World's largest offshore windfarm starts generating

[PushedDover]

And we have to pivot from Team Vattenfall to You guys

[DMZ]

I just find it remarkable that countries give access to their prime wind power locations to foreign companies in order to then buy the wind back off them. A nice deal for some Danish folks I guess who will forever monetise it and build up all the expertise around it.

[tamore]

DMZ said:

I just find it remarkable that countries give access to their prime wind power locations to foreign companies in order to then buy the wind back off them. A nice deal for some Danish folks I guess who will forever monetise it and build up all the expertise around it.

tragic, isn't it. the country probably best set up to plunder offshore wind resources on the planet, does cluck all about it. oh, and having some of the best engineering brains on the planet at their disposal.

[TheDeuce]

DMZ said:

I just find it remarkable that countries give access to their prime wind power locations to foreign companies in order to then buy the wind back off them. A nice deal for some Danish folks I guess who will forever monetise it and build up all the expertise around it.

I think it might be guys closer to home that are making these deals, developing dynamic grid control and offloading such as kraken... Selling such solutions globally ..

Us Brits are very, very lazy. But we do have our strong points. Well... At least 1%. The rest actually are probably just lazy and entitled..

But as a whole, we're very much leaders in the energy game.

Rejoice!

[PushedDover]

DMZ said:

I just find it remarkable that countries give access to their prime wind power locations to foreign companies in order to then buy the wind back off them. A nice deal for some Danish folks I guess who will forever monetise it and build up all the expertise around it.

Odd in a global trade world
We export expertise
We import investment

Who do you think as a ‘UK corp’ should take this, and other Uber projects on ?

[plfrench]

Seeing as we're planning on closing the last coal fired powerplant in the UK in a matter of months, how's it going at Doggerbank? I guess the conditions remained far from ideal for construction for a large chunk of the last few months - has the project slipped far behind schedule?

[PushedDover]

The weather has had less impact in progress than ‘supply chain’ - whether that be vessels not ready from shipyard / breakdowns, or the GE turbine installation and teething problems
Facilities and the long view on the project are good however.

[plfrench]

PushedDover said:

The weather has had less impact in progress than ‘supply chain’ - whether that be vessels not ready from shipyard / breakdowns, or the GE turbine installation and teething problems
Facilities and the long view on the project are good however.

Thanks for the update! I do keep watching the website with interest but there’s more about community engagement than build progress - all good stuff, but I’m fascinated by the generation side of things

[PushedDover]

Build progress is not a comfortable subject currently for the JV

[PushedDover]

One by one….

[plfrench]

PushedDover said:

One by one….

They’re big old things aren’t they! How many is that now installed and ‘plugged’ in?

[Essarell]

plfrench said:

PushedDover said:

One by one….

They’re big old things aren’t they! How many is that now installed and ‘plugged’ in?

But sadly not leading to cheaper energy prices? Only delivering even more unpredictability onto the grid. The new Viking Link has proven to deliver a more reliable source of electricity.

[TheDeuce]

Essarell said:

plfrench said:

PushedDover said:

One by one….

They’re big old things aren’t they! How many is that now installed and ‘plugged’ in?

But sadly not leading to cheaper energy prices? Only delivering even more unpredictability onto the grid. The new Viking Link has proven to deliver a more reliable source of electricity.

Actually they're leading to cheaper energy prices, because it's unpredictable energy.

Or more accurately, we can now utilise very unpredictable energy, and it's cheaper because... Renewable energy is fairly cheap, relatively speaking.

These wind farms make a great deal of sense and most of the rest of the world is rightfully jealous that the UK is already so close to energy independence and security.

[Evanivitch]

Essarell said:

But sadly not leading to cheaper energy prices? Only delivering even more unpredictability onto the grid. The new Viking Link has proven to deliver a more reliable source of electricity.

A good swathe of smart tariff users are paying less per average unit now than a decade ago...

[DonkeyApple]

The real break through will be when we reach the point that the practice of being able to sell all electricity generated at the spot price of the most expensive generation. I'm not sure just how far away that remains though?

But we must really wind up some other nations. We are just some poxy little island off the coast of an interesting peninsula of the largest land mass and first we stumble into coal powered self sufficiency, then when it looks like that is coming to an end we stumble into natural gas self sufficiency and then when every one decides we must all stop burning fossil fuels and aim for carbon neutrality we just happen to not just have the cleanest fossil fuel backbone already and to have decarbonised the bulk of all our industry over 30 years ago but yet again we have this miraculous potential for energy self sufficiency. And we don't even have to care one iota about EVs as whether the companies that have to make them live or die it's not our problem. Someone, somewhere will still make them and if they're lucky, we'll buy them.

But where we are failing is in not raising the capital to invest in the industries which we can seize from competitor nations who will not have the renewable energy capacity or funds to retain legacy dirty industries which require decarbonising. The new energy nations are going to be the new dominant nations that will seize energy demanding industries away from their legacy geologies and we do need to ensure that we are focussed on that bonanza and don't let the miserable population of perma whingers drag everyone else down.

