by Oddquine » Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:18 pm
I have come to the conclusion that Wind Farms are the Pine Forests of the Twenty First Century.
Massive subsidies and profits for landowners are covering swathes of Scotland with windmills as it once did in vast forests...personally, I'd rather have the forests.
The only way that windpower would be efficient would be as individual windmills for individual houses to reduce electricity consumption....and it would still need the grid to take up the slack.
Some statistics for you................
UKWED
Statistics
Operational wind farms
Onshore
England 60 341.84 MW
Northern Ireland 12 112.45 MW
Scotland 40 1,006.89 MW
Wales 24 300.60 MW
Offshore
England 4 243.80 MW
Wales 1 60.00 MW
Total operational wind farms: 141 (2,065.58 MW)
Wind farms currently under construction
Onshore
England 14 205.20 MW
Northern Ireland 3 28.50 MW
Scotland 14 561.65 MW
Wales 3 5.25 MW
Offshore
England 3 284.00 MW
Scotland 3 190.00 MW
Total wind farms currently under construction: 40 (1,274.60 MW)
Consented projects
Onshore
England 31 428.00 MW
Northern Ireland 4 85.60 MW
Scotland 38 999.35 MW
Wales 6 68.10 MW
Offshore
England 5 2,016.00 MW
Wales 2 180.00 MW
Total consented projects: 86 (3,777.05 MW)
Projects in planning
Onshore
England 73 1,369.55 MW
Northern Ireland 47 1,178.35 MW
Scotland 91 5,261.90 MW
Wales 18 335.48 MW
Offshore
England 7 2,625.00 MW
Total projects in planning: 236 (10,770.28 MW)
So Scotland has around a third of the area of England, and, if the powers that be have their way, we are going to have windfarms onshore producing more power than England does with onshore AND offshore sites. ie..........more and larger.
Fair and equitable?