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1. A new document from the old NRPB (now the HPA-RPD), published August
2005, assesses sources of EMF exposure in homes. It is coded HPA-RPD-005
and can be found from . The document looks at
addresses from the UKCCS cancer studies, with a view to spotting what
would be most effective measures of exposure reduction, for
consideration in precautionary policy. The key findings and my comments
are at APPENDIX 1.
2. At the time the new North Yorkshire line was built, Revolt called for
the west Yarm 400 kV line to be dismantled, as it was not needed for
power-flows then. The new line from Lackenby to Picton, joining up with
the old one from Picton to York, should have been sufficient. But since
then, following the 2003 Energy White Paper, government policy has gone
ever more for wind power, much of it to be from Scotland. Given this
"dash for wind", there can be no realistic prospect of dismantling the
west Yarm line in the foreseeable future.
3. I've just been taking some photos of where the 400 kV underground
cables were buried near Newby about three years ago. Newly harvested
wheat fields with bales scattered across them glowed in the sun. I
couldn't detect the exact cable lines, or the line of the former access
road down the centre, as the ground was all the same and wholly cropped.
Neat roadside stones, like mile stones, declared the position of each
trench as it crossed the minor road. Apart from the neat wooden fence,
becoming overgrown with hedgerow plants, you wouldn't otherwise know
there was a cable there. Just beyond the wooden fence there is a small
enclosure bounded on the far side by a low fence like a knee-high
motorway barrier, largely overgrown with weeds. In the enclosure there
are two joint bays. These are concrete pits of a few square metres,
levelled flush with the ground, with some steel plates like rectangular
manhole covers. None of the joint bay material protrudes above ground
level, so unless you peered closely into the enclosure you wouldn't know
it was there. Looking out across the fields and rolling countryside, it
all appears normal and peaceful, completely undisturbed by the buried
cables.
4. A new web site from America takes National grid to task for bringing
in migrant workers on a sub-station rather than employing qualified
local labour.
is subtitled "a story of corporate greed versus our community's values".
Now where have we heard that before?
5. The deadline 31 August for consultation responses on Hambleton DC's
Preferred Options (news194.9) has passed. I sent in a response
expressing concerns about wind farm targets, with reference to detailed
drafting points and to recent revolt news items. It is not copied
herewith but is available on request. This sort of consultation will be
taking place around the country in the wake of the 2004 Act. For example
Redcar and Cleveland will be publishing its preferred options on 19
September for six weeks' consultation. It may be a common feature that
wind farm targets imposed by regional assemblies or government offices
are not revealed in the local consultations. Hambleton says responses
are expected to be considered by the Council on 13th December 2005 and a
summary of responses received will appear on
around that time. It is intended to submit the Core Strategy to the
Secretary of State in February 2006, when there will again be
consultation over a 6 week period. Meanwhile there is a further document
"Issues and Options" on the Hambleton web site with a response date of 7
October.
6. The North Yorkshire Renewable Energy Study (news193.5) has reported.
The same firm Land Use Consultants has done this study and the
environmental appraisal for Hambleton's LDF documents. All of the study
outputs are available from the project website at
.
I have not yet had time to look at them. They will open for consultation
from the 30th August until the 23rd September 2005. That's short, and
soon!
7. Highland Council is reported as opposing powerlines in Wester Ross,
such as the mooted Ullapool - Beauly power line (APPENDIX 2).
8. Even at 8 September, the SSE web site
with details of the Beauly - Denny line does not yet show that any
application has been formally submitted, and indeed SSE confirm it has
not, so the consultation period has yet to start.
9. A press release (APPENDIX 3) from the Renewable Energy Foundation
says that the Scottish renewables obligation is to reflect the
difference between unreliable intermittent sources and reliable ones.
That also reflects the distinction we have called for (news184.1 etc.)
in seeking to have wind power reclassified as non-renewable apart from
carefully defined Good Quality Wind Power.
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APPENDIX 1 HPA-RPD-005 main results and my comments.
The main findings are:
(a) for homes exposed above 0.2 microTesla, the main single cause is
internal wiring (especially when faulty), with high voltage (HV)
powerlines of 132 kV and above only accounting for about 20% of the 102
homes in the sample exposed at this level;
(b) for the 21 homes in the sample exposed above 0.4 microTesla, the
main single source is HV powerlines of 132 kV and above (44% of the
homes), with internal wiring accounting for 33%;
(c) other low voltage (LV) sources from the local distribution system
were a significant minor source, but exposures from appliances were only
very minor.
My comments:
(1) These are not large samples (particularly above 0.4 microTesla) for
the purpose of apportioning exposures among many sources.