Edited by DonkeyApple on Wednesday 20th March 07:06

[tamore]

Essarell said:

But sadly not leading to cheaper energy prices? Only delivering even more unpredictability onto the grid. The new Viking Link has proven to deliver a more reliable source of electricity.

and there's a key point. as widely reported, the grid needs to keep up with the wind farm rollout and get the power to where it needs to be. no point in flooding scotland with more power as it can't soak up what could be produced on a moderately windy day already. NIMBYism with respect to power transmission lines is holding us back.

we can generate all we want, but without getting it to where it needs to be used, it's almost useless.

[Essarell]

tamore said:

Essarell said:

But sadly not leading to cheaper energy prices? Only delivering even more unpredictability onto the grid. The new Viking Link has proven to deliver a more reliable source of electricity.

and there's a key point. as widely reported, the grid needs to keep up with the wind farm rollout and get the power to where it needs to be. no point in flooding scotland with more power as it can't soak up what could be produced on a moderately windy day already. NIMBYism with respect to power transmission lines is holding us back.

we can generate all we want, but without getting it to where it needs to be used, it's almost useless.

The UK is quite literally falling apart, we’ve put sticking plasters on every aspect of our country for decades. Whether it’s health, security, transportation or energy our country needs “trillions” in investment that we just don’t have available. The irony is that without a properly functioning national grid we will never see the true benefits of the wind farms that are either already built or currently under construction. These turbines will see out their 30 year service life having made no significant difference.
Other countries don’t look towards the UK with envious eyes, that’s just rubbish, they are looking at the “BRICS” economies for actual growth and the investment returns that follow.

We can’t build a railway, why would anyone believe we can transform energy distribution in the UK in anywhere near the time frame that is urgently required.

[Nomme de Plum]

Essarell said:

tamore said:

Essarell said:

But sadly not leading to cheaper energy prices? Only delivering even more unpredictability onto the grid. The new Viking Link has proven to deliver a more reliable source of electricity.

and there's a key point. as widely reported, the grid needs to keep up with the wind farm rollout and get the power to where it needs to be. no point in flooding scotland with more power as it can't soak up what could be produced on a moderately windy day already. NIMBYism with respect to power transmission lines is holding us back.

we can generate all we want, but without getting it to where it needs to be used, it's almost useless.

The UK is quite literally falling apart, we’ve put sticking plasters on every aspect of our country for decades. Whether it’s health, security, transportation or energy our country needs “trillions” in investment that we just don’t have available. The irony is that without a properly functioning national grid we will never see the true benefits of the wind farms that are either already built or currently under construction. These turbines will see out their 30 year service life having made no significant difference.
Other countries don’t look towards the UK with envious eyes, that’s just rubbish, they are looking at the “BRICS” economies for actual growth and the investment returns that follow.

We can’t build a railway, why would anyone believe we can transform energy distribution in the UK in anywhere near the time frame that is urgently required.

Yet we have built these large scale wind farms very successfully. One could debate forever whether the UK should have set up a sovereign wealth fund like Norway when oil was first discovered in the North sea but that might have been considered a bit 'lefty' so we allowed commercial organisation take the risk and a large chunk of the rewards. The UK energy costs are at the whim of global power markets and always will be.

I suspect you like most will have no idea what other countries think of the UK certainly many hundreds of thousands would like to come and live/work here.

BTW we could have built that railway to which you refer. Our government decided otherwise.

We've had the same party in charge for the last 14 years perhaps your ire would be better directed there.

Edited by Nomme de Plum on Wednesday 20th March 09:17

[DonkeyApple]

Or we just chill and wait 10 years for the cause of the problem to pass away. Besides, offshore wind farms are a testament to what can be achieved when there aren't people to endlessly complain about those getting on with delivering the future needs.

[Essarell]

Nomme de Plum said:

Yet we have built these large scale wind farms very successfully. One could debate forever whether the UK should have set up a sovereign wealth fund like Norway when oil was first discovered in the North sea but that might have been considered a bit 'lefty' so we allowed commercial organisation take the risk and a large chunk of the rewards. The UK energy costs are at the whim of global power markets and always will be.

I suspect you like most will have no idea what other countries think of the UK certainly many hundreds of thousands would like to come and live/work here.

BTW we could have built that railway to which you refer. Our government decided otherwise.

We've had the same party in charge for the last 14 years perhaps your ire would be better directed there.

indeed, many millions would love (cant wait) to come here, the countries from which they depart (leaving the women and children behind) make ours seem a virtual utopia, but, as they say, in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.

my ire will indeed be focussed come ballot box time, the conservatives have been a train wreck, Labour will do as Labour always do, smile as they mug you whilst fighting like rats in a sack, they had no idea they had a chance at governing again so I'm sure all is above board on that side of the house.

the point remains, we don't have a national grid of any worth, its dis-jointed, dated and the transmission equipment that used to get to put its feet up come night time is starting to see its duty cycle increase by 100%.

Edited by Nomme de Plum on Wednesday 20th March 09:17