"That misses the point."
I don't think it does, quite the opposite in fact, the American figures show that bird deaths due to wind turbines are low compared with the total.
I would also imagine that bird deaths due to forest fires (both ground nesting and high nesting) are very high too.
"After an abnormally large number of migratory birds turned up dead in people’s backyards in Colorado and other parts of western and central U.S. states, locals began to document their observations on a crowdsourced science platform called iNaturalist. Within the app, a special project was set up specifically for this die-off, which occurred in August and September 2020, so that records of the dead birds could be compiled together.
Around the same period as the birds’ deaths, more than 7.8 million acres of land burned, which resulted in habitat loss and the emission of toxic compounds that threaten the health of both avian species and humans. In addition, snowstorms struck parts of the Northwest in early September while these birds were in the midst of their annual migration. Some areas experienced temperature drops of as much as 72°F in just a few hours."
https://www.hcn.org/articles/birds-study-finds-wildfire-caused-massive-bird-die-off/
I think that the "wind turbines kill vast numbers of birds" narrative is a complete red herring, and is largely a deflection tactic. How many other creatures die in 7.8 million acres of burnt habitat?
Anyway, this should all be about wave power, an insignificant killer of birds I'd say.
I don't think it does, quite the opposite in fact, the American figures show that bird deaths due to wind turbines are low compared with the total.
I would also imagine that bird deaths due to forest fires (both ground nesting and high nesting) are very high too.
"After an abnormally large number of migratory birds turned up dead in people’s backyards in Colorado and other parts of western and central U.S. states, locals began to document their observations on a crowdsourced science platform called iNaturalist. Within the app, a special project was set up specifically for this die-off, which occurred in August and September 2020, so that records of the dead birds could be compiled together.
Around the same period as the birds’ deaths, more than 7.8 million acres of land burned, which resulted in habitat loss and the emission of toxic compounds that threaten the health of both avian species and humans. In addition, snowstorms struck parts of the Northwest in early September while these birds were in the midst of their annual migration. Some areas experienced temperature drops of as much as 72°F in just a few hours."
https://www.hcn.org/articles/birds-study-finds-wildfire-caused-massive-bird-die-off/
I think that the "wind turbines kill vast numbers of birds" narrative is a complete red herring, and is largely a deflection tactic. How many other creatures die in 7.8 million acres of burnt habitat?
Anyway, this should all be about wave power, an insignificant killer of birds I'd say.
- Insulate homes
- Good quality multiply glazed windows
- Domestic solar electric and batteries on all new builds
Some lessons from the UK:
- Biofuels are made from crops grown (generally), and on land that could be growing food. The EU biofuels mandate led to a big expansion of palm oil production and loss of Orangutan habitat.
- In the UK (again I know), a few years back everyone was excited about the construction of anaerobic digester gas production. Then it turned out there wasn't enough locally sourced input bio-waste for the digesters. So they started buying waste from further away, often a couple of hundred miles. Delivered by lorry.
- The UK Drax coal power station was part converted to burn wood pellets that were going to be sourced from 'waste'. Drax it turned out was burning more wood pellets than the rest of the EU combined. It couldn't be sourced from Europe so was taken from Canada. Then it turned out it was coming from actual forest, not from waste wood.
- In 2008 the then UK government decided every home should have a 'smart' meter. We were going to save money even though we were paying for the installation. The projected cost was £11bn and was supposed to be finished by 2019.
In 2024 we have 57% coverage, the cost has been at least £14bn for that 57%.
Of that installed base, 4m meters don't report their readings.
A large slice of the installed base is dependent on 3g to transmit readings. 3g is due to be switched off soon, requiring new meters.
Gas smart meters have a battery in them. When the battery expires they have to replace the entire meter.
Many people have found that when they switch supplier their meter won't report readings.
In terms of DIY HiFi, we have a spice sim that looks like it'll perform really well. But when we design the board & stuff it, it overheats, oscillates and when we want to buy new output devices they've become unobtanium. So we go back to the sim. Only we've been told it's an emergency and we have to have the thing working by the end of the month...
