Renew On Line (UK) 30

Extracts from the March-April 2001 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

Wind in Scotland- ups and downs.

£17m 3MW Orkney Wind turbine blown up

The end for one of the oldest and largest turbines in the world came on Friday 11th November when it was blown up in a controlled explosion. The three megawatt two bladed Wind Energy Group turbine at Burgar Hill in Orkney was the largest of its kind when it was inaugurated in 1987 as an experimental machine, by the then Energy Minister, Mr Cecil Parkinson, now Lord Parkinson. Now the turbine, which cost £17m to build, has been brought to the ground.

The British Wind Energy Association, in nostalgic mood, said that now ‘it no longer stands testimony to the UK's history as leading pioneer of wind turbine technology’.

At the time however, there was a lot of controversy about this huge and very expensive machine, put up when the UK had very little experience with wind turbines. The Danish programme meanwhile had been focussing on small three bladed machines, rated at 200-300kW, and in the event they proved to be world beaters, and have subsequently been scaled up to 1.5MW. That’s still half the size of the Orkney machine- which has been widely seen as something of a white elephant. It did no doubt provide some general technical information and experience- though it didn’t operate for long before a crack in the blades forced its retirement. It was subsequently bought privately, repaired, and run for a while to provide power locally. But now the end has finally come.

However, the Burgar Hill site itself remains home to three NEG Micon wind turbines, currently being tested under the high wind speeds found on Orkney. Installed last April, the first two are rated at 1.5 and 2.0 megawatts and have now been joined by a newly installed 1.3MW machine. The BWEA noted that ‘the demolished turbine still sets the record for the most powerful onshore machine in the UK, and also exceeds the first offshore turbines in the UK at Blyth Offshore, rated at 2.0MW each’.

For pictures of the demolition see : http:// www.bwea.com

Scots Likes Wind

A survey of ‘Public Attitudes towards Wind farms in Scotland’ carried out by System Three Social Research, focusing on people living near Scotlands first four windfarms found that the closer people lived to windfarms the more positive was their attitude to them- a result that has emerged regularly in opinion surveys around the UK. 67% found ‘something they liked’ about the Scottish wind farms, rising to 73% amongst those living closest. Moreover, 74% found ‘nothing they disliked’ rising to 80% for those nearest.

Overall it seems that peoples worries prior to construction were often unfounded- for example 40% of the 430 or so respondents in the Scottish survey said they thought that there would be problems, but in the event only 9% reported any problems. Specifically, beforehand, 12% thought noise would be a problem, but afterwards only 1% reported any disturbance. But the survey found that the development companies had not been effective at consultation, outreach and communication with residents: 42% still only heard of the projects via the local papers, only 7% had obtained their information from the developer or local authority.