Graham

Singers, actors and even some food chains have fan bases, but it seems the last fan standing is Elaine McGonnal who loves wind turbines so much she moved house to be closer to them! Elaine says she finds the turning turbines soothing, and she moved to her new home specifically to enjoy views over one of the largest wind farms in the UK. Elaine has now thrown her support behind plans for a proposed five turbine site near her home in Forth.

Selfie with the turbine, anyone?

http://www.allmediascotland.com/media-releases/65267/super-fan-shows-support-for-local-wind-energy-project/

The UK has committed to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. According to the latest government figures, the UK is already over half way towards generating 30% of its electricity from renewables – of which more than half is being provided for by wind.

Lord Deben, the Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), stated on 28 May 2014 that there were already enough onshore wind to meet targets, however RenewableUK pointed out that not all of the onshore wind projects which have been approved will get built. In addition, the UK is only a third of the way towards its target for transport fuel, and just a fifth of the way towards its target for renewable heat.

Consequently, more onshore wind may be needed to make up for a possible shortfall in other parts of the energy mix. The CCC has previously acknowledged that onshore wind is one of the cheapest renewable technologies and public support for onshore wind has reached a record high of 70%.

The British public strongly support the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, so let’s hope all targets set by the CCC will be met and the UK will be able to wave the green flag for renewables.

Long has the image of wind turbines been a focus for public discussion, and it may be that one Dutch company has solved this problem. A Rotterdam-based firm called The Archimedes has developed the Liam F1 Urban Wind and the turbine is available to anybody with a roof. Whilst this small wind turbine may not produce a large amount of electricity, the model is certainly bringing sexy back to renewable energy. The designers wanted to make the turbines more appealing to the public and consequently this particular model is available in a range of colours.

Read the full article at http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/05/dutch_company_launches_small_w.php

Harris Interactive carried out a study in April 2014 on behalf of The Guardian, which surveyed the attitudes towards the energy market. Responses from more than 2,000 people showed that wind farms would be the most welcomed form of power source. Other sources discussed included coal, nuclear and shale gas.

Interestingly, 48 per cent of respondents said an onshore wind farm would receive positive reception if it was developed within five miles of their home. By contrast, only a fifth could say the same for a new coal powered station, 27 per cent said a new nuclear power station would be welcomed in their area and just 19 per cent supported fracking.

Despite this optimistic evidence that support is widespread throughout the UK, government data revealed there had been a sharp rise in the percentage of onshore wind farm applications being rejected.

Perhaps the main point to take away from all of this is that residents just want to be consulted. The results of the survey are certainly positive, and the implementation of stricter guidelines for community engagement may see wind energy become even more popular in the future.

Read more at http://www.theguardian.com/big-energy-debate/wind-power-popular-energy-source-uk

There was a flurry of record-breaking periods in December 2013 for wind power generation in the UK. 2,841 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity were generated by wind power for the National Grid during December. To put this into perspective, this equates to 10% of Britain’s total electricity demand for homes, businesses and factories or the equivalent of powering more than 5.7 million homes.

Other records broken included the amount of electricity generated in a week (starting Monday 16th December); with wind energy generating 783,886MWh and providing 13% of Britain’s total electricity needs that week. On Saturday 21st December, wind generated 132.8 GWh, the equivalent of 17% of the nation’s total electricity demand that day.

All the energy generated by small and medium-scale turbines (known as distributed energy or embedded generation because it is embedded in local networks) is additional to the above figures, as it is measured as a reduction in demand on the National Grid.

This news give strong confidence for the year ahead, as we continue to increase the amount of clean power generated from wind energy!