[AengusOg]

We will work together, as equals.

[Coley]

now you may want to gift these bar stewards your money but I DONT       FUEL IN ANY FORM IS TO EXPENCIVE

Too true, and the 'renewable subsidy' is another cash cow being busily milked, its one thing to provide a subsidy so that renewables can compete on a level playing field but there must be one helluva profit to be made given how all these scams are springing up, want a solar panel on your roof anyone?

[Hermit]

Well said coley, that is why my valley will remain turbine free... oil company to turbine company     dughhhh.      People bang on about leccy and power companies then put the dishwasher on!!!! who pays for technology and then is jealous of the folk making money out of it. dughhh.  All senseless to me unless  you cut the  cord and go powerless  (excepting those freezers full of a years of meat )  The only turbines I will have on my land are self sufficiency ones that have battery back up for me and no one else.
Question  .... do insurance companies insure freezers on windpower ,  cause thats a lot to me ,my freezers being the only concern.    I would live on oil  lamps and R ayburn otherwise.

[Coley]

We will work together, as equals.

Of course, who could say or think differently

[Coley]

The only turbines I will have on my land are self sufficiency ones that have battery back up for me and no one else.


Looked into that, bliddy expensive though and complicated into the bargain but it was the unreliability of it that put me off in the end.
 But dishwashers! anyone who has contributed to this thread and who owns a dishwasher wants to feel a thousand shames

[shetlandpaul]

Well said coley, that is why my valley will remain turbine free... oil company to turbine company     dughhhh.      People bang on about leccy and power companies then put the dishwasher on!!!! who pays for technology and then is jealous of the folk making money out of it. dughhh.  All senseless to me unless  you cut the  cord and go powerless  (excepting those freezers full of a years of meat )  The only turbines I will have on my land are self sufficiency ones that have battery back up for me and no one else.
Question  .... do insurance companies insure freezers on windpower ,  cause thats a lot to me ,my freezers being the only concern.    I would live on oil  lamps and R ayburn otherwise.

you valley? there is a turbine just across the road from you. the grindins are having two and we are having one. and there will be more. have you looked at your stream it does not take a lot of water to generate enough power for what you want. i think your daughter may object to living without power. i agree the dishwasher is a waste of power and time. thou if the power for the dishwasher comes from a green source and it can produce enough to run it then it causes no harm. if you have a turbine why object to selling your spare power its just the same as selling anything else you produce on your croft.

[Hermit]

The turbine for the hall is not on my land, you and the grindins are in the next valley and they have been refused as I believe so many folk objected. No one else lives in my valley above me so it will  remain turbine free. We are  into self sufficiency and will go for an independant turbine for our use if we ever get one, with battery storage. We are taking a back seat at the moment as all we hear are bad stories and regrets with grid connected ones from cracked towers to having to wait three days to be connected again after power cuts, that is why I asked about insurance for freezers . There has been talk about a small windfarm  (5 to 6) being set up by a neighbour to set him up for life selling leccy , good luck to him. I would go powerless if it was not for the freezers and the boiler pump, we dont use a fridge much at all,when it goes we wont replace it, no appliances in the kitchen except an emergency leccy cooker for when the rayburn is not playing , only one telly that goes on for the news at teatime then gets switched off. We dont use much at all really, we actually went to look at a house that was off grid, off water and off sewer , it was fab but Sarah would have objected, especially about hair straighteners being fire tongues as they used to be! For the leccy we use, a self sufficient, self bought turbine would be  seven thousand that is up , connected and running. If you go for a grant they can be up to 30 odd thousand ???We have looked at the stream especially the waterfall but the archaeology around there means I cant even plant a tree on the burn. The pump house had a feasability study done on it for the hall to make leccy using a turbine as it is still connected to the loch and the grid, it was ok , now we own the pump house so that could be an option as well.

[shetlandpaul]

i was wondering why it was taking them so long to get planning. if you were to share the power from the pump house with the hall they could get grants to cover most of the cost. I was a little surprised that they were planning to put them on the same hill as the standing stone. if they had brought them to the front then it should have passed.
with the smart grid that they are planning think carefully about sticking to a battery system. it would be slightly daft using older tech when they are going to spend millions on newer storage systems.
who is thinking of putting up a 5 turbine farm there are only a couple of folks who have enough land to cope with that level of turbines. they would have problems connecting to the grid as well. the only way that they will get connected is if the viking scheme is built. they have to allow upto 3. something to be connected ours is a 5mw so may need limiting.
an alternative would be a larger community one that would support the houses at skeld. have you looked at air/ground source pumps.

[northfifeduckling]

Whatever we feel about them near us I think we can not avoid them. I absolutely approve if they are community owned - even if we don't earn a million soon  -  but  I do have problems with the giant farms which are privately owned.  Our neighbours set a single turbine up last year and it just made so much noise that they had to take it down again. I hope the replacement will work better and be quiet, then I won't mind...

[Coley]

Whatever we feel about them near us I think we can not avoid them. I absolutely approve if they are community owned - even if we don't earn a million soon  -  but  I do have problems with the giant farms which are privately owned.  Our neighbours set a single turbine up last year and it just made so much noise that they had to take it down again. I hope the replacement will work better and be quiet, then I won't mind...

That is the other annoying thing, no matter how much local objection there is the plans nearly always get approval, usually at great expense to the local authorities involved.

[northfifeduckling]

That is not the case here. People seem to object out of principle which I think it not the right attitude. Most plans were rejected.

[deepinthewoods]

surely the point about renewables is the environmental impact. currently britain produces 18% of its electric from nuclear energy, and is the worlds second worse generator of nuclear waste, currently millions of tonnes. there is no strategy in place for disposal so its all stored above ground at places lke sellafield. this is happenng right now and will only get worse.
 the rest of our energy bar about 8% of green energy is fossil fuel.
wnd turbines, water turbines whatever have to be better than the above.
id be much happier knowing our whole country was covered in turbines rather than nuclear waste, left for our childrens childrens children adinfinitum.
get a grip on reality please, this debate is rapidly depressing me due to the nimbyism and naievety on show.fgs

[Coley]

get a grip on reality please, this debate is rapidly depressing me due to the nimbyism and naievety on show.fgs

Its not 'nimbyism' its about a huge scam being perpetrated in the name of 'clean energy'  what provides the power when the wind drops, fgs,? fossil fuel or nuclear thats what. offshore wind is a lot more reliable than onshore but it doesnt provide the same profit due to higher installation costs, so we are being lumbered with these huge monstrosities blotting our landscape purely in the name of profit.
   

[shetlandpaul]

funnily Shetland is a trial site for energy storage from green energy. there is a 1 mw battery being installed and thermal water tanks for district heating and all council housing and housing association are being fitted with new storage heaters and smart meters. Not the cure for no wind but a good buffer. with the advance of tidal and wave technology then the grid will not need to just depend on wind. having gas as the backup would help as it does not need to be on line as much as coal.
a lot of anti wind farm is nimbyism our anti windfarm group argues over peat disturbance but fails to mention the amount of peat being moved to build the new total gas plant. they argue over animal life but failed to mention the said gas plant is on a very densely populated otter coast with lots of important wildlife. there main real issue is money. the Shetland islands council is investing 40% into this scheme.

[SallyintNorth]

I can never quite see why, just because wind cannot meet all of the energy needs, some people think that means we shouldn't use wind power at all.

Surely if wind can supply a percentage of our energy needs then that means that we need less fossil fuel or nuclear?