MASSIVE IMPACT on Eye townsfolk

[Peter Seaman]

Felix

I am delighted that we seem to have agreement (even over-agreement) on
the measureables.

I note your claim that 2 additional turbines will “massively impact
the lives of 50% of the townspeople”. Bearing in mind that for most
people in Eye the turbines not be detectable in any way from their
homes - but only in their sealed vehicles when entering or leaving
the town - where would you put this “massive impact” on a scale of 1
to 10, where

10 = War, famine, earthquake, floods or serious disability.

5 = Closure of all the local shops

1 = Existence of the A140

??

Peter

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From: Felix Williams (ETC) [mailto:felix.w...@eyesuffolk.org]
Sent: 12 January 2012 18:52
To: 'Peter Seaman'; 'Merlin Carr'
Cc: 'Liz Mottram'
Subject: RE: Wind turbiens vs Sizewell

I probably shouldn’t rise to the bait here, Peter and I won’t respond
to this over and above this email, but on the issue of output (one of
several issues I have), I will answer with my thoughts.

Let me start of by saying I am no apologist for the oil industry; I
believe climate change is happening and that we are actively
contributing to it. I am also no apologist for nuclear power, although
at the moment it does seem to me to offer the greatest source of
carbon neutral energy (I’ll not get started on waste) – I share this
view with several eminent scientists/ecologists such as James Lovelock
and Georges Monbiot. I favour offshore wind and until recently did not
have much of a problem with onshore, but these turbines are BIG and
they would massively impact the lives of the roughly 50% of
townspeople who don’t like them – and they don’t produce much energy!
They are also, as I said to you last night, proposed to be sited right
on the ridge, overlooking the town in the valley and only 800m from
the nearest dwelling in the town.

I’m sure I don’t need to justify myself here, but as an individual/
family I have done what I can to reduce my footprint, including
switching from oil to wood and completely reinsulating my house.

Last year Sizewell B (which I latch onto as our nearest power station)
produced 4.7 TWh of electricity against a total usage in the UK of
about 2,500 TWh, or about 1.9% of total energy needs. That’s
4,700,000,000 (4.7 trillion) KWh as opposed to a projected (probably
optimistic) output from these two turbines of 17,500,000 (17.5
million) KWh. Let’s be generous and assume that each turbine actually
produces 9,400,000 KWh (to keep the maths simple) and knock a few
noughts off: 4700/9.4 equates to per turbine, 1/500th of the output of
Sizewell B over the course of the year. The actual output is likely to
be quite a bit lower and Sizewell last year produced less than normal
as one of the turbines was shut down for a long period. If we use your
figure of 5M KWh per turbine, the figure comes out nearer to a
thousand (940 turbines) to replace Sizewell in a slow year.
Extrapolate that to the total UK energy needs, if Sizewell is 2%
(being generous) then you’d have to multiply this figure by 50
(47,000) such turbines, which is the figure I was bandying around last
night. OK, so we only want 20% from wind, so that’s 9,400, but that’s
a lot of 130m masts…

With the two turbines on Humphries land, I believe we as a town have
‘done our bit’. We are effectively carbon neutral. I cannot in clear
conscience approve more when there are clearly a good part of the
population so against.

I hope you understand,


Fx

Felix Williams
Mayor
Eye Town Council
felix.w...@eyesuffolk.org

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From: Peter Seaman [mailto:Peter...@BTInternet.com]
Sent: 11 January 2012 10:30 PM
To: Felix Williams; Merlin Carr
Cc: 'Liz Mottram'
Subject: Wind turbiens vs Sizewell

Felix

I am sure nothing I say will make you change your mind but I don’t
think your comparison between wind turbines and Sizewell nucleur power
station was quite correct.

Sizewell B has a gross output of about 1.2 GW, but it has to be shut
down every 18 months and there are also unplanned shutdowns. Let us
ignore all the shutdowns and assume net output is 100% gross output
all the time.

Taking account wind variability and breakdowns, each 3 MW wind turbine
produces on average about 800 KW. So to get the output of
Sizewell B we would need about 1500 turbines.

Nobody is suggesting we put 1500 turbines on the Eye airfield, and
nobody I know is proposing we should get more than about 20% of our
electricity from the wind. 300 turbines in East Anglia could
hardly be described as swamping the countryside with them.

Peter

Delta Lodge
Eye
Tel 01379 870695
Mob 07582 516179

www.wpower.co.uk
www.OmbudsManReports.org.uk