Anyone for a spaceport?

[RocksRock]

Seems like Ben Hutig might not be so peaceful anymore.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-44839536

Some new roads needed to get the rockets there in the first place or is there a decent sized airstrip at Dounreay? Pity it is not redy yet, The Donald could have gone to Moscow by rocket.....................

[NickyRannoch]

I imagine for the most part large hardware components will come by sea. North Sutherland/Caithness already has navy submarine reactor test sites, Dounereay, tidal energy engineering and fast reactor prototype test site along the coast.

It's fantastic that economic opportunities like this can come to the highlands and even more so as the landowner is a community landowner made up of some of the descendents of the very crofters previously cleared from the "wild" land around it.

[Pastychomper]

I think it'd be a good thing for the area on the whole (especially if the current #1 corporate employer ever finishes closing), but any road "improvements" would be a shame.

I imagine the Dounreay airstrip would be suitable if it wasn't being used as a car park, I understand one end of it was still used for light aircraft in the 90s. Realistically though I suspect Scabster harbour will see more action, and maybe Wick airport.

I wonder how many people will be sitting on Ben Hope to watch the first launch.

[pony23]

Is this going to be yet another white elephant and waste of 10s of millions of public money, like wave power?

[Lightfoot2017]

Eh? ...what's the problem with wave power? Surely you mean wind power..?...which is hugely uneconomic, hugely subsidised from the public purse (paying land owners NOT to connect to the National Grid for fear of over -load) Oh, and they only work when there's a wind blowing. No wind. No turning blade. No power generation. And finally of course, they're a God-awful visual blight across some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in Europe.

Wave and tidal power, on the other hand, is a no brainer. Twice a day every day there's a tide. No ifs no buts. Environmentally speaking the impact is a tiny fraction of wind farms.

Think of all the public money, R&D effort and engineering brain-power that has gone into land based wind turbines over the years. If a miniscule fraction of that resource had gone into wave and tidal energy, then Scotland (with c6000 miles of coastline) could be like Saudi Arabia in energy terms.

Rant over.

Anyway, back on topic: Spaceport. Great idea. Bring it on, and I LOVE the thought of watching the launch from the summit of Ben Hope! I bet the owners of the Crask Inn are keen supporters too!

[andredup]

It appears thatwe have 18 months to enjoy the area..''..Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) plans to add £9.8m of its own funding, and said it will spend the next 18 months preparing a planning application to submit to Highland Council.''
Quite a few Natural Arches and Geos on the east side of Loch Eribol to view ,judging from the map ( a possible deep water port to service the Space Port - the HMS Hood lurked ffor a while in Loch Eribol.. )

[basscadet]

How much peat and boglands will need removed to build It?

[Caberfeidh]

How much peat and boglands will need removed to build It?

Vast quantities, and a motorway to service it. How about Shetland? I think that would be much better. Apart from the wind. How about the South Downs instead?

[Sunset tripper]

How much peat and boglands will need removed to build It?

Vast quantities, and a motorway to service it. How about Shetland? I think that would be much better. Apart from the wind. How about the South Downs instead?

How about Holyrood park? . Edinburgh is crying out for new roads and transport links. The tourists would love it also. You could charge them a tenner to get in for the launch and a tenner for parking (maybe thats a bit cheap )
With the new motorway going in they could stick a load of wind turbines up on the hill as well to power the city.
Everyone's a winner.

[Gareth Harper]

Eh? ...what's the problem with wave power? Surely you mean wind power..?...which is hugely uneconomic, hugely subsidised from the public purse (paying land owners NOT to connect to the National Grid for fear of over -load) Oh, and they only work when there's a wind blowing. No wind. No turning blade. No power generation. And finally of course, they're a God-awful visual blight across some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in Europe.

Eh? There are various estimates as to the current average costs of wind power. But it’s currently generally accepted as cheaper than say coal or nuclear, and costs will continue to tumble over time. Being Scotland, the wind blows most of the time. It would be madness not to utilise wind power. The question is how to find more ways of storing the excess energy they are capable of creating.
Wind and wave power is underdeveloped. It’s currently way more expensive than the now established wind technology. It’s use needs careful consideration as the environmental impact of wave and tidal power can be potentially devastating. It’s got a lot of potential, but wind is probably always going to be the cheaper option.

[Sgurr]

What s the space-port for? More satellite launches or more futile attempts to get the resources of the moon or planets? I'm all for putting T***p into orbit, but don't suppose we get a say on that.

[al78]

Eh? ...what's the problem with wave power? Surely you mean wind power..?...which is hugely uneconomic, hugely subsidised from the public purse (paying land owners NOT to connect to the National Grid for fear of over -load) Oh, and they only work when there's a wind blowing. No wind. No turning blade. No power generation. And finally of course, they're a God-awful visual blight across some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in Europe.

Eh? There are various estimates as to the current average costs of wind power. But it’s currently generally accepted as cheaper than say coal or nuclear, and costs will continue to tumble over time. Being Scotland, the wind blows most of the time. It would be madness not to utilise wind power. The question is how to find more ways of storing the excess energy they are capable of creating.
Wind and wave power is underdeveloped. It’s currently way more expensive than the now established wind technology. It’s use needs careful consideration as the environmental impact of wave and tidal power can be potentially devastating. It’s got a lot of potential, but wind is probably always going to be the cheaper option.

Quite. The UK has the best potential for wind power in Europe. There are solutions to the intermittancy issue. There is an awful lot of misinformation about renewable energy, probably put forward by the status quo brigade with agendas who don't want their fossil fuel investments harmed. I agree that intrusion on the landscape by wind farms is unfortunate, but there are offshore options which are far less intrusive. In any case, what it comes down too is a choice. Since people aren't going to stop consuminng large amounts of electricity in the coming decades, it is renewable energy OR fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change which, in the worst case, could be catastrophic, OR nuclear, which is expensive, uneconomical without large subsidies and the waste issue hasn't been resolved. Choose one. Unfortunately people in the priviliged west still don't get it.

[Sunset tripper]

David Attenborough explained the problem and no amount of wave or wind power can keep up with it. Wind power is certainly a big money maker for many people just like the fossil fuels.
Have a look at this it gives an idea of the drain on the world's resources and the extra power required every day.

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

[Gareth Harper]

Absolutely Sunset Tripper, population is the white elephant in the room. Nobody wants to talk about it or face up to it, and many are positively in 100% denial refusing point blank to seriously discuss such matters.

But in the meantime, that doesn’t stop the rest of us looking for real energy solutions. Most of us today lead hugely energy inefficient lives. The two routes to dealing with climate change are energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. The third trick is to figure out how to store much much more energy.

And we have at the end of the day only one energy source – that is the sun. By burning fossil fuels, we are simply releasing stored energy. Aside from the resulting environmental damage and climate change, we are rapidly depleting a valuable finite resource.

Wind power is now affordable and proven technology – it works. It uses no fuel. It has no running emissions. It’s a matter of where to stick em.

Unfortunately people in the priviliged west still don't get it.

Indeed we are too busy talking about saving the planet, one wonders when we will realise that we need to save ourselves. The planet will be just fine once we are gone.

[NickyRannoch]

How much peat and boglands will need removed to build It?

Vast quantities, and a motorway to service it. How about Shetland? I think that would be much better. Apart from the wind. How about the South Downs instead?

Absolute nonsense.

The infrastructure required is no greater than that which currently services Dounreay. The only road works required will be upgrading the current road around Tongue and on the peninsula itself.

The footprint of comparable spaceports elsewhere are something around the size of current tourist developments such as the caravan park at Durness or visitor "experience" at John o Groats. It's not Cape Canaveral.