Wave farm approved
The nPower scheme at Siadar has been approved.
This is great news for the islands, and I am very glad to see it happening. Congratulations to the Scottish Government.
Hopefully, this will mean work for Arnish in construction; for the builders in site preparation; and the trickle down effect should bring a very welcome boost to the islands.
I'm proud to have played a very small part in this success, and eventually some 1,800 houses in the islands should be able to be powered directly from this scheme.
At last good news.......
Just when will the work actually start?
This is great news for the islands, and I am very glad to see it happening. Congratulations to the Scottish Government.
Hopefully, this will mean work for Arnish in construction; for the builders in site preparation; and the trickle down effect should bring a very welcome boost to the islands.
I'm proud to have played a very small part in this success, and eventually some 1,800 houses in the islands should be able to be powered directly from this scheme.
At last good news.......
Just when will the work actually start?
26 comments:
The Barra Bhouy has nice things to say about you.....
"This approval is testament to the hard work of all those in Lewis who have worked to get this project off the ground, and I believe that the right decision has been made by the Scottish Government today."
Congratulations to all the people in Siadar, Iain Lucy and Murdo especially, for driving this forward, and getting a positive result. They took people with them on their journey to consent, without being devisive. Others should take note.
On such a postive event I dont want to put a negative in, but I feel I must. The facts must be correct.
Where do you get houses on the islands being powered from this scheme from Angus? That is simply not the case as the way the grid is set up currently that cannot happen.
Also this scheme was put together by local people. There was ZERO Comhairle input. That is perhaps why it is a success, but still good to see you trying to jump on the bandwagon.
My small involvement was at the planning stage to make sure that project got through the initial planning process (item 20), which was more more complex and involved than the minute might suggest.
Beyond that, I claim no credit and all that praise must go to the local community.
The 1,800 houses comes directly from the Government press release, or are they lying to us? ;-)
The beauty of getting renewable schemes (nPower or any of the small community schemes) is that the local grid will have to be upgraded or the schemes remain purely theoretical.
re your last Angus. Very true.
So is Siadar getting the benefit while Gravir is sacrificed for an interconnector? or are we going to get a local grid?
Can anyone tell us? and especially the people of South Lochs.
This one seems to have come in under the radar without much fuss and bother, or press attention. So if it can power 1800 households how many of these would we need to be self sufficent and carbon neutral?
6? 10?
What an accolade that would be.
"Outer Hebrides - a carbon neutral economy"
Maybe a line of these across the Sound of Harris, with a road on top?
According to npower, only 5 would be needed to power the entire islands domestic needs.
http://www.npowerrenewables.com/siadar/nextsteps.asp
4:40 PM
Thats it. Game over. It was always so simple and staring us in the face.
Yes we could have had a few of these and been a carbon neutral island. But no we are going to be colonised by SSE, Oppenheim and no doubt Lewis Wind Power will be back once the Halcrow report is published.
The island will be vandalised, a few councillors and local business men will get fat and the rest of us get screwed.
The futility of all this is evident in the recent goings on in North Wales where the massive aluminum works employing 600 is about to close because they can't renew their electricity supply. The adjacent nuclear power station is due to close and the new investors (German) can't get another one up and running for at least 10 years.
You may hate nuclear and aluminum, but that is not the point. The point is that to keep British industry working, what ever it is, needs firm electricity supplies, and no amount of windpower is going to do the job.
Scotland should be advancing clean coal. The last thing we need is hugely inefficient, heavily subsidised windfarms.
It is also worth noting that while Scotland is rejecting nuclear, in fact it is inescapable that we will use nuclear power generated elsewhere as we will be dependent on baseload from south of the border.
Therefore the SNP and you even Angus = ultimate NIMBYs
And what exactly are the 70 jobs doing??
I'm sure the ex Woolworths and Lighthouse Caledonia employees and the unemployed weavers are updating their CVs as I type.
A.A. comments 70 jobs from 4MW was it not the same numpty that said you could not justify 200 jobs from 660MW????
8.27AM
Ha way man! its obvious that the smaller the project the more people are needed to run it. So why don't we go for the put required to run a candles and by applying the laws of diminishing returns, we would have full employment and produce nothing. Unlike what we have now which is high unemployment and we still produce nowt! {;-)
The SNP will jump at the logic of this.
8:27 AM
with respect, but I believe there are some rather different technical issues about building in the sea compared to building in the heather.
That might just account for the job differences if you actually engaged your brain.
At last something almost positive - congrats to all concerned. I sincerely hope there will still be 1800 occupied houses to power when it all comes to fruition.......
Hi folks
That's really good news.
