet’.
Currently there is an extra charge hidden in your domestic fuel bills and this goes towards subsidising the ‘feed-in tariff’ enjoyed by wind farm operators owned outside of Wales. Although this hidden tax is included but not stipulated on your energy bills.
Here are the rates.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/climate-change-levy-rates
Electricity (per Kwh)
From
0.583p from 01/04/2018
0.847p from 01/04/2019
0.811p from 01/04/2020
0.775p from 01/04/2021
Gas (per Kwh)
0.203p from 01/04/2018
0.339p from 01/04/2019
0.406p from 01/04/2020
0.465p from 01/04/2021
For consumers who use physically delivered energy like LPG, oil or coal.
2.175p per Kg.
3.174p per Kg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOVO9svt6hs
A previous tax of global responsibility.
This cost applies to all consumers of domestic energy in the United Kingdom, so it is paid in Wales by households surrounded by wind turbines and the same tax rate at those consumers in London and the home counties who have virtually no wind turbines.
A household in the South Wales valleys, or Ceredigion and Powys who’s wind power installations produce far more than domestic consumption of the area they are still paying a levy on their fuel bills to cross-subsidise turbine free areas in England. There are also areas of Wales in rural areas which are not connected to the gas grid, even within sight of a wind turbine, who rely on LPG or oil heating who are penalised even more.
A classic example of colonialism. The 21st century equivalent of the levy on a bushel of Irish grain, tax on the pound of American tea.
A very similar story to water. It’s a great pit that more people are not aware of this situation. The next time I write about wind turbines I shall have to include this information.
There is fragmentation of ownership of the GB generating capacity and the emphasis on major wind farms that rely on fossil fuel gas power stations leads to grid instability. There are ‘coupling contracts’. These contracts are aimed at preventing ‘down’ penalties as well as guaranteeing ‘up’ bonuses. This introduces inherent instability.
The Hornsea Crash.
At 16h58 on 09/08/2019 one of the ‘idling in wait’ turbines at Little Barford (Bedfordshire) gas power station went down. A few minutes later, at 17h01, there was a lightening strike the Hornsea offshore wind farm (North Sea) and it’s protective equipment immediately de-loaded the wind farm from 799MW to 62MW. The idling gas turbine that was needed to spin up to cover the shortfall was not available. A domino effect was the result. National Grid automatically shut down parts of the network to maintain voltage. There were even outages in Wales.
The result is here..
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9691385/power-cut-uk-trains-tubes-power-lights-outage/
This incident not only illustrates the fallacy of ‘wind power’ as a reliable source of electricity generation, but also the vital need for fossil fuel generation coupled to any wind power capacity. The cost to the economy in the blackout would have made a substantial contribution to building the Swansea tidal lagoon. The tides race even when there’s a lightning strike, and a spare or idling turbine in a tidal array can be sped up at very short notice. I always laugh when people say that the tidal lagoon costs too much to build, but they never itemise the cost of NOT building it.
Tidal is the renewable that can stops wind being reliant of fossil fuels, as well as introducing resilience.
It’s very WINDY ! Post the percentages when the next UK HIGH PRESSURE arrives !
PLUS…the UK IS NOT WORKING.on New Year’s Eve …….especially public sector…..so UK useage is LOW, making the wind percentage HIGHER on a low UK production of electricity
That 14 per cent from WIND will drop dramatically when industry is busy and a High arrives..
We need a NORMAL WORKING DAY to study figures.
This discussion of reality and facts is all very interesting, but let’s turn to Science Fiction for a moment. Just imagine if there was some amazing global fictional catastrophe and a giant meteor came at lightening speed and only hit the UK and pushed it down deep into the crust of our planet, and that all the other countries survived just about as they are today. That would mean no more UK, no more British Isles’ humans taking our space on the planet and no further human life from where the British Isles were. If the surviving world did some simple calculations they would find that our planet, minus the UK, would not have any significant amount less of Carbon emissions. This makes the contribution of these Renewable Energy schemes to avert global climate change in Wales is virtually nil or ZERO. All we are doing is crippling our Economy with restrictive legislation and destroying Wales to appease Green Hippies!
