Filling the Bristol Channel with wind turbines

[Coaster]

A serious proposal has been made to spend more than six years building up to 417 giant wind turbines in the Bristol Channel. It seems that this would have an enormous impact on navigation.

There is a "consultation process" under way. As the consultation is being run by the company proposing this huge scheme I have no confidence in its impartiality.

If anyone has objections to the proposals I suggest they raise them as soon as possible and in as many places as possible, i.e. local press, political circles etc.

Further details here:

Information Leaflet

Consultation Guide

"Non-Technical" Summary

Exhibition Display Panels

The latter seems to give the best overview.

 

[bert49uk]

The developers are holding presentations up and down the B C, at the one here at Ilfracombe I asked would it be possible to sail between turbines.
I was told yes.
I was also told there would be a minimum of 600 meters between towers

 

[AllanJ]

The developers are holding presentations up and down the B C, at the one here at Ilfracombe I asked would it be possible to sail between turbines.
I was told yes.
I was also told there would be a minimum of 600 meters between towers

Interesting geometry problem; what is the minimum area that the 417 will occupy given a minimum distance of 600m between them?
Please make your calculations clear and write on one side of the screen only

 

[penfold]

I would object if they wanted to build them without attaching a tide turbine to every one

 

[Bosun Higgs]

There seemed to be no mention of small liesure boat navigation issues, probably because there would not be any unless the area concerned were banned to us. I dont believe this will happen - you will be able to sail through the middle of the wind farm perfectly safely since the rotors only come down to 100m above LAT.

For bigger vessels and fishermen it might well be a different issue but it doesnt worry me in my little boat.

When you say " There is a "consultation process" under way. As the consultation is being run by the company proposing this huge scheme I have no confidence in its impartiality." you are misunderstanding the idea of consultation. It isnt the same as "objection" - its just a chance for you to ask questions and raise issues you believe the proposer might have missed. The people who are deciding the location are the government anyway. And given that they are in love with these silly windmills, you havent got a snowballs of objecting successfully. There are far more land based nimbies to object to land based schemes than there are rich yotties to object to marine ones - why else do you think the govt have gone for much more expensive marine wind farms?

 

[PCUK]

We all know wind turbines are useless and serve only one purpose - to line the pockets of developers, crooked MPs and councillors.

What total cretin would suggest wind turbines when we have the most stable free power source that works 100 percent of the time regardless of the weather and doesn't ruin the environment.

 

[europe172]

wind or tide

I guess it is the easy option to use Wind rather then tide, I wouldn't like the job of maintaining a tide powered system 12 miles out to sea

 

[Cardiffcruiser]

As part of this consultation process they came to our club (Cardiff YC) a few months back. It was clear that this IS happening, I think it's long past the stage where objections are relevent.

However, as the Bosun has said the turbines themselves shouldn't be any more of a hazard to us than any of the navigation buoys. From memory they're spaced at 600m intervals North to South and 1.2km intervals East to West - so easily avoided, and should be quite visible.

A potentially greater issue is the 4-6 floating sub-stations that are required. These floating islands are about 40m (again from memory!) square and fairly low to the water.

That said they've had wind farms on the East coast for a few years now, and everyone I've spoken to who sails there tells me they are little or no problem.

 

[quarto]

Plenty of new racing marks then

 

[graham]

There seemed to be no mention of small liesure boat navigation issues, probably because there would not be any unless the area concerned were banned to us. I dont believe this will happen - you will be able to sail through the middle of the wind farm perfectly safely since the rotors only come down to 100m above LAT.

For bigger vessels and fishermen it might well be a different issue but it doesnt worry me in my little boat.

When you say " There is a "consultation process" under way. As the consultation is being run by the company proposing this huge scheme I have no confidence in its impartiality." you are misunderstanding the idea of consultation. It isnt the same as "objection" - its just a chance for you to ask questions and raise issues you believe the proposer might have missed. The people who are deciding the location are the government anyway. And given that they are in love with these silly windmills, you havent got a snowballs of objecting successfully. There are far more land based nimbies to object to land based schemes than there are rich yotties to object to marine ones - why else do you think the govt have gone for much more expensive marine wind farms?

