Would you support a windfarm in your area?

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243322#Comment_120243322

yup, but costs are tumbling, some shores yielding high outputs, higher than land, and the fact ireland is still a very anti-nuclear country, off shore wind is still ultimately our only real solution here, all backed by sound research. the start up costs of nuclear is still off the walls, an astonishing amount of investments are required for the safe transportation and storage of materials and waste, and again, since we dont have a history of its use, we d be starting from scratch, i.e. multiples of billions would be required to do so, and we d still have to get passed the strong anti-nuclear problems.....

unkel

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243322#Comment_120243322

Nonsense. Off shore wind is the cheapest form of electricity production. Bar none. You'll of course have to use the latest, biggest turbines, now about 16-20MW. For comparison the now about 20 year old ones in Arklow are about 3MW

An Taoiseach said "wind is Ireland's oil", but that was nearly a year ago and we haven't heard much else from him on it. At a time we should be installing at least a GW per year of wind alone (20 turbines)

That said, Ireland is excellent for solar PV (better than most of Germany and the northern half of France, for people who think that Ireland is no good for solar) and we have shamefully little of it installed. And it doesn't cost much more than wind. And we have plenty of unused land. So we should also concentrate on adding lots of PV

osarusan

At 11.51am, the poll says

Yes: 104

No: 36

You just know the OP's sickened by the poll results so far 😁

screamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120242965#Comment_120242965

I’ll see your smoke and raise you the stench of 6 month old agitated slurry being churned 50 metres from your back door by the dairy farmer, 5 days a week, not to mention the stench when he fires it out into all the surrounding fields. Puke.

sydthebeat

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243402#Comment_120243402

ah, they joys of country living !!!

ive had the pleasure of pigs blood been spread on fields next to me, and beyond the stomach turning stench.... youve never seen a swarm of flies until youve seen what a field sprayed with pigs blood can attract!!

ednwireland

No

no because I don't think concreting green hillsides is the answer. and the amount of concrete in the bases is astonishing, and they can't be reused.

Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete

Thelonious Monk

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243469#Comment_120243469

no such thing as a free lunch, renewable or not

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243469#Comment_120243469

...again, countries such as the us have a history of dealing with nuclear, a country such as ireland simply does not, i.e. the us already has the infrastructure in place to deal with it, and we do not, this means we would have a lot of catching up with countries such as the us, in order to implement this infrastructure, for the safe use of such. the us has been investing in such for decades, and we have not being, so the us figures quoted simply would not stand up in countries such as ireland, as continually pointed out on this matter on boards, again, the setup costs alone would simply make nuclear none viable in countries such as ireland!

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243507#Comment_120243507

....again...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243490#Comment_120243490

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243520#Comment_120243520

....and does finland have a history of using such technology?

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243530#Comment_120243530

i some how think the uae is far more wealthier than little ould ireland!

...so we currently have no off shore wind, and the costs of off shore wind is currently not falling very quickly?

Thelonious Monk

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243520#Comment_120243520

i mean you're a smart guy, surely you realise ireland is not getting nuclear in the next 50 years? no? wtf is the point in harping on about it.

unkel

Yes

@correct horse battery staple - "US Department of Energy and IEA disagree with you especially, when you take the **** 30-40% capacity factory into account"

Capacity factor in Ireland of a large generator is about 50% last time I looked. This is better than anywhere in the world. So basically installing wind farms in Ireland should be the cheapest in the world, with the highest yield. So not only is wind the cheapest form of electricity production in the world, it's even cheaper than that in Ireland. I think Micheal Martin got this picture when he talked about wind being Ireland's oil.

We should install not just for our own use, but to interconnect (export) it and make a profit (or swap)

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243562#Comment_120243562

...cause for the reasons continually outlined on boards, including in this thread, it aint happening anytime soon, so.....

Thelonious Monk

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243562#Comment_120243562

you know why not

unkel

Yes

@correct horse battery staple - "Which is less than half of nuclear"

Half the capacity factor yeah 😂

About a fifth of the real cost, not projected cost...

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243570#Comment_120243570

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243579#Comment_120243579

...you can role out all the data you want, it aint gonna happen, and those making the decisions also know this, again, it aint gonna happen anytime soon, as others have already said, we may have to wait many decades for this tide to turn, oh and im a pro nuclear person btw! ive looked at the data, been to the public debates on it with economic and engineering experts, and id have to completely agree with these professionals, off shore wind is our current, only viable solution.....

CramCycle

Yes

There are already some near me and they are great, no idea why anyone would be against them. They are quite sleek looking and unlike many buildings, actually don't take away from the landscape.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243613#Comment_120243613

true, hence why im an off shore person, but somehow we re now talking about nuclear and off shore, on shore is simply too problematic in a social context, and its yields are not as good as off shore.....

redlough

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243211#Comment_120243211

jan would be the worst month yet I managed to generate 115kWh over the month. That's only with a couple of panels on the roof.

