Showing posts with label Silton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silton. Show all posts
The Defence of Silton
So it begins.
The Silton Planning Inquiry starts on Tuesday 28th February.
On the one hand we have the good people of Silton. They have pledged their hard earned cash to defend their village from the carpet baggers and wind turbine fashionista's who threaten it.
The villagers have to pay for the legal council they need to defend their village. Money they can ill afford. The local council will also be defending a democratically arrived decision to refuse planning. Also at great cost to the community.
On the other hand we have a ruthless and laughably pretentious wind farm operator which greedily seeks to overturn the councils planning refusal.
So on one side we have a perfectly valid and democratic planning decision to refuse the erection of an industrial wind turbine complex at Silton.
On the other we have a vain and ruthless developer who will now attempt to defeat local democracy.
This is outrageously unfair and undemocratic.
But fairness and democracy never were the strong suites of the wind turbine fraternity.
But still, the good people of Silton are defending their patch, and good for them. Their moral stance, backed up by their admirable resolution and social responsibility are an example to us all.
The Save our Silton Website is HERE
The Dorset Against Rural Turbines Site is HERE
If there is any justice left in the planning system, the Silton villagers will win hands down.
Today I just want to wish my friends in Silton all the best. May your village remain as beautiful as it is today, unspoiled by pointless industrial development.
Good luck to you.
A Wind Turbine Capacity Factor Near You.
Billothewisp has decided to have a little competition to see which parts of the UK had the highest and lowest Wind Turbine capacity factors in 2010. Then we can see what the carbon savings are, particularly for the proposed East Stoke and Silton wind farms in Dorset..
Take this document ( Here ). It is part of a document set called DUKES. (God! how Chris Huhne must hate having to publish this stuff)
In particular take this table.
Clearly the CF winner is (at a paltry 23.9%) is Northern Ireland.
Also very clearly, the CF loser is (at a wholly pathetic 17.7%) is The South West of England.
It also shows that the "wonder" of offshore windpower only managed a CF of 29.6%.
Hmmm. There is something wrong here isn't there?
RenewablesUK, the wind industry trade association drone on and on about the overall capacity factor being about 30%.
But last year not even off-shore managed the illusionary 30% CF. Dismally, not a single on-shore area came anywhere close to 25% let alone 30%.
If you believe in these things, then I expect you think that even though the output may be crap, they still help reduce carbon emissions
Unfortunately the truth is somewhat less rosy.
Billothewisp has to quote another governmental/academic document to offer some clarity as to exactly what carbon saving will be made.
The document was actually brought to my attention by a Guardian article last week written by Polly Curtis.
This Guardian article itself was the usual half-baked pro-wind "investigation", and lacked even a semblance of even handedness. (See this comically one-sided "Reality Check" ).
But it did refer to a very interesting report by the UKERC concerning wind turbine intermittency.
The document is available here - The Intermittency Report
The Intermittency Report points out that due to their intermittent output, wind turbines need carbon emitting backup.
Because this backup is is trying to track the wind and compensate for the turbine vagaries, it is running inefficiently at sub optimal output.
The extra carbon emissions from this inefficient operation statistically gets compensated by the wind turbine - but only when the collective turbine output reaches a CF of about 20%.
So, if you have a capacity factor of 30% you are in saving carbon emissions..
But, that means that turbines in places like the South-West, (CF of 17.7%), do not even cover the inefficiency they force on their carbon based backup generators. This carbon based backup generation emits more carbon due to having to backup these ineffective turbines than it would if they didn't exist and was providing the power on its own.
In the South West, more CO2 is emitted not less. All thanks to the pitifully ineffective wind turbines.
These turbines cost carbon while producing intermittent expensive and unreliable energy.
You could actually reduce carbon emissions by shutting down all the South-West's turbines. (rather than paying them a subsidy).
Even for offshore wind, the carbon savings are pitifully small and horrendously expensive..
Particularly, for the proposed East Stoke and Silton wind farms in Dorset, the most environmentally sensible thing to do is exactly what the local councils have voted for - rejection.
Unfortunately the lure of the filthy lucre means that both of the corporations involved are going to appeal against the democratic decisions of the democratically elected local councils.
It is going to be the usual sad scenario of money, power and greed versus local democracy.
The cost in national resources and finance, along with the environmental damage so outweigh any possible environmental gain that we would be massively better off both financially and environmentally by consigning the whole white elephant wind turbine fleet to the dustbin of history.
One Hundred and Eighty Onshore Turbines for Dorset
This post is about a strategy document, quietly being pushed through by Dorset County Council. This document seeks to industrialise virtually the whole of rural Dorset by building 180 on-shore wind turbines.
The DorsetForYou webpage holding the documents:
The Draft Document :
The Technical Appendix:
Especially now, as the prize would be a planning precedent that would allow them to cash in all over Dorset with Dorset County Council's blessing.
If you think this is a storm in a teacup and only concerns two villages, I have some very bad news for you. This is only the thin end of the wedge.
Over sixty communities and maybe as many as one hundred and twenty will be lined up for industrialisation. Like dominoes they will be picked off one after the other. Sixty rural villages, towns and hamlets in Dorset. All lined up for having Industrial Wind Turbine Complexes imposed on them. How many (if any) Dorset communities will be left un-scarred?
The Bournemouth Poole and Dorset Renewable Energy Strategy, has been prepared by Dorset Country Council. It is now nearing its final draft stage and has been quietly (silently?) released for public consultation. I have yet to find anywhere that tells the public it is available for comment or what it contains.
In this document, the recommendation is that Dorset should install 180 turbines. Each of these white elephants would be higher than Salisbury Cathedral. This 180 on-shore wind turbine plan is promoted as the "realistic" option. But the report does not rule out their preferred option which would be 360 turbines.
Why 60 villages? Look at a map of Dorset. Rule out the main conurbations. Rule our AONB's. What is left?
If one village is affected by 3 turbines (or two by six), that is 60 communities blighted for 180 turbines. 120 communities ruined for 360.
I repeat this is NOT Off-Shore. This is On-Shore. Next to where people live. The planned Poole Bay off-shore turbine complex is extra to this.
Which bit of Dorset gets ruined the most? Here's some screen shots from the PDF of the Technical summary. (Notice they even sell these figures as including noise mitigation -prior to this the figure was over 1400 turbines!)
First the "Maximum Scenario"
Now the Medium (or as they say, "more realistic") Scenario
I half expect you not to believe me about this. It is so utterly outrageous. So go to the links at the top of this post and see for yourself.
Please post a comment if they "disappear" I have copies and I'll publish here..
When you read about the gallant defence of villages of East Stoke and Silton, remember their planned (and resisted) industrialisation is the thin end of a very ugly wedge.
If we allow their desecration; Your community is next.
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