SCOTTISH RENEWABLES

The following is a reply to a post on Subrosas blog on the subject of wind turbines. I am posting it here as I fear it is going to be very long and will not fit in the reply box on Rosies blog, so I will refer her to it here.


Hello Rosie I hope you have decided to read this post. It is a subject I feel strongly about and I will be adding bits and pieces to it in the future mainly as a reference for my own use but feel free to contribute if you wish.


Rosie there are permanent jobs being created in the renewable industry in Scotland, I know because family members are amongst the numbers working for a German company that is building renewable energy schemes in Scotland. And they are quality jobs with very good salaries and pensions. You either believe that or you do not. eg. Whitlee as I said does not run by itself. Yes the turbines were built in Denmark. Yes they were transported to KG5 by a Danish boat. Yes they were then transported to Whitlee by Danish trucks. But the construction and maintenance of this site is creating jobs for local people. Downstream the knock on is that the local economy benefits.


I am as disgusted as any one that these turbines had to come from Denmark in to KG5 on a Danish boat, right next door to Fairfields aka BAE Govan who are building machines of war for the UK. A direct result of Scotlands industrial policy being influenced from London for far to long. Alex Salmonds stated aim of re industrialising Scotland is viable and good. We need to reverse the carnage of years of Thatcherism. We should be building turbines and wave machines and tidal turbines and boats to service these Scottish renewable generation schemes , not machines to invade foreign sovereign countries and kill their people to take their resources.


It is disgusting and it is a direct result of us being in union with a country that sees us only as a means to gather more power, money and strength to London using our resources. The Olympics were the most blatant example of that greed and anti Scottish avarice to date. Great for the few Scots who were able to travel to England to enjoy training in the English facilities, which we in Scotland should and will have now after seeing that. God bless the Olympic athletes they deserve their success and glory but Scotland has the right to have our own, as does Hong Kong.


Back to renewables, I urge you to read the report on this site on nuclear power.http://tiny.cc/mvu2iw It highlights exactly what I said. Nuclear power is the most expensive means on earth of boiling water. It is shrouded in secrecy and inextricably linked to WMDs, which is why the SNP is ideologically opposed to it. Dounreay will be a no go area for humans for ever as it will have waste stored there and the ground will forever be contaminated, as will Sandside beach which they have now given up trying to clean. If renewables get even 1% of the money we have all paid for nuclear since the 50s they will prevail, and prosper. It takes people with courage and vision to buck the nuclear trend as they are a very powerful lobby and pressure group who are deeply embedded in London. I also firmly believe that they assassinate people. See http://tiny.cc/i6u2iw


There is not one shred of evidence, (except Trumps bizzare, "I am the evidence") that we are damaging tourism, quite the opposite in fact. Not one shred of evidence that house prices are affected. I firmly believe we are very close to solving the base load problem for wind turbines. Consider the following statement. " Scottish & Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD), working with industrial gases and clean energy technologies business BOC, will develop an integrated ‘whole hydrogen’ system which can harness wind energy to produce and store hydrogen that is then used as fuel for the bus fleet, as well as for generating electricity at times of peak demand." http://tiny.cc/5kv2iw


We are very close to the point where wind energy can and will be stored as hydrogen. Global companies like BMW, Honda and Diahatsu, have working fuel cell cars on the road right now. These companies are not building these cars for fun. All that comes out of the exhaust is water vapour. Hydrogen is less dangerous than petrol as countless test have proven, see them on You Tube or Google. Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, unlike uranium. It can be produced harvested and stored without causing pollution, unlike uranium. And it along with free wind and tidal energy is our future. The nukes are very worried for very good reason.


Finally you mention the decommissioning of a wind turbine. Compare the annual costs at the moment of Dounreay which is being decommissioned and will take decades. Even then it will still be a hazard and off limits to you and me.


On 1 April 2005 the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) became the owner of the site, with the UKAEA remaining as operator. Decommissioning of Dounreay is planned to bring the site to an interim care and surveillance state by 2036, and as a brownfield site by 2336, at a total cost of £2.9 billion. ( That has predictably increased, to over £3bn.) Please read further and see the scale of the problem and the appalling history, this is just one wee plant.


Now consider this? If tomorrow Whitlee was told to decommission, do you really think it would take that amount of money and effort and time to recycle the metal towers and cable, and take out the foundations and restore the landscape? There would be a local out cry if they tried to put that land back to what it was. It is now regarded as a great recreation area that thousands, including me, use every month. Mountain biking walking running and education tours for school children.


The future is wind, tidal, hydro, and hydrogen Rosie. Whether we are in man made global warming or not, we need to treat the planet with more respect and stop leaving poison and filth for our kids to clean up. It is an industry whose time has come, and Scotland is perfectly placed geographically and politically to rebuild our country on it. I say, well done SNP. Their vision is clear and concise unlike the view through the London prism which we had forced on us previously.


Thanks for reading this.