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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013 edited
     
    Feeling a bit cheeky this morning, so thought I would ask what the term I often hear means to different people.
    To stop the ruck getting out of hand let's avoid planning law and subsidies/incentives legislation.
    Commenting on £/MWh for installed capacity is acceptable as that is part of the 'suitable' to some people.
    Really about location though.

    Thoughts anyone?
    •  
      CommentAuthorjoe90
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Yes ST, I live on the outskirts of Bristol and just noticed two more large turbines going up in the industrial Avonmouth (docks and industrials estates near the river severn) area. There are now about 8 in this windy location on the banks of the severn catching the prevailing south westerly winds. Personally I think this is a perfect location for these as it is already industrial and they look quite majestic. This is completely different from the very green, rural, beautifull, unspoilt country side where so many of these are being located.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    So a windy and industrialised location is suitable.
    So would one large one on top of a hill surrounded by industrial agriculture be suitable, or at least more acceptable that several smaller ones lower down?

    Personally I would like to see more on coastal regions, but for some reason people don't look at the sea at all down here, just at the cliffs apparantly:confused:
    •  
      CommentAuthorjoe90
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    industrial agriculture

    I have not come across that term before and find it conflicting. I would say industrial was grey and built up, agricuture was green and beautifull (apart from the odd muddy tractor and tin shed, but this adds to the country idyll)
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    it is a term used by many farmers (who I deal with), when they want to develop their business.
    Whoops, almost veered off into planning legislation :bigsmile:
    • CommentAuthorbeelbeebub
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Without wishing to start a townies/countries ruck, i would say that the 'countryside', or at least the vast majority of it that is farmed in some way, is an industrial area, albeit one that is easier in the eye than a steel mill or refinery*

    this sometimes brings conflict, the landscape looks the way it does because of the way the land is worked. Any changes to working practices will change the landscape (for example the introduction of mechanization and the increase in field sizes.

    very little of the uk landscape is untouched by human influence, in fact some of the most celebrated landscapes in the uk are a result of human interference.

    wrt wind turbines i recently passed a windmill that was being restored, no body seemed to mind, in fact people seemed positive about it. Yet if it was a similar sized (small) wind turbine i, the middle of the view i suspect the reaction would have been different.

    maybe that's the answer, make the turbines look like ye olde mills :-)

    *I once drove past a refinery on the east coast of NZ at night, and it looked spectacular, so beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Posted By: beelbeebubI once drove past a refinery on the east coast of NZ at night, and it looked spectacular, so beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder
    I stood on the hill near where we lived at watched Shellhaven refinery burning down, fantastic night.
    • CommentAuthorjms452
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Give our current need for energy I'd go with:

    5 x height from houses (unless householders agree)
    properties 5x height to 10x height away offered an 'incentive'
    not in a national park.
  1.  
    A nice pylon mounted turbine in the shadow of the existing high voltage pylon. I think it is just wishful thinking it will never happen.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013 edited
     
    Pylons tend to be in valleys (though not exclusively). They do this so they are not exposed to high winds. Though the capacity is increased when the windspeed rises up, which can be useful for when siting turbines.
  2.  
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: SteamyTea</cite>Pylons tend to be in valleys (though not exclusively). They do this so they are not exposed to high winds. Though the capacity is increased when the windspeed rises up, which can be useful for when siting turbines.</blockquote>

    Not around here the 400kv line is marching across the top of the west pennine moors like a Roman army in a dead straight line.
  3.  
    Cant these wind turbines be made out of a transparent material like, like glass?
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Wot for? - doesn't mean you won't see em, flickering reflections, even worse.
  4.  
    A non-reflective transparent material.
  5.  
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: bot de paille</cite>A non-reflective transparent material.</blockquote>

    I will be trying to get solar panels approved but that might prove controversial.
  6.  
    Wind turbine made from solar panels, cool.
  7.  
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: bot de paille</cite>Wind turbine made from solar panels, cool.</blockquote>

    Not thought of that but a traditional dutch windmill turned into the sun on a still day would generate quite a lot especially as it could be a tracking windmill.

    I was actually looking to cover the mast in either panels or tubes.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Rather moving away from the point of suitable locations for wind turbines.
    • CommentAuthoratomicbisf
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    I don't mind the look of wind turbines, I don't think they are ugly. Given the urgency of reducing carbon emissions (the IPCC recently reports that we're on track to burn through enough fossil fuels to exceed the 2C target in less than thirty years) I think the assumption should be that wind turbines should be allowed wherever there is a good wind resource unless there is a very good reason for them not to be there (say unusually high risk to birds, an exceptional landscape etc, not that some nimbies think it will spoil their view).
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2013
     
    Would a hill top be an exceptional landscape.
    Carne Brea near me has a stone monument on it, and a small castle, not far from it is a very tall (500 foot) radio mast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redruth_transmitting_station), but no one is allowed to build anything up there.
    One of the highest places around here, has Camborne and Redruth to either side of it, as well as Pool Industrial estate, the remains of South Crofty tin mine.
    From up there you can see the old RAF base with the radar dome, St. Ives, Penzance, bits of the Lizard Peninsular and Penryn (I think). So from there you can see about 50 turbines, and a rough old industrial estate.
    But no turbine will be allowed to be built there. Seems strange, especially as it is often misty (hence the lights on the radio mast).
    • CommentAuthorwindy lamb
    • CommentTimeOct 12th 2013
     
    Around here it seems there is broad agreement : It's acceptable if it's on your land and you get the benefit. It's otherwise not acceptable.
    Seriously, we have 9 large turbines up the road, a further 50? consented, another 21 at a public enquiry next week and another load on the pipeline all in an area of High Landscape character.This is a TAN8 area so the Welsh Ass. Gov. have taken the view that it is an area worth sacrificing for green energy. Fine, they are all concentrated in one area then. No, it doesn't stop dozens of applications for single 500kW turbines (because these are not wind farms). We now have a situation where single large turbines are proliferating outwards from the Tan8 area - exactly what Tan8 didn't want - but when the policy gave opportunity for local government to form exclusion zones immediately around the Tan8 areas none of them bothered. Might of well saved all that money and not had a Tan* policy in the first place. At least that way everyone would get to live near a big turbine rather than some of us living next to hundreds!.
    •  
      CommentAuthorted
    • CommentTimeOct 12th 2013
     
    I'm currently looking into the history of TAN8 and it is shocking the poor job that Arup made of it. But also seeing the small amount they were paid for it (about £100k - they must have seen it as a 'loss leader' for all the LPA follow-on work they got) I'm not too surprised.
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