Johnson is going to announce a big push on offshore wind energy today. This sounds good, although not unalloyed good news. It’s a very political move.
Energy production generates jobs and energy, it appears that the PM’s announcement is going to put those jobs in the Northeast of England somewhere near where the red wall used to be and might be designed as much to add blue bricks to the map of northern constiuencies as green energy. Well, fair enough in a way. If there is to be a green recovery then let it be in places most needy of recovery.
Green energy production is a big vision, far away thing – ideal ground for making promises that may never be kept and shifting attention from the shambles on delivery of nearby promises related to COVID-19.
It’s also the case that a virtual Conservative conference, without cameras in the hall scanning the faces of the faithful is an ideal time to talk about those things that Conservative voters won’t get too worked up about but won’t mind too much. A subject where the reaction is neither ‘Wow!’ nor ‘Why?’ is quite appropriate.
But Conservative voters do get worked up about wind turbines if they are on land and the emphasis, we are told, is very much for offshore wind. Now opinions differ as to the cost-effectiveness of offshore wind compared with onshore but generally speaking the costs of generating and transferring energy to the grid from offshore are higher than for onshore, and those costs are only partly offset by stronger and more persistent winds once turbines are in place. so the emphasis on offshore is not an entirely rational decision, but is also likely to get an ‘At least it’s not anywhere near us’ from the party faithful.
So there are all sorts of reasons for making this annoucement and they may not reflect a massive greening of either the PM or the government, indeed the danger is that they may to some extent reflect a ‘job done on green issues’ moment.
As always with built development, the big question is ‘Where?’ and will the concrete be poured on top of biodiversity? Have a look at the Benyon report from July this year on Highly Protected Marine Areas and judge whether you think their recommendations will be able to guide wind energy to the many right places and away from the wrong places? Another advantage of offshore wind is that it is very difficut for the protesters to lie down in front of the marine equivalent of bulldozers and there aren’t any photographs of trees being cut down in the name of the environment.
The main thing with Johnson though is – can we believe it until we see it? And the answer is no.
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But we might bask in the Glow of world-leading intermittency
Whatever happened to encouraging and promoting or even supporting “energy conservation”? I suppose that doesn’t help the energy production industry make vast profits ….
Energy efficient homes and definitely new ones, oh sorry that doesn’t help housing industry with their profits either 😉
As with any Government promise of ‘world leading’ etc. …. time will tell if it’s more than media spin?
There is something frightening scary happening at the moment for conservation.
Arable land prices have trebled over the last 8 months. There is a mad scrum to purchase as much of it as possible, the financial returns on this land can be staggering high. Profits can be made by numerous whizzes and projects; some of them under a conservational banner and it’s all-legal.
Arable land that is generally regarded as poor, low productivity crap is actually the best type of land available for any natural rewilding project and conservation purposes. But, it’s being bought at such a rate at the moment, that in 40 years time, we will be a brick and concrete forest.
I was talking to a building gang a few weeks ago, they can build in good conditions a modern house in 5 days, and if the chippy, plasterer and sparkie come in over the weekend they can finish it off in 7 days. These guys were starting building on the neighbours farm, land he sold the rights too, a very long time ago, he was pissed off because they started cutting his trees down, whereon he was politely told “there not your trees any more mate”. But I suspect we was more annoyed at missing out on the £££££ he could sell it now.
We look at green solution through rose coloured glasses, without realising there’s an opposite by product of consequence usually associated with them.
I wonder what ecological due diligence will be required (on, or offshore) cometh the day (and night, if you’re undertaking diligence for bats)? Will the Birds Directive (and Habitats Directive), as currently transposed in to UK domestic law, remain in effect cometh the day (and night)? And how will it work for the devolved nations? Will Scottish raptors, waders, seabirds moving south collide, metaphorically speaking, with a different English legal framework? Will a poorly surveyed (due to diluted ecological due diligence in England) quadrant of English sea have an effect on the favourable conservation status of Scottish seabirds? How could the Scottish Government impose a sanction on England as a consequence – or will the resulting divergence leave Scotland bereft of biodiversity and ability to sanction?
” – can we believe it until we see it?”
Probably not. It is circulating that in 2013 Johnson said that wind power couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding, so unless there has been a serious change in rice puddings … .
Filbert – rice puddings may not be whay yhey used to be, butJohnsonm remains untrue to himself.
Total wind. One certainly can not believe a word he says. He is a very right wing individual with the gift of the gab but with no substance.. There may be more offshore wind farms and under a reasonable Government there locations should be subjected to proper Environmental Assessment to see whether they would detrimentally impact on marine conservation zones and the flyways and feeding areas of birds and bats.
However I would be very surprised if such Proper Environmental Assessments are in fact carried out.
And what is the projected lifespan of these turbines? I guess if we can just leave them indefinitely to rot in the sea, it doesn’t much matter.