Of course we COULD harness all the hot air that exudes from Parliament we might get somewhere then!!

Sorry I'm not making light of the subject but the wicked little thought crept across the otherwise baren landscape of my mind.

maggiesaes wrote:Of course we COULD harness all the hot air that exudes from Parliament we might get somewhere then!!....

I don't think we would Maggie - as soon as they knew we were using it they'd tax it !

Quotes from yesteryear.

“Not in areas of natural outstanding beauty please! This is not only our heritage but ours to pass on to future generations.
Windmills have their place no doubt, but in brownfield sites only!”

“The areas of natural outstanding beauty are not ours to desecrate. They belong also to the next, and the next and the next generatations ad infinitum! We MUST keep them in the state that nature gave to them. There are plenty of other places these structures can go.”

“Problem with windmills is that they are not efficient.
Huge, monstrous things, requiring continuous and costly maintenance, destroying beautiful areas of the country.”

Aye well, if we don't desecrate maybe there won't be future generations to enjoy them!! I think windmills serve both functions - they provide energy and do not use fossil fuels, they also don't poison the damned atmosphere. Sounds good to me.

And that Rowan, I think we agree, applies to wind turbines.

Oh yes - when they come down - we don't have to cleanse the land around!!

There are many 'alternative' methods for producing - clean - energy, without desecrating beautiful and remote landscapes, or causing lethal radiation, unto the next million years.

We have forty-foot tides, twice a day and systems can be placed in areas where they are not seen and cause no problem for shipping. That is already happening.

There are now technologies for burning coal, fossil fuels and rubbish that cannot be recycled, without causing any emission. In power stations using the auto-clave principle, where all toxic particulates are trapped, leaving only a white powdery residue, with industrial uses. Such power stations already exist.

Hydrogen cars are already on the road. So are hybrid vehicles using ethanol.

Proper insulation in every home and low wattage bulbs can cut national energy needs by enormous amounts. Solar panels are one of the fastest growing industries. So are water storage tanks, under garages and gardens. It all helps.

Many more ways to skin the energy and conservation cat, Horatio.

Anya wrote:There are many 'alternative' methods for producing - clean - energy, without desecrating beautiful and remote landscapes, or causing lethal radiation, unto the next million years.

We have forty-foot tides, twice a day and systems can be placed in areas where they are not seen and cause no problem for shipping. That is already happening.

Obviously they have to be placed on the coast and cannot be close to inland communities therefore the need for pylons and coastal power stations. Most of our coast is part of our beautiful landscape.

There are now technologies for burning coal, fossil fuels and rubbish that cannot be recycled, without causing any emission. In power stations using the auto-clave principle, where all toxic particulates are trapped, leaving only a white powdery residue, with industrial uses. Such power stations already exist.

Coal has to be mined and is not an infinite resource. The same is obviously true of natural gas and oil.

Hydrogen cars are already on the road. So are hybrid vehicles using ethanol.

Proper insulation in every home and low wattage bulbs can cut national energy needs by enormous amounts. Solar panels are one of the fastest growing industries. So are water storage tanks, under garages and gardens. It all helps.



Many more ways to skin the energy and conservation cat, Horatio.

I agree some of these are part of the way forward as are wind turbines. But I still feel there is a large chunk of the not in my backyard mentality in the anti attitudes.

Well we should remember, VM, that if other people's ideas do not accord with our own, that doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong!

Nor does it mean they are right!

Victors Mate wrote: But I still feel there is a large chunk of the not in my backyard mentality in the anti attitudes.

Nope, VM............just a not ALL in my backyard when I am already producing more than I need.

The odd windfarm is one thing..........but if the planners let them off with it, or, as more likely, appeals against refusal are granted, Caithness and Sutherland will have 50 of them.

You know any other two counties in the UK with fifty windfarms.............or even the eighteen which Caithness appears to be going to have...........leaving all the rest to despoil much of the West Coast?

Just as well you are coming up to the West Coast this year..............it won't be nearly as photogenic in another couple of years.

Rowan wrote:Aye well, if we don't desecrate maybe there won't be future generations to enjoy them!! I think windmills serve both functions - they provide energy and do not use fossil fuels, they also don't poison the damned atmosphere. Sounds good to me.

Well, it would...........you live in Stirling, which being in the south, would be one of the recipients of the Highland windfarms and the ginormous pylons necessary to transfer the electricity.

But are the cities in the South which receive the largesse from the Highlands prepared to subsidise our rural way of life when the tourism drops off......... windfarms only benefit the companies who set them up, and the landowners on whose land they are.........and the general population will suffer the consequences in a reduction in tourism and the resultant loss of income.

But hell, what does it matter..............our scenery isn't nearly as important as the South Downs or the hills around Stirling.

I was once for windmills.............until I found out just how inefficient they were............even having to be SHUT DOWN in high winds...fact, btw.........and how they were being imposed on some areas when others got off with their areas untouched!

Well Oddie we went to Cornwall last year

Cornwall
Yes, the whole county! Pretty much anywhere you drive in Cornwall, you're likely to see a wind farm. There are seven in all - Bear's Down, Carland Cross, Cold Northcott, Delabole, Four Burrows, Goonhilly Downs and St Breock. What's more, they're all en route to somewhere equally stunning - be it Tintagel, the Earth Centre or the Eden Project. www.bwea.com/map/cornwall.html

Tourism is booming and they even list the wind farms as a tourist attraction particularly the Delabole site.

I personally find them at least as attactive as windmills and certainly more graceful.

We have some in Norfolk both on shore and off shore but more disturbingly we have a couple of these just over the county border in Suffolk:-



I know which I prefer.

Victors Mate wrote:Well Oddie we went to Cornwall last year

Cornwall
Yes, the whole county! Pretty much anywhere you drive in Cornwall, you're likely to see a wind farm. There are seven in all - Bear's Down, Carland Cross, Cold Northcott, Delabole, Four Burrows, Goonhilly Downs and St Breock. What's more, they're all en route to somewhere equally stunning - be it Tintagel, the Earth Centre or the Eden Project. www.bwea.com/map/cornwall.html

Then just think how 18 windfarms will impact on a county with hardly a hill!!!

VM....you are deliberately being obdurate.

Caithness has an area of 1,776Km², Sutherland has 6,077Km².........Cornwall has an area of 3,547 km².

So I'm sure Sutherland would happily accommodate maybe a dozen windfarms, and Caithness two or three................given that the Highlands of Scotland already produces environmentally friendly hydro electricity.

But what is proposed to date is 18 windfarms for Caithness and 32 for Sutherland.

And that is what I mean by overkill and taking advantage.

Why should an area in the North, one third of the size of one in the South, have three times as many windfarms to allow the South access to environmentally friendly electricity which will trash OUR environment helped by the giant pylons across the hills!

Caithness has working or being constructed seven windfarms right now.the same number as Cornwall.............can you explain to me why we should have any more than that?