Ireland to build 'giant' wind turbines to power UK homes

Scarlet42

Why doesn't this really surprise me ..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21147279

"UK and Irish ministers will today sign an agreement that could see some of the world's largest wind turbines built across the Irish midlands.
Stretching more than 600 feet (180 metres) in the air, the towers are set to generate energy for millions of UK homes from 2017.
The companies involved say the Irish power is a cheaper form of renewable than UK offshore wind.
But environmentalists have described the scheme as "crazy".
They say it risks damaging Ireland's landscape.
Under the plan, a number of companies are seeking to erect hundreds of wind turbines across the boggy midlands of Ireland. The power generated would be transferred to the UK via undersea cables that would join the grid at two points in Wales."

Richard Tol, professor of economics at University of Sussex, said he felt that the whole scheme was "crazy" and would not work in the long term .
"From an Irish perspective this is not selling the family silver; this is giving it away. There is no money staying in Ireland that I can see.
"But from the British perspective it is a good deal," he said.


WTF!

Quazzie

It provides green electricity. It's one of the best things to happen to this country. They are being built across the bogs of Ireland which due to EU rulings can't be used anymore to produce turd so is unusable for anything else. Plus it creates jbs. What exactly is your problem with it?

TouchingVirus

Now there's a protest I'd participate in - the scale of this plan is simply too big

SEPT 23 1989

600 feet and 800 years:D

Captain Chaos

Quazzie wrote: »

What exactly is your problem with it?

How about actually using the power for ourselves before exporting it. Cut our own costs first then worry about others.

Scarlet42

I have no problem with Green Energy ..but why is it being shipped out to GB??

Feathers

Quazzie wrote: »

It provides green electricity. It's one of the best things to happen to this country. They are being built across the bogs of Ireland which due to EU rulings can't be used anymore to produce turd so is unusable for anything else. Plus it creates jbs. What exactly is your problem with it?

Surely any deal to do this should be publicly owned where we collectively can reap the rewards, rather than Shell scenario all over again?

admiralofthefleet

should have been done years ago and included the coastlines as well

elefant

I don't know the full details of this scheme, but I've long believed that we should build thousands of wind turbines in Ireland. Clean energy that can be sold if a surplus is produced, and many many jobs to go with it.

I was struck travelling across Germany by the sheer number of wind turbines stretching across the horizon as far as I could see. Almost 100,000 people are employed by the wind-power sector in Germany, and the turbines weren't a major eyesore as far as I'm concerned either.

Kylo Ren

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Now there's a protest I'd participate in - the scale of this plan is simply too big

You'd be blown away at the sheer size of them.

dodderangler

Quazzie wrote: »

It provides green electricity. It's one of the best things to happen to this country. They are being built across the bogs of Ireland which due to EU rulings can't be used anymore to produce turd so is unusable for anything else. Plus it creates jbs. What exactly is your problem with it?

So nothing lives in bogs?
That what your saying. its useless and nothing lives in bogs and what of the land beside it and the eyesore it'll be aswell

gallag

Thanks for this lads, pints are on us next time.

Wow, this one seems to be drawing in the intelligentsia already. Protest what, exactly? It seems to be "too big"??

Jesus.


In other news, welcome to the 21st century.

smash

Quazzie wrote: »

They are being built across the bogs of Ireland which due to EU rulings can't be used anymore to produce turd so is unusable for anything else.

Quazzie

Captain Chaos wrote: »

How about actually using the power for ourselves before exporting it. Cut our own costs first then worry about others.

Scarlet42 wrote: »

I have no problem with Green Energy ..but why is it being shipped out to GB??

Feathers wrote: »

Surely any deal to do this should be publicly owned where we collectively can reap the rewards, rather than Shell scenario all over again?

The simple answer to all this is we don't have the money to invest in the infrastructure for these, whereas the Brits do. They pay for them, and then they buy the production of them off of us. Plus they pay the rent to local land owners for the land thats used.

kneemos

700 turbines 600 feet high?let the brits put them on their own land,an absolute scar on the landscape,will never happen.