" Most houses have sloping roofs and therefore can't fit panels..." Sloping rooves are fine, depending on the house orientation. I have a roof full, the slope is pretty ideal, and they face south.
Batteries are very expensive, and have issues with grid connection permissions. I've looked into them, payback time is very poor.
The bigger issue with solar and / or batteries on all houses is the grid connection. There's plenty of areas already where you can't grid connect new solar as the substations, which were not designed with revers feed in mind, are at capacity.
Batteries are very expensive, and have issues with grid connection permissions. I've looked into them, payback time is very poor.
The bigger issue with solar and / or batteries on all houses is the grid connection. There's plenty of areas already where you can't grid connect new solar as the substations, which were not designed with revers feed in mind, are at capacity.
Yeah, well. It's that sort of thread on that sort of subject. I'm pretty sure the mods are looking and wondering if it's time to shoot it in the head. I suspect that eventually we'll end up with anything vaguely climate related being on the no-no list.
But, back with wave power, I think it's a diversion for something that's hard to implement and maintain and with little in terms of medium scale deployment to convince me otherwise and that costs can be accurately predicted. Offshore wind turbines would be better.
In any event prefer to spend the money on rooftop solar+batteries and house insulation to try and push down overall energy demand. It might make people more inclined to phase out gas for cooking and water heating at least.
My point about sloping roofs was not that they prevent panels from being fitted, but that the covenant that owners have to sign says that no panels can be visible from street level, and that a sloping roof means almost all panels will be visible. So can't be fitted without breaching the covenant.
Yes. Don't know about Scotland, but in England they abandoned the feed in tariff some time back so it's less of an issue for domestic. But the requirements of fast chargers for EVs is real, with the requirement for substations to handle the current load being a real problem. Of course more generally there's a backlog of connection projects for turbines and solar farms.
I have no immediate plans for solar panels, but am actively investigating battery storage to charge on cheap off peak electricity overnight. The figures look compelling with payback in 5-6 years. The main issue ATM is finding an appropriate site for the batteries.
My house has no off street parking. I could convert the front garden to provide a space & when I get an EV I'll have to do that. But the council has implemented emergency planning controls (to preserve the look of the area they say) that mean I have to go to full planning permission if I even want to change the wall around the garden let alone convert it for parking. So, effectively they've banned me from having an electric car. I took it up with a local councillor and got a look like a dog shown a card trick.
Absolutely nothing is as straightforward as it seems and sometimes the obstacles come from odd directions. There's that old saying "There's many a slip twixt cup and lip"
An outrage. Burnign wood is not all the efficient, and we are already losing too much forest here.
dave
I designed my hoise first & foremost for the hifi but the house is oriented so that there is a nicely sloped roof facing south. Still haven’t been able to afford panels. When i do, i could send power back to the grid, but i’d rather store it locally and use it myself.
No-one can see my house from the road, and solar panels would be welcomed.
dave
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Yup. That. A government that was desperate to prove its net zero chops. The irony being that, at the time, this was roundly welcomed by many activist organisations. Though you'd be hard to find evidence as it's long since disappeared from their sites. Though you'd have thought that even the most basic of calculations would have shown the impossibility of this working even for one power station let alone any chance of it scaling to anywhere. Ever.
You have a problem with damp?
I have 21 panels that can produce 6.6kW but our inverter limits output to 5kW in line with Government feed in tariff rules. Output on the inverter regularly sits at 5,048kW as we get a lot of sun here. Obviously, 6.6kW of panels enables us to maximise the average output despite the deliberate limitation of the inverter.
The panels can't be seen from the front of the house. My house faces South, but of the panels face North with six facing East.
Systems over the 5kW size are limited in how much electricity can be exported to the grid. Unfortunately the Government has reduced the feed in tariffs so that they're essentially too low to be an incentive (currently 3c per kw/h during the day), but it's still worth it due to savings on household consumption. However, the Government provides an incentive through installation rebates to encourage us to adopt household solar, so it is very common here, especially as most days here are sunny.
I run a swimming pool pump and evaporative aircon in summer for almost no cost as they are run mostly during peak solar output, and we only receive tiny power bills most of the year.