Granted, wind turbines are not everyone’s cup of tea but a lot of people find them therapeutic. OK, a nuclear power station provides us with more energy, but it takes about 20 years to construct it and bring it into operation. We have seen no financial benefit reflected in our energy bills as a consequence of our current nuclear stations but they tell us they ‘keep the lights on’. Over the past 2 years in Scotland, rather than keeping the lights on it seems we have been in the dark all our lives – politically speaking. Of course, we don’t need electricity to throw light on that, just a good old doze of scepticism, enquiry and an open mind.
Contrast this with a wind turbine. You can put it up in an afternoon (well almost). It starts operation the minute the wind blows and the cost of fuel to power it is pretty small – wind is normally about 2p per mile per hour? – no actually, it’s free. As an added bonus you can get a junior wind turbine for your back garden from B & Q. Last time I checked B & Q had stopped doing the junior, home build thermo-nuclear reactor; in case Iran bought up the lot! Of course, decommissioning the wind turbine can be pretty tricky, especially if one of the 4 bolts is ceased. In which case, a tin of WMD40 should do the trick.
Perhaps it escaped everyone’s notice that the vast majority of wind turbines, around 70 percent are in Scotland and around 25% of the total wind generated capacity in Europe. Also, the north of Scotland is one of the windiest places on earth so the proposition looks too good to be left unopposed by Westminster. After all, how else will they punish us for even asking for a referendum then having the audacity to support ourselves overwhelmingly in Parliament?
If Scotland and England were juxtaposed – ok swapped around – they would have wind farms in every town, turbines on every street corner, everyone involved would be knighted and they would begin rebuilding the empire on the back of cheap energy.
Every time Scotland get a little bit ahead of itself we get slapped down and put back in our box. And it’s not just wind power.
I remember about 2 years ago sitting at a site on the front at Kirkaldy waiting with my brother for the Clerk of Work to arrive at a site. As we sat by the side of the main road I could not help but notice the cars slowing down and waiting as a massive wave cascaded across the road and hit the wall opposite. Away in the distance, several miles I could see an oil platform. As I sat there a thought crossed my mind. We go miles out to sea, drill down thousands of feet, spend billions of pounds to suck up and extract oil that is converted into chemicals and energy. At the same time, a million times more energy that will never ever run out in the form of massive wave goes on relentlessly delivering squillions of joules of energy that is mainly untapped. Investment in this fabulous energy source has been largely curtailed. I suspect that is in case we Scots get too big for our boots or is that waves?
Like the wind, there are few places on the planet with more energetic waves than we have and it comes in, splashes its energy up the wall and leaves??
Final point on the subject. When Scotland was considering independence we were bombarded with horror stories about the future or lack of future of north sea oil – as if our oil was limited to the North Sea which it s not. We were told it was fast running out – although since then I have seen evidence that suggests it is not even a finite resource as it is constantly regenerating. On the other hand, we have vast resources of wind turbine power. However, as we grieve the loss of our summer – which really is dwindling away – I read that because of the high winds our turbine generation is up by 50%. Think perhaps the red tops missed that, but then how could they possibly print something that is good news. Of course they could claim that the gearboxes will wear out quicker because of the high winds??
See you all in the exit lobby?
Not a joke folks. Listening to RT as normal and Peter Lavell was hosting a discussion on the new cold war. Unlike Cuba, this time the US are amassing vast weaponry along the Ukrainian border. Lets hope Russia is less paranoid than America. We know that Russia is more than capable of destroying the US but they wont take out Trident with a direct hit on Washington – that will be Helensburgh.
Must go – I have a 200 foot deep shelter to dig!