Let us consider one past example of how the Wales Assembly conned our nation by boasting that its policies had significantly cut carbon emissions in Wales. Do remember when they made that false claim? I do, it was when steel making with giant Blast Furnaces stopped at Llanwern Steelworks. Steel is an essential material part of the modern world. To make steel from Iron Ore, AKA Iron Oxide, it is done via a massive simple chemical Oxide Reduction process, using Carbon AKA Coking Coal in Blast Furnaces with Iron Oxide AKA Iron Ore. Sadly jobs were lost in Llanwern’s heavy end as part of the glut market of Steel. as a result Wales’ carbon emissions reduced not because of Confidence Trick Press releases from Cardiff’s Assembly.
Another thing we do not hear from the Hippy Greenies is of the mass role of early Micro Organisms in our planet Earth’s gradual evolution. This was many millions of years before the evolution of plants and photosynthesis began breaking down Carbon Dioxide to replenish the atmosphere with Oxygen. Don’t tell the Hippy Greenies this, as they will want to shut down our steel industry and go around mass killing of microbes!
By the way – nobody has yet come out from under the Green House solar panels at their Off Grid One acre small holdings to define a “Mega Watt”.
No point getting distracted into a debate about the relative merits of various kinds of “green” energy. They all need to be harnessed if we are going to get anywhere near meeting the energy demands of all the electrified rail,automotive and, according to some wag recently, aircraft that will be needed to replace the oil derived fuels now used.
The real stink in all this is how the entire “green energy” proposition has been hijacked by major corporates aided and abetted by all sorts and colours of politicians over the last 2 or 3 decades. It’s as though nothing was learned from the corruption of earlier fossil fuels, how oil and gas in particular totally captured the minds of politicians filling them with all sorts of bullshit. This process culminated in the consumer paying inflated prices with further “additives” of VAT and fuel duties which enabled politicians to squander loot on unprecedented levels.
When the alternative green thinking came along lazy politicians once again fell for the “big is beautiful and ever so reliable” yarn. It meant that instead of having to engage in thousands of transactions with local community led initiatives they could just do a few deals and spend the rest of their time at the club swilling gin and telling their chums how clever they had been. Big Corporates and their institutional backers love this kind of thing as any semblance of efficiency and cost control just disappears off the screen. Instead it becomes a continuous process of graft oiling the wheels of progress, a foul daisy chain of corrupt and lazy decision makers getting rich by diverting public funds into private pockets.
As Jac says above – Bastards, all of them. And they just love doing it in Wales because the smokescreen of due process is replicated by our supine Cynulliad who just love spouting their green credentials even when they have no real substance.
It seems I’ve a lot to learn about the murkier regions of Welsh politics!
The subsidy system to benefit investors and wealthy landowners – like the Duke of Beaufort and David Cameron’s father-in-law – was introduced by the Westminster parliament, but too much of the ‘milking’ takes place in Wales.
Well, as someone who has been involved in Green politics since the 70s it’s hard to hear so much anti-Green vitriol, but actually Dan Gwyrdd we share many objectives. What you are objecting to is what I call “Hippie Bollocks” the completely unrealistic and idealistic notions of far too many in the Green movement. That doesn’t mean that Greta, St David A, Extinction Rebellion and the like are wrong. We are facing a truly terrible situation, but the bland notion that we can solve it with current renewable technology is pie in the sky. It is our greedy over-exploitation of resources which has done the damage and we cannot hope to put it right and still maintain our living standards, or indeed the current world population. I suspect that arguments over things like Brexit, Wind farms, Corbynism and Sex versus Gender will seem laughingly irrelevant in 20 years time.
My objection isn’t just that wind turbines are not the answer but that wind turbines, due to their visibility, are used as ‘greenwash’ by politicians, and then exploited by their ‘investor’ friends milking the subsidy system that seems to have been set up for that very purpose.
