Second biggest wind farm {in Scotland} approved (BBC) {213 MW}

[eppur_se_muova]

The Scottish Government has approved plans for the second largest wind farm in Scotland, capable of generating power for 120,000 homes.

The project will be created at Harestanes, near Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway, and comprise of 71 turbines.

The turbines will be built within the Forest of Ae and be run by CRE Energy, a subsidiary of Scottish Power.

The site is expected to generate 213 megawatts of power and be second in size only to Whitelee, near Glasgow.

The news comes after SNP ministers were criticised last week for failing to approve any new wind farms since they came to office in May.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6987120.stm

[Peregrine Took]

1. What happens to the birds with these huge wind farms?

[MikeInMO]

4. They breath clean air

This is always an interesting argument. What happens to birds who breath in the pollution from
coal power plants? Which would you rather have? Power has to be generated and environmentalists can't
be against everything. If birds can't avoid windmills I'd be very surprised. I'll take dead birds
around windmills instead of coal fired power plants any day.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Welcome to DU! nt

:hi:

[MikeInMO]

9. ty

[eppur_se_muova]

7. More recent turbines have proved to be much safer for birds (and bats).

Mostly, they just spin slower, so birds can avoid the fast-moving tips of the blades, which are the greatest danger. The environmental impact of these turbines is a big factor in planning, and there are certain areas (migratory pathways, areas w/endangered species) which are pretty much ruled off limits to wind turbines. In the UK (home to some of the world's most avid birding enthusiasts!) locals seem to be especially vocal about the possible dangers to birds, and every story about wind power in the UK seems to have some mention of the pro/con arguments regarding environmental impact, esp. bird safety.

[NNadir]

2. Notably missing are units of energy. But the Gamesa project in France gives an idea.

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/04/28/afx2705568.html

Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA said it has been granted permission to build three new wind farms in France with a total installed capacity of 32 megawatts.

In a statement, the Spanish renewable energy company said the first wind farm will be located in Guilberville and is due to come on stream by end-2006.

The three wind farms are expected to generate 80,000 MWh per year, equal to the electricity consumed by about 27,000 homes.

There are 8760 hours in a year, and thus each MW of continuous power is 8760 MWh. Thus 32 of them would give for a plant at full capacity utilization, 280,000 MWh roughly. But only 80,000 MWh are actually anticipated.

Thus the capacity utilization is about 30%, rounding up.

If similar, the Scottish plant would thus be the equivalent of a 60 MW coal plant.

It's not all that impressive, especially because it's international news.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Don't know what it would take to get journos to use meaningful units.

I did notice that there was no specification of average power, peak power, etc., just a flat no. of MW specified. They did say enough power for 120,000 homes. There's only about 5M people in Scotland, so I guess it's big news to them, percentage-wise.

A (very political) point/counterpoint on the relative merits of wind vs nuclear in Scotland is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/6982308.stm

[NNadir]

5. Journalists are very, very, very weak on energy issues.

The quality of journalism has been in free fall for many decades now, and scientific jounalism is absurd. I heard a NASA covering journalist reporting that the last time the United States went to the moon was 1968. I'm serious.

Mostly their baliwick is to sell papers and not to report the truth.

Tell 'em what they want to hear.

[AlecBGreen]

8. good ol' capitalism

"Mostly their bailiwick is to sell papers and not to report the truth."

We can always trust the media to watch our back, right? .... right?

-Alec

p.s. Im a moran so I had to look this up.

bailiwick (plural bailiwicks)

1. The precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction; the limits of a bailiff's authority.
2. Area of authority
3. Area of interest