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Green light given for Europe's largest onshore wind farm



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Published Date: 21 July 2008
The Scottish Government has given the go-ahead for a massive wind farm development.


First Minister Alex Salmond said the 152-turbine Clyde wind farm near Abington in South Lanarkshire would be capable of powering up to 320,000 homes.

This development will bring £600 million of investment while during construction the project is expected to create 200 jobs, with approximately 30 staff employed when fully operational.

Speaking ahead of the World Renewable Energy Congress in Glasgow, the First Minister said:

"The Clyde wind farm will represent a very important step in the development of renewable energy in Scotland and in meeting shared European targets. It is another step towards making Scotland the green energy capital of Europe.

"The Scottish Government has an ambitious target to generate 31 per cent of Scotland's electricity demand from renewable sources by 2011 and 50 per cent by 2020.

"Today's announcement makes it virtually certain that the 2011 target will be met early and exceeded by the end of this Parliamentary term and represents a significant milestone on the way to achieving the 2020 target.

"Scotland has a clear, competitive advantage in developing clean, green energy sources such as wind, wave and tidal power.

"We have put renewable energy at the heart of our vision of increasing sustainable, economic growth.

"Installed renewables capacity is already greater than nuclear capacity. But this announcement demonstrates that we are only at the start of the renewables revolution in Scotland. Combined with the crucial announcement of a new biomass plant in Fife on Friday, the Clyde declaration today makes this weekend one of the biggest advances ever in energy technology in Scotland."

The Clyde wind farm will be built in clusters of turbines on either side of the M74 motorway.

It will have a total capacity of 548 Megawatts (MW). At present, the largest consented wind farm in Scotland is Whitelee, on Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow, which is currently under construction and will have a total capacity of 322MW. Currently the biggest operational wind farm in Europe is the Maranchon windfarm in Guadalajara, Spain which has a generating capacity of 208 MW.

The full article contains 364 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 21 July 2008 1:31 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Neil,

Glasgow 21/07/2008 14:07:34
No mention of how much subsidy will have to go into getting this "£600 million investment". My guess would be at least £3 billion over time.

It is a 548 MW farm which will, we are told, power 320,000 homes ie 1.6 kw per home - enough to run a 1 bar electic fire, a couple of lightbulbs but the fridge will have to be turned off if the TV or internet is on.

Except that, yet again, figures are being used dishonstly. Windmills only produce about 27% of their rated power because it isn't always, or even often, optimimly windy so 3 days out of 4 those houses would be blacked out.
2

A Clamper,

Edinburgh 21/07/2008 14:25:24
Nice one Alex, ignore the whingers.
3

Neil,

Glasgow 21/07/2008 14:39:31
Indeed Alex ignore the facts.

After all you will be retired & back in London in 2015 when the lights go out so it won't be your fault.
4

An Greumach Mor,

Scotland 21/07/2008 14:43:32
Only by investing in the technology will we make it more and more efficient as time passes. Clean, renewable and potentially sellable.

Tidal, hydro, wind, solar they are all out their to be invested in.
5

Rev. S. Campbell,

Bath 21/07/2008 14:45:05
Those homes won't, of course, actually be specifically relying on the windfarm - the figure is just an illustration. The homes will be supplied by the national grid like everywhere else, and so won't be "blacked out" as you so melodramatically suggest. Nobody's proposing a 100%-renewables energy policy, because such a thing is impractical. But 31% and 50%, with other non-weather-dependent sources making up the difference, is perfectly viable.
6

A Clamper,

Edinburgh 21/07/2008 14:47:45
What facts? You whingers always say "when the lights go out" as if the renewable being reported on is all that will supply the electricity, instead of it being a step towards greater use of green, clean, energy whilst reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
7

Embra Don,

21/07/2008 14:48:15
1 Neil, Glasgow

Actually wind turbines run at over 40% of their capacity in Scotland. Compare that with 59% for the real subsidy junkies - the nuclear plants. http://www.psiru.org/reports/2005-09-E-Nuclear.pdf
(table 6 on page 8)
Bear in mind that these figures for the nukes run from start up date - they incur cost from the start of the commissioning process - usually about 10 yrs earlier. Even with the obscene capital cost written of and exempt from public liability insurance and de-commissioning costs, they still needed bailing out.
8

Embra Don,

21/07/2008 14:50:25
#7 sorry - written OFF!
9

Traquir , Alba,

21/07/2008 14:54:38
Excellent move by the SNP Government. Changing topics
since some troll has destroyed the main Glasgow East
thread I might as well post here.


Here is a topic of importance to the Glasgow East by-election which the Scotsman appears to have
forgot to cover.

