{"id":1817,"date":"2013-03-21T17:42:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T16:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1817"},"modified":"2013-06-27T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T19:31:08","slug":"windpower-thoughts-from-our-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1817","title":{"rendered":"Windpower thoughts from our book"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: \"Times New Roman\",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: \"Droid Sans Fallback\",\"MS Mincho\"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: \"Lohit Hindi\",\"MS Mincho\"; font-size: 12pt; }A.cjk:visited {  }\n--><\/style>\n<p>&#8220;In some ways it is difficult to think of renewable energy causing moral concerns for Christians.\u00a0 But even with a non-polluting energy source there are still issues we need to consider.\u00a0 No energy system can be made without causing some pollution.\u00a0 As we have seen above, many renewables pay back the energy used to make them pretty quickly and give reasonable (in some cases good) energy returns, increasingly comparable with our current sources of energy which are falling.\u00a0 However, even with efficient technologies there can be disadvantages:\u00a0 One example of a negative impact from moving to renewable energy is the proposed tidal barrage across the Severn estuary, which would damage an area of habitat important for birds and other species.<br \/>\nAnother problem with renewables is the impact of wind turbines and other devices on the people who live nearby.\u00a0 The ethical issue arises when something which is good for society and the climate is detrimental to a household or community that is directly affected \u2013 for example by noise or visual intrusion from a wind turbine.\u00a0 The problem extends not only to the devices themselves, but also the other support energy infrastructure required, such as power lines and large sub-stations.\u00a0 In Scotland the Beaully-Denny transmission upgrade provides a classic case of the problems caused by this.\u00a0 To support the increased production of electricity from wind-farms, new hydro-power in the highlands, wave and tidal power off the north coast of Scotland, and transfer the energy to where it\u2019s needed (the central belt of Scotland and England) the power lines along this route are being upgraded.\u00a0 Essentially this means building taller pylons in an area of the highlands that is both beautiful and close to a national park.\u00a0 Replacing much of our conventional energy generation with renewables would inevitably require more pylons and power lines linking to where the renewable resource is greatest \u2013 in rural and coastal areas.\u00a0 The question is, how much &#8220;industrialisation&#8221; of the countryside is desirable?\u00a0 Wind-farm opponents stress this point (amongst others), although it can be argued that the countryside has changed radically over recent centuries, with deforestation, enclosure in England, the clearances in Scotland and the industrialisation of agriculture.\u00a0 Lastly, it should be noted some parts of our energy infrastructure such as the pylons of the national grid and Scottish Hydro schemes were bitterly opposed when they were built.\u00a0 Whilst pylons would never be described as pretty, we hardly notice them today.\u00a0 Polls have suggested that wind-farms follow the same pattern of acceptance.<\/p>\n<p>Our view is that a number of guidelines should be followed.\u00a0 First, any potential renewable resource should be carefully and honestly analysed, so that resources are not wasted.\u00a0 Second, developers should work closely with the communities that are directly affected.\u00a0 Third, there should be strong element of community benefit rather than pure profit.\u00a0 The positioning of wind turbines in particular should be carefully planned, and minimum distances to homes should be established.\u00a0 Micro-generation doesn&#8217;t have such aesthetic drawbacks \u2013 it\u2019s unlikely large numbers of people will be offended by PV panels on your roof, however, we await the first neighbourly dispute over system shading due to trees or development.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 5 &#8220;No oil in the lamp&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;In some ways it is difficult to think of renewable energy causing moral concerns for Christians.\u00a0 But even with a non-polluting energy source there are still issues we need to consider.\u00a0 No energy system can be made without causing some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1817\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Windpower thoughts from our book.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In some ways it is difficult to think of renewable energy causing moral concerns for Christians. But even with a non-polluting energy source there are still issues we need to consider. No energy system can be made without causing some pollution. As we have seen above, many renewables pay back the energy used to make them pretty quickly and give reasonable (in some cases good) energy returns, increasingly comparable with our current sources of energy which are falling.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1817\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1817\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1817\",\"name\":\"Windpower thoughts from our book.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-21T16:42:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-06-27T19:31:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f2831189b0d01294e9672bb540ba6f\"},\"description\":\"In some ways it is difficult to think of renewable energy causing moral concerns for Christians. 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