Revolt news168 of 31.8.04 and similar messages are sent to Revolt Committee members with email, bcc to others who may be interested. If you do not wish to receive these messages please let me know. For further information please see http://www.revolt.co.uk/ For your convenience ... these news issues are usually in plain text because attachments may take time to receive and may be difficult for some to open. We try to keep it simple. 1. In response to some recent enquiries about the possible removal of pylons in west Yarm, on Teesside, sadly I have to say it is unlikely. My reply is at Appendix 1. 2. Interesting development of household scale wind turbines (Appendix 2, passed on by Country Guardian). Revolt favours distributed generation close to the point of consumption, and encourages small-scale renewable developments like this. 3. Erstwhile energy minister Brian Wilson became well known for his frenetic promotion of large remote windfarms especially in Scotland's highlands and islands, with his much publicised proposals for a major transmission link to England under the Irish Sea. That undersea link has now been quietly dropped, while some 200 miles of giant 400kV pylons are planned from Ullapool through Beauly to Denny, across some of Scotland's best scenery. His recent article for the Observer (Appendix 3) focuses on the need for more indigenous energy supplies. I like the line "cheap energy is fool's gold" though it should also apply to wind farms. 4. Article from the Scotsman Mon 23 Aug 2004 claims plans for the Ullapool-Beauly-Denny line have been abandoned. Another article from the Sunday Times (Appendix 4) has a similar story. A further report from the Press & Journal says that Defra and DTI decline to comment. I am checking with DTI and with John Rennilson (director of Planning & Development at Highland Council, well known to revolt as former Chief Planning Officer at North Yorkshire CC). Response so far suggests the articles are wrong and the Beauly - Denny line remains a high priority although Western Isles to Ullapool to Beauly seems to be more under debate. 5. Elsevier's Encyclopedia of Energy, vol.5, 2004, includes a substantial paper (pp 145 - 167) by Luther P Gerlach (University of Minnesota) entitled "Public Reaction to Electricity Transmission Lines". Luther had been in contact with me at some length in his preparations and Revolt figures prominently in the paper, even though it spans "Western industrial democracies" and especially the USA. He writes that "opposition to electricity transmission lines is significant, organized, and informed" and "The [Revolt web] site is linked to the sites of transmission line opponents around the world. Revolt has been an important node in the network of electricity transmission line opposition and contributes ideas about change, which inform a movement.". There are sections on need, size, utilities restructuring, visual impact and EMF, and some nice comments on social behaviour. The conclusion fairly summarises the organisation of and reasons for opposing powerlines, ending with: "However, these groups might become parts of a movement of change as they work to change the culture of energy use as well as energy policy." 6. News of the Orkney wave power success (Appendix 5) was doubly welcome. Apart from having ancestors from Orkney, I recall colleagues in the sixties working on wave power trials on Loch Ness, which I think was before the Salter duck (the Edinburgh scientist's invention which elegantly extracts all the energy from a pure wave). Real waves are very impure, mixing size, frequency and direction, and being much less easily tapped for energy, though it's worth pursuing. 7. The link between wind farm development and power lines is manifest in Gippsland, Australia. National Grid's Basslink powerline from Tasmania and its onward route through Victoria have been vigorously opposed. A $220 million 52-turbine wind farm at Bald Hills recently approved by the Bracks Government is exciting equally vigorous opposition. ************************************************************* ************************************************************* APPENDIX 1 West Yarm pylons. Sorry to say that there is no sign of the pylons being removed. Revolt has campaigned for their removal on the basis that the new line connection from Lackenby via Picton to Osbaldwick (York) is adequate to meet present needs. However government energy policy places excessive reliance on developing wind farms in Scotland to serve electricity needs in London and south west England. Such a policy is fundamentally flawed in engineering and economic terms, as explained for example by the Royal Academy of Engineering, but the government is reluctant to recognise this. The wind farm policy will place great strains on the grid and require many more pylons (to the tune of 2 billion pounds). Therefore it is unlikely that the west Yarm pylons will now be removed. *************************************************************** APPENDIX 2 Small-scale wind turbines >From Infrastructure Journal 20th August 2004 - Turbine revolution as Scottish firm closes in on power supply agreement Scottish firm Renewable Devices - the manufacturer of revolutionary vibration-free, roof-mounted wind turbines that are all but silent - is days away from securing a UK-wide supply agreement with a major utility. The turbines - which were the subject of a Scottish Executive backed trial earlier in the year (IJ News, 20 May 2004) - generate 4,500KW hours per year and provide up to a third of the average household's energy requirements. Dave Anderson, a director of the Edinburgh-based company, told IJ News that the deal slashes the manufacturing cost of the turbines, making it a more viable proposition for home owners. The turbines will contribute to renewable obligations by reducing demand on the national grid and helping Scotland hit its self-imposed target of 40 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. 'The future looks incredibly rosy,' said Anderson. 