From the London Times :

"Ministers face rebellion as benefits reform unveiled"

"plans to abolish the Incapacity Benefit system - aiming to take millions of people off "the sick" and get them back into work - marked the biggest shake-up of the welfare state since the 1940s."

"Incapacity Benefit will be abolished by 2013 and Income Support will also be scrapped, with a simplified system of two benefits replacing them: "

"Lone parents with children aged seven or more will be expected to seek work, while the long-term unemployed will face US-style "work for dole" programmes requiring them to undertake useful activities to ensure they make a "fair contribution" in return for state support."

"Labour backbenchers are expected to oppose the reforms"

"David Cameron, said the proposals left him "thrilled"."

see - tinyurl.com/5mkkw7

So yet again we have the faux socialists acting more like Tories -
they have embraced nuclear weapons, wars of aggression,
Thatcher and now Tory style radical and "thrilling" overhaul
of social care.

Not exactly surprising that they are holding this information back
until after Thursday.

The Unions are also bitterly opposed to this, from the TUC :

"proposals for workfare that force unemployed people to work on community service schemes in return for their benefits, "

"'Workfare policies do nothing to benefit wider society. The economy needs more people in real jobs with real wages to spend, boosting the economy and creating more jobs."

"'This is a curiously old-fashioned policy. This may have been cutting edge when the economy was doing well, but will now frighten everyone worried about their job prospects.'"

see - tinyurl.com/6z3ena

Yep
10

Traquir , Alba,

21/07/2008 14:54:53
cont.

Yep - as Ms Curran says "Labour on your side" of course by
"your" they mean the Tories and David Cameron. The good
people of Glasgow East should know what is afoot
here - well before Thursday. Just as well the SNP has
so many activists on the ground - should not be a problem
getting the word out :)

Of course the right wing Unionistas amongst us
will tell us this is all for our own good. Kind
of like how the imposed Thatcher era was for
Scotland's own good. Yep another Union dividend
right wing policies imposed on Scotland against
the will of the vast majority (~80%) of the people,
yep that is democracy British Style. Basically
do anything and everything as long as the
sacrosanct Union is preserved.

Saor Alba
11

MacGillicuddy,

21/07/2008 16:01:47
An excellent step forward by our progressive Scottish Government. I hope it totally ignores the whingers, whiners and nimbys who would see us return to the stone age.
12

Neil,

Glasgow 21/07/2008 16:22:30
Rev #5 the figure may indeed be, as Peter Mandelson once said about a lie he told about the Dome, merely "illustrative" but that does not prevent it being a wholly unture "illustration". For these windmills to be "capable of powering up to 320,000 homes as so illustratively alleged they would have to be producing at full capacity all the time. To say that they will is a deliberate untruth.

You have also, conceivably accidentally, misread what I wrote. I did not say, as you claim, that there "will" be blackouts purely from this cause but that there "would" be blackouts 3 full days out of 4 IF these houses had to rely purely on the "illustrative" promise made here.

Embra #7 while I accept your claims of the price of nuclear & the alleged capacity of Scottish windmills to work 50% more often than those anywhere else on the world as representing the very highest standard of honesty to be expected from the pensioner freezing parasites of the eco lobby it is in no way truthful.

#11 You may well be right that our glorious SNP leadership will ignore all those whingers & whiners who say that the laws of physics will apply even in an independent Scotland. Unfortunately forcing pensioners to walk on water will have exactly the same result as current SNP policy of freezing them to death
13

The Tin Man,

21/07/2008 16:27:41
#11 MacGillicuddy

It is only being built because of the grant to wind-farms from the Westminster government. The only other government involvement is planning permission from the local authority. What on Earth has the Scottish Gov got to do with it in practical terms?
14

lou from niagara,

Niagara Falls Canada 21/07/2008 16:30:03
Only in Scotland can a news release about a renewable energy investment turn into a warning about losing benefits in a by-election. As Macgillicuddy #11 said get out of the stone age and get with the future. As far as Traquir, the idea is that everybody that can is supposed to work and to help those who can't help themselves. What part of that don't you get.
15

The Tin Man,

21/07/2008 16:36:58
Never mind the Scottish Gov. - you can read the real story in the latest Private Eye.
16

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 16:41:44
Embra Don, and you missed out that hunterston only achieved 13% of its capable output, therefore , based on Neils argument against wind (poor inefficiency and excessive subsidies) we must abandon nuclear now.

Neil 12, and that is exactly the point, we do not rely on one technology, we ahve a diverisfied portfolio of genreation. Nuclear is such a financial drain that it excludes investment in other technologies and we end up like the French, permanently over generating, exporting at a loss and dusting down old oil fired stations cos we don't have an affordable alternative.
17

The Tin Man,

21/07/2008 16:42:54
Scottish Gov spokesman says that it is windy in Scotland and a Power Company can get it's income from wind-generated power doubled through Westminster government subsidies....

