Saturday 13 December 2014

New Wind Turbine On The Edge Of Town

I was cycling out on the edge of town today, and I saw this.

It sure looks like a wind turbine mast.
I was out on the new link road that joins Berryfields to Buckingham Park (Aylesbury), when I saw it.
A quick trawl on the internet suggests that a 2KW wind turbine was approved in March 2012, so I guess that it what is!
The wind turbine is mentioned in a document called Vale Trends, which is full of planning information for our area - but, be honest, how many folks do you think actually read such publications :-)
Iirc, about 50% of all generated electricity in the UK is lost during transport over the nation's power lines, so a modestIy-sized wind turbine close to a housing development should be quite efficient by comparison - the shorter the distance from generation to consumption, the less is lost!
The 2KW turbine is expected to supply the power to 1500 homes, but with about 75,000 folks being recorded as living in the "Aylesbury Urban Area", and I guess somewhere in the region of 30,000 to 40, 000 homes, it's not that many really!

But every bit helps.
1500 homes powered by the turbine is 1500 less from gas/oil/coal/nuclear!

And it has to be better than living next to a "regular" power station!

Update 21st December 2014:
Two more views of the turbine I took about half-an-hour ago.

The view of the turbine from the North-East side of town.
You can see the turbine in a zoomed-in picture, but on a grey day you have to know where to look!

A wider scene from exactly the same position as the shot above.
Can you see the turbine?
Update 22nd December 2014:
It seems that the turbine is the tallest in England!
Our local paper reports that the turbine is 149m tall (that's 488 feet), and, additionally will have blades (although they call them "sails") that are 87 metres (285 feet) each.

Most folks seem shocked that it just "appeared" without them knowing much about it, and opinions seem to vary from the positive to the "it ruins the view from my house".
But, if we all want all our electrical and electronic gadgets, we have to have power generation SOMEWHERE, and I certainly don't want to live near a power station like, say, Didcot!
(Didcot is where most of our local electricity currently comes from).

So purely on pragmatic grounds, I welcome the turbine.

Indeed, personally, I see the turbine as emblematic of our "town looking to the future", and that is something I welcome.
Long may it continue!

Update 27th December 2014:
Two days ago, while doing my Christmas visiting, we happened to pass the power station at Didcot.
Remember, this is the main power station that produces our local power.
Small it isn't.
The remaining three large towers of the now-defunct
Didcot A 2000MW power station. The other three large towers
were demolished earlier in 2014.

Didcot from the hills to the South. The large towers are visible on the left.
The tall, narrower, chimney is actually taller than the height of the mast
and turbine for our local new wind turbine.
Compare that with the tiny houses to the right of the chimney.
Back in 2003, the readers of Country Life, a monthly magazine for the upper-middle class, voted windfarms as the biggest "eyesore" in Britain. In third place was ... (wait for it) ... Didcot power station!
So the same folks who don't like living near wind turbins certainly don't want to live near a "proper" power station, either.
And yet we all seem to have a desire for power all the time, so we have to have power stations SOMEWHERE!
And, because of transmission losses, it makes sense for them to be as close to where the power is used as is practicable - just like, for example, the new wind turbine on the edge of town.

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