With Wales being where too much of the ‘milking’ takes place, with the connivance or acquiescence of local politicos, who are either too stupid to see what’s really happening or else they just don’t care. Either way they take advantage by preaching about Wales ‘saving the planet’ when in fact it’s just old-fashioned colonialist exploitation.
Bastards! All of them.
Their parents were almost certainly married in Bethania, with all due ceremony.
Nevertheless, it remains an inescapable conclusion that the entire wind farm enterprise is an Æolian version of Tryweryn.
Vattenfall is the Swedish company who built and owns “Penycymoedd” wind farm. It’s the biggest in Wales consisting of 72 mega turbines above the Afan, Rhondda and Cynon valleys.
Vattenfall have built and own wind farms in Sweden, however, there they have had to comply with domestic legislation which requires them to pay over an escrow bond to the municipal authority, an amount to be used to dismantle and restore the groundwork to its natural state after the wind turbine reaches the end of it’s useful life (25 years).
No such legislation exits in Wales despite the Welsh Government having this power under planning law. When a Welsh wind farm reaches the end of its generating life, or market conditions change (removal of subsidy), the owner can just walk away and abandon it. This leaves the taxpayer to pick up the tab to remove them along with the cost of restoring/removing the groundwork.
We’ve already been in this situation with open cast site operators promising to clean up but then changing the company name and moving to a tax haven.
Email just sent to Dai Lloyd asking for his comment on the above post.
Well done.
FYI Jac, i’ve received a reply from Dai saying he’ll look into it and get back to me. He always responds, even since I resigned from the party. I’ll let you know what he comes back with.
I didn’t intend for that last post to be anonymous by the way.
OK, John.
The chairman of Penycymoedd Wind Farm community fund is Marc Phillips. He is also the treasurer of Plaid Cymru.
Plaid Cymru has not declared 37 of the 48 payments made from the Westminster House. This is state fund for political parties that has to be declared to the electoral commission. The amount is over £268k. It’s a very simple thing to do. When payment is made the treasurer of the party gets a remittance advise. It is based on the number of MPs. This should be declared within 30 days to the commission.
An investigation, so far has uncovered nearly £1million of party funding which was not declared on time, as required under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. It shows that the party finances are in complete disarray and may result in a hefty fine.
Not only is he incompetent, but Marc Phillips is also insulting. During the ‘arseholegate’ incident he called ma ‘a neanderthal prick’. But then, if it’s true that he lives with Hairy Melon, and is the father of her daughter, then we must make allowances. Or strike a medal.
Replying to Jac – probably best not to make allowances or strike a medal. Instead remove his tackle or at least the sack of balls thus preventing any more of his spawn from multiplying. I suppose without his nuts he would qualify under Plaid rules to be called a “Lady” – could HMJ cope with that given her stance on this gender nonsense.
I’d rather not think about such matters after a few days of over-indulgence.
OK Jac, I concede, you have been a consistent ally for a long time in this issue. I will take this opportunity to give one more example point – without advocating either or any source of energy :-
CONCERNING OUTPUT EXAMPLES
Aberthaw Coal Fired Generation – 1,800 MW Mega Watts – now closed for coal.
Milford imported Gas Fired Generation – 2,200 MW
Hinkley Point Nuclear – over 2,000 MW
One really giant Wind Turbine – capacity 3 MW – average only 0.75 MW in reality.
A “green” Comprehensive School Science Teacher recently told me “I would rather a Wind Turbine to a nuclear power Station!”. (This Teacher really meant a SINGLE Wind Turbine).
I’ve read similar statements to this in newspapers. What they should say is – “I’d rather twenty five thousand Wind Turbines, with back up, to a nuclear power station”.
OK, I say as a concession for Wind Energy Turbines – “There is room for thousands of them on the Cotswolds and the Chilterns and the South Downs and Dartmoor and Exmoor and the Dales and Lake District. Do not just dump them all over Wales”.
