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Graeme
Fission
Joined: Mar 04, 2005
Posts: 2642
Location: New Zealand
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 Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:32 am Post subject: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprint |
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Thousands of wind turbines planned as part of £100 billion UK energy blueprint
| Quote: | Thousands of new wind turbines could be built across the UK over the coming decade as part of a radical £100 billion blueprint being unveiled today to boost renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Business Secretary John Hutton acknowledged that the "green" power plants would cost more money and take up more land than conventional electricity generation, but said Britain had "no choice" about moving to lower-carbon energy.
An extra 4,000 onshore and 3,000 offshore turbines will be needed, impacting on communities, business and the Government.
The UK could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 20% and reduce its dependency on oil by 7% within 12 years, it is expected to be announced. |
24dash
guardian
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Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us. |
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graham
Tar Sands
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Posts: 48
Location: Wales U.K.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:53 am Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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| Gordon Browns made countless other statements on energy recently- a grant system to ramp up domestic solar, massive scaling of nuclear, investment in tidal and encouraging people to switch to electric cars. It seems our PM has recently woken up to reality. |
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dorlomin
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Aug 05, 2007
Posts: 1062
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:09 am Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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How do they intend to pay for this? Britain has gone from an oil exporter to an oil and gas importer just as oil and gas have hit record prices. They are also one of the most dependent economies on there financial sector at a time when the financial institutions have stoped reporting taxable profits. They have run up huge debts during the growth years of the economic cycle and now face massive budget deficits with nothing in the tank facing a recession. More over the economy has been heavily reliant on consumer debt to power its retail sales.
Wind power was a solution they could have gotten serious about in 97 when new labour came to power. Now they are finacialy utterly screwed. The tories are in a for a shock when they see the accounts. Fluffy Cameron wont last long in power, he'll either try to be Thatcher II or get booted by his party. |
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Starvid
Fission
Joined: Feb 20, 2005
Posts: 2788
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:37 am Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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Talk is cheap...
And the financing?
Either private investment, state investment, or private investment backed by state loan guarantees. Or a mix of these things.
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Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis. |
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GASMON
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Mar 29, 2008
Posts: 778
Location: England
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:26 pm Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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| Starvid wrote: | Talk is cheap... And the financing?
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No problem - We'll "invent" billions like the americans have done.
As someone on this board quipped, "you dont even need to print money anymore, just magnetise a silicon chip"
Easy, aint it. Might buy us some hi-speed rail lines too. Trains made in China 'cos there cheap from there & we can't make em anymore. The train plants are now leisure centres or shopping malls.
Gasmon
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Constantus excrementia et level variatum
Were allways in the sh|t, its only the depth that varies |
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WatchfulEye
Tar Sands
Joined: Jun 07, 2007
Posts: 54
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:20 am Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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| Starvid wrote: | Talk is cheap...
And the financing?
Either private investment, state investment, or private investment backed by state loan guarantees. Or a mix of these things. |
Quite. Seems a rather lofty goal, as some major financial backers have recently pulled out of UK wind energy projects stating that they are no longer financially viable! |
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Graeme
Fission
Joined: Mar 04, 2005
Posts: 2642
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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Why going green will still cost the earth
| Quote: | Government hopes to encourage households to get more of their energy from renewable sources were branded a “greenwash” last week, as they contained no concrete plans to cut the cost of alternative fuel.
Gordon Brown pledged £100 billion to generate 15% of Britain’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. Part of the strategy is to encourage people to move to greener tariffs or produce their own power.
However, green energy tariffs, where some or all the electricity produced is from a renewable source, can cost as much as 56% more than the cheapest deals, according to comparison firm The Energy Shop.
Meanwhile, those opting to produce electricity through wind or solar microgenerators may not see a saving for more than 30 years because of the costs involved, according to Solar Home Energy, which provides solar panels.
The government offers grants to help with the costs, but these are limited and there are no plans to improve matters until 2010.
Alex Lambie of Greenhelpline.com said: “It is a recurring theme of this government to make grand and encouraging proposals about tackling climate change without being transparent about what’s being offered.” |
timesonline
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Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us. |
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yull
Heavy Crude
Joined: Jun 03, 2004
Posts: 127
Location: Great Britain
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:36 am Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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£100bn is like a tenth of our entire GDP. We are so broke at the moment I don't think we can afford £1 billion, and our economic situation is going to get worse. And the costs are going to go up.
I'll believe it when it happens, which looks like never. |
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Starvid
Fission
Joined: Feb 20, 2005
Posts: 2788
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:48 am Post subject: Re: 1000s of wind turbines planned; £100 billion UK blueprin |
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| yull wrote: | £100bn is like a tenth of our entire GDP. We are so broke at the moment I don't think we can afford £1 billion, and our economic situation is going to get worse. And the costs are going to go up.
I'll believe it when it happens, which looks like never. |
| Quote: | | Either private investment, state investment, or private investment backed by state loan guarantees. Or a mix of these things. |
And why don't you think any of these three options are available? There is after all such a thing as loans, and due to the credit crisis demand for government bonds is massive.
The UK could issue £100 billion in bonds with a duration of 40 years and pour all the money into nuclear energy, wind energy, high speed rail and so on.
This is after all what the French did 20 years ago.
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Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis. |
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