Mad Dictators

[Tosh]

On 12/07/2026 at 14:32, ProDave said:

and by the way on shore wind farms in England and Wales are banned

that ban was lifted some time ago, in our county Bute energy are currently going through planning for 3 wind farms in mid Powys consisting 65 windmills up to 220m high.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, Spinny said:

Heil Fuhrer Nick !

Lol. On site is the only place I command . Has a certain ring to it though 

 

1 hour ago, Spinny said:

If it is a good idea people will want it. If people want it, the market will build it. End of.

Even Nick doesn't know what is 'the greater good' for everything.

There are a significant few who are too dense or preoccupied to GAF here, surviving day to day on a diet of short-sightedness, ignorance, and selfishness.

 

If the nations children were given a choice on a Monday, go to school to get an education to bolster the next 50-60 years of your working life, or stay home an stare at fecking TicTok all day.............we'd be fecked, and schools would be 20% full at best.

 

Dehydrated horses clinging to life sometimes need to be carried to water, and even if they can't swim, need be be tossed in the deep end and given no choice. You can't educate pork.

[ProDave]

49 minutes ago, Tosh said:

that ban was lifted some time ago, in our county Bute energy are currently going through planning for 3 wind farms in mid Powys consisting 65 windmills up to 220m high.

Good.  When the Welsh and English see these springing up everywhere like we have, policy just may change.

[Nickfromwales]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Good.  When the Welsh and English see these springing up everywhere like we have, policy just may change.

@Roger440 may already be suffering from this type of expansion, as he moved to deepest, darkest, but still picturesque Wales, and then the pylons started dropping.......

[Tosh]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Good.  When the Welsh and English see these springing up everywhere like we have, policy just may change.

you obviously haven't seen how many we have in the welsh hills so I certainly wouldn't be wishing it on anybody. Like many aspects of government the line of corroboration with large companies is suspicious.

[Nickfromwales]

2 minutes ago, Tosh said:

Like many aspects of government the line of corroboration with large companies is suspicious.

I believe the saying is "as bent as a £9 note".

[ProDave]

1 minute ago, Tosh said:

you obviously haven't seen how many we have in the welsh hills so I certainly wouldn't be wishing it on anybody. Like many aspects of government the line of corroboration with large companies is suspicious.

Sorry I don't mean I am personally hoping the English and Welsh get these wind farms and pylons in the numbers we have been "given" in Scotland.

 

What I am saying is while for so long England in particular has banned them, they have instead been built up here so the good folk of England who largely make the rules, have not seen the blot on the landscape that they are, and if the good folk of England don't see them, they obviously think they are good.

[SteamyTea]

I drove from St Agnes to Penzance the other day.

Think there are 12 small turbines scattered about, plus 1 wind farm.

Hardly noticed them. The one in PZ is minus it's blades at the moment.

All those turbines could be replaced with just 1 large turbine now.

But that is not going to happen as the twats down here don't know the theory behind them and assume 1 large one is the same as a small one.

Edited yesterday at 22:10 by SteamyTea

[JohnMo]

7 hours ago, ProDave said:

they have instead been built up here so the good folk of England

But up here is nearly the best wind conditions on the planet, so does make sense. I have no issues with them quite like seeing the blades moving, especially large turbines, small one spin to fast not quite the same 

[Gone West]

9 hours ago, ProDave said:

What I am saying is while for so long England in particular has banned them, they have instead been built up here so the good folk of England who largely make the rules, have not seen the blot on the landscape that they are

Couldn't the Scottish government have banned them, in the same way as the English government did?

[JohnMo]

41 minutes ago, Gone West said:

Couldn't the Scottish government have banned them, in the same way as the English government did?

Could have, but maybe they are sensible. That's why we have wind providing most of our electricity nearly all the time. Plus we can export energy. Think bigger picture is hydrogen generation instead of curtailment and that becomes another export product.

[SteamyTea]

51 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Think bigger picture is hydrogen generation instead of curtailment and that becomes another export product.

Better off making ammonia and combining it with nitrogen.

Easier storage, better return and more useful.

We have the technologies to do this already and there is currently a world shortage as the ships full of it are in the Muddle East.

[saveasteading]

49 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

another export product.

Thd anomaly is that a stage is reached where it does not "benefit the local community".