Jac, It is only very recently that you, and Ein Gwlad, and most of the Welsh population,have woken up to the huge scam that lies in the Renewable Energy business. Here in north Swansea we fought for twenty five years to preserve Mynydd y Gwair Common (owned by the family Trust of the Duke of Beaufort AKA Lord of Gower) from being trashed by foreign investors desperate to grab the UK Subsidies then on offer. We held Protests and unknown Patriots took direct action. We won two costly Public Inquiries, but finally were beaten by “money”! I remember being ridiculed at Cilmeri by abusive so called “Welsh Nationalists” wearing Rainbow Tea Cosy hats and Sunglasses because I warned then of the invasion of our landscape by the Subsidy Grabbers. Our opponents were Plaid Cymru & the Green Party & Labour Politicians. Mynydd y Gwair’s expansive summer grazing cycle was an important part of the Hill Farming / Welsh Speaking community in north Swansea. The massive peat and grass area currently trashed by rubble for service roads and giant Wind Turbines that on average produce just 8 Mega Watts for a 40,000 MW Grid. Will that halt Climate Change? Mynydd y Gwair Wind Turbine complex was developed by a German Firm using mostly Irish Contractors and French Wiring and a Mobile Construction Team and it benefits one of the wealthiest of Dukes in the UK. Wind Power is only 25% effective. Solar Power is only 10% effective. Tidal Power has too many peaks and troughs to be of any great magnitude value. The first step should be a massive saving of resources and energy use in Wales and the UK, and until the Super Nations like the USA and China do anything significant we will destroy Wales for no benefit whatsoever. One major factor in all this destruction is how pseudo “Green” beliefs have infiltrated every corner and crevice of world politics as a form of religion replacement. I want no part of either!
That’s not true, and you know it. I have always seen through the scam of wind turbines. And I have mentioned the Duke of Beaufort more than once. While Gwlad has only been in existence for a very short time, so any criticism there is just silly.
We in north Swansea saw through the great Renewable Energy Scam 25 years ago duringour fight for Mynydd y Gwair common Exactly when did you become a “convert” to the reality of the statistics? Anyway I do not want to argue with you Jac, How many readers of this Blog have read the book “The Wind Farn Scam”? We need to argue with the “Greens” and their lap dogs Plaid Cymru, who in turn are the cosy kittens of Corbyn’s Drakeford and Labour generally in Cardiff and Wales.
It seems everyone is fearful of contradicting a single word put out on Climate Change and the reality of what could be done. All that is happening is proposals for mad schemes like destroying the environment that we should be seeking to preserve. It is a replacement for religion, with Attenborough, sadly in old age, becoming the great disciple from the arid land studios of the BBC. Soon we will see Greta anointing and washing Attenborough’s feet with green soap before a congregation of “off grid line” settlers.
How many understand that “Renewable Energy Capacity” means maximum output possible in the most favourable of conditions? Then reduce that to an average of 25% for Wind and down to just 10% for Solar. How many know the capacity of the UK Grid is over 60,000 MW and the average demand is 40,000 MW whereas a whole field of Solar Panels average at 0.1 MW and a whole Mountain of Wind Turbines average at about just 8 MW. How many know what a MW means? How many know what extra power the Grid will need to power all the proposed 26,000,000 battery cars when we now only have about 20,000 such cars – that’s without trains and buses and lorries and tractors? We will need a Grid of a 100,000 MW.
What will power our nation when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine? How many know that only about a third of carbon emissions comes from power stations? Most of it comes from our Central Heating and Offices and Factories and schools and hospitals. How many know that the UK as a developed country only produces about less than just 2% of global carbon emissions. How many know we have always had sea level rises and falls due to vast previous climate changes. Come to Gower’s coastline to see ancient submerged forest tree trunks and raised beaches.
How many people can accurately count the effect human activity has on climate and predict the future. No doubt human activities does affect climate, but Universities (e.g. East Anglia) have given out data from research figures full of now admitted errors. How many remember the bold green statement from Bangor University twenty years ago that we would never see snow on Snowdon Mountain again.
