When asked, people prefer wind turbines

Impetus

According to this article people, when asked, prefer wind turbines to solar or other forms of generating electricity.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/people-who-live-near-wind-turbines-prefer-them-to-solar-and-fossil-plants/

It seems to me that a country needs a mixture of wind, solar and grid connectivity to other countries to provide a balance between supply and demand. Energy can't be created or destroyed, etc - it can only be used, stored or exported. Ideally the inter-connectors should be between countries that use the same currency - to avoid the FX impact on energy pricing.


'BREXIT' poses challenges to Ireland's fragile energy transmission infrastructure. The province of Northern Ireland is short of generating capacity. Given the "Unionist's" unhelpful and narrow attitude towards BREXIT, perhaps the first act to be done, if and when BREXIT day arrives might be to disconnect NI from the Irish grid?

blanch152

Impetus wrote: »

According to this article people, when asked, prefer wind turbines to solar or other forms of generating electricity.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/people-who-live-near-wind-turbines-prefer-them-to-solar-and-fossil-plants/

It seems to me that a country needs a mixture of wind, solar and grid connectivity to other countries to provide a balance between supply and demand. Energy can't be created or destroyed, etc - it can only be used, stored or exported. Ideally the inter-connectors should be between countries that use the same currency - to avoid the FX impact on energy pricing.


'BREXIT' poses challenges to Ireland's fragile energy transmission infrastructure. The province of Northern Ireland is short of generating capacity. Given the "Unionist's" unhelpful and narrow attitude towards BREXIT, perhaps the first act to be done, if and when BREXIT day arrives might be to disconnect NI from the Irish grid?

Why would we take an aggressive step such as disconnecting Northern Ireland from the grid. Do we want to cause harm to the civilian population of Northern Ireland?

Schnitzler Hiyori Geta

I don't really understand asking questions like this - it's fairly common knowledge in the scientific community that putting the focus on one form of renewable generation is a red herring, as it allows those in the pocket of oil companies to come out with things like "what if it isn't windy/sunny?!" when the answer to the question is all of the above.

Ireland is missing a mega trick here Brexit or no Brexit - we're a small enough nation with good credit rating that a "Green New Deal" could really work here. We could/should provide massive subventions to all households to install solar before year end (make it basically free) which would boost the economy to help repay the EIB or whoever we borrow from for this.

The government should also be buildings off-shoe wind/tidal farms and on-shore wind farms. If we can start to generate more energy than we use, we can then sell this excess generation to other countries. We have such an abundance of resources that we could be the Norway of green energy very quickly.

dSchwainass

Schnitzler Hiyori Geta wrote: »

I don't really understand asking questions like this - it's fairly common knowledge in the scientific community that putting the focus on one form of renewable generation is a red herring, as it allows those in the pocket of oil companies to come out with things like "what if it isn't windy/sunny?!" when the answer to the question is all of the above.

Ireland is missing a mega trick here Brexit or no Brexit - we're a small enough nation with good credit rating that a "Green New Deal" could really work here. We could/should provide massive subventions to all households to install solar before year end (make it basically free) which would boost the economy to help repay the EIB or whoever we borrow from for this.

The government should also be buildings off-shoe wind/tidal farms and on-shore wind farms. If we can start to generate more energy than we use, we can then sell this excess generation to other countries. We have such an abundance of resources that we could be the Norway of green energy very quickly.

We have been trying that very hard for a long time. Erecting wind farms for 27 years, I used to be passionate about renewables and I still advocate them in certain cases. I even want to DIY myself my own PV unit but actually in terms of national policy we'd be far better with nuclear. Its requires far less lands and nearly any country can use it slash green house emissions. In contrast, it won't ever be possible to make all of Europe fully renewable and really deeply slash emissions.

Paying people to install PV doesnt boost the economy. Boosting productivity boosts the economy. Free PV won't end the need for fossils fuels here.

The Green New Deal is not thought through. Its not realistic.

Markcheese

I'd wonder about the logic of heavily incentivising solar pv in Ireland at the moment, especially if its going to be to power the grid,
Maybe if it was large scale with some formof battery included...

Markcheese

And nuclear just ain't gonna happen in the foreseeable future, not without a major shock to the country... Even if you could find someone to fund and build / run it, just finding a site would be near impossible..

jimmycrackcorm

I was flying over Germany a few days ago and one thing stood out for me looking out below was the incredible number of wind turbines dotted everywhere.

There must be no NIMBYS in Germany

Rows Grower

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I was flying over Germany a few days ago and one thing stood out for me looking out below was the incredible number of wind turbines dotted everywhere.

There must be no NIMBYS in Germany

They're just naturally more inclined to think about practical engineering the same way we value tourism and our heritage.

Carawaystick

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I was flying over Germany a few days ago and one thing stood out for me looking out below was the incredible number of wind turbines dotted everywhere.

There must be no NIMBYS in Germany

In Germany, everyones back yard is in a town...

Schnitzler Hiyori Geta

Markcheese wrote: »

I'd wonder about the logic of heavily incentivising solar pv in Ireland at the moment, especially if its going to be to power the grid,
Maybe if it was large scale with some formof battery included...

Sorry, I did mean that the government would subsidise the home-owner for the panel and a battery. In this scenario I wouldn't advocate sale of excess back to the grid (whereas I do in the current situation where subsidy is relatively minor compared to cost).

babi-hrse

Schnitzler Hiyori Geta wrote: »

Sorry, I did mean that the government would subsidise the home-owner for the panel and a battery. In this scenario I wouldn't advocate sale of excess back to the grid (whereas I do in the current situation where subsidy is relatively minor compared to cost).

It still wouldn't work they do grants and all that happened was installations just got more expensive. It doesn't save you much it just makes the installer richer. We don't really want runaway costs for the sake of a few panels.

In Kildare and Meath you have people objecting to wind turbines with a passion.

Personally I don't get it if I was approached and someone said can we erect a wind turbine in your back garden for the grid and we'll pay you. I'd be like give me free unlimited electricity and you can put two up. I like the look of them.

Markcheese

Rows Grower wrote: »

They're just naturally more inclined to think about practical engineering the same way we value tourism and our heritage.

When did that radical change happen in Ireland?
(I was away a couple of days last week, it must have happened then)

Effects

Schnitzler Hiyori Geta wrote: »

We have such an abundance of resources that we could be the Norway of green energy very quickly.

I think the Scots are ahead of us, aren't they? They are pretty far ahead of us on the Orkney Islands anyway.