Yes - I quite like the look of them too - but in a kind of awe like you get when standing close to a very large aeroplane - I also like the smell of petrol - doesnt make it good though does it?
To quote CraigR
What box. Everyone keeps banging on about this fucking box. Where is it? Do I need to take a 'helicopter view' to see it?
As previously pointed out, reduction is indeed an issue which needs to be addressed, but how so? I always thought people were held 'responsible' by their account billing, you pay for what you use. I am currently responsible for the sustainability and environmental issues on a large site which my company is rebuilding over the next 5 years. The new builds going up are BREEAM top of the class, all the M & E is the most energy efficient available etc, so how do I continue to reduce energy consuption when I have hit a bottom line? You see reduction is finite too![/quote]
The box Craig as I see it is the one where we do not question the construction of such 'large sites' as your company is doing though they are certainly to be applauded for making as many enery savings as possible within that remit. I dont wish to go back to the Stone Age but we are certainly doomed if we keep building, driving, flying and consuming. The next Ice Age is almost certainly inevitable (then I will be out of a job because the glaciers will scrape all the lovely archaeology off to a depth of dozens of metres and deposit it in a big pile somewhere near Normandy).
Wind technology must play a part in our future but wind farms are just another form of industrial power station. If we covered the whole of the UK with turbines we wouldnt come anywhere near meeting the UK demand. They are not little towers. They are not temporary. Some doubt that they would even offset the carbon generated required to design, manufacture, install and manage them. Miles of new access roads, hundreds of deliveries from Germany on 'mega-lorries' (whatever they are), connection to the grid via over-ground pylons for something with a projected life-span of less than a Nuclear Power station. One 'farm' estimated that the annual CO2 emission savings would be in excess of 100,000 tonnes over its lifetime - but compare this to the annual emmissions of a typical jumbo jet at 520,000 tonnes. If in any doubt about the scale of this enterprise - check out the pics on.
http://www.popular-pics.com/pictures-series.aspx?photoid=472&seriesid=500
Its not something that keeps me awake at night necessarily - we just need to be talking about it dont we?
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