Tuesday 29 June 2010

Renewable Energy - Waste of fucking time

Just ask the residents of the Isle of Eigg.

esidents on the Isle of Eigg have been trying to use household appliances less after a lack of rain affected its hydro power schemes.

The island community has won awards for its renewable power projects, which charge batteries to provide homes with electricity.

Eigg Heritage Trust secretary Maggie Fyffe said islanders were using items such as toasters as little as possible.


Are you sure you want the UK to have renewable energy generation after reading this? The Greenie sandalistas need to wake up and smell the fucking coffee. Green energy might make them feel cosy inside but the inconvenient truth is that it's just not something you can rely on and it costs a fucking fortune. And does this mean we'll have a ban on toasters and electric power showers if we go for a totally renewable power supply?

The telegraph reports that

The trust is now planning to spend part of its £300,000 share of the prize money on more solar panels to prevent a repeat of the shortages in future years.


Which still won't be enough.

Nuclear is currently the only way forward. When will the environmentalists learn?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I assume you are not saying hydro is not effective??? It produces huge amounts of energy for many countries.

Bristol Dave said...

No, I'm saying that a country with our power demands and our location cannot rely on renewable energy alone, despite the sandalista's insistance that we can, and arrogant demands that we don't even debate the idea of nuclear power.

Unless you know different?

Anonymous said...

So renewable energy is not a 'waste of fucking time'.

Bristol Dave said...

It is for the UK. It costs too much (in both initial outlay and ongoing maintenance), isn't dependable, generates a very poor amount of energy for the cost and there are frankly better alternatives. Like nuclear power, for example. The French know it, which is why they are now world leaders in the fucking stuff and why we've missed the boat. Hell, the Russians knew it as well, they were just too stupid, cheap, and frankly Communist to pull it off.

It's not a waste of time for everyone - I'm sure some African village with 1 TV between the lot of them would get on just dandy with a wind turbine. If they could even think about affording it, of course.

Anonymous said...

Go research it so more, energy mix yes. Hydro is used very effectively in industrialized nations.

John Whitley said...

To be fair we need to get our energy from a variety of sources: nuclear, hydro, tidal and yes even wind turbines for small communities. Clearly an advanced nation such as ours will never survive on renewables but let's also not put all our eggs into the nuclear basket. That seems to be a fairly sensible approach.

We can start by building that fucking Severn Barrage. Enough of the bitching from the nimbyites and whingers. Yes, it's expensive but did anyone say it was cheap?

AngryDave said...

Renewable energy is not a cost effective means, or reliable enough for a country with our demands. Even if we combined sources the space it would take up would be too great.
The idea of combining nuclear with renewables is a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. If we had nuclear power stations we would not need the renewable.
Nuclear power creates no emissions, and can be done safely as long as you don't cut corners. The waste is highly toxic and remains so for a long time, but it produces so little. There is also research being sponsored by the nuclear power companies to develop bacteria that actually feed on radioactive waste and break it down into less harmful components with a shorter life.
Maybe in enough time they will solve the problem all together. Necessity always proceeds innovation.

Bristol Dave said...

If we had nuclear power stations we would not need the renewable.

^^ This.

Rufus Cole said...

It's not exactly progressive to think that private residents should be forever constrained to paying gigantic bills from energy companies. Renewable energy sources allow independence for the individuals who don't want to be reliant on the grid or face ever rising energy prices. If nuclear power was the only solution, then you're pretty much putting your future in the monopoly of energy production by a select few.

solar panels gloucester

Anonymous said...

What a crock of rhetorical shit I'm reading

You've no clue on renewables and if you get all your details from an already skeptical press then more the fool you.

The realiabilty of an aggregated renewable source, such as many wind farms, is a lot lot higher and more secure than you'd think. There's a reason Scotland, with 25% of Europe's wind potential, is investing in becoming world leaders with the tech. And with 35% of it's electricity generation from renewables last year, it works. Fact. And I don't remember any blackouts last year.

What caused this problem wasn't renewable energy technology, but poor integration - due to it being an island for one reason. But by all means, spout the rhetoric, that's all it is, that does nothing but display your ignorance.

Anyway, I better get back to my power flow calculations - you know, the stuff that actually matters regarding renewable generation.

It works, it's far more reliable than you think, and an important and often overlooked feature is that wind farm reliability is aggregated a cross the country. I think you should go read some studies and get clued up about it before spouting the popular anti-green nonsense. Your opinion counts for nil in comparison to fact. And I'm all for nuclear too, but you can't have an entire nation on nuclear - that's got it's own headaches with load following and frequency response.

Mixed generation is the key. And so is an educated public.