Dash for gas or blow in the wind? (From York Press)
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Dash for gas or blow in the wind?
8:39am Monday 24th September 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter
THE new gas-fired power station in Pembrokeshire is capable of producing electricity for 3.5million homes and is described as one of Europe’s largest and most efficient combined cycle gas-turbine plants.
The last census shows 3.6 million people in Wales. On these figures there will be fewer than 3.5 million homes, which leaves plenty for Welsh industries and others use.
There are other liquid gas and natural gas-powered stations in Wales, some commissioned and some to be so.
The question is, with this huge amount of reliable source of energy provision in Wales, why is there any need for the “when the wind blows” turbines, of which there are many springing up?
The wind turbines will never supply even a small percentage of electricity the new gas-fired power stations can and will.
Incidentally, natural gas in all its forms is still being discovered, so it should be available for quite a long time in the future.
J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.
Comments(4)
The Great Buda
says...
11:04am Mon 24 Sep 12
ColdAsChristmas
says...
3:53pm Tue 25 Sep 12
Incidentally, with wind turbines it's not just a question of if the wind blows at all but also if the wind is too strong.
Why are we wasting our money on wind and solar, solar gives you least when you need it most and like wind would not even get a look in without the heavy subsidies imposed on your energy bill. Hydro on the other hand is sustainable and 80% efficient and makes perfect sense, so why are we waiting? I'll tell you why, because we have targets set by the carbon phobics to have 20% renewables by 2020. The above plus stuffing your petrol with damaging and again subsidied ethanol gets a quick fix regardless of the facts and cost. Open you eyes!
Magicman!
says...
2:52am Fri 28 Sep 12
In addition to Shale Gas, we have gas platforms on the Irish and North seas - oh wait, a certain government party sold those off for quick profit didn't they??
Wind power doesn't work - if there's not enough wind there's no generation, if it's too windy the turbines have to have the brake applied otherwise they spin so fast they blow up (youtube footage available) sending bits of metal several hundred feet.
It would be better to place hydro-electric turbines by all the reservoirs we have at present to see how much power we can get from those... and then if we ever ended up with big flood drain pipelines which run with fast flowing water to avert flooding then extra turbines could be placed in those to get more power to compensate for more lights being used as it'd be dull if it's raining. we have more floods than droughts, and more rain than wind.
Zetkin says...
10:57am Mon 24 Sep 12
"should be available"? What if it isn't?
Easy words from J Beisly, but no indication of his/her alternatives if gas from overseas isn't as reliable as s/he imagines, or if not quite as much new natural gas is discovered as s/he expects.
Fossil fuels are finite and will run out sooner or later.
Therefore we need to develop alternatives.
Whether land-based wind turbines are capable of being that alternative is another debate, but to imagine we can carry on burning gas until the end of time is patently absurd.