Don't usually recommend this but...

'Wind farms in Scotland'

I wouldn't normally advocate the purchase of anything in particular on these pages however today's copy of the P and J contains a full page map inside which accompanies this front page article. The on line version of this map is found at Windfarms in Scotland (July 2011) which in turn is accessed from this page on the SNH web site.

This article is part of a much larger debate however and I have previously referred readers to the excellent book:

Sustainable Energy – without the hot air

David J.C. MacKay

To quote from the on-line 10 page synopsis:

"We have an addiction to fossil fuels, and it’s not sustainable. The developed world gets 80% of its energy from fossil fuels; Britain, 90%...How can we get off our fossil fuel addiction?...There’s no shortage of advice on how to “make a difference,” but the public is confused, uncertain whether these schemes are fixes or figleaves...We need a plan that adds up. The good news is that such plans can be made. The bad news is that implementing them will not be easy."

"We often hear that Britain’s renewables are “huge.” But it’s not sufficient to know that a source of energy is “huge.” We need to know how it compares with another “huge,” namely our huge consumption. To make such comparisons, we need numbers, not adjectives. Where numbers are used, their meaning is often obfuscated by enormousness. Numbers are chosen to impress, to score points in arguments, rather than to inform. In contrast, my aim here is to present honest, factual numbers in such a way that the numbers are comprehensible, comparable, and memorable. The numbers are made accessible by expressing them all in everyday personal units."

The synopsis also looks at five energy plans for Britain and the scary thing is that all these supply-side plans assume that demand has been substantially reduced by efficiency savings in heating and transport. Using '...honest, factual numbers.." Prof Mackay also does a bit of 'compare and contrast' e.g. 'Roof-mounted wind turbines -bad; roof-mounted solar water heaters - 'no brainer'.

I hope blog readers will find this synopsis thought provoking and maybe take a look at on-line book - 13.9 MB accessed at link here.

To quote Prof Mackay again:

This book isn’t intended to be a definitive store of super-accurate numbers. Rather, it’s intended to illustrate how to use approximate numbers as a part of constructive consensual conversations. This book doesn’t advocate any particular energy plan or technology; rather, it tells you how many bricks are in the lego box, and how big each brick is, so the reader can figure out for himself how to make a plan that adds up.

I think we should see the SNH July 2011 wind farm map in the context of the map provided by Professor Mackay on page 7 of the synopsis as Fig 9, Plan M