Strangford Lough Turbines

leroy123

Just came across this, I think these things should be going up everywhere, do you not think its about time we stop wreckin the place and started building more things like this?

http://www.portaferry.net/turbines.php

Whats you opinions on renewable energy?

SoupyNorman

Its a curse......Think about those poor Oil corporations, What about their billions of pounds profit!!!!!!! Jeez man try have a bit more consideration or other people.

Wertz

Wave energy is even more of a no-brainer than wind turbines, especially if you have coastline like we do.
Okay so it's initially expensive to build and you need a lot of them, but waves are never going to run out.
When we hear the UK government considering a whole new round of nuclear investment (which is much more costly and has waste safety issues involved) it beggars belief, when the UK has 3-4 times the lenght of coastline we do.

Slightly off topic, but I recall living in the US a few years ago, staying at a friend's apartment. Now when I was home most of the day (he and his g/f were at work) his electricity bill tripled, due to the fact that the air con was on all day. Here we were in a place that has ~90 degree heat and clear sunny skies for the most of the year, with people driving around in gas guzzlers and not one roof had so much as a solar panel, not even on the expensive houses. Solar power was and is expensive to set up, but the amount of wasted electricty simply going into keeping homes and businesses cool must have been huge...never mind the monetary cost, the waste of all the oil which could be better utilised for transport, air travel or plastics manafacture is a downright shame.

We're most likely too late to stop any warming and climate change we're seeing (assuming that we're even causing it) but continued procrastination by succesive governemtns the world over, on renewable energy is hurting economies and indirectly causing wars and tensions in many regions of the world.

End Rant.

leroy123

You know - I'm not really one to look into making a quick euro here or there but renewable energy has got to be a great business to get into. I honestly believe that you'll see these type of generators appearing all over the place soon along with windmills and solar panels (alright....maybe not as many solar panels!!)

Lambsbread

Generally speaking, renewable energy sources, such as tidal and wind, have much higher initial start up costs, but lower operating costs than oil & gas fired power stations. Ireland is very reliant on oil and non-renewable sources at present (mainly due to being a nuclear free-zone and having poor public transportation) and a big shift towards renewable sources is not only welcomed, but required in the future.

leroy123

Does anyone know if there are any grants or schemes available to get more houses using renewable energy?

Sleepy

That sounds far too sensible a suggestion for it to be in place in this banana republic!

Tobias Greeshman

As far as I know there are grants available, although incorporating Renewable energy into your house is still quite expensive.

There seems to be a fair bit of emphasis at the moment on Solar Technology for powering the heating of a house.

Grants: http://www.sei.ie/index.asp?locID=6&docID=-1
Solar Heating: http://www.sei.ie/index.asp?locID=264&docID=-1

leroy123

Cheers for this Silas, It's pretty expensive alright but I reckon it will balance itself out in the long term. I see they are giving out 0% loans to companies in the North for bringing in energy saving measures to their places of business