The Bear

In Britain there is a thing called the National Grid.

Transmitting electricity is very straightforward and for very good technical reasons quite “loss” free unlike water or gas where the transmission over a distance is very difficult owing to the losses involved. That means that electricity generated in Scotland can get loaded onto the National Grid and becomes a common resource.

If anything it might be argued that the placing of wind turbines in Scotland is of MORE benefit to England than the other way around.

On the other hand the cost of electricity from the horrible things is more than from conventional sources and other reusables have not even been tapped.

One source that has been totally ignored is geothermal energy which could most certainly be used in conjunction with heat pumps to get a bigger bang for the buck, in this case the KWh even if simply used for large buildings and may even provide a primary energy source in some parts of the UK especially near sites of hot springs.

Hartlepool

Electricity transmission has a decay factor showing losses for length of transmission.
But,the point is that it should be noted that scotland is getting extra covert payments and facilities before finally jumping the UK ship and stealing the family jewels before it goes for Independence from the UK.
A scotland with 100% renewable energy via turbines is possible within a couple of years,especially since the government said last week that it was stepping up the scheme for renewables in the country.(scotland will get its fair share).

By the way,day 23,still no production from the 3 turbines here,23 days,thats 6.3% of a year.

The Bear

The losses over long haul electrical transmission lines are principally Ohmic, that is to say down to the electrical resistance of the conductor. There are other losses as well such as the loss due to corona discharge at very high voltages, leakage across insulators, reactive losses due to the use of an alternating electrical current and conversion losses at sub stations that change the voltage from that used for transmission to that used for distribution but of those only the sub station losses are at all of any significance and even then they are not great.

The transmission losses are minimised by the use of very high voltages. Here’s how it works.

In a nutshell the lower the current through a resistance, the lower the voltage drop across the resistor.

As the available POWER of an electrical supply is the current flow multiplied by the voltage it follows that for a given power raising the voltage means that a smaller current flows in the circuit.

That is why there are gert big glass insulators on the pylons and why they sizzle in the damp, because of the massive electrical voltage used and the relatively small current that flows and of course the quite low losses involved in transmission.

Now, if you don’t like the Scots and if like me you think the Barnett formulae is a disgrace that should have been resolved years ago, then fine. But at least keep justification for having a pop at the porridge noshers based on fact and not bad science!

Hartlepool

Sorry Bear,nice try again to remove what I have said several times.

Your moving this towards your "loss/gain" of transmitted lecky is nothing at all toi do with the facts of scots being in acceptance of covert benefits of such a large scale.

I agree with the Barnet formula being dumped asap and used to like and trust the scots quite a lot as well,until I found their hand was in the UKs pocket all the time,and,its got worse recently and getting even more so the nearer we get to 2010 and a new government I hope.

Hartlepool

Bear,you speak of facts.

The facts are as follows,

scots have only 8.36% of the UKs population,yet have been given 49% of the UKs turbines.

The rest of the UK,(Eng,NI,Wales)have to share the remaining 51% between them.

So,55.9 million share 51% while scotland coverts 49% for itself,and all because we have been misled by our Labour government since they came into power.

The Bear

But the whole point is that the output from these monstrosities goes into a common "bucket" that we ALL draw power from! The Turbines may be positioned IN Scotland but the power goes everywhere!

It’s not that a turbine in Scotland provides power that is only USED in Scotland!

Besoeker

Ah, did you miss the point about wind turbines in Scotland being 50% more effective that those in England?
The point is that wind turbines are generally going to be built where they are most effective.
Take a look at the map of UK wind farms - it's in link you quoted from.

Hartlepool

Yes Bear, I agree with your above post #46 but was trying to point to the facts that in the event of scotish Independence being won they would inherit the huge advantage they have accepted from this Labour government with regard to Wind Turbines.

The English MPs are cowards and are all part of the scheme to enrich scotland at the expense of the rest of the UK and its taxpayers.

With these turbines and the others in the pipeline up to 2010 scotland will be sitting pretty on property stolen from its former UK partners who trusted them to the hilt.

Hartlepool

Are you seriously using that argument for the theft of so much by the Labour government on behalf of the scots?

Did you miss all the points I posted regarding the covert discrepancy in turbines given to scotland compared to the rest of the UK.

Are you in favour of scotland once again being carried by the rest of the UK because it is favoured by this Labour government?

So,with regard to the locations,you are saying that it suddenly got much more windy since Labour got in then,because the windfarms have been around a lot longer than that.

Simple truth is that Labour and scotland have misdirected funds to scots,once again.

Besoeker

Did you miss the point about puting wind turbines where it it is windy?
Would anyone consider constructing a Dinorweg scale energy storage facility in East Anglia?
Don't ignore the practicalities just to make a political point.