....and people whine about the rising cost of electricity...
18

Neil,

Glasgow 21/07/2008 16:53:37
Sogul warns lest "we end up like the French, permanently over generating, exporting at a loss".

Doubtless eating snails too. The French have no electricity shortage, no prospect of blackouts & are doing very nicely by exporting the electricity they make at 1.3p a unit for less than the 6p windfarms need for it. The French are not keeping the lights on in Germany merely because they like them.

A "diversified portfolio" is only of use if there is somethiog in it.
19

Bejjy,

21/07/2008 17:01:11
#9 & 10 Traquir, Alba

Even though you are totally off topic as per usual your comments @ 9 & 10 are a disgrace even by your low standards. So you think it is OK that thousands of Scots (as well as those in the rest of the UK) who are able to work but choose not to in favour of lazing around whilst drawing benefits from a system which a lot of the younger scroungers have probably never contributed to. If you do think that that is perfectly Ok then you are totally out of touch with the thinking of Joe Public. Or is it just your underhand way of having a dig at the British Government who after all only supply the tax payers money to keep scroungers idle. What exactly is your problem about people who are able to work being made to do so rather than living off the earnings of those of us who get off our butts to earn a living. In your brave new independent Scotland will it be OK for those who choose not to work not to do so? If so, I want none of it.
20

The Tin Man,

21/07/2008 17:11:27
#9, #10

Vote SNP for Socialism!

Really?
21

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 17:15:56
18 Neil, grow up, the very fact that you have to resort to petty name twisting is just evidence of the fact that you only get exited about nuclear between squeezing plooks. you are a one trick pony that is intent on leaving a legacy for generations to come of undisposable waste and financial ruin. Already the energy required to mine and refine uranium, plus the transport, management and disposal of the waste place nuclear in a energy deficeit.

Notice you are trying to distract from Hunterston's pitiful output. Torness wasn't that very much better was it?
22

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 17:20:21
18 A "diversified portfolio" is only of use if there is somethiog in it.

By that you mean nuclear. Thankfully there are peopple with vision and their eye on the long term in Scotland who are not in the pockets of the nuclear industry. We can have an effective diversified and dispersed portfolio, it is already happening around you and not just the large wind projects. the mitchelin factory turbines in Dundee, the paper mill in glenrothes, the landfill gas community system in dunfermline, the lerwick community heating system, providing affordable energy to households and industry.
23

New Town Resident,

21/07/2008 17:44:49
-13. absolutely correct on the Scottish government. The only involvement the Holyrood administration has in this is that they have not called in the decision of the local authority to grant planning permission.

However you are wrong to say that Westminster pays the huge subsidy. Actually it comes off all our electricity bills across the GB system, so 90% of it is paid directly by the English electricity consumer, a highly regressive tax. If it were just to be paid for by Scottish consumers then power prices in Scotland would have to rise more than five fold. I'm sure Salmond understands this perfectly well which is why I'm so suspicious of his sloganising to the uninformed.

Such a waste of money to deal with a largely non-existent problem. But it seems like they will continue to get away with it with the poor quality main stream media merely recyscling press releases.
24

Neil,

Glasgow 21/07/2008 18:13:25
Sogul stop resorting to purely personal & dishonest insults, I have never done so to you you lying pensioner murdering eco-Nazi.

The fact that Hunterston is aging is your best argument for not building a replacement but it is rather poor. Even the Greens & SNP now wish to keep it going for as long as possible, implicitly acknowledging that everything they ever said about nuclear being dangerous was deliberate lies. This merely delays blackouts it does nothing to stop them.

The elements in your "portfolio" are all so tiny as to be laughable. Scotland is going to lose half our electricty capacity (3MW) & a paper mill in Glenrothes, or even 1,000 of they will not replace it. Presumably that is why you keep the "portfolio" closed.
25

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 18:31:11
oh nelly, what you like, you make me laugh.
26

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 18:36:34
right Nelly, i am not sure school of fascist luddism you are aiming for once you get out of nappies but you are just deliberately blind to a non-nuclear future.

I live in a house with a gas boiler. when it reaches the end of its days i will replace it with a heat pump of some discription. The same applies to the existing generation portfolio we have in Scotland, we get as much use out of it as possible before closing them down.

Yet again you rale against a diversified and dispersed technology becuase you lack vision and imagination. you throw out a few examples because you deem them insufficient, when in reality they are a small part of a growing range of projects which will collectively make your nuclear stations redunandant, well they are already unnnecessary
27

sm753,

21/07/2008 18:36:43
I really get tired when wind farms are described in terms of how many "x,000" homes they will power. Can we be a bit more technically literate?

This thing is to be 548 MW and will have a load factor of, say, 30% (and that's generous).