'We are talking to a couple of the big energy utilities and are days away from signing a supply agreement. The utility will supply the sales marketing infrastructure and route to market that we, as a relatively small company, cannot.' Development of the units has been financed through a combination of a £150,000 grant from the DTI and by money raised through Renewable Resources' renewable energy consultancy practice. Anderson said that Renewable Devices plans to ramp up production to several thousand units over the next two years which will slash the cost of an installed turbine from a prohibitive £10,000 to around £1,500 per unit. When asked if the individual household or the utility partner would pay for the turbine and its installation, Anderson said: 'That is confidential at the moment, but it may well be a bit of both.' *************************************************************** Appendix 3 Brian Wilson's article in the Observer The Observer Sunday August 8, 2004 Power supply cannot be left to the market We are becoming too dependent on volatile imports, argues former energy minister Brian Wilson 'The days of cheap energy in the UK are coming to an end,' says Phil Bentley, financial director of Centrica. There is no reason to disbelieve him. Indeed 'cheap energy' policies are a mirage. It is a basic law of economics that what goes down also comes up, usually sooner rather than later. Politicians do not get much credit when utility bills are falling, or at least rising by less than inflation. But when they start to rebound, as Centrica and others now say is inevitable, the public does not necessarily blame only market forces. The gas and electricity regulator, Ofgem, is ideologically in thrall to achieving the lowest possible prices for the consumer. This is an extremely short-term approach which subordinates other government objectives of at least equal importance. There was also more than a touch of emperor's clothes to the magical success of driving down prices in an over-supplied market. This over-capacity was a legacy from the old state-run systems, when it was regarded as a virtue to produce more electricity than the nation was likely to consume. This produced security of supply in a non-competitive environment. Only in the brave new world of competition did over-capacity became a badge of inefficiency rather than prudence, and non-viable generators go to the wall. The most conspicuous victim was British Energy, our leading nuclear generator. British Energy, as its shareholders are beginning to note, is now doing rather well because of the recovery in electricity prices. This confirms that the major factor in its crisis - the unsustainably low price of generated electricity - was a temporary phenomenon. The bill for more expensive electricity, which consumers were not asked to pay for around two years, was passed instead to taxpayers in the form of a bail-out for BE, which will last for decades. Another problem with a purely market-driven approach is its blindness to environmental virtue. It makes more sense under Ofgem's regime to bring dirty generation out of mothballs to meet demand than it does to invest in clean new plant. The wholesale price of electricity must take greater account of the increasingly desperate need for investment in clean generating capacity. But that approach - which would also bring relief to the beleaguered power manufacturing sector - is incompatible with a 'cheapest is best' preoccupation. The classic example of how a hostile - or at best indifferent - regulatory regime can work against other stated government objectives lies in the Combined Heat and Power sector. It is often forgotten that government targets for CHP are more ambitious than for higher-profile renewables. In reality however, CHP has been in decline over the past few years, caught in a ratchet of low electricity and high gas prices. As with renewables, setting targets is the easy bit - there then has to be action to ensure 'the market' does not make them unachievable. So as we move into an era where 'the days of cheap energy are coming to an end', what are the implications for UK policy? I would argue that the biggest danger comes from the proposed dependence, to an extraordinary degree, on imported gas - one of the most volatile factors in recent price movements. Indeed, Centrica is predicting it will cost it 50 per cent more to buy gas over the next two years. Flashing red warning signs do not come much brighter. On current projections, 70 per cent of our electricity generation will come from gas by 2020. Ninety per cent of that will be imported from areas such as Siberia, the Caspian Sea, North Africa and the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. No matter what happens now, we are going to become hugely more dependent on imported gas at the time when our own North Sea resources - which led to the short-term dash for gas in the first place - are in sharp decline. By 2006, we will become a net importer of gas. The market is already responding with large-scale investment and long- term contracts. Centrica has indicated its plans to build an LNG (liquid natural gas) terminal to ship gas to the UK and similar projects are sprouting around our coastline. Similarly, a number of major pipeline concepts will bring gas to Western Europe and, by inter- connector, to the UK. So my concern is not one of absolutes but of degrees. Of course we will need imported gas, and of course the market will respond. But does it make sense to become so dependent on one price-volatile source of energy? My own firm view is that our future dependence on imported gas should be tempered by an all-out effort to maximise our indigenous energy potential - nuclear, clean coal and renewables as well as maximising production from whatever is left in the North Sea. Thinking environmentalists such as James Lovelock are already crossing the psychological barrier that sees nuclear power as an implacable enemy. More rational assessment suggests it is actually the other side of the same carbon-reduction coin as renewables. Similarly, we will continue to turn our back on coal at our peril. We still have lots of the stuff under our feet and, globally, more can be achieved for carbon reduction by cleaning up coal plants than will ever come from renewables. As a bonus, British companies could be selling the technology to the