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

Conservatives start their attack on wind farms

Today the Conservatives launched their promised attack on the nations current primary energy weapon against climate change.

Planning decisions regarding large onshore wind energy projects are now to be handed over to the nations anti-wind farm Conservative rural councils. Hampshire County Council have a backward thinking elite that oppose wind turbines. They have previously banned them on HCC owned land, which effectively means they will oppose any wind energy project in Hampshire.

At a time when the indicators of climate change are actually increasing dramatically with record drought in California, dramatic reductions in ice on the Antarctic peninusla and a continued downward spiral of Arctic ice.

It is not a time for the political game players and mis-representers to mess around with fact and science based policies. The Conservatives are showing just how cowardly and manipulative they are.

Arctic sea ice heading for record minimum?

Please take some time to view the Arctic ice graph in the right column of this blog.
It is updated automatically and currently shows a massive drop in sea ice extent compared to the 2011-2012 record minimum.

The graph is produced by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

If it continues it will be big news, or should be if the BBC were not so politically biased against climate change news reporting these days!

Robert Swan talks about climate change and the Antarctic

Inspiring talk by Robert Swan (not an environmentalist) and his life long project to protect the Arctic and Antarctic:

Cold wet weather - caused by global warming?

Over the last 12 months we have seen miserable weather. Dull, cloudy, cool and wet (to an extreme in some places).

The question is, what is causing it?

There appears to be growing evidence or early indicators that the warming of the Arctic and melting of sea ice are looking like significant factors (along with some others such as the Arctic Oscillation) in generating the cold weather this winter and spring. Last year we saw some extreme weather caused by the jetstream moving further south than normal. This pushes the warm weather further south and draws the colder wetter weather down over the UK.

The same problem is causing the cold weather this spring. The jetstream is further south than normal, sucking cold weather south with it.

In 2010 the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research sent out a press release on new research that indicated a tripling in probability that reduced sea ice cover in the Arctic will cause extreme cold winters over Europe and North Asia.

Last year, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research announced similar findings, stating "Even if the current weather situation may seem to speak against it, the probability of cold winters with much snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer"

And in the Guardian yesterday Jennifer Francis, professor at the Rutgers Institute of Coastal and Marine Science was reported as saying that a growing number of researchers think that the shrinking ice and exposed warming seas of the Arctic are responsible for pushing the jetstream south. She warned in September last year that the shrinking ice could result in a cold winter.

As the evidence builds up, it could be that the initial effects of the extreme aspects of global warming are that we (the UK) have colder duller winters and springs. We will have to wait and see what summer brings this year and more importantly how often this type of weather occurs..