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Cameron's Viewpoint: The Wind Compromise

Re: Cameron's Viewpoint: The Wind Compromise

Postby RockyRab » Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:00 pm

I find the whole idea that windfarms spoil the natural beauty of an area a little odd. The landscape we see is heavily influenced by humans and isn't the same as what it would be without humans. We've deforested vast swathes of the Highlands, create artifical environments to promote certain species (grouse, deer etc) and there are fields dotted all over the place.

With that said, I can see why people don't like the look of them. I just find the idea that they spoil the "natural" landscape a bit strange because the landscape isn't really natural at all, we just think it is without considering whether that is true or not.
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Re: Cameron's Viewpoint: The Wind Compromise

Postby morag1 » Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:22 pm

I have been amazed at the number of responses to this post, some from people who only joined the site in order to post a comment :? Others appear to work in the industry or have some insider knowledge of how these things work, most of which is way above me.

At the end of the day Scotland needs a clean, reliable source of energy in order to heat our homes/schools/hospitals/offices. Cockenzie Power Station has just closed, it kept the lights burning in a million homes for 40 years. Are wind farms going to do the same? I certainly hope so, but meantime we should all be cutting down on our use of energy by insulating our homes, wearing warm clothes, reusing and recycling whenever possible. All of these things the Scottish Government have been asking us to do for some time.

I don't particularly like windfarms but I must say whenever I have seen them they don't bother me too much. There is a windfarm near Meikle Bin and it strangely seems to add to the view instead of spoil it. A lot of windfarms have appeared in the Fife and Perthshire areas and they don't seem to spoil the views there either. There seems to be something comforting in seeing the turbines rotate, knowing that they are providing power to our homes.

If anyone wants to know the effect of living without a proper energy source just ask the people of Arran who were cut off for nearly a week in the middle of winter.
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Re: Cameron's Viewpoint: The Wind Compromise

Postby Rudolph » Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:25 pm

cheekykarma wrote:You know the Chinese already have a fusion reactor.


No I didn't know. Do you mean one with net energy generation? Can you give some more details?
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Re: Cameron's Viewpoint: The Wind Compromise

Postby cheekykarma » Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:29 am

as far as I remember it is similar to ITER I think it is called EAST - so it is not pumping power to the grid yet as far as i know

its an experimental reactor and they are also working on Thorium for fission - again I read the news articles not too far back but could not tell you the detail of how they work ;)

i am not sure if Russia are with the ITER project or have started their own fusion goals as well
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Re: Cameron's Viewpoint: The Wind Compromise

Postby Rudolph » Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:14 pm

cheekykarma wrote:so it is not pumping power to the grid yet as far as i know


Thanks for that. Kind off matches my understanding that fusion is 10's of years away from making any sort of contribution.

Until then we makiie the best of all the energy sources we have .
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