world. Security of energy supply is too important to be left to the market and too political to be left to an unelected regulator. Nobody will blame a regulator if the lights go out or prices go through the roof. They will, very properly, hold responsible the politicians who led them to believe in the sustainability of cheap energy and the wisdom of gas dependence. Affordability of energy supply is crucial to a successful economy, but 'cheap energy' is fool's gold. · Brian Wilson MP was Energy Minister from 2001 to 2003 and is currently the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Overseas Trade ******************************************************************** Appendix 4. Sunday Times article on Beauly-Denny line. THE SUNDAY TIMES August 22, 2004 Protesters halt march of the pylons Neil Rafferty THE government is set to abandon plans to erect electricity pylons through a 200-mile corridor of Scottish countryside following outrage from protesters including Gabby Logan, the sports presenter, and her rugby-playing husband, Kenny. The £300m scheme would have carried electricity from wind farms on the Western Isles to Ullapool via underwater cables. From there the power would have been carried to Beauly in Inverness-shire and then on to Denny in Stirlingshire by overground cables, where it would have fed into the national grid. Ministers are now looking at alternatives, including the possibility of carrying the electricity underground to Skye. The proposal, which would cost an additional £150m, has the backing of Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West. Another option being considered is to bury part of the transmission line from Beauly to Denny, but Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), the electricity company, has said that underground cables are up to 25 times more expensive than overhead lines. The scheme forms part of the government plan to increase the amount of power from renewable sources. Ministers have been forced into a rethink after widespread opposition to wind farms and have now switched their attention to wave and bio-mass power stations. Concerns are also growing over the pylons needed to carry electricity from remote parts of the Highlands and the Borders. "They are noisy, they give off radiation and they are going to spoil the countryside," said Kenny Logan, whose farm stands in the shadow of the Wallace Monument near Stirling. "There is also a big health issue associated with these pylons. The research is unclear, suggesting the risk is 50/50, but you don't put something like that in the countryside if the odds are that high. "It is coming right through my land and lot of other farmers' land, but we are sticking together. They can try and offer us money but it will not do any good. They have not got a proper plan in place for our power needs. Scotland is not about wind farms, it is about fantastic countryside." Sue Hopkinson, of the protest group Highland Before Pylons, said: "We have only been allowed to examine one set of proposals. Everybody thought that wind power was such a clean and friendly thing, but there is a cost to the landscape." David Bellamy, the television naturalist, has backed the anti-pylon campaign and is due to visit the Western Isles and Ullapool next month. The Beauly to Denny line would cross some of the most spectacular and popular beauty spots in the Highlands and threaten woodland dating back to the Ice Age. The European Union is committed to increasing the share of electricity from renewable sources to 22% by 2010. Scotland's wind potential has prompted the executive to set a target of 40% by 2020. "We want to find an acceptable route for an overhead line," said Alan Young, director of communications for SSE. "In situations where an exceptionally high value is placed on visual amenity, we will consider laying underground cables. "But underground cabling requires work on the scale of motorway construction and there are serious concerns about the environmental effects." Last week Highland councillors agreed to commission an independent study into the costs of running proposed power lines underground, claiming they were sceptical about estimates. SSE has quoted £20m a kilometre compared with £800,000 a kilometre for an overhead line. Supporters of underground cabling point to Canada, where changes have been made to reduce the risk of cables breaking in harsh winters. They claim one big breakdown in Scotland would cost consumers far more than the cost of underground cabling. ************************************************************* APPENDIX 5 Success for Orkney wave power. Press and Journal: FIRST WEEK SUCCESS FOR WAVE POWER TEST 09:00 - 24 August 2004 Electricity generated by wave power in Orkney has completed its first week of being plugged into the national grid. Pelamis, the world's first commercial-scale floating wave energy converter, was installed by Ocean Power Delivery at the newly opened European Marine Energy Centre. The success of the test machine was welcomed by environmentalists who said they hoped it would the first of many wave power stations in Scotland. Dan Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth, said: "This is fantastic news. The UK's coastline has huge potential for wave and tidal power which could help reduce our reliance on polluting fossil fuel and hazardous nuclear plants." Green Party MSP Shiona Baird said the firm deserved to be congratulated but warned that the UK could miss out in becoming a leader in the technology worldwide if Westminster did not release more money. She said only by tripling funding to £150million would help ensure that the first commercial wave farm is built, designed and installed in Scotland. "With 7,000 jobs potentially available for Scots, the least we can do is make sure Scotland stands the best chance of getting them." The Pelamis system, designed over the past six years, has a rated power output of 750kW. Its electricity generation is expected to be sufficient to meet the annual needs of over 500 UK households. The European Marine Energy Centre is based off Billia Croo, on the Orkney mainland. ********************************************************************* -- Mike O'Carroll