So in a year that will be 548 x 24 x 365 x 30% = 1.44 TWh.

A new nuclear station would be 1500 MW, run at 80% load factor and cost about the same on a per-MW basis. It would put out 1500 x 24 x 365 x 80% = 10.5 TWh.

UK annual demand is something like 300 TWh; Scotland around 30.

Now that's more like it. It starts to show how it takes a LOT of big fans on sticks to make a significant difference to anything.
28

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 18:45:46
sm753
now can you do your sums on the energy required to mine and extract and refine uranium from ore?
29

KampungHighlander,

Jakarta 21/07/2008 19:22:26
#27 SMS753

To construct that windfarm will cost 600 million.
Over its 20 year life in will cost 40 million to maintain. When it reached the end of its service life it can be decommissioned for the cost of the scrap.

Total Cost 640 million of todays pounds. Or 445 million per TWH

Your Nuclear Plant will cost between 3 and 5 Billion to Build. Over its 20 year life it will cost 4 billion to operate. A Safe storage facility for the waste that it produces will cost 10 Billion. When it reaches the end of its life in 20 years and needs to be decommissioned it will cost 25 Billion.

Total cost 37- 39 Billion in todays dollars. Or 3.52 Billion per TWH.

I know why Neil likes Nuclear, he hates his Grandkids and enjoys the thought of sticking them with decommissioning bill for his "cheap" nuclear option.

30

Rev. S. Campbell,

Bath 21/07/2008 19:24:39
#27 "It starts to show how it takes a LOT of big fans on sticks to make a significant difference to anything."

So what? If there's one thing we've got in this country (and in the seas around it), it's empty space.
31

Hugo of Garven,

21/07/2008 20:04:34
#7 Embra Don

Have just had a quick read of the document you quoted on the website

http://www.psiru.org/reports/2005-09-E-Nuclear.pdf
(table 6 on page 8)

I recommend it for anyone seriously interested in the renewables/nuclear debate. The report seems unbiased and I am willing to accept it as such until someone can provide evidence to the contrary.

Thank you for providing the reference.
32

JayDeeTee,

21/07/2008 20:54:53
Whoever owns this land will become very rich. Is the going rate not at least £10k a year for each of these fans?
33

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 21:18:36
JaydeeTee and you think no one will get rich from the nuclear weighted alternative, Blair's pals in the states, Broon's family on the continent. This is about looking to the future and taking responsibility for our own reactions instead of sumping on coming generations. Uranium, like coal, gas and oil is a finite resource, and despite the fools that think we cna extract uranium from sea water there are those that have a more realistic view of the future.
34

Saoghal Beag,

21/07/2008 21:21:27
that was dumping, not sumping, but not far from the truth
35

Longdirk Maceth,

NZ 21/07/2008 21:29:53
For the pro Nuke lobby, read this and say that nuclear power is worth it!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/defects-found-in-nuclear-reactor-the-french-want-to-build-in-britain-808461.html

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/-BE39s-repair-bill-for.4301635.jp

I await your response Neil.
And I for your imformation are a real eco-nazi.
36

John S,

21/07/2008 22:05:11
Scotlands energy demand - The power required on that one day (usually the coldest day of the year) of max demand is between 2,000MW to 5,000MW and on the min demand day (usually the warmest day of the year) 1,800MW to 3,000MW. Load demand varies on a hourly/daily/season basis.
Scotland has about 11,000MW of electricity generation capacity.
Our present nuclear power stations cannot follow the fluctuations in demand they have to be base load, this is were our coal fired power stations and to a lesser extent our hydro PS's are I would say essential ie flexibility.Wether we like it or not with nuclear and wind power we still need power generation flexible enough to follow the grid demand and unless the new generation of nuclear PS's can take over this role this will mean we still need our coal fired power stations or some other way of generating electricty to follow grid demands.
Want to know how balanced is the UK grid at the moment ?
visit:- http://tinyurl.com/25wmes
37

ianH,

Balerno 21/07/2008 23:32:19
Lots of hot air here , can almost taste the venom If any one is really interested you can find the windfarm generation figures here http://www.ref.org.uk/Files/ref.red.wind.06.08.pdf
A couple are very good but most are not as good as claimed
38

Neil,

Glasgow 22/07/2008 16:17:24
Heresy is prosected in religion not science.

If windmillery could stand on its own the eco-Nazis would not have to resort to lies, personal insults & scummy rags like the Indie in their call for ever more billions in subsidy & for nuclear to be artificially restrained. Let us remember when Nicol Stephen advised us that nuclear is the easy option & must thus be destroyed becuase if it isn't the proles will never be persuaded to pay for all the subsidies the eco-Nazi parasties want.
39

,

07/08/2008 12:47:36
Comment Removed By Administrator
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