27 thoughts on “They Have Gone About The World Like Wind”

  1. Paolo

    Pylons should go underground if it is feasible but we should have more wind turbines.

    2. andrew

      Underground pylons? That’d be a first. It’d be some engineering achievement though.

    3. PaddyIrishMan

      It’s technically feasible but costs an absolute fortune to build and maintain. Are we willing to pay for it? (I’m not)

    4. JustSayin'

      Underground HVDC cablling can take up to six weeks to find and fix faults on the line and personally I’d rather not wait that long but hey maybe that’s me liking my creature comforts too much…

    5. miko

      You realise they need to create a road over the underground cable always accessible for heavy machinery needed to gig it up in case of a fault. This has more of an impact on the environment and landscape then pylons do.

  2. Serv

    But they’re happy for us to pump out energy from coal and peat stations. Guess none of them live near one.

    1. Rob_G

      +1, the pearl-clutching surrounding both wind turbines and electrical pylons in this country is astonishing

  3. munkifisht

    NIMBY clowns. Mightn’t want it in your backyard, but wonder how they feel about floods in their livingrooms?

  4. CousinJack

    Om land wind turbines the most cost-effective of all renewable energies and now on a par with gas (CCGT) on cost per unit. The future is massive wind turbines.
    BTW cost of undergrounding if 5 to 10 times that of overgrounding, but if landowners and there neighbours are willing to pay the diffrence then I’m sure eirgrid will be ok with it

  5. The Old Boy

    The future is tidal energy, but the massive capital outlay and objections to the loss of coastal amenity or spoiling the sea view will keep it down until the brown stuff really hits the fan. It’s the only large-scale renewable that is predictable enough to actually run the country, with the aid of pumped storage schemes based on the twice-daily surges.

    1. PaddyIrishMan

      It is certainly a predictable source of energy but has it ever be done successfully on a large scale? There’s no way we are going to be first as we wouldn’t have the expertise to do it.

    2. CousinJack

      There aren’t enough sites to make tidal variable, and there are no scaled commercial wave machines. Wind and solar are the current options, and with the advances been made in battery technology (aluminium batteries particularly) intermittency is become much less of an issue. At times wind contributes almost 50% of Irelands energy demand, and solar has contributed more than 40% of Germany’s energy demand. Plus solar and wind are now comparable to gas in cost per kw/hr without subsidy

      1. The Old Boy

        Thanks for the info, Jack. I wasn’t aware that battery technology was advanced enough to be useful for grid supply; I was still under the impression that pumped storage was the only viable way.

    1. andrew

      There probably could be nicer designs but it would probably cost a fortune to get some famous architect or whatever to come up with a design that wouldn’t be horrible to look at.

      As for the wire, no they’re all needed so the number couldn’t be reduced.

  7. Bonzor

    Riight… Because that’s an accurate representation of Irish wind energy policy.

    Let’s all listen to people like Tom McGuirk, who says that ‘Deformed cattle are being because of pylons!!’ Ignoring the thousands of existing pylons, of course, and Ireland’s thriving agricultural industry.

  9. Truth in the News

    The answer to future energy demand ain’t the wind, wheres the supply
    going to come from when theres no wind, has a cost benfit analysis
    being done of 400kV power lines that will be used intermittely, what will
    the back up to tte West of Ireland wind park in Mayo cost, the initial proposal
    is 600Mega Watts yet the proposed 400kV line has a projected capacity of
    almost 1800 MW in dry conditions and around 1600 in wet, has a costing
    being carried out, if not, its about time, or it end up like the bank debt.
    In reality back up would need the construction of at least of a new 1000MW
    thermal power station…..has any of the current proposals being thought out
    at all, or was it Eamon Ryans brainchild.

      1. Truth in the News

        Really, a battery that can store up to 1600 MW and deliver a load
        for a couple days……into miracles….loafes and fishes …eh.
        The best that can be got is 10’s of MW and load capaciry of several minutes
        Even a flywheel with 500 MW has only a standby of milliseconds
        Pumped water storage is limited to load peaking, how many days
        can Thurlough Hill (288MW) sustain a load for….its only hours.

    2. JustSayin'

      I don’t think many people in the wind industry would say that wind is the “silver bullet” to our furture energy problems but it most certainly is part of it. And I would imagine that Eirgrid have an abundance of reports regarding the upgrade of the transmission system.

  10. Truth in the News

    Yes, the ESB and Eirgrid have an extensive library of documentation
    However they seem to have not read it, if they had they would have
    develeloped a radically different power programme, indeed its time that
    all the documentation held in their library stock was made available to
    the public rather to than to the exclusie few in house.

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