What do we Want - Wind Farms ----- Where do we want them - Nature Reserves !!

Hark ! - The cry of the Lesser Spotted Environmentalist.

Habitat:     Urban and Metropolitan Back Yards.

Distribution:     Worldwide.

Then along comes Aikengall II

eastlothian.gov.uk pdf download

Comprising of 22 x 3.6 MW turbines with a total of 79.2 MW installed capacity and occupying an area of 6.3 sq km, Aikengall II will deliver 208,138 MWh per year over its 25 year 'Operational Phase'. 

That's 5.2 TWh of [intermittent] electricity in total, at a cost of £120 million:     
Cost October 21 2016

But Hinkley point C nuclear power plant will deliver 1,513.7 TWh of [24/7] electricity over its 60 year design life, so we'd need to build 191 onshore wind farms of this capacity, occupying an area measuring 35 km x 35 km to deliver as much [intermittent] electricity as Hinkley - perched on its site measuring 830 m x 830 m.

And that would cost:     £34.92 billion

Costing 94% more than Hinkley !!

and just imagine what this does to the pristine ecosystems and rare species on that 1 site:

Wind Energy Industry Shock - Top Spot For Employment Lost to New Civil Engineering Technology !

One of the many proud boasts made by 

renewableUK [the voice of wind & marine energy] 

is the creation of full time jobs in the onshore and offshore wind energy industries. So proud are they, the figures for 2015 were published in their 

'State of the Industry Report 2015'

There are 15,500 'Direct UK wind energy jobs'.

They also published the 'Total [installed wind turbine] capacity' of 13,313 MW.

It is possible to work out the wage cost per kWh of electricity delivered, by assuming the Capacity Factor in 2015 was not wildly dissimilar to the current 30.4%.

13,313 MW @ 30.4% C.F. delivers 

Intermittent Electricity every hour, amounting to 

4,047,152 kWh 

Earnings - Office for National Statistics

2015 'All' earnings is £27,500 per annum, which for a 40 hour week, 52 weeks a year is £13.22 per hour.

For every hour intermittent electricity from wind is delivered, wages totalling £13.22 x 15,500 are paid

 = £199,622 

£199,622 ÷ 4,047,152 kWh = 5 pence/kWh

---------------------//--------------------

How does this compare with 24/7 electricity from Nuclear Power Plants?

---------------------//--------------------

Hinkley Point C Facts and Figures

3,200 MW at 90% Capacity Factor delivers 

24/7 Electricity every hour, amounting to

2,880,000 kWh

There will be 900 Full Time Jobs at Hinkley.

For every hour 24/7 Electricity from Nuclear Power is delivered, wages totalling £13.22 x 900 will be paid

 = £11,988 

£11,988 ÷ 2,880,000 kWh = 0.4 pence/kWh

--------------------//--------------------

The wage bill for every intermittent kWh delivered by Wind Turbines is 12.5X greater than every 24/7 kWh delivered by Nuclear Power.

---------------------//-------------------
But Dr Benjamin Zycher's proposals offer an advanced civil engineering technology which batters the renewables industry into 2nd place for the creation of Dream - Green Jobs !!

Renewable Energy Tax Incentives: How have the recent and pending expirations of key incentives affected the renewable energy industry in the United States?

"...The dream jobs rationale borders on the preposterous...........We could create a lot of employment if we outlawed the use of heavy equipment for digging ditches and mandated instead the use of shovels, or for that matter, spoons.

That sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

Well, there's no analytic difference between inefficient ditch digging and inefficient power generation as tools with which to pursue increased employment - None!..." 
------------------//-----------------
Trouble is though - how much more would our new schools or hospitals cost if all of the groundwork had to be prepared by 1,000s of well paid men and women wielding spoons?

How Many PRISMs Deliver As Much Electricity As All Of The UK's Wind Turbines?

The clearest way of comparing the amount of electricity different technologies deliver is to calculate how many homes can be supplied and for how many years.

The most recent statistics from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) shows that annual UK average domestic household consumption is 3,938kWh. 

