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winfarm locations

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:02 pm
by mpcsmith
can anyone tell me the loacation of this winfarm. the following is the best pic i could manage its on maximum zoom on my camera so quality isnt too great. when the sun is shining these two turbines can be seen clearly from the city center. their location can best be described by imagining a line drawn directly south from glasgow center. i have no maps so am unable to pinpoit their exact position.

Image

http://fs3.picjar.com/ki/PRRZiNkWeNXcoO ... CF0062.JPG

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:44 pm
by Apollo
Don't know where they actually are, but I suspect this may be the same wind generators that can be spotted in the distance from the Eaglesham Moor road, looking to the south east side. The installation was described as a test rather than a farm, but that was 2 or 3 years ago now, and there was only one then. Looks as if they're over towards Strathaven direction, but hard to tell.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:22 pm
by DickyHart
in the middle of an industrial estate in east kilbride

PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 12:09 am
by Apollo
If that's the one I saw last year, I thought it looked smaller, you'll find it in the area of Greenhills Road and Langlands Drive. I was visiting a factory nearby, and didn't get the chance to be nosey and look closer.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 12:23 am
by cumbo
I think there is only one at EK but there is two at the start of Fenwick Moor
past Eaglesham,fantastic photo,mpcsmith.
The view from the moor back towards Glasgow and down towards Ayrshire is excelent on a clear day.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 7:46 pm
by KonstantinL
I've heard, rumours no doubt, that several large wind farms are at the planning stages within North Lanarkshire's boundaries.

Of course I have no idea of knowing if this is actually true and it's probably just a rumour, because you would need to have access to confidencial documents either at the developers end or within North Lanarkshire Council, which of course I don't.

:wink: I'm winking because I have something in my eye.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 10:42 pm
by duncan
what's the general opinion of everyone here to windfarms? personally i'm in favour of them, and find a lot of the opposition to be nimbyish at best.
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the alternatives:
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i grew up within site of the above, and it regularly spews out grey clouds into the lower atmosphere.

some cooling towers. more or less aesthetically pleasing than windmills?
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Sellafield:
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Dounreay:
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 10:45 pm
by Sharon
How many turbines would be needed to supply Glasgow?

PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 11:52 pm
by Apollo
I used to get around one or two of the more deserted areas of Scotland, and I think your view of the Nimby response is more or less true wherever I found a wind farm being proposed. It's understandable, as it's one of the few installations that, by definition, has to be out in the open and unscreened. Plus, there has to be enough of them installed at any location to make them worthwhile.

This link's pretty good for info of local nature http://www.headpond.co.uk/Links.htm

I'd heard horror stories about the noise of these turbines, and had occasion to wander around a wind farm at the side of the A68 near Oxton http://tinyurl.com/6vkrp Yes, there's an ROC post in the middle of it. All the turbines were operating, and the noise level was... non-existent at the roadside, and underneath the turbines was obviously noticable, but not enough to be noticed if conversing.

How many for Glasgow? Don't know the city's consumption now, but here's a throwaway number to work it out from "853 turbines currently produce 405 megawatts". Few years old now, so should take a few less with better tech.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:09 am
by cumbo
I heard there was a plan for 3or 4 at the back of Castlemilk
my personal thought is in favour of wind power,I would rather have a large wind generator at the end of my street than the 96ft phone mast! :evil:

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 9:46 am
by KonstantinL
I'm against them being used in areas of natural beauty. I'm not against them being used on the many thousands of acres of disused industrial and farmland that we have around the greater Glasgow area.

Although having said that, I've been to a windfarm in Cumbria and it was pretty noisey. Going on that experience I wouldn't want to live near one!

Also on the downside wind turbines ARE NOT an alternative to tradtional power stations. We are always going to have nuclear and other forms of power station as well as the wind turbines.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:17 am
by rmclaggan
Although, if our only option to reduce the effects of phenomenon such as global warming is to put a few wind turbines in an area of natural beauty I think we go with that option.

To have a substantial impact on the source of our electricity, renewable energy must be sourced from a wide range of natural resources- wind, hydro, wave etc. We won't be able to just disregard wind, it is an important part of the overall picture.

I for one think that we will need to make certain sacrifices in our natural skyline for us to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emmisions.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:44 am
by escotregen
Duncan I find your point about opposition to Wind Farms being Nimbyish is a bit of a poser for me just now if I'm honest. Reason I say this is because just recently Network Rail arbitrarily erected a giant steel radio mast in our neighbourhood. I started out a bit philisophical about it when a local opposition group got under way. I thought 'well Network Rail have got the legal bludgeon to do it if they want, its on their land' etc.
However, I was just not prepared for the awful, oppressive impact of this mast. It has converted the ambience of our neighbourhood into a semi-industrial zone. I know that sounds just like a Nimby but it really is a domineering, brutal blot. So I'm a little less critical of Nimbys just at the moment, and I'm uncomfortable with assertions like "the need to make certain sacrifices in our natural skyline".
I say all the above, especially bearing in mind that the current UK wind energy debate is possibly all very marginal and insignificant. The reality is that our global problem is to do with massively increasing levels of energy consumption; not the energy production process. I would guess that if global energy consumption continues at an exponential rate of increase all the current natural, (fossil and non fossil) energy production technologies cannot meet the demand. Consequently we are faced with the current worrying propaganda for a revitalisation of the nuclear energy programme. It would seem that conservation is essentail; I understand that current projections are that the UK could cut energy consumption in the long term by 40% through conservation measures.
But more than this, what makes our UK debate rather pointless is the refusal of the USA as the biggest consumer/polluter of all, to take the debate seriously - hence its refusal to sign up to Kyoto. Consequently, I find myself in the unusual position of thinking 'Well done Jack McConnell, go for it!', when I read in todays Sunday Herald of his quite vitriolic attack on Bush's stand over Kyoto. Just the time for maximum impact Jack, when Bush is due to attend the Gleneagles Summit.
So, having rambled on - I think I would like to see a little less posturing and presumption of goodness on the part of the wind energy lobby, and a bit more rational acknowledgement and debate of the cons as well as the pros.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:47 pm
by Apollo
Well, if the rest of world really cared, they could quietly sanction or boycott the US without making a song and dance about it, but it won't.

Americans consume about 10 times the energy of the average Brit, with their air-con and other toys they find essential for life. Compare the relative size of the populations, and then think about how effective (other than for raiding revenue) the crippling 'energy taxes' here really are, and who they affect most.

For me, the massive polluter that never get mentioned, and more importantly never gets taxed, is international air travel, delivering pollution straight into the upper atmosphere. In the few days that aircraft around the globe were grounded after 9/11, measurements showed the atmosphere began to clear. Time that aviation fuel was taxed at nearly 80%, and peole payed the real price for their (really unecessary) foreign holidays, and businesses organised themselves properly using the net and stopped shuffling staff around the world as a perk.

I'll admit I have absolutely no idea of the numbers, but I think it would be a fairly safe bet that any eco-savings gained from windfarms are wiped out by daily jet emissions alone.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:45 pm
by duncan
I hear what you're saying Escot, but windmill's aren't erected in city centre neighbourhoods, but on the side of comparatively remote hills. And it has to go through the normal planning procedures, unlike Network Rail, who have carte blanche to erect phone masts where they like. But I think the phone masts is a different debate. Like I say, I grew up in sight of a power station, (and a gas refinery for that matter), and I know which I'd rather have.