The Green Pastors pronounce their mantra and all the gullible people believe every word. Before you suggest mass Hydro Electric for our wet Wales, consider Hydro depends on large rivers flowing down large mountains e.g. Sweden and Canada. We in Wales have mountain streams running down what are basically hills in continental terms. We either cut down on situations like driving Chelsea Tractors and Air Flights to go shopping in New York or we have to face up to a nuclear option. That’s the stark choice.
In my previous earlier Post I mentioned the Duke of Beaufort. There is another DUKE we all need to read about – that is a web site called DUKES which is the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics which is full of FACTS not opinions or odd trendy beliefs. When you understand the FACTS challenge the innumerate Politicians.
At the risk of repeating myself . . . I have regularly over many years exposed the fallacy of wind energy. Read this blog. I know you had a wind farm dumped on your doorstep and you feel bitter about it, you feel you should have had more support in opposing it, but that’s no reason to unreasonably criticise people on the same side as you.
It is unbelievable how mathematically inept so many people are.
As Dyn Gwyrdd says, the UK needs 60000 megawatts on a cold winter’s day. However a 400 ft wind turbine has an installed capacity of 2MW, but only generates 25 pc on average. That is HALF A MEGAWATT !
So it would need 120,000 of them to power the UK on a cold Day ! But the UK is only 94,500 sq miles in area……..and over half is in England [ circa 50000 sq miles] which has 84 pc of UK population but ……..VERY FEW WIND TURBINES !
Apart from parts of the North of England and a few small ones in the West Country, most UK turbines have been dumped on Wales and Scotland.
Now Wales, with 3 million, only uses about 1850 MW TOTAL, on average….and the NEW gas fired power station at Pembroke in the FAR WEST……generates 2200MW.
So it can power ALL of Wales !!
So who is using ALL the rest of the solar, gas, coal, nuclear ,oil, wind, and hydro generated electricity from Wales ?
WHY ENGLAND OF COURSE !!
But you can’t put wind turbines on the Cotswolds, Malverns, Chilterns , South Downs etc because the NIMBYS with the million pound houses…….who “support wind energy” at their dinner parties…….won’t have them DESECRATING THEIR OWN LANDSCAPES…..even though England uses most of the electricity !
Of course, under HIGH PRESSURE……..there is NO WIND !! I live on the West Wales coast. We can have 2 weeks without wind. The wind drops to nothing VERY frequently. Check Gridwatch.templar.co.uk.Winds below 15 mph are common.
Electric cars in the UK are a NON-STARTER……….LITERALLY !
THE ELECTRICITY FOR THEM DOES NOT EXIST !
30 million of them will need another 30,000 MW in the National Grid. Where will it come from?The country OFTEN produces only 500 MW of electricity TOTAL from thousands of wind turbines. So how will the UK generate the requisite 90,000MW on cold winter days when electric cars are everywhere?
The UK CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT FOSSIL FUEL GENERATED ELECTRICITY !
That should be obvious to a CHILD !!
Wind turbines are part-time toys ! How can any sane person say they rely on them?
DYN GWYRDD IS TALKING SENSE !
As an Englishman living in Wales it’s taken me a while to understand clearly where you are coming from. (Jac as in Swansea Jack?). Some of your attacks on the English seem almost racialist. I was also confused by your virulent attack on Plaid Cymru, but, having voted for them for the last 20 years, I am now beginning to see their shortcomings. I’ve also spent a significant amount of time in Scotland recently and have made rueful comparisons between the effectiveness of the SNP and that of Plaid.
Your exposure of the corruption inherent in the Sustainable Energy sector is shocking and makes me as angry as you are.
I hope, however, you are aware that the English in Wales are not all colonisers and exploiters.Many of us can and do play significant roles in regenerating our communities and upholding the integrity of Wales.
Keep up the good work, but please throw us English a bone from time to time!
This article is about English companies exploiting Wales with the help of a thoroughly discredited system of devolution. It’s about the colonial status of Wales. These are the realities of Wales’ relationship with England. I don’t at any point criticise English people per se.
That said, when dealing with the invasion of retirees, the problem of holiday homes, and those who buy Welsh property and then change the name into English, it’s difficult to write about these issues without stating the obvious.