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

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

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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

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

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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!..." 
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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?