OpenView Online
Country Guardian's Newsletter Number 57 Autumn 2010
COMMENT
TWENTY YEARS YOUNG
Historians among you may have noticed the 2011 marks the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Country Guardian. The founder was Joseph Lythgoe, a life-long countrylover and conservationist who was particularly appalled by the wind-developers' assault on his beloved Furness Peninsula in Cumbria, but more generally by the realisation that to meet their target of providing 10% of the country's electricity from wind, the power companies would need to built tens of thousands of turbines, mainly in our finest coastal and upland landscapes in the west of the British Isles. Joseph Lythgoe died in March 2000. See Country Guardian for more background.
There are now more than 242 windfarm action groups in the UK. There are 289 operational windfarms consistising of some 3200 turbines. Openview will be tracking the growth of these and any new turbines and their contribution, if any, to the UK energy requirements.
As noted in the last edition we are continuing to monitor the dangerous denial by the politicians and wind farm developers of the implications of intermittency for wind turbines. To achieve the security of supply of electricity required for a modern technological economy, the vast bulk of the supply of electricity must come from reliable, continuous resources. Intermittent sources such as electricity must therefore treated as a marginal resource.
Contents:
1. "Customers face huge bill for windfarm that don't work in the cold". Jeremy Niccholson
2. UK Windfarm Statistics
3. Selected News items from the website, by category
"Customers face huge bill for wind farms that don't work in the cold"
"The failure of Britain’s wind farms to produce electricity in the extreme cold will cost billions of pounds, create an economic crisis and lead to blackouts, leading industrialists have warned. To cover up the ineffectiveness of wind farms the Government will be forced to build emergency back-up power plants, the cost of which will be paid by industry and consumers".Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents major companies employing hundreds of thousands of workers in the steel, glass, pottery, paper and chemical industries, said the failure of wind power had profound implications. To cover up the ineffectiveness of wind farms the Government will be forced to build emergency back-up power plants, the cost of which will be paid by industry and consumers. He was speaking after new figures showed that during the latest cold snap wind turbines produced less than two per cent of the nation’s electricity.Now Mr Nicholson predicts that the Government will encourage power companies to build billions of pounds worth of standby power stations in case of further prolonged wind failures. And the cost of the standby generation will be paid for by industry and households through higher bills – which could double by 2020.
Industry regulator Ofgem has already calculated that the cost of achieving sustainable energy targets – set by Brussels but backed by the British Government – will amount to £200 billion, which will mean that annual household fuel bills will double to about £2,400 on average within the next ten years. In the last quarter ending December 23, wind turbines produced on average 8.6 per cent of our electricity, but the moment the latest bad weather arrived with snow and freezing temperatures, this figure fell to as low as 1.8 per cent.The slack was immediately taken up by efficient, but dirty, coal-fired power stations and oil-fired plants.
‘What is so worrying is that these sort of figures are not a one off,’ said Mr Nicholson. ‘It was exactly the same last January and February when high pressure brought freezing cold temperatures, snow and no wind.’ In fact last year, the failure of wind power to produce electricity was even more profound. Then, over a few days, the lack of wind meant that only 0.2 per cent of a possible five per cent of the UK’s energy was generated by wind turbines. So little energy was generated then that the National Grid, which is responsible for balancing supply and demand of energy in the UK, was forced to ask its biggest users – industry – to ration supplies.
What really concerns industrial users is that it is Government policy to put wind power at the centre of its efforts to ensure that 30 per cent of electricity is generated by renewable resources by 2020. This means that the number of turbines now running – 3,140 – will have to be massively increased to well over 6,000 in ten years time. But this huge surge in wind farm activity will come at the same time as an EU Directive will insist that we close down our coal-fired and oil-fired power stations.Mr Nicholson said: ‘We can cope at the moment because there is still not that much power generated from wind. But all this will change. What happens when we are dependent on wind turbines for 30 per cent of our power and there is suddenly a period when the wind does not blow and there is high demand? ‘We will be forced to switch off the gas and it could even lead to power cuts.’ The Government is aware of the dangers of relying on intermittent power sources and is working on plans to encourage energy companies through financial inducements to have stand-by generation.
Mr Nicholson said: ‘At least the Government is aware of the problem, but it will cost billions to put these measures in place and we will have to pick up the tab. A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: ‘Wind power provides a home-grown source of electricity that doesn’t produce carbon dioxide. ‘The electricity system always has more generating capacity available than the expected demand. By having a diverse energy mix, we can manage the fact that some technologies are intermittent.’