PseudoFamous

I don't understand why people call wind turbines an eyesore. They're less of an eyesore than smoke stack, and they don't stink up the place. In fact, what else was there going to be in these areas? The alternative is *nothing*, and such wastage of resources is a crime in itself.

yaargh8

**** this is gonna cause trouble . Does don quixote know about this yet ?

kneemos

I thought the bogs were protected?

Quazzie

Half of the people calling them eyesores are living in poxy looking mock georgian bungalows dotted along every road in Ireland.

There is no doubt about which is more of an eyesore to me./

gallag

kneemos wrote: »

700 turbines 600 feet high?let the brits put them on their own land,an absolute scar on the landscape,will never happen.

Cheeky rapscallion, can you not see what an honour this is?

admiralofthefleet

me and my fayher in law were talking to a load of Portuguese lads a few weeks back that were here installing turbines in bunclody in wexford. the supervisor was telling us most wind turbines in Ireland arent connected to the grid
the electricity should definitely be sold to the uk and not just exported

Scarlet42

Quazzie wrote: »

The simple answer to all this is we don't have the money to invest in the infrastructure for these, whereas the Brits do. They pay for them, and then they buy the production of them off of us. Plus they pay the rent to local land owners for the land thats used.

Yeah ...lets sell our soul to the devil!

On the flip side, they might be able to get something done over at the Corrib now that all the dole junkies will have a new Satan (that dastardly and horrid renewable energy) to target.

admiralofthefleet

Quazzie wrote: »

Half of the people calling them eyesores are living in poxy looking mock georgian bungalows dotted along every road in Ireland.

There is no doubt about which is more of an eyesore to me./

NIMBY's the lot of them

admiralofthefleet

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

NIMBY's the lot of them

Moron, is the word I would use.

hardCopy

The headline should really read: "Ireland finds a way to make money from our ****ty weather, Brits pay millions"

elefant

Scarlet42 wrote: »

Yeah ...lets sell our soul to the devil!

Are we really going to start referring to Britain as 'the devil' here? Or to wind as our 'souls'?

What if we sold the energy to France? Is that okay?

Scarlet42

kneemos wrote: »

I thought the bogs were protected?

they are .. for Her Majesty .. an EU ruling no less..

kneemos

Dig out concrete bases for these things and construct a roadway to service each turbine that's the end of the bog.

kneemos

elefant wrote: »

Are we really going to start referring to Britain as 'the devil' here? Or to wind as our 'souls'?

What if we sold the energy to France? Is that okay?

No.

sfwcork

How much cash is this bringing in?

GalwayGuy2

They say it risks damaging Ireland's landscape.

I can think of worse environmental damage.

Um aren't we selling it...

they are .. for Her Majesty .. an EU ruling no less..

Nice and unbiased...

Cienciano

Dey tuk ar wind

yaargh8

Why are people complaining . We are selling wind its hilarious . Now we just have to figure out how to sell sand to the arabs .

Bipolar Joe

Here is an honest question to everyone against any sort of money making scheme; how do you propose Ireland starts generating income? We have basically no money, it's all too clear that the magical disappearing money isn't going to magically reappear, so what are your plans for Ireland to start having an economy again?

Dodge

the use of inverted commas in the headline

Ireland to build 'giant' wind turbines to power UK homes

makes me think we're actually building tiny wind turbines and the OP is using them sarcastically.

I'm not reading the rest of the post as I like this image too much

Fratton Fred

kneemos wrote: »

I thought the bogs were protected?

not the ones that produce turds, they're crap

Quazzie

kneemos wrote: »

Dig out concrete bases for these things and construct a roadway to service each turbine that's the end of the bog.

Unknown to most the roads in a lot of the locations to be used have ben upgraded over the last three years. Yet another upside to the local residents.

CucaFace

What a bunch of moaners we truly are.

All you hear is that our Govt are doing nothing for jobs/ they are giving away our oil ect bla bla bla.