Last year peak month was May with 798kWh generated. Total of 5608 for the year.

I find people like to dismiss solar and yes it is not optimal in winter but it still is generating and if I can generate that on one house then what could 1 million houses with panels generate?

John_Rambo

Yes

Yes

The whole "no to wind turbine" crowd are the same as the no to pylons and no to mobile phone masts, they eventually capitulate when presented with the advantages electricity and rural connectivity. Most have changed their minds already, ten years ago there would be a lot more against this type of progress.

pauly58

No

About three years ago planning was put in to build five of these monsters next to our property, the closest being 800m away, they are in the worst position for us, situated to the south west. The local residents fought the planning after Cork County Council rejected it all the way past ABP into the High Court we we lost our case.

Our property is ruined : the noise is constant & like a train that never passes. When the blades are facing into the wind, which is usually SW then the noise is at it's worst. We have flicker, where the sun is behind the spinning blades, the ABP report suggested we go into another room ! Difficult when you are cooking the evening meal in the kitchen.

I can hear posters saying why doesn't he move ; the local auctioneer says we have lost 20% of the property value, in our case about €40k.

In our submission objecting to planning we stated there were Hen Harriers in the area, the day they went up there they didn't see any so it was stated there was no evidence of them, since the turbines have been built I haven't seen a Harrier.. The bat population is much reduced as well.

If people believe these are the future for electricity generation then I hate to disappoint you, in the low pressure cold still days they don't move at all. The wind industry is very good at blowing their own trumpet, I saw an article recently how they could supply all of Ireland's needs if only planning was relaxed : utter rubbish.

This development is owned by one of the richest men in Ireland & still they can't stand on there own without the subsidies. Now they have built the five there are plans to build yet more &they will link up with another wind farm all in separate company names but all owned by the same man.

I don't know what the future for electricity is here but I can tell you it isn't wind.

murray12345

Yes

Just another angle to the debate. A farmer here with turbines on my land. They provide a extra slice of income and the cattle can graze up to them. mine would be in a particular god wind site so it provides a nice few euro every year. The biggest problem I think is to many sites are in bad wind locations now. All the good ones are gone onshore.

banie01

Yes

Yes, I would. That said, I live in an Urban area where such a development is unlikely.

I do think that Ireland should be moving towards offshore wind at scale and keep a weather eye on nuclear SMR to replace our gas plants in time. Utilising the locations of decommissioned Peat and other fossil fuel plants to allow relatively quick connection to the National Grid with a minimal need for additional grid infrastructure.

crisco10

Yes

I think capacity factor in the context of wind is often misunderstood. A capacity factor of 30%, doesn't mean the turbine is off 70% of the time. It just means that for the given time period the production is 30% of (total nameplate capacity x number of hours).

Production isn't binary like that (i.e. on/off), in fact a turbine spends about 50% of the time producing 25% to 75% of its rated power, and about 20% at above 75% Rated Power. So rather than being on 30% of the time, it's actually producing about 70% of the time.

redlough

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243792#Comment_120243792

Have you done any noise tests to show the noise pollution?

Mad_maxx

Wouldn’t bother me at all, in fact I don’t even mind how they look

cnocbui

No

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243389#Comment_120243389

The costs are not tumbling. The media - BBC mainly - keeps repeating a mantra that offshore wind is constantly getting cheaper and is now the cheapest there is, but no one's power bills are fall. What they are stating is lie, because they are basing the cost on LCOE, which I am not going into here.

Offshore wind farms in the UK are currently costing £3b per 1.2 GW to build - that's the cost for each tranche of Dogger bank. The planned 30 GW of Irish offshore wind by 2050 is going to cost £75b. The 30GW is because the capacity factor is only 47%.

So that 30 GW is really only 14.1 GW actually generated in a year.

Poland is getting the US and Korea to build them 6 nuclear reactors, generating 1.4 GW each and costing about $4.4b each, so if they were building 14.1 GW worth of reacors it would be costing them about £44.3b, for the same generation capacity as we are planning to pay £75b for just the tubines, let alone whatever all the hydrogen related part will cost.

Maybe if the Irish populace were asked to chose between paying 69.3% more for the electricity they use over a lifetime and having a few NPPs like many countries in Europe have had a for decades, you might get a rethink. Presented with a far smaller difference in cost between filthy lung rotting diesel and clean petrol, the populace overwhelmingly voted with their wallets for diesel.

ELM327

Yes

Yes, they are already visible from my house over the mountains. Happy to add more.

Thelonious Monk

Yes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120244225#Comment_120244225

Sounds like we shouldn't listen to the idiot populace in that case