Home
Search
Login
<mosaic.cnfolio.com>
The Technology Context – B101

Ovenden Moor Wind Farm, West Yorkshire


The Project background and objectives

The purpose of this report is to find out if it is worth developing sustainable technology, focusing on Wind power technology as an example. Ovenden Moor is a wind farm consisting of 23 Vestas WD34 turbines in West Yorkshire. The farm was first opened in June 1993 and cost a total of £10.6million. Ownership of the wind farm is joint between EPR (Energy Power Resources) and Powergen Renewable Ltd. The operation and maintenance of the farm is contracted with Vestas. This wind farm is located on Hollin Hill approximately 440 meters above sea level. The objectives of this wind farm are to develop new energy technologies. The project was financially assisted by the European Union (EU) under its ‘Thermie’ programme. Ovenden’s power capacity is producing 9.2MW (Megawatts) and is one of the largest UK wind farms. The EU Thermie program was created to meet the energy challenges we face, such as to ensure lasting and reliable energy services at affordable costs and conditions, reduce energy consumption, reduce the environmental impact of the production and use of energy, in particular carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and finally to strengthen the technological basis of the industry. EPR and Powergen are large electricity companies and are only doing what most electricity distributers are trying to accomplish and that is to provide 100% sustainable electricity to all its demands. One of the main problems is that not everyone is trying to make a difference. A main concern at the moment is China as they have a massive resource as Coal and they are using it to produce energy as a huge scale. The impact this has on the environment is also dramatic and it does not only affect China themselves, it’s global. Essentially they are being extremely selfish because they are going to extinguish not only their resources fast but in future terms they will be killing us.

Photo caption

The objectives of Ovenden Moor wind farm are the Thermie Programme’s main objectives which are:

• Improve energy efficiency, in both demand and supply sectors.
• Promote a wider utilisation of renewable energy sources.
• Encourage a cleaner use of coal and other solid fuels.
• Optimise the exploitation of the EU's oil and gas resources.

The last two points above are globally relevant rather than only towards Ovenden Moor Wind Farm.

Furthermore, THERMIE places an emphasis on those energy technologies which have a substantial impact which are:

• Increased employment and economic growth
• Protection of the environment
• Industrial competitiveness
• Improvement of economic and social standards.

(Technical Sheet of THERMIE Project Renewables - Wind Power)

The current status of the project is positive, it’s not only the environment that benefits from the presence of Ovenden Moor farm but also the community. The farm generates enough electricity to meet the average domestic needs of over 5000 households in the surrounding area, displacing 10396 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Ovenden Moor also saves 91 tonnes of Sulphur Dioxide and 30 tonnes of nitrogen oxides also on an annual basis. According to the EU this project was also constructed to test and experience the new model of 400kW WTG turbines with innovative control features.

Sustainable technology’s main objectives, why do we need to worry?

The primary sustainable technology objectives are mainly based upon a quote from the ‘Brundtland Commission’, formally the ‘World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)’, quoted in 1987 “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability for future generations to meet their own needs”. This quote explains that whatever we ‘produce’ today and in future must not prevent any future people from meeting their specifications, because we have used up all the recourses now. This quote is directly relevant to the sustainable technology topic as how a product is produced right from the preliminary stage of design. The designer must be fully aware of the environmental impacts they put in the development stages of any product. There is not one current concept that is completely sustainable. The difficult area is even if a product is designed to be completely sustainable, they cannot use energy during the design stage that is not renewable; therefore non-sustainable. If energy was originally made from a renewable non-finite resource, immediately the design stage any product can be produced as sustainable. This is where the topic of wind energy is directly relevant as wind is a non-finite resource. We will never run out of wind. Where wind energy is concerned one can either have on shore or off shore wind farms or turbines. The position of them is directly linked to how productive they will be.

All products at minimum should be designed to be recyclable and reusable. By a product being recyclable then at the end of the products life cycle its materials can be broken down to be used again in future products. If a product is designed to be reusable then it gets more use from its life cycle, such as a mobile phone being passed down a family. If products are also designed to be ‘dismantled’ then faulty components can be replaced themselves rather than replacing the entire product. These points would significantly reduce waste and help the sustainable technology issue. The majority of products also have built in obsolescence which means they are planned to fail at some stage, this enables companies to sell new parts and gain more income. This should be removed from the design stages of all future products.