Then the moment they go an announce some news about a possible good opportunity to create some cash and jobs for the country, people are straight away looking for the negatives.

Some people need to get real.

This country's real natural resources are the green one's of wind and wave power, and it’s about time we started to make some money from this, as this is the way the world going and this should bring us some wealth in the future.

Let’s make some easy money from this crap weather we have to endure.

Cienciano

If it annoys local nimbys then that's a bonus.

catallus

I could be way off the mark here but i remember reading a while ago that wind energy in Germany had to be subsidised by the traditional energy companies because it wasn't economical in the medium term. I must dig a bit to find out where I read that.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/problems-prompt-germany-to-rethink-energy-revolution-a-852815.html

Tazz T

This is a good idea. Ireland could easily become the powerhouse of Europe using wave and tidal generators the whole way around the island - but not until at least 90% of our own energy comes from renewables.

D1stant

Rumour has it that teh Queen liked the rock od Cashel so much that they are mounting the first turbine on that

Scarlet42

but if its going to make so much money and create so many jobs why are aren't they doing this in the UK themselves? are they not going thru a recession aswell? do they not have wind?

"One of the developers, Element Power, says the plan would save UK consumers around £7bn over 15 years compared to other renewable sources."

what about Irish consumers?

starlings

I haven't read enough about it yet, and I am worried that the deal will be as ridiculous as the Corrib Gas field one, i.e. ripping ourselves off. But I am open minded to it in terms of green energy and innovation. And I don't think the turbines are an eyesore; on the contrary I think they're quite elegant in all landscapes I've seen them in.

An agreement to work on a deal has been signed; plenty of time to iron out details, unless we all start shouting, of course.:rolleyes:

Wossack

thought this was on the cards for decades, and one of the main driving forces behind the east-west interconnector

Heroditas

All the investment money will come from foreign investment funds ... if it even surfaces.
The electricity will be exported so any benefit to the economy will be through the VAT applied to it (if any) and nothing more.
All the construction jobs will be temporary and maintenance jobs will be done by the manufacturers for the duration of the service contracts, i.e. not too much employment here.

bluecode

A friend of mine spoke to someone involved with this project. He asked him if was really that efficient. No of course not he was told. It was all about the subsidies. It's a scam of giant proportions. In Britain owners of wind farms are actually paid NOT to generate power when there is a surplus. Also on those cold calm days in Winter, wind farms generate nothing, just when they're needed.

Also this;

Because the bog lands are relatively windless, the company behind the scheme says they will need to stretch high into the sky to catch sufficient wind to generate power.

They're going to build them in places with little or no wind! Are they actually insane! They're going to built these 600 foot monsters all over the countryside. You will literally be in sight of one or more of them all the time.

But we Irish gain nothing from it. The only people to benefit are the land owners and the companies. The only reason they're doing this in Ireland is that they wouldn't dare attempt it in Britain. People there are waking up to this scam.

For once I'm on the side of the environmentalists on this one. It's absolutely ridiculous. I wouldn't mind if wind turbines were actually efficient. They're not even close. This is all about making money off government subsidies. Wind farms could not survive without subsidies. That is you taxpayers paying private individuals to make expensive electricity which pushs up the cost of your energy bills.

You will all pay for those turbines not just in ruining your view.

irelandrover

It makes a lot of sense depending on the deal. Wind turbines are not reliable enough yet to provide power to the country, so backup power would be required. If this deal was to install the turbines and then decommision them in 15 years then the UK pays money for the rental of the sites for 15 years.

However at that point you would expect the technology to have moved on and that it would be possible to install turbines that would be reliable and would be sufficient to provide power to the grid. The sites would already be there and already set up for the installation of the turbines and it would all have been paid for by the UK. If the technology isn't there in 15 years then you still have the 15 years rent money.

suicide_circus

Great news, except for the part where our homes wont receive this power, wtf like
also why dont we put these turbines on the coast where there is basically constant wind?