Tag Archives: Scotland

Wind produces much energy

According to Herald Scotland 2 May 2011, Row after wind farms ‘turned off’:
Six wind farms were given six-figure payments to switch off their turbines because the Scottish grid network could not absorb all the energy being produced, it has emerged.

Research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) found energy companies were paid a total of £900,000 for stopping the turbines for several hours between April 5 and 6 this year.

The REF said some of the payments were as high as 20 times the value of the electricity which would have been generated if the turbines kept running.

The National Grid makes constraint payments to power stations that agree to stop generating in order to stabilise the network.

It happens when the grid system or a section of the system is unable to absorb all the electricity being generated, and some generators that are contracted to generate are asked to stand down.

Sounds like they just need to fix their prices. Adding some local storage of some kind would also help.

-jsq

Scotland planning more offshore wind power than needed for all its homes

Aaron Colter wrote 23 March 2011: 5 GW Of Offshore Scottish Wind Power By 2020?
The Scottish Government has released a plan for offshore wind that highlights six areas for potential development. The original plan had selected ten regions for offshore renewable energy, however, four were ultimately abandoned due to predicted negative environmental and economic impact.

The six sites still in the running have an estimated energy potential of nearly five gigawatts by 2020, or enough to power 3 million homes. Richard Lochhead, Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary, said that Scotland’s commitment to offshore wind production could generate over $11 billion for the country’s economy and support up to 28,000 jobs over the next ten years.

For comparison, Scotland has about 370,000 households. According to the General Record Office for Scotland, Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2009:
In mid-2009, there were 2.34 million households in Scotland
That’s right, they’re talking eight 1.28 times as much power as all of Scotland’s homes could use. I would guess this means they plan to export some of that power, perhaps to England.

It seems renewable energy planning has spread beyond the Highlands to the rest of Scotland.

-jsq

Update 6:45 PM 3 Apr 2011: Fixed total household number; thanks to Malcom Smith for catching this typo.

How about some real clean energy jobs, and a renewable energy strategy for Georgia?

This is a response from me to Brad Lofton’s letter of 22 September 2010. I also refer to Leigh Touchton’s response of the same date.
From: “John S. Quarterman”
To: blofton@industrialauthority.com, Leigh Touchton
Cc: [VDT, elected officials, and other people]
Subject: Re: Brad Lofton, Executive Director Industrial Authority
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 11:23:39 -0400

Brad,

I also appreciate you taking the time to meet with people, but I am disappointed in the information provided by VLCIA.

For example, you say:

You are absolutely correct in stating that we provided you peer reviewed scientific literature proving that biomass plants are indeed carbon neutral
Excuse me? What journal accepts a stack of powerpoint slides for peer review?

Maybe you mean it’s based on some journal article. Citation, please: journal, date, and page.

The only thing I can find in it that was peer-reviewed was a quote from an IPCC 2007 report, which asks for “a sustainable forest management strategy”. That’s what we don’t have; that stack of slides certainly isn’t it.

You mention:

Continue reading →

Highland Renewable Energy Strategy

Previously writing about biomass and carbon dioxide I said I’d supply an example of the sort of thing I’m looking for as a regional analysis for renewable energy, including biomass, solar, wind, wave, tides, and others. Here it is: the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy approved by the Highland Council at its 4 May 2006 meeting. It’s a 58 page document about renewable energy strategy and planning guidelines, considering numerous types of renewable energy, pros and cons of each, power distribution, effects on environment, protected areas, etc., illustrated copiously with detailed maps. And updated: Continue reading →