(2) The homes were each investigated only over about two hours when
convenient for the home owner, and no account was taken of nocturnal
exposure, which might be dominated by HV powerlines. Nocturnal exposure
could be crucial for a melatonin effect.
(3) With regard to the important association with leukaemia above 0.4
microTesla, the NRPB had claimed (e.g. response statement to document
12-1 of 2001) that only about a quarter of those exposures would be due
to powerlines. Now on analysing the same UKCCS data that appears as
nearly half, albeit from a modest sample size.
(4) The document (page 48) repeats the error of asserting that by using
a geometric mean, rather than an arithmetic mean, the analysis "is less
likely to be influenced by statistical outliers". For positive numbers
not all the same, the geometric mean will be less than the arithmetic
mean. While high outliers will be suppressed, low ones will be
exaggerated. The assertion is simply wrong.
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APPENDIX 2. Report on Highland Council and Ullapool - Beauly line.
Press and Journal:
COUNCIL COMES OUT AGAINST PYLONS
09:00 - 07 September 2005
A Highland pylon protest group was celebrating a significant boost
yesterday.
Ullapool based Highlands Before Pylons (HBP) which has been vigorously
opposing
the possibility of an overhead pylon line from Ullapool to Beauly, was
delighted to
learn that Highland Council is modifying the Wester Ross Local Plan to
make their
opposition clear to high voltage transmission lines in that area.
Members of HBP had
objected to the failure of the current plan to include the safeguards
for the A832 and
A835 as scenic routes included in previous plans.
They have just been notified of the following addition to the plan: "One
of the major
current development issues in the Wester Ross Local Plan countryside
area is the
potential development of a transmission line between Ullapool ( Ardmair
or Loch
Broom) to Beauly to serve renewable energy developments in the Western
Isles. We
will oppose the erection of any overhead 400kV Extra High Voltage
Transmission
Line between Ullapool ( Ardmair or Loch Broom) and the local plan
boundary at Dirrie
Mor on the basis that such a route would be unacceptable in landscape
and scenic
terms"
An HBP spokeswoman said: "We welcome assurances from Scottish and
Southern
Electric that they are actively surveying a possible underground route
for an
interconnector with the Western Isles. But in view of Highland Council's
opposition to
the overhead option, HBP is surprised SSE is still surveying sites for
pylons in the
magnificent scenery Wester Ross. Should they publish plans for a pylon
route it now
seems inevitable that Highland Council will demand a public inquiry.
"HBP is lobbying the DTI and the executive to bring forward proper
consideration of a
sub-sea transmission system, now widely recognised as a cost effective
alternative
to the spread of unsightly power lines, that would enable renewable
energy to be
transmitted to its markets safely and with minimum loss of power."
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APPENDIX 3 PRESS RELEASE 7 SEPTEMBER 2005
REF WELCOMES PROPOSED ROC REVISIONS
REF today welcomed Nicol Stephen's announcement that significant
revisions would be made to the Renewables Obligation Scotland to ensure
that the subsidy system offers more to technologies that themselves have
more to offer.
REF has consistently argued that the Renewables Obligation was flawed in
that it made no distinction between lower value randomly intermittent
generation technologies, and those systems such as tidal and biomass
plant, which are strongly predictable.
The result of these flaws in the RO, and what the National Audit Office
has identified as a significant degree of over-support, has been an un-
precedented rush to develop industrial onshore wind in many
inappropriate locations. National Grid Transco revealed in the last few
months that there are over 17,000 MW of wind (approximately 8,500
turbines) currently applying for grid connection in Scotland alone.
Wind development on this scale is both impractical, and unsustainable.
The revisions that Nicol Stephen has announced recognise that some
technologies have more to offer than others, although REF notes that the
revisions are currently limited to marine technologies. The Foundation
believes that any renewable generation capable of high value 'firm',
i.e. dispatchable generation, should be preferentially rewarded. The
general public is paying for renewable energy subsidies, and it has a
right to expect that this cost is also an investment.
REF urges the Scottish Executive to push forward with further revisions,
taking note of the National Audit Office's points, and those made by by
the many engineering bodies now commenting on the lack of balance in the
renewable energy policy.
Campbell Dunford, CEO of the Renewable Energy Foundation, said: "Nicol
Stephen is to be congratulated on revising the Renewables Obligation
Scotland to offer more to high value marine technolgies. In doing so he
has shown such a strong and wise lead to Westminster, where similar
revisions are badly needed for the RO applying to England and Wales. The
fundamental logic of the Scottish Executives' revisions must be extended
to the rest of the country, and to other high value technologies such as
biomass."
END
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--
Mike O'Carroll