If we can't export renewable energy with our current infrastructure, what's to stop us offering this electricity to businesses willing to relocate to the Isles at a steeply reduced rate in order to give us a competitive edge for export businesses looking to cut costs and take advantage of the weak pound?
Could Siadar become a manufacturing powerhouse if they sold 'leccy to companies at a 50% discount to commercial rates?
Don't tell me, EU decree 14.1.1.2.2.653.251 forbids Siadar wave power from offering electricity to private concerns below the market rate.
7:42 PM
Clean coal is a myth. It's, at best, a bridging technology to more efficient renewables. Capturing carbon but letting mercury, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter escape into the atmosphere isn't clean. You can't retrofit existing plants for CCS and you've still got to mine the stuff, transport it in, transport the CO2 out and store it somewhere. Research money is far better spent on wind, wave, solar and geothermal.
Angus - read the press release again.
You said:
"some 1,800 houses in the islands "
Prompting anon 1.16s reply.
the government press release says "1800 homes" - not 1800 island homes.
Now - its good to see such a scheme which doesnt mean annihiliation of the island as we know it. Thats what the community wanted and thank goodness the LWP scheme was refused!!
I reiterate
Not one of these schemes, whether it be wind or wave, will light a bulb on the islands. Its a sham. They are all to create revenue and export the power.
That is not about climate change as they bleat. That's about accruing funds to lead to more nepatism and frittering away of cash.
Look at Galson Estate, South Uist, North Harris. All bought out with taxpayers money and now trying to cream more cash from the taxpayer in the name of saving the planet.
My arse.
4.45
So you are up for a massive fall in your standard of living, hospital closures and high levels of unemployment as all industry ships out to other countries with reliable electricity supplies.
Why don't you just move now to a developing country ....
And another question to think on ....do you think that those living in developing countries deserve the same standard of living as we enjoy in the west ?
Or do you believe that their development should be curtailed in order to offset our emissions, which is what is happening at the moment. Guardian reading eco-facists might think subsistence farming is a blast, millions of near starving Africans think otherwise.
In fact there's an idea, all the green Nazi's can go and live in sub-saharan Africa and have bush hospitals with electricity for 1 light bulb running on solar power and a wind turbine. The hard working Africans can come here and make a go of it, and enjoy watching their kids go up rather than die of preventable diseases.
And try reading about technology other than renewables before you comment on them - its hard to argue convincingly from a position of obvious ignorance.
3:06 said "So you are up for a massive fall in your standard of living, hospital closures and high levels of unemployment as all industry ships out to other countries...."
Hate to disapoint you but the UK is no longer classed a manufacturing country. Our indistries are now mainly service based. A lot of them have already gone abroad. BT, Rail enq etc. all to india.
AS you said "its hard to argue convincingly from a position of obvious ignorance."
3:06 meet you (very) own petard.
3.06
Hmmm sorry to disappoint but we aren't quite a nation solely of shopkeepers and pen pushers yet. Maybe you should follow some of the links on this site:
http://www.eiug.org.uk/members.htm
and see how very much further there is to fall.
You will observe as well that while customer services may have been exported, in fact the trains, rail tracks, telephones, overhead lines etc actually remain UK based.
3.06 adds
It may interest you that around a third of UK electricity is consumed by industry, giving an idea of the scale of their activities, and their value to the economy (if not the environment). That figure does not include any pen pushers or call centers (i.e ex Commercial premises, public administration, transport and agriculture) according to the official government statistics.
We need to work out a balance that maintains our economy, with may some minor adjustments and maybe some larger ones to our individual ways of life, but does not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Unfortunately many greenies including some of our politicians either have very little idea about the long term impact of energy management or actually accept/intend major changes to peoples quality of life that are currently not subject to public debate.
To Anon 3:29
We are still classed as a manufacturing country and we are as it says in the report "surprisingly still the 6th largest" one.
11:05Pm
We are the 6th biggest manufacturing country in the world. However, manufacturing accounts for only 13% of the GDP. Which means 87% of the GDP is not manufacturing. I fail to see how with 13% we can be classed as a manufacturing country.
8.27
Because we manufacture thing maybe?
Anon 8:27
What happens when you do the same sums for the other manufacturing countries do their GDP on manufacturing come out larger or smaller than from other incomes. If you are going to prove that we are no longer a manufacturing country based on the value of GDP then you have to show your comparsions. Or are you just using statistic you prove your own biased view of the Britain?
We have all heard of the saying lies, damn lies, and statistics.
We have all heard of the saying lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Perhaps that should be the new Comhairle motto, underneath a white elephant motif.
Now Angus, there is a competition for you!
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