Tide turns in favour of wave power instead of wind farms

[Dead_Parrot]

VOTERS in Scotland appear to be turning away from wind farms, a new survey has shown, in a blow to the Scottish Government’s renewable ambitions.

A poll carried out for Friends of the Earth has revealed that just 18 per cent of people north of the Border put wind power as their first choice for future energy supply.

The YouGov survey showed that while 65 per cent believe wind should be part of the mix, this was down from 78 per cent seen in a similar survey by Scottish Renewables in 2010.

Instead the preferred choice in Scotland is for tidal and wave energy to become the main supplier with 32 per cent backing the option, even though it is still in its early development stage.

More: http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/environment/tide-turns-in-favour-of-wave-power-instead-of-wind-farms-1-2250124

[Nihil]

1. I wonder if the survey distinguished between onshore & offshore wind farms?

I can readily believe a bit of growing resistance to onshore wind farms but,
although this might be being boosted a little bit by Trump's well-funded NIMBY
campaign, I'd have thought that the support for offshore would be very high.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. Oh my...

No, they just called it "wind", so I guess perception is a little skewed.

Here's the survey: http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/rq2xuw3tr8/YG-Archives-FriendsofTheEarth-Electricity-230412.pdf

Interesting results:

Wave/Tidal: 26%
That which shall not be named: 22%
Solar: 21%
Wind: 17%
Don't know/Other: 10%
Coal/Gas: 5%

Lol. I'll bet that pissed FOE off (and possibly a few in here in they read it).

edit: There's also a trump-specific wind survey here: http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/69shctn39h/YG-Archives-ScottishRenewables_windpower-130412.pdf

[FBaggins]

4. I'm shocked that solar beat out wind.

If the poll was taken in northern Australia that would be one thing... but Scotland?

[FBaggins]

3. They're premature, but on the right track

They have some of the best sites in the world for tapping wave energy, and while it is more variable than traditional baseload generation, it's much less variable than wind/solar (while tidal is more variable, but much more predictable), making it a great option for Scotland once the technology is refined.

It's impressive that the average Scotsman recognized this prior to commercial-scale maturity.