“The wind in our sails”.

"Or the wind in our homes” and I am not talking about the after effects of too much figgy pudding. Renewable energy is here to stay whether you like it or not and whether you feel it is cost effective and environmentally friendly or not.  Ramsgate harbour is a major centre in the South-east of England for the construction of off-shore wind farms and as such maintains a working element to the harbour which had previously diminished with the decline of fishing fleets throughout the country. 

 Vattenfall is already installed in the port to service Thanet off-shore wind farm and London Array’s HQ building is under construction adjacent to the ferry terminal. The London Array building as featured on ECR’s blog promises to be “more than a shed” with some interesting architectural features lifting it above normal industrial building styles. New pontoons are planned for the port area for 10 wind farm vessels and a wave breaking pontoon in the outer harbour where the fishing fleet moors. With pontoons and working wind-farm craft the port and harbour have a real working future, I am sure the marine experts associated with this type of operation will ensure the council keeps up with its dredging responsibilities. Thank goodness the slipways have been protected as a marine amenity to this real working harbour.

“Let the sun shine in?”

I was going to consider aspects of the Royal Harbour this week but there is never a dull moment on our psy-idyllic isle. Following a mood of doom and gloom, justifiably spread by the shattering news of Pfizer’s exit as a Sandwich filler. Two more dramatic events are now on the cards. Firstly the long awaited proposal for a new Margate Tesco superstore has been unveiled. It is an interesting place to build between the Art Deco style Dreamland cinema and the modernistic slab block which is Arlington House. A 21^st century superstore approach is really the only appropriate way forward amongst such dominating buildings “very little helps”.

Secondly and of more interest to me, is a planning application to put a solar array on 13Ha of green-field site at Ebbsfleet Farm just north of Richborough ex-Power Station. This one is really a difficult one. The site is green-field and for that reason should be opposed, but the field is surrounded by a derelict power station, a sewage works and the new East Kent road to a “soon to be vacant” R&D facility. It covers green-field land in glass but so then do poly-tunnels and Thanet Earth. It is a green technology but provides no jobs other that of construction and maintenance. It provides “free “ electricity when the sun shines but the whole 13 hectares generates only 4 to 5 Mw, when the sun shines, about a similar amount to one offshore wind turbine, when the wind blows.

I found the “pros and cons” of this one difficult until I remembered the derelict wind turbine at the power station site. Would I like to see 13Ha of arable field covered in solar panels or the old wind turbine rebuilt, taking up no further space. The answer is simple I would go for the rebuilt wind turbine any day, especially as there have been some chilly winds blowing in Sandwich lately but not much sunshine.

“How green is your house?”

The recent post at Thanetonline with a link to a Mail Online article exposing the true cost of wind power renewable energy, which shows a huge lake of radio-active pollution in China where neodymium is extracted for turbine magnets, calls into question “Is there any form of energy production which does not harm the environment?”.

I don’t think anybody has much faith in the “green” credentials of nuclear generation and without the mountains and valleys to provide opportunities for hydro-generation, there seems little option but to continue polluting until a really clean solution can be found.

However, on the principle of “what goes in must come out” we should be thinking of new ways to stop the energy being lost, so that less has to be generated in the first place. This unfortunately is not a very “sexy” option to get elected on, so politicians do not shout about it. Also the energy generation companies will not get fat by providing too much energy conservation.

 

For those unfamiliar “SAP” stands for “Standard Assessment Procedure” the way energy consumption of buildings is measured.

Studies I carried out in 1996 came up with some very surprising results, I am not claiming that they are particularly accurate as they were, in part, based only on nationally published statistics. Their accuracy is not particularly important, as much as the overall picture they paint. The majority of UK housing stock dates back to the two World Wars and beyond, when there were no energy controls. Building Regulations 1965 was the first date at which insulation was required to be included in dwellings, only 45 years ago.

The older dwellings originally built without insulation and improved on an “ad hoc” basis, will continue to provide the bulk of the UK housing stock for decades, maybe centuries to come, there is no possibility of wholesale clearance and replacement. This is particularly relevant in Thanet where so many listed buildings exist, upgrading insulation without harming architectural features is an extremely difficult balance but such a challenge must be undertaken if we are to really tackle the excesses of pollution in modern society.