Your absolutely right that public "consultations" can be box ticking exercises with foregone conclusions.

I went to a "consultation" run by a phone company wanting to put a phone mast in a college grounds very close to houses (not ours luckilly.) It was obvious that they were legally obliged to have a consultation but fully intended to go ahead regardless of the outcome.

If they do build the windfarm hopefully each one will have a big number on it which will be marked on the chart. Eventually GPS will be redundant in UK waters , you could just join the dots of the wind towers. :-(

 

[Csail]

So whats the light signal on a wind turbine?

 

[duesouth68]

Wind Turbines

If it goes ahead.i would not like to be in the middle of that lot in fog without radar .....

 

[Charlie T]

The developers are holding presentations up and down the B C, at the one here at Ilfracombe I asked would it be possible to sail between turbines.
I was told yes.
I was also told there would be a minimum of 600 meters between towers

I visited the consultation session at the North Gower Hotel last week and was also told that sailing between the turbines would be no problem. Large ships would need to steer clear of the area though, of course. Also rod and line fishing in the zone would likely be excellent as the submerged structures would become a reef.

I think careful consideration should be given to this scheme plus tidal power. In principle I am in favour of both and the Bristol Channel is an ideal location. The shores north and south are also in need of some generation of the economic kind. We must end our reliance on fossil fuels.

 

[channel]

So whats the light signal on a wind turbine?

Usually a single red at the top of the mast. Can appear to flash if the blades get between you and it.

I will never forget being on watch aboard a tug called Lowgarth at 0200 approaching Esjberg and seeing a mass of clutter on the radar in a position my chart showed nothing. Later in the watch an army of red flashing lights appeared over the horizon, quite disconserting!

I was on the East Coast recently, a lot of windfarms around that coast. Didn't get in the way as such as they were on sandbanks not open water like this scheme.

 

[guernseyman]

Interesting geometry problem; what is the minimum area that the 417 will occupy given a minimum distance of 600m between them?
Please make your calculations clear and write on one side of the screen only

With the condition that the minimum distance between them is 600m, each windmill can be replaced by a circle, radius 300m.
The most efficient packing of circles is hexagonal (bee's honeycomb) with a packing density of about 0.9.
Thus the minimum area occupied by 417 windmills is:
417x300x300/0.9 sq m. = 41,700,000 sq m = 42 sq km, approx.

Needs checking.

 

[duesouth68]

Usually a single red at the top of the mast. Can appear to flash if the blades get between you and it.
Up to date charts in a perfect world..but we all know things look very different on a dirty night....

 

[Anwen]

Looking at the marked area, it is on the rumb line between Swansea and Lundy, but otherwise, I don't think it will significantly interfere with the routes which we all tend to sail.

However, I would be very interested to know what the RSPB think of this proposal, as I understand there to be an issue with birds striking these large turbines. Given the proximity to Lundy and its significance as a nature reserve for breeding sea birds, I wonder whether this proposal might have more vociferous protesters than the yachting community.

 

[Coaster]

Given the proximity to Lundy...

You may wish to email the Lundy Island Company. I understand there is a proposed campaign against the monstrosities. No doubt your support will be welcome.

 

[bert49uk]

may be ok for you sailing from Swansea but plays havoc for us sailing from Ilfracombe to Tenby or Milford

also check out the complete box, if they deside to build to the East of the alicated area it will extend to a line East of Swansea Ilfracombe

 

[chwarae]

Now realise why a commercial ship was calling up vessels in Bristol Channel (calling by position presumably by radar) last summer. Called me up going through Helwick Channel but heard him calling many craft ,those probably without AIS. Wished to know where we were bound , our name and callsign. The ship was a couple of miles off Mumbles Head and didn't appear to be doing much else.
I foolishly gave him the information and neglected to ask the reason.