Brrr….it’s cold

January 8, 2009 | By sunfeed | In wind

Would South Tyneside survive on wind driven energy?

I’ve had a ridiculously busy day tearing around, not much time for getting my thoughts down onto a keyboard, other than that Junior is enjoying yet another day off school because a fuse has blown and therefore they cannot get any light or heat, and yes it is a bit cold out there. I guess temperatures in South Shields have been a little higher than those enjoyed in the greater parts of inland England over the past seven days, the little coastal area is warmed by the sea so we’ve probably averaged three degrees or so during the daytime, whilst others have struggled to get above freezing point.

I’ve noticed during these periods when we have “enjoyed” high pressure (i.e. blistering hot in summer when you need the fans and the air conditioning, mind numbingly cold in winter when you need heat) that the wind turbine at Middlefields, Tyne Dock, and the huge things at Nissan’s Washington plant just don’t turn. No wind = no electricity, seems like a sensible conclusion with wind turbines.

So, if we had to rely on them solely for energy we’d be pretty much stuffed, and with the Russian’s playing around with the gas taps and the EU stipulating that by 2020 we need to be producing 15% of our energy from renewables, we face a bit of a problem! (We were only producing 1.3% of our energy from renewables in 2005).

Perhaps instead of waffling on about insulation (which most of us have coming out of our roofspace) Labour ministers could instead be insisting that all new buildings be fitted with solar panels, and that power stations be allowed to use modern clean carbon capture methods and share out their heat locally.

Here’s a video from UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom showing how it is down the road.

Does our government have an alternative energy strategy? You know, one that doesn’t humble itself to the climate scientologists.

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