Wind turbines – I’m a fan! No but seriously I really like wind turbines, and it’s my dream I guess to see the UK powered solely by renewable energy, in my lifetime rather thank Kzonk years away. This is why I have been following closely on the post-Copenhagen promises, those that announce the government’s latest proposals for giant off shore wind farms to power the UK. But is it worth swinging my pants around my head and shouting whoooop whooooop just yet, or is it just another token gesture from a suspiciously well-to-do, but do-nothing-well government?
Following the hoo-ha of Copenhagen and the UK’s insistence it is ready to address the threat of climate change, the Government announced plans for a £100 billion off-shore wind farm development in the UK. The project is in no doubt a major step, 6400 massive turbines said to feed a quarter of the UK’s energy demand by 2020. This amounts to the biggest shift in our energy supply since the discovery of North Sea oil and gas fields nearly 40 years ago! They will stand at 145m above sea level, in some cases as far as 130 miles out to sea, in 9 development zones. The biggest of which is named Dogger Bank, after its location, and not what the local councillors are up to in heathland late at night! All in all it’s a huge project that will put Britain at the top of Europe’s wind energy league, and create one of the biggest wind infrastructure projects in the world.
As I mentioned I love wind energy, so much in fact that I chose to march through Copenhagen with a banner reading Blow Me and a picture of a wind turbine, during the biggest environmental march the world has ever seen.
Others don’t however, and despite being many miles out to sea some are still complaining that these ideas are an eyesore to the environment. I think they’re pretty cool, and enjoy seeing them inland too. In fact I’d rather have a huge wind turbine standing over my house than the £2million ‘angel of the south’ giant horse that would soon be built next to my home. And what if I looked to the other side of town? Well there’s the 214 metre chimney of Littlebrook Power Station, with its flashing red lights on top, which makes it look like a giant reefer puffing away over S.E London. I’d rather have these 130 miles out to sea! But there are plenty of turbine huggers too. In fact last year it seemed wind turbines had a rather unusual admirer – aliens. Yes, aliens, from planet Wizwaz or something! In some national papers they dedicated more space for the story of aliens visiting a Lancashire wind farm than they did for the whole of the Copenhagen summit. Mysterious damage to a turbine was deemed to be the result of a UFO crashing into it at high speeds. However, this was probably not the case and it is more reasonable to suggest that it was caused by a rather crap wind turbine. These crappy wind turbines are the latest craze for spending crucial investment money, and others of the same poor quality have ‘blown up’ elsewhere.
This worries me. However it doesn’t scare me, now an accident at a nuclear plant or at its disposal site would certainly scare me, and I’m putting this one down to shoddy investment. The words ‘made in China’ spring to mind, and in fact many parts of both were! Another dodgy move made previously in the UK was to delay the construction of a wind farm in Kent for 2 years, as a local resident had complained about the pollution that would be caused by passing trucks. So for 2 years officials mumbled away in their offices before sticking to their original plan and granted permission for development. Thanks guys, like we really needed to wait 2 years for that, you just don’t get it!
So it is again with caution that I look upon these new developments. The biggest fear I have is that it won’t push us to hit our emissions reduction targets that the UK paraded proudly at COP15. Firstly, I can see as I rub my crystal ball, these farms failing to open by the time announced by the government. No its not Mystical Meg mumbo jumbo by simply because the dates given by the contracted companies themselves differ to those of the government! The governments own advisors too are declaring that these promises won’t be kept without the development of a new ‘super grid’. I’d happily bet two boxes of Jaffa cakes that these wind farms are not operational until well beyond the set target. Only last week myself and other members of UKYCC have had a meeting with Ed Miliband postponed… 3 times in a week to be precise!!
Secondly, last year Ofgem, the energy market regulator produced a report stating that we would need £200 billion of investment in renewable energy alone to meet our emission reduction target by 2020. This is simply not on the table.
All this is not about to stop the government selling the idea like it’s the best thing since sliced bread, with a hearty dollop of jam spread upon it. Of course not, they have in fact found the perfect selling point for a down and desperate Britain – jobs. 70,000 of them the government has claimed! Time to swing those pants?? Of course not, its just more government jibbery jabbery, damn fossil fools. The very same government has failed to persuade any of the major wind turbine manufacturers to open a factory in Britain. Also, the companies granted licenses to build the farms will not be obliged to source any parts from domestic manufacturers. It’s like digging out a penny for a homeless person in the city, flashing it, and then dropping it down a drain.
This leads me to my final concern – cost. Enquire into a lovely turbine for your home and you will be told the main benefit is the reduction in energy bills, and all that money you will save. And of course, it’s a simple formula, renewable energy is far cheaper to produce once initial investments are covered. Not such a simple formula under new these new ‘revolutionary’ plans. Yep, you guessed it, energy bills will rise, analysts have predicted this rises could even reach 60%.
So forgive me for not running through the streets with it all hanging out, or for hugging UKYCC members and shouting ‘we did it, we did it’ because I am far from convinced. Instead I look upon the people to be the ones responsible for really hitting the emission reduction target on its head. I would like to remind them that this really is in our hands. If we sat back and relied on the government’s plans and promises than were more screwed than a guy hanging off a cliff with itchy.. well… you know, pretty screwed! If the government really want to satisfy me, they’re gonna have to blow me a lot harder than that! This is up to us guys!!