E.ON technology, Scroby Sands offshore windfarm

Is the conversion of wind power to a renewable source of energy viable?

E.on, a company who have taken a leading role in the UK in the development of wind power, operating 20 wind farms offshore and onshore, currently operate one of the largest offshore wind farms in UK, Scroby Sands. Situated just off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk it holds 30 turbines imbedded to the sea, producing up to 60MW of power maximum, this sizeable amount can power up to 33,000 UK homes. This, I believe shows great promise and displays that wind farms, are definitely a method to be considered for our future production of electricity.

This site alone saves the emission of over 135,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, nearly 600 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 200 tonnes of oxides of nitrogen, this clearly shows it is an extremely effective alternative method of sustaining our production of power whilst causing less damage to the atmosphere around us, which I think is simply crucial at this moment in time with global warming dramatically getting worse and more apparent.
When considering the size of the ocean, and it being estimated that less than 1% of the UK’s seabed would be required to site enough turbines to generate 40% of the UK’s electricity requirement, surely is enough to make you think that this would be a great option to look to? For an alternative method of power production than we currently use. I definitely feel this is a sustainable use of technology and a step in the right direction to aiding us in our attempts to have what is known as ‘sustainable development’.

It is a known complaint that the siting of wind farms can cause many social issues, due to the noise of which they produce and obvious eyesores of the appearance. Also there is an environmental concern that they kill many birds and bats. Siting turbines offshore of course addresses some of these objections; however also raises other issues, like dangers to boat navigation and possible affects of low-frequency vibration on aquatic-life. Never the less it can be argued that other methods of electricity production have far more potentially dangerous affects on the environment.

How is it personal to me? I feel, in some way it is personal to all of us, in my case as a student in the field of technology I have a personal interest in the subject I am writing on, since first studying wind farms in secondary school at the age of 16, I could not understand why this method is being so underused? And I still consider this to be the case. Although there are social issues which I mentioned in the above paragraph, it still seems the case to me that, the method is clearly successful? It is a great use of technology to produce green electricity and I consider it too is far less damaging to our environment than our other methods of power generation, they might be eyesores but what is attractive about a nuclear plant, not even mentioning the severe dangers of a leakage from one. And even that aside surely all of us want the environment to be in a better condition for the future? Surely we don’t want to suffer from chest infections, breathing problems, which can all be caused due to increasing pollution in the air and surely we want to make living easier for our future children?

It is definitely clear that over the last 20 years the use of wind power to produce green electricity has become more viable and I feel this will continue to do so as it is an effective method of generating electricity. We have the space to house them, and although a fair amount of energy is required to produce these wind farms, it is claimed that each turbine earns this energy used for its production back within 3 months time. It is unfortunate that although the use of wind power has increased rapidly and is continuing to do so, I still feel, it is severely neglected and underused. The only argument to this must be the social effects of this method of production.
E.on are now working on several new sites, one of which will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in Europe, producing double the power of which Scroby sands produces. Knowing this, I feel great progress is being made to develop renewable energy technology and the production of green electricity.

I will be continuing my studies in this, looking as to why this particular method of green electricity production is being so, to what I believe, greatly neglected and underused. The sources below will help me in these studies and in effect hopefully, revealing the arguments against mass use of wind power. Is it a realistic strategy for the future?

Book:
Renewable Energy Policy and Politics: A handbook for Decision-Making

Online:
http://www.countryguardian.net/Case%202006.htm
http://www.cus.net/renewableenergy/subcats/wind/wind.html
http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/Frames/pollution-health-effects-f.html
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Energyandwatersaving/DG_064372