Planners work yo a tick- box system and cannot include approved but unbuilt projects, so more get approval 

 

Then the national grid takes it away. 

It would be a simple solution to levy £/MW and pay it into the community in perpetuity. Perhaps in real time.

But that would be a UK government thing.

 

or? Could it be levied as it is exported to the grid? That could be a planning condition.

How big would the meters be?

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

benefit the local community

My parents lived next door to a school once.

That was no benefit to them, too many noisy kids, and cars everywhere twice a day.

But society benefitted, some of those kids went on to work, others had kids, that are going to pay to keep me housed, healthy and fed.

 

As sooner as I hear about 'the local community' I think small town, selfish mentality.

 

[Ed_]

4 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

That was no benefit to them

Presumably their house was cheaper on account of the proximity to noisy kids?

[jack]

1 minute ago, Ed_ said:

Presumably their house was cheaper on account of the proximity to noisy kids?

 

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DOd5v_yiL4E/

[saveasteading]

5 hours ago, JohnMo said:

hydrogen generation instead of curtailment

Currently proposed near Inverness. Makes sense as a use for spare wind power. Like pump storage reservoirs it could be utilised only when there is spare power. But more likely a justification for more turbines

 

With Loch Ness proposals for another 2 dams,  it would make Inverness a major power centre. The downside being the huge local effect but not a lot of jobs.

 

[ProDave]

33 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

The downside being the huge local effect but not a lot of jobs.

 

At last you are starting to "get" it.

 

But most of the inhabitants of England have not yet "got" it.  All I am saying is it is about time much more wind power was built in England.  Then lets see if people are so much in favour of it?

[saveasteading]

Just now, ProDave said:

At last you are starting to "get" it.

 

A read back will show that I have " got it" thoroughly. 

I am deeply in favour of non fossil- power (not so sure on  nuclear). But, as ever, it needs a plan and policies for all, not left to the free market or the usual snatching of resources from otherwise  neglected communities.

 

Hence my proposal for a big electric meter at each development, and the tariff going to your local council

 

[SteamyTea]

51 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

The downside being the huge local effect but not a lot of jobs.

We don't have a meaningful FF power station in Cornwall (there are some diesel ones IoS, Indian Queens, Treliske), we don't have that many solar or wind farms either, really.  I cannot ever remember anyone saying anything about jobs.  There are 3 people in the Vattenfall office in PZ, no one has any idea what they do.

But surely, any system that reduces the need for staff is better.  You end up with bullshit jobs being created otherwise.

[saveasteading]

The jobs thing is interesting. Whisky is oft quoted as a major employer. It is significant for the nearby village (a visitor centre problem has more employment than the production)  but isn't on a regional or national scale.

[Spinny]

Good to see some recognition of the cons of wind power which include:

 

Visual and noise impacts

Interference with radar and defence operations

The culling of birds

The need for pylons everywhere blighting the scenery

That oil jobs will go shrinking the economy as there are far fewer jobs in wind (The UK doesn't make turbines, or solar panels). 

Fire and collapses do occur.

Low effective efficiency given curtailment and the inability to match supply to demand

 

Like illegal refugee camps, it is easy to say someone has to take them, until they build one next to you, devalue your house, and spoil your life. We need balance, not extremism.

[jack]

40 minutes ago, ProDave said:

All I am saying is it is about time much more wind power was built in England.  Then lets see if people are so much in favour of it?

 

I'm more than happy to have turbines near me. I've had plenty of conversations with friends who feel the same.

 

More to the point though, building more in England is unlikely to change the number being built in Scotland. 

 

If you think there are too many wind turbines being built in Scotland, that's something to take up with the Scottish government.

[SteamyTea]

13 minutes ago, Spinny said:

The UK doesn't make turbines, or solar panels

Except we do.

[saveasteading]

24 minutes ago, Spinny said:

We need balance, not extremism.

That's me, and most on here: thanks for acknowledging.

 

Yours is a list of negatives though, some not limited to wind and some rather, if I may say so grasping. So would you like to complete your version of the pos and cons? Ie balanced not extreme.

 

Please include pollution and health as well as economics.

 

On which we live in a fairly remote SE rural place. But we really notice the difference in air quality (much better) when north of the Forth/Clyde.