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Author Topic: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!  (Read 15595 times)

w3bby

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dodgy geezer

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #76 on: January 17, 2010, 12:19:23 pm »


Some one forgot to tell the Norwegians....


It will be interesting to see the results of this experiment - it seems to be moving very slowly, and the most recent report I can find from it suggests that it is moving away from hydrogen power and towards electric cars.

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/12/13/norways-hydrogen-highway-gets-an-electric-back-road/

If this is the case, I suspect that this is because the undoubted difficulties with transporting and storing hydrogen have not yet been overcome?
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sheerline

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #77 on: January 17, 2010, 05:46:16 pm »

Ok, looking at this thread got me thinking (a dangerous pastime around here) about storage of energy.
Years ago, the waste heat left over from power genetation at one of Londons power stations was piped through to Pimlico where it was used to heat homes in that district, so something of the wasted energy was put to use. It actually passed under the Thames through pipework as heated water.
Would it not be possible to use some of the low wind speed  idling energy ie, that which is insufficient for introduction as 'useful' energy into the grid  or perhaps the energy generated when not truly required and use it to heat a water storage facility on land. This could be sighted in an area demanding high water usage such as a hospital for instance. If this were introduced into the heating and hot water system of such an establishment, it could possibly reduce the energy consumption of the building by cutting back the energy requirement of the heating and hot water systems. Any establishment, be it a factory, office complexes or even housing estates could have their own sunken, insulated local hot water storage facility on site.
By storing the energy as a heated body of water, it would even out the highs and lows of output of such a generator and act much the same as a battery in a fluctuating electrial circuit.
Just another of my daydream ideas.
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dodgy geezer

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #78 on: January 17, 2010, 07:19:49 pm »


Would it not be possible to use some of the low wind speed  idling energy ie, that which is insufficient for introduction as 'useful' energy into the grid  or perhaps the energy generated when not truly required and use it to heat a water storage facility on land....By storing the energy as a heated body of water, it would even out the highs and lows of output of such a generator and act much the same as a battery in a fluctuating electrial circuit.
Just another of my daydream ideas.


Not a bad idea at all, actually. This is the sort of thing a 'Smart Grid' is proposed to operate, so that the drain can be controlled at the generator/dispatch facility. So people are certainly thinking this sort of way.

These ideas generally founder on economics. The local investment would be huge, and it would not be investment for a primary benefit, but to solve inherent problems with a power generation technique that other techniques do not have. The question then becomes a political one: 'How much extra are you prepared to pay to have wind energy rather than, say, nuclear?'.
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sheerline

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #79 on: January 17, 2010, 08:55:19 pm »

Yes, it would certainly cost a few bob to put any of this into practice or indeed any other form of power generation source/storage.
We do appear to be spending a fortune on alternative sources of enegy right now and I believe this will skyrocket as time goes on, but then I also believe this is the price we are paying for Government complacency and our love affair with the economics and frree flowing oil supply we have enjoyed for decades.
I guess it's all going to come home to roost soon and prices for energy will soar as time goes by so perhaps a re-direction of Government finances, free handouts and general waste would go a long way to shoring up some of the costs.
Unfortunately, I fear that so long as we continue to expand as a population, there is no true shortcut to meet the demand other than the nuclear option. I do not posses sufficient knowledge of the waste product storage complications to say whether it is a good or a bad thing but knowing what little I do, it appears it should be our last option.
I understand tidal power is an area which would certainly generate huge amounts of power and we have the technology to use it, but I don't see much being done or put forward to expand on this area so am left with the belief that the wind power explosion we are witnessing is more politically motivated  than anything green.
Oh, by the way, the power station I referred to in my last post was 'Battersea power station' next to the Thames.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #80 on: January 17, 2010, 09:15:31 pm »

The basic problem is that the Government has been, and continues to be, incompetent. Joining up the dots is a mystery to them.

Colin
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dodgy geezer

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #81 on: January 17, 2010, 10:31:00 pm »

The basic problem is that the Government has been, and continues to be, incompetent....


Incompetent is no problem. Politicians are always incompetent, and it is the job of civil servants to hide this fact from the public. Our problem now is that neither the politicians nor the civil servants have any policy direction, and they are all being torn apart by lobbying special interest groups. Copenhagen was a classic example of policy direction driven by activists...
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sheerline

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #82 on: January 17, 2010, 11:02:37 pm »

DG, it looks rather like the civil servants are falling down on the job, the cat is out of the bag!
Now we know they are all incompetent  (they can't even lie effectively) where the hell do we go now? I think the American expression "to hell in a handcart" is fairly apt.
I can think of absolutely no-one suitably fit to govern this land right now so how the devil is anyone able to swallow the green policies expounded by these manipulating incompetent liars. On all fronts, be it domestic or green policies, this is a very dangerous position to be in and I don't see any Genie's about. The problem with all of it is trust, none of us can actually take as gospel that the green issues they are pushing are truly for the benefit of the planet and that the data we are being fed is not heavily biased in favour of big business. Everyone has their pet sources of true and accurate information but with the amount of distrust instilled in all of us, who do we believe. I for one discount anything from 'official government sources' and I don't think I'm alone.

Another American expression I particularly like is " Why don't you wake up and smell the sh*t you is pushin" and I think a sign bearing this legend should be erected in the House for all to see.
So, it looks like windfarms are the flavour of the month, regardless of innability to meet demands or the objections of independant scientific reasearch. If the independants are to be believed, it definately all appears to be a political move to install this lot, either that or the smart business manipulators out there have simply pulled the wool over the thicko's eyes in Westminster.
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Nordsee

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #83 on: January 18, 2010, 02:33:12 pm »

We should not have to worry about fossil fuel replacement, there are elections every five years; with the amount of dinosaur's in Government there will be a plentifull supply. This includes the members of of my home Parliament.
Howard Q. :-)) ;) Just another thought, back in the 1930s there was a scheme zo build a Hydro Electric station on the River Severn, to utilise the double tides there ( Severn Bore). It was dropped because of protests by the Welsh Miners ( remember Miners?) who saw it as a threat to their jobs (Ha Ha!!) Well the Mines have long gone, good riddance, so why isn't the said Station being built now?
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wideawake

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Re: Mega wind farm for the Thames Estuary !!!
« Reply #84 on: January 18, 2010, 04:37:38 pm »



IIRC Largely due to environmental concerns, these being mainly related to the loss of the mudflat feeding grounds for waders.    Given this loss would be on a much greater scale than the loss caused by the Cardiff Bay barrage then the opposition is on an equivalently greater scale.

Cheers

Guy
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