Energy Saver Light Bulbs

[Board Game Geek]

I spoke to the Mother Superior in the local convent last week, as she was positive that the nuns were not going to give up their candles.

[expat]

You cynical old bugger you. Still we'll be all right. Hinkley 3 is on the way so we probably won't need any bulbs incandescent or otherwise.

Ah yes, the nuclear power station site where planning applications for wind power turbines were rejected on safety grounds.

[ASB]

Ah yes, the nuclear power station site where planning applications for wind power turbines were rejected on safety grounds.

That decision did rather appeal to my finely tuned sense of irony.

Since we seem to have moved to wind turbines (horrible things) apparently Denmark now produces some 15% of it's electricity needs from wind. However it has been able to switch off none of it's traditional generating because they can't cope with the flows.

[Fred Bloggs]

Since we seem to have moved to wind turbines (horrible things) apparently Denmark now produces some 15% of it's electricity needs from wind. However it has been able to switch off none of it's traditional generating because they can't cope with the flows.

That is correct, one of the myths about wind power is that it is "low carbon". Couldn't be further from the truth. For every 1MW of wind power on the grid, you need 1MW of coal/gas/nuclear back up running and available to cope with falls in wind speed. Some of the transients can be soaked up by pumped storage hydro power, but that also needs fossil/nuclear power to pump the water uphill in the first place. It really, truly is all smoke and mirrors this wind power debacle. Wind power also gives national grid a lot of other problems with network instability.

[ASB]

That is correct, one of the myths about wind power is that it is "low carbon". Couldn't be further from the truth. For every 1MW of wind power on the grid, you need 1MW of coal/gas/nuclear back up running and available to cope with falls in wind speed. Some of the transients can be soaked up by pumped storage hydro power, but that also needs fossil/nuclear power to pump the water uphill in the first place. It really, truly is all smoke and mirrors this wind power debacle. Wind power also gives national grid a lot of other problems with network instability.

There was an application near me (turned down for a number of reasons) and not being a complete luddite I did a bit of digging. What I discovered was:-

- The provider got paid a huge premium for the electricity
- It could provide power for about 2000 homes
- It could not feed the grid - only the local area (don't know why this was) - and that only had about 800 homes
- The energy used in the production of the 3000 odd tons of concrete to be used in the construction was very close to the total energy predicted to be generated over it's useful life

It did seem to me there was a lot of smoke and mirrors - but we do have to start somewhere.

[Fred Bloggs]

There was an application near me (turned down for a number of reasons) and not being a complete luddite I did a bit of digging. What I discovered was:-

- The provider got paid a huge premium for the electricity
- It could provide power for about 2000 homes
- It could not feed the grid - only the local area (don't know why this was) - and that only had about 800 homes
- The energy used in the production of the 3000 odd tons of concrete to be used in the construction was very close to the total energy predicted to be generated over it's useful life

It did seem to me there was a lot of smoke and mirrors - but we do have to start somewhere.

It's a huge con trick, good article here-

Wind Power Project

[Peoplesoft bloke]

It did seem to me there was a lot of smoke and mirrors - but we do have to start somewhere.

Indeed - we're going to need loads of power for all the electric cars as well

[Pogle]

I don't like the darn things - they are too dim and when I switch my bedroom light on - nothing happens for about 50s (not that I've timed it of course )

We have one in the bath room which goes every 6 months
pah... grumble... grumble.. etc