And this is how it works out for PRISM Reactors versus the whole of the UK's Wind Farm Fleet:

The UK has 14,118 GW of installed wind turbine capacity - 6,697 wind turbines. They will power 9,547,144 homes for their lifespan of 25 years.

A single PRISM reactor, with a rating of 622 MW and a Capacity Factor of 90% will power 1,245,264 homes for its Design Life of 60 years.

You Pays Your Money - You Takes Your Pick:

OR

DNA Double Stranded Breaks - Heads, It's Radiation! Tails, It's Folate Deficiency!

The cells in our body each contain [23 pairs] 46 chromosomes consisting of tightly wound, double stranded DNA. There's about 2 metres of it in each cell and 10 trillion cells in our bodies. So there's an awful  lot of DNA susceptible to damage in 

The Complex You:

Folate deficiency and ionizing radiation cause DNA breaks in primary human lymphocytes: a comparison

National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine

ABSTRACT

 DNA double-strand breaks, the most serious DNA lesion caused by ionizing radiation, are also caused by several vitamin or mineral deficiencies, such as for folate.

These findings suggest that a diet poor in folate may pose a risk of DNA damage comparable to that of a relatively high dose of radiation. 

Our results also suggest that research on biological effects of low-dose radiation should take into account the nutritional status of the subjects, because folate deficiency could confound the effects of low-dose radiation.

RESULTS 

Both folate deficiency and ionizing radiation at relatively high doses cause DNA breaks, as measured by the Comet assay:

For the conditions we used in this study, physiological concentrations of folate deficiency induced as much DNA damage as did 1 Gy of radiation, a relatively high dose of radiation.

Folate deficiency and high doses, but not low doses, of radiation inhibit growth of primary human lymphocytes:

Cells irradiated with 1 Gy had a proliferation rate of ~50% of that of unirradiated cells (P<0.001); 5 Gy completely abolished lymphocyte proliferation (P<0.001). 

Apoptosis is increased by both folate deficiency and high doses, but not low doses, of ionizing radiation:

For radiation, an increase in apoptosis was observed only at the highest dose, 5 Gy, where 16% of the cells were apoptotic, compared with 8% for unirradiated cells. Cells irradiated with  1 Gy had a similar percentage of apoptotic cells as unirradiated cells 

A Telling little laboratory 'accident' lead to this research:

Jim MacGregor...... was looking at radiation breaking chromosomes in precursors of mouse red blood cells, and one day all his control mice were full of chromosome breaks. It turned out the company that sold him the vitamin mix for the mice had left out folic acid, and a lack of folic acid breaks chromosomes just like radiation does.
Bruce Ames - Pioneering Nutritionist.

There's a fair amount of concern about folate deficiency in the UK, with an ongoing debate about adding folic acid to flour:
UK Experts back adding Folic Acid to Flour

So the next time you come across a mention of - Nuclear Power Plants associated with leukaemia clusters - ask if the victims were checked for Folate or other Nutritional Deficiencies!
Nuclear Power Plants cleared of causing leukaemia

WHAT !!! - 3.75 Hinkleys will deliver as much electricity as all of the EU's wind turbines!

You've never seen so many percentages quoted in one document in all of your life !

Wind in power - 2014 European statistics

% this - % that - % t'other

It's all just Smoke and Mirrors !

But right there, buried on Page 12 are the bits of data that tell all:

Total installed capacity:     128.8 GW

Total wind energy production:  284.02 TWh

That's a capacity factor of 25%

The probable average turbine will be 2 MW

So that's 64,400 [majestic] wind turbines. 

 Modern wind turbines.....estimated life-span of 20 years

Cumulatively, over their 20 year life-span,  the EU's 64,400 wind turbines will deliver 5,680.4 TWh of (intermittent) low-carbon electricity.

Over its 60 year life-span, Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant will deliver 1,513.7 TWh of (24:7/on-demand) low-carbon electricity.

3.75 Hinkleys could deliver as many low-carbon units of electricity as all of the existing wind turbines scattered throughout the EU