Friday, October 14

My energy bill is going up thanks to the Tories

Carbon taxes on my green energy supply mean my energy bill is going to increase.

Only the Tories would scupper good ideas that make this nation great.

Oh joy.

Sunday, October 2

Energy with a future and for our future

The fact is wind energy and Great Britain go together. Before the fall from 'Greatness' we harnessed the wind to build the British Empire. Wind is what powered the Royal Navy and hence made Britain Great.

40% of Europes wind resources are found in British territory. If wind were oil or coal then nations would be fighting for access to use this resource. Access to fossil fuels drove Germany and Japan during WWII, but today in Great Britain a minority of people drive the campaign to make us dependent on imported fossil and nuclear fuels.

As this video points out, the government has put in place legislation to stop the wind energy industry from being economically self supporting. Their alternative is to invest in extremely expensive nuclear energy funded by a European nation and China as well as the last dregs of gas in British rocks. Worse still, the science and design of these expensive nuclear white elephants is to be conducted by the foreign investors. This shows how poor we are in engineering and science skills today, the very thing that 'fuels' the development of mobile phones, computers and cars that British citizens love to buy.





There are a number of factors that make the UK the best place for wind.

1. We sit on one of the Earths wind belts which is located at a latitude of 60 degrees. At this belt, air from the Arctic and from the 30 degree latitude fall onto us, the Coriolis Effect makes the Arctic air come from the East (Polar Easterlies) and the 30 degree latitude air from the West (Prevailing Westerlies). These facts also determine how sailing vessels travel across the Atlantic.

2. Other factors include the Jet Streams (very fast winds in the upper atmosphere) and the Gulf Stream (warm water stream passing across the Atlantic). The Gulf Stream tends to keep Britain warmer than it normally should be at our latitude.

The following map shows the distribution of wind resources across Europe.

 

A few wind energy web pages and resources:

http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/03-04/wind/content/wind%20resource.html
http:/www.berr.gov.uk/files/file17789.pdf 
https://www.energy.eu/publications/a07.pdf