Photo caption

What else can be done? The Technical alternatives and consequences

Wind energy’s renewable alternatives are Solar, Bio fuels, Landfill gas, Hydroelectric and biomass. All of these sources hold potential energy although we do not use this to its capacity. This can be another area to investigate whether it’s sustainable or not because of how much of each resource we use. Problems arise as all these alternative sources have advantages and disadvantages. If I was to use solar power as a direct comparison then an advantage is that the panels can be put nearly anywhere; on the other hand they are not the most aesthetically pleasing technology and are rather expensive. This is the same case with Wind turbines, they are quite expensive but not greatly attractive. Problems with all of these technologies are that they all have quite large disadvantages. Mainly that initial costs are great and they cannot always be situated in any location for best results. This is difficult because no one can decide who can setup a ‘site’ and claim these resources, for example that the Three Gorges Dam in China has a great location although unfortunately not every country has the opportunity to have a large scale hydroelectric dam. Other consequences of all these technologies are that they have potential to fail under operation and maintenance which does cost and can significantly impact their purpose. The essential idea is that these initial costs are returned from selling the product of electricity to organisations which distribute this electricity to homes.

Political and financial effects on other Countries and how can it be resolved?

Sustainable technology has a massive impact on political and financial issues because of ownership. There are many debates also regarding 3rd world countries which don’t have the financial backup and technologies to benefit from renewable sources of energy which could dramatically help them in their economy. These technologies should be readily available for Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC’s) because local communities would benefit greatly from having electricity and local services would be greatly improved. This is difficult to setup because an LEDC may have a great source of renewable energy although not have the financial backup to support its development. If Ovenden was not completed it would not have a great effect upon the political and financial areas. After getting into contact with Ian Rogers at Yorkshire Windpower Limited he gave me a few statistics and resources which were helpful to analyse. He did directly mention, “Ovenden Moor’s initial purpose was to help understand and develop alternative energy sources and how efficient they in comparison" (personal communication, December 12, 2007). I did ask if there was any effect in the local community of its existence and he replied that the local community do benefit and schools in the area frequently visit and get tours around the site, they have an onsite team of trusted and qualified engineers which are great with the children by teaching them Ovenden’s purpose.

Photo caption

The Global and national sustainable development issues, what needs to be done?

In general for a much better quality of live, to achieve good sustainable development globally we need to:

• Work with others to eliminate global poverty and raise living standards in developing countries
• Work with others to tackle global pressures on the environment and resources
• Promote a fair and open trade system which respects the environment
• Strengthen the place of sustainable development in international organisations.

These points are to try eliminating the amount of the world’s population living in poverty and eliminate debts between More Economically Developed Countries and LEDC’s. In the UK Government Sustainable Development in Chapter 9 there have been development targets to hope to be met which are:

• Reduce by one half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015
• Universal primary education in all countries by 2015
• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005
• Reduce mortality rates for children under 5 by two thirds, and reduce maternal mortality by three quarters, both by 2015
• Access through primary health care to reproductive health services for all by 2015
• Sustainable development strategies in all countries by 2002, and implementation in all countries by 2005
• Current trends in the loss of global and national environmental resources reversed by 2015.

(International Co-operation and Development, 2005)

Although this seems to be a little off topic I have added this for a purpose. I have added this because there needs to be some overall level of development for there to be any level of technological development. If a technology is sustainable it has a huge benefit to LEDC’s because the resources are not being used up; or if they don’t have any in the first place they are not losing anything.

Photo caption

Conclusion

All development has to be based upon a sustainable resource. Consequences of this can be severe and at worst cost us our habitable environment and our atmosphere. This project doesn’t have any negative long term effects. The wind energy itself is based upon the natural energy of the sea’s movement and positions of hills and mountains. Overall energy within the Earth’s atmosphere is never lost, it’s always kept at the same level but keeps being converted between other forms of energy. When it gets to a point where too much energy is on one resource we have a major problem, this is the case with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The erection of other wind farms doesn’t harm the position of Ovenden Moor although I feel wind energy cannot be the only source of renewable energy alone as we consume on average much more than it can provide at any one time. Ovenden Moor is a great sustainable technology and a developed technology; is a solution for that particular area. For wind energy to become completely sustainable it needs to provide energy on a global scale although there are issues about having wind farms all over the world, also that they are strategically placed. For all of our energy to be produced from a renewable source there have to be shared methods, all that can be suggested is that we use the most appropriate sustainable technology wherever possible. This is all personally relevant to both you and me as it’s our future generations which are potentially at great risk.

References

Page revised 2008-02-09 12:13 • ©2012 University of Portsmouth • This website uses wikkawiki.org software.