North Hoyle

Do Wind Farms Such as North Hoyle actually help to slow down usage of limited natural resources and slow down the process of global warming?

Sustainable technologies are technologies which use less energy, do not help to deplete limited natural resources, and can possibly even be reused or recycled after use. I believe that wind farms are a good example of this, although they are not likely to be recycled soon after use they do last a long time and contribute to slowing down the process of global warming.

They do this by taking kinetic energy in wind (which is the extra energy that wind has due to its motion) and converting it in to electrical energy via turning the turbines which can be up to 100ft long. These turbines are connected to a WED (Wind Energy Converter) to be changed into electrical energy. When many are used together they are known as a wind farm.

Once the energy has been converted it can be used to power houses, streets and even whole small villages. Large Wind farms can be connected to the national grid. These wind farms can produce large quantities of electricity given the proper conditions. Currently In 2007 1.5% of the UK’s energy comes from wind turbines. This might not sound like much but when you consider that the UK only produces 4.5% of its energy from natural resources this becomes quite an achievement.

The UK’s energy policy is in strong agreement that wind farms are helping to slow down global warming and are supporting the movement to build plenty more wind farms in the UK.

The farm I am going to be discussing over this unit is the North Hoyle Wind farm because it was the UK’s first major off shore renewable energy project, Situated 4 to 5 miles from the north coast of Wales.

The wind farm's has 30 offshore wind turbines are each rated at 2 MW (Megawatts is a measurement of energy, W=V x A) capacity, giving a maximum output for the site at 60 MW. At the time of installation this was the most powerful wind farm in the UK, producing sufficient electricity annually to power 50,000 homes. This wind farm was built in 2003 and is maintained by NPower who have a partnership with green peace.

The UK has been estimated to have over a third of Europe's total offshore wind resource, which is equivalent to three times the electricity needs of the nation at current rates of electricity consumption. With more wind farms like this out at sea we could soon be using more sustainable energy than we are natural resources.

Unfortunately some people think that these wind turbines are an eye sore and should not be there, i disagree, I do not think that they are “ugly” as they merely resemble old style aeroplane turbines, and are grey in colour so to not attract attention to them.

As a conclusion I believe that by utilising these types of renewable energy such as wind and water we are helping to slow down the effects that we are causing on our environment because it means fewer natural resources need to be burned to create electricity which leaves a smaller carbon footprint, thus prolonging the effects of global warming. I completely support this motion as I believe it is another step towards a sustainable future.

Plan of Inquiry

I plan to follow my research up with a small questionnaire with an aim to find out what people think about wind farms and to find out if the minority or majority of people find them an eye sore.

I also plan to do more secondary research on websites such as:

http://www.npower-renewables.com/northhoyle/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/wind-power1.htm