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London Array

So, Shell International have decided to pull out of the London Array project, the largest offshore wind farm (at around 100MW) in the UK.

I’ve got a little file on my desk here of all the press releases that the London Array Consortium has put out over the last few years – not least to drum up support from people like me as it wrestled with a recalcitrant Local Authority and other issues in terms of securing planning permission for the facilities required for the London Array.

It’s a great scheme. It still is – with or without Shell, whose withdrawal strikes me as a terrible decision. It’s difficult to imagine how companies of this kind come to decisions of that sort.

So I was all the more grateful for a windy uplift the day after Shell announced this decision, when I went along to help celebrate the commissioning of the Westmill Wind Farm, just outside Swindon – 5 x 1.3MW turbines, which anyone now using the mainline services into or out of Paddington can observe out of the train window. If ever you need firm confirmation that wind turbines enhance certain landscapes, rather than destroy them, Westmill provides that in all its glory!

westmill_windfarm1.jpg But what makes Westmill even more special is the fact that it is a co-operative venture, with a large number of individuals (including myself) who bought into the project, and 50% of whom live within a 50 mile radius of the project.
This was a great day!

Unfortunately, there are only a handful of co-operative wind projects of this kind in the UK – in contrast, for instance, to Denmark. As far as I can discover, there are no more than 5 actually up and running, with a few more in the pipeline.

So why does that matter? Who cares whether it is small-scale, local co-operative ventures delivering the Megawatts, or vast great, overhead-heavy multi-nationals? In truth, I will settle for more and more MW of wind wherever it comes from, but I have to say that I would much rather that many more on-shore projects came from Westmill look-alikes, leaving the off-shore mega-projects to the big guys – even if Shell does seem to have lost its bottle.

And I can’t help but think that this would make a bigger difference in terms of overcoming the often utterly spurious objections of planning committees than any amount of wordy advisory notes from government.

Posted by Jonathon Porritt on May 13, 2008 11:34 AM |

Comments (7)

I just read an article on enn.com about a Texas oil man purchasing $2 billion worth of wind turbines, or 667 wind turbines. Even the oilmen of Texas are realizing that alternative energies are the future.

Dagny McKinley
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel

Posted by Dagny McKinley | May 19, 2008 10:39 PM

Those of us in the power industry are all too aware that atomic power and carbon sequestration is just overblown hype, atomic power cannot deliver energy at the promised 3p per unit, 30p is more like the true cost. If we are to secure our future, we need renewable energy - and lots of it, we need a full scale emergency turbine building program, put in place with the vigor we fought the second world war with. electricity can now be stored cheaply thanks to a new technology called the VRB cycle (google Sorne Hill Windfarm). Wind + VRB would give us the flexible power generation we need so urgently. Clive - Didcot Power Station (in view of the Westmill Turbines).

Posted by Clive | May 22, 2008 5:02 PM

What a load of rubbish. It's only the vast subsidies paid for by electricity consumers (all of us) that make any of the wind projects feasible. With the cost of the London Array doubling in a couple of years, plus the problems of erecting wind turbines at sea, plus the maintenance and corrosion problems, it's no wonder Shell pulled out.

Planning comittees can see the devastation that wind turbines do to the beautiful countryside in the West Country, Wales, Cumbria and Scotland for so little benefit in terms of tiny amounts of intermittent electricity when the wind actually decides to blow.

Posted by Phillip Bratby | May 22, 2008 9:58 PM

Phillip
Subsidies sure do play a huge role right now but consider the how cost of electricity will rise as fossil fuels dwindle, gas/oil prices rise (look at them now), as global warming continues to make temps rise and suddenly the cost of maintaining that beautiful landscape vs having a cheaper solution to run you newly needed aircon become apparent. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that pretty soon you'll want a wind turbine in your back garden mate.

Posted by Stav | May 28, 2008 8:24 PM

Jonathan,
As a Shell pensioner with a continuing interest in renewables, I was very dissappointed to see the report of Shell pulling out of the London Array. There is a marked lack of any press releases from the company explaining why or indeed if they've taken this decision - do you have any further information and is the search on for a replacement partner? I can't see the project going ahead without a company of considerable size.

Mike

Posted by Mike Griffiths | June 4, 2008 10:19 AM

Wind + VRB would be great, but I've not seen any news of successful commissioning of the VRB scheme at the Sorne Hill wind farm. It must be quite overdue now. Does anyone have details?

Posted by Neil Perry | June 13, 2008 10:34 PM

Interesting to see that VRB has been mentioned a few times here. I have been very interested in this technology for a few years, and thought it was worth pointing out that, in my opinion, the key characteristic is energy management.

Whether it be the management of supply, in the case of an intermittent supply such as a wind farm, or the management of demand by using a flow-battery storage system as part of a UPS or back-up system, the emphasis should not just be on wind applications but on the benefits for anyone in the energy market.

The link I have attached shows some of the applications VRB have installed their systems for around the world. Interestingly I understand that a significant amount of R&D was undertaken by the US Defence Dpt who were interested in the use of stored energy in remote locations.

Integrating storage like this in the mains grid, or indeed at any power source can reduce peak demand and stabilise balancing. This is true for developed or developing countries where the energy challenges can be very different.

I think that there is a very interesting opportunity with this type of technology to encourage energy users to use their UPS (with a storage facility) systems as day-to-day energy management systems, ultimately creating a demand driven market where users can purchase off-peak, renewable, local, or simply cheaper electricity, and use it when they want to, this could be over a 24hr period or more, for example.

The examples on the VRB website show systems from 5kW to 2MW, which I believe is as large as the proposed system in Donegal.

Posted by Adam Dawson | July 3, 2008 3:00 PM

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