The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
Power as free as the wind
T
he world is going electric
– electric cars, bikes, scooters,
boilers and buses. Electricity
can even produce hydrogen, to replace gas or petrol. But where will
the electrons come from, if not from
eco-unfriendly carbon-based fossil
fuels such as oil, gas or coal?
Dare we risk another Chernobyl or
Fukushima by proliferating nuclear
power stations? And where to hide
the radioactive waste? Solar panels
only work during daytime hours, and
less efficiently on dull days.
Wind turbines, however, ideally offshore where infrasound noise pollution
is far less of an issue because there are
no homes nearby, serve up clean, ‘free’
power for the majority of most days and
nights. They do it throughout the year,
every year, and especially well round
islands such as Britain, which has been
blessed with 45% of Europe’s premium
wind resource.
Rampion 1 and 2
The UK now has 39 offshore wind
farms in operation, with 11 more under
construction. Rampion 1, off Brighton,
which has 116 turbines with 55m blades
and a maximum tip height of 140m,
was the first to be built along the UK’s
south coast. The turbines are spaced
apart, with carefully calculated gaps
The 400MW Rampion 1 windfarm on the Sussex coast – Rampion 2 is planned to join it.
for maximum aerodynamic efficiency,
over 72 square kilometres (a bigger area
than Guernsey) extending between
13km and 20km offshore.
Each turbine generates 3.45MW and
the full farm has been feeding 400MW
into the UK grid since November 2017
– equivalent to the electric power used
annually by around 350,000 British
homes, or half the homes in Sussex.
The overall owner is German company RWE Renewables, with its HQ in
Essen, Germany. RWE says the cost of
generating wind power has fallen by
66% in five years – as has happened
with solar power costs.
RWE is now planning Rampion 2, also
with 116 turbines, the same distance
from shore (between 13-25km) but much
larger blades (325m tip height) to increase
power generation to around 1200MW
and to serve over one million homes.
The larger height will inevitably make
the turbines more visible from the shore.
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Practical Electronics | January | 2022
Objectors argue that the undersea cables which carry the power
onshore, through the countryside
and into the grid, will disfigure
the landscape. But all cables
are buried (under the seabed or
under the countryside) and eye
evidence from Hampstead Heath
in North London shows how
quickly Nature repairs trenching. Mains gas piping was buried
across the Heath grassland and
there is nothing now to see.
Much more recently, dams were
controversially built around
the Heath ponds to counter the
remote risk of catastrophic flooding. This devasted the Heath
grassland, but it is hard now to
see any signs of the work done.
One example of how coastal towns are objecting to
Objectors call for the turbines
wind turbines, often on questionable grounds.
to be built further out to sea, but
this would increase power loss.
For and against
For reasons of cost, aluminium rather
This has dramatically divided public
than copper cables are used, with
opinion, especially in the coastal area
higher resistance. The output voltage
around Bognor, which will be closest
from each turbine is 33kV, aggregated
to the larger structures. Objectors in
and upped to 150kV for the journey
the area often preface their objections
to shore. Longer runs inevitably mean
with the assurance that they are in
more power lost.
favour of clean power from turbines
Folklore rumours condemn the
and are ‘not being Nimby’ (Not In
Rampion 2 turbines because they will
My Backyard), but want the turbines
be ‘dark coloured’. RWE confirms they
built somewhere away from their
will be made from the same light grey
backyard view.
fibreglass. There would be no point
One objection is that the larger
in painting them black, and it would
size and greater visibility will deter
be a never-ending ‘Forth Bridge task’
tourists. But numerous local charter
to keep them painted.
boats now meet tourist demand for
The new turbines (like the existing
sightseeing trips out to the farm – see:
turbines) will have red tip lights at the
https://bit.ly/pe-jan22-ramp
top of the towers for aircraft safety.
Objectors also claim that the erecIt’s true, in clear weather they will
tion of turbines compromises sea life.
be visible at night – because that is
Talk to fishing boat operators along
their purpose.
the coast and they will tell you the
Whether this night sight, and the
opposite; the exclusion zone around
daytime view of the turbines offends
the existing turbines has created a
as a blot on the seascape, or is soon
marine sanctuary, with fish breeding
visually ignored (like power pylons
profusely and now attracting dolphins
or telegraph poles) or appeals as a
which dine off their new free lunch.
reminder that we are exploiting a
Sea kelp is re-growing because trawler
clean and ‘free’ source of the energy
pairs with drag nets can no longer
on which civilisation now depends, is
scour the seabed near the turbines.
a matter of personal taste and opinion.
Another objection is that the wind is
It will happen…
unreliable and the turbines would be
At a time when oil and gas prices are
better sited in the North Sea. RWE has
escalating, supply is hostage to interfound that power generation peaks at a
national politics and global warming
wind speed of 27 mph and the blades
is accelerating, it becomes ever harder
only stop turning and generating power
to hate the idea of a local clean source
for 1% of the year – either because of
of power. But some people will doubtno wind or storm speeds which would
less do so. Realistically, given the
damage free-turning blades.
current climate on climate change,
Eye evidence shows that even when
the soaring cost of fossil fuels and
beachline windsocks are hanging
nagging concern over nuclear plants,
completely limp, the offshore turbines
it is unlikely that any government will
are moving healthily.
Practical Electronics | January | 2022
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dare block Rampion 2 – and more
developments like it. What parish
councils, local newspapers and disgusted householders say will be duly
noted, gratefully acknowledged and
very likely simply ignored. Trying to
communicate with RWE by email is a
joke. The whole consultation exercise
is probably a charade.
…perhaps without the explosions
The high-profile PR skills of Joanna
Lumley may make RWE take one
issue more seriously. She has been
campaigning to make turbine constructors more aware of the damage done
to marine life hearing by detonating
old WW2 bombs or mines found on
the seabed ahead of pile-driving or
cable trenching. RWE’s Rampion
exhibition centre on the seafront in
Brighton is well worth a visit (it’s free)
but makes light fun of detonating the
two bombs found ahead of Rampion 1
construction. Hopefully, if Rampion 2
gets the green light, Ms Lumley will
win a more animal-friendly approach
by, for example, burning out explosive
chemicals rather than deliberately
setting off underwater explosions:
www.stopseablasts.org/media
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