The National Grid is also aware of the problem and has set up a team to look at solving the problem of erratic energy supplies. One of the solutions being considered is changing demand at times of crisis. For example, setting up systems to stop electricity supplies to millions of fridges for an hour or so.
This would be possible by having ‘smart’ meters and would save massive amounts of energy.
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2. UK Wind farm statistics
UKWED Statistics
Operational wind farms
Onshore England 100 808.44 MW Northern Ireland 27 309.73 MW Scotland 111 2,364.18 MW Wales 32 380.25 MW 270 3,862.60 MW
Offshore England 10 1,181.20 MW Scotland 1 10.00 MW Wales 2 150.00 MW 13 1,341.20 MW Total operational wind farms: 283 (5,203.80 MW) Wind farms currently under construction
Onshore England 8 143.43 MW Northern Ireland 2 30.00 MW Scotland 18 1,155.72 MW Wales 3 34.70 MW 31 1,363.85 MW
Offshore England 4 1,154.40 MW 4 1,154.40 MW Total wind farms currently under construction: 35 (2,518.25 MW) Consented projects
Onshore England 88 1,201.98 MW Northern Ireland 19 311.30 MW Scotland 79 1,846.95 MW Wales 14 244.05 MW 200 3,604.28 MW
Offshore England 6 2,015.70 MW Wales 1 576.00 MW 7 2,591.70 MW Total consented projects: 207 (6,195.98 MW) Projects in planning
Onshore England 81 922.74 MW Northern Ireland 43 780.30 MW Scotland 114 3,860.06 MW Wales 24 1,279.13 MW 262 6,842.23 MW
Offshore England 5 2,260.00 MW 5 2,260.00 MW Total projects in planning: 267 (9,102.23 MW) Summarised this gives us:
Windfarm Projects January 2011
Windfarm projects
Onshore MW
Offshore MW
Total MW Nominal
MW @ 27%*
Operational
3862
1341
4203
1134
Under construction
1363
1154
2517
693
Consented projects
3604
2591
6195
1672
Projects in planning
6842
2260
9102
2957
Total
15671
7346
22017
5945
The percentage of MW available from wind turbines in the UK as a percentage of maximum demand (55,000MW) is [5945 / 55,000] = 10.8%.
HOWEVER this does not take into account the fact that, even at this modest contribution, millions of pounds would have to be spent in the form of backup, providing for the interrmittency of wind power .
* this is based on data from RenewablesUK. The figure for megawatts is based on the maximum output if the turbine were operating at full capacity. We know that the actual performance is an average of 27% of this, so we show this figure alongside.
We also know that wind turbines need increasing amounts of backup to compensate for intermittency. Not surprisingly the wind industry has not been in a hurry to calculate this figure but we live in hope---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Selected News items from the website, by category
Intermittency and backup
Wind farms becalmed just when needed the most
Customers face huge bill for wind farms that don't work
in the cold
Individual projects
Baumber Windfarm Appeal is thrown out
NO TIREE ARRAY
Wind farm gets thumbs downEnergy company shelves wind farm scheme
Villagers vote for action group to stop wind turbines
Environmemt
Giant wind turbines may soon be ruining a landscape near you!
LIFE UNDER A WINDPLANT video
Infrasound: Your ears “hear” it but they don’t tell your brain
Cost of wind energy
Bernard Ingham: The Earth won't be saved by a bunch of wide boys
David Cameron: electricity system is ‘clapped out’Politics
The lucrative business of polluting
Huhne hints at revival for onshore wind farms
Taxpayer Funded Environmentalism
Germany’s Offshore Wind: Wasted Resources, Environmental Blight
Oil rigs take over from offshore windmills
The Green Bubble Is about to Burst
Councils could get a cash incentive to approve wind farm applications
We realise that in some cases a member may need a particular document and will not have the technolgy to access this. In these cases Country Guardian will be prepared to produce a copy. Please contact Gerry Sewell on 01697 321 170
President Nigel Evans MP Vice-President: Sir Bernard Ingham
Chairman : Angela Kelly
The National Campaign to oppose wind turbines in Britain 's precious landscapes and promote energy conservation
www.countryguardian.net
