Not another bl***dy windfarm 🤬

May need to move some waypoints. Especially the one on the N Inner Gabbard (top left corner of existing windfarm) which I like to home in on, coming into the Orwell from Scheveningen /IJmuiden / the Frisians........EDIT Actually, looking on a chart, the Five Estuaries farms don't look too obstructive, if coming in from the NW (as in above scenarios). Looks to be well S of the rhumb line. BUT the North Falls extension seems to obstruct the direct route from Long Sand Head to the Delta or Vlissingen. Glad that I have the time, these days, to sail south! Although the French are busy with offshore windfarms on their Atlantic coast too......
Screenshot 2025-12-18 170023.png

PR puff here
 
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What's the problem?

The more cheap power we can generate ourselves from renewables means we've less reliance on crazy men holding us to ransom with fossil fuel supply and less justification for our leaders and masters sitting back and allowing our wonderful privatised energy companies shareholders to continue screwing us for every Kw of power we use.

Honestly, what's not to like?
 
Sailing steve said:
What's the problem?

The more cheap power we can generate ourselves from renewables means we've less reliance on crazy men holding us to ransom with fossil fuel supply and less justification for our leaders and masters sitting back and allowing our wonderful privatised energy companies shareholders to continue screwing us for every Kw of power we use.

Honestly, what's not to like?
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There was a time when I was concerned about the energy cost of building them, plus ongoing costs and the cost of decommissioning, and was unable to get a satisfactory answer, or any answer at all because it seemed to enthusiasts that they must be a good thing. I believe that modern units now are much better and that they are probably worthwhile at a national level, though I still wonder if at least some of the great cost might not be better used in pursuing efficiency in other ways.

I'm not sure about cheap power, and the need for backup, maybe nuclear is evident, as well as the money spent to foreign manufacturers, but on balance, I do like them, perhaps as a stop-gap before better systems are available, such as solar or fusion power. The loss of remoteness in the North Sea for yachtsmen is to be regretted, though this is now of less concern to me personally.
 
In our play boats, solar has been a revelation compared to wind . Perhaps wind farms are superior in the winter.

None of them would be there without massive subsidies though. Perhaps, in time, we won't notice them so much like we do pylons now.
 
Sailing steve said:
What's the problem?

The more cheap power we can generate ourselves from renewables means we've less reliance on crazy men holding us to ransom with fossil fuel supply and less justification for our leaders and masters sitting back and allowing our wonderful privatised energy companies shareholders to continue screwing us for every Kw of power we use.

Honestly, what's not to like?
Click to expand...
Recently I had solar panels fitted to my home. When the roof measured, we could fit 20 panels with a 9Kw battery and 8Kw inverter to export to the grid. However, when the plans were submitted for approval, they came back to reduce the panels to 16 and the inverter to 4Kw restricted to 2Kw. Our electrician changed the inverter to a 3.65Kw and this meant it was accepted at the full rating. The reason for the restriction was applied was the local cabling system could not cope with the potential load from all of the solar panels in the area. I wonder how many other people with solar panels are suffering the same problem.
 
I love them, coming up the east coast from ramsgate i find them a reassuring nav feature that you can see for miles. Bit like the two bradwell power station towers.
Plus all the old whingers on here from 20 years ago (just search for the threads) who claimed that renewables would never amount to anything have been proven wrong many times over. Mind you most of them have probably popped off this mortal coil by now.
 
John_Silver said:
May need to move some waypoints. Especially the one on the N Inner Gabbard (top left corner of existing windfarm) which I like to home in on, coming into the Orwell from Scheveningen /IJmuiden / the Frisians........EDIT Actually, looking on a chart, the Five Estuaries farms don't look too obstructive, if coming in from the NW (as in above scenarios). Looks to be well S of the rhumb line. BUT the North Falls extension seems to obstruct the direct route from Long Sand Head to the Delta or Vlissingen. Glad that I have the time, these days, to sail south! Although the French are busy with offshore windfarms on their Atlantic coast too......
View attachment 203755

PR puff here
Click to expand...
Unless I misinterpret the chart the route to the Orwell from Nieuwpoort/Oostende remains unaffected, at least as long as the proposed new windfarms on the Belgian side of the shipping lanes are not there.
So far Belgian windfarms have been closed to all vessels and as far as I know there are no plans to change that. It remains to be seen if there will be corridors between them.
More about the planned windfarms and their windshadow effect on existing windfarms here:
Nieuwe windmolenparken in Noordzee hinderen oude: "Ze zullen 8,5 procent minder elektriciteit produceren"
Nieuwe windmolenparken in Noordzee hinderen oude: "Ze zullen 8,5 procent minder elektriciteit produceren" | VRT NWS: nieuws
 
westhinder said:
Unless I misinterpret the chart the route to the Orwell from Nieuwpoort/Oostende remains unaffected, at least as long as the proposed new windfarms on the Belgian side of the shipping lanes are not there.
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Agreed….just the Delta / Vlissingen direct affected. OK to N & S……we got off lightly! Season’s Greetings to all aboard Ossian 🥂
 
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Concerto said:
Recently I had solar panels fitted to my home. When the roof measured, we could fit 20 panels with a 9Kw battery and 8Kw inverter to export to the grid. However, when the plans were submitted for approval, they came back to reduce the panels to 16 and the inverter to 4Kw restricted to 2Kw. Our electrician changed the inverter to a 3.65Kw and this meant it was accepted at the full rating. The reason for the restriction was applied was the local cabling system could not cope with the potential load from all of the solar panels in the area. I wonder how many other people with solar panels are suffering the same problem.
Click to expand...
Where I live, just south of Munich in Germany, the uptake of solar by private households was completely underestimated. Now they are dropping the price you get for feeding into the grid and it makes it hardly worthwhile. I've heard from friends working for local electricity infrastructure companies, that the local systems can't cope with the feed-in on sunny days.
 
I welcome wind farms out on the sea where they are far less visual impact compared to turbines on the land.
Also isn't it really great that solar input exceeds capacity? There are solutions to this sort of challenge eg the infrastructure can include battery stations.
 
Baggywrinkle said:
Where I live, just south of Munich in Germany, the uptake of solar by private households was completely underestimated. Now they are dropping the price you get for feeding into the grid and it makes it hardly worthwhile. I've heard from friends working for local electricity infrastructure companies, that the local systems can't cope with the feed-in on sunny days.
Click to expand...
My solar panels were commissioned on 1 October. Since then we have produced 385 Kw, most of which has been used in the house via the battery with the fully charged on cheap rate overnight. We also have 2 electric cars that we charge overnight on 8.1p Kw cheap electricity. To fully charge one car from 25% to 75% can be done in one night between 00.30 and 05.30, but to fully charge the battery for a long run takes 2 nights. This costs about £3.00 and currently gives us about 120 miles running. We have also been exporting a small amount to the grid and get paid 15p per Kw.

Just checked my electricity bill covering 16 Nov till 15 Dec. Our charge for electricity including standing charge and VAT was £84.56 less the credit for the 45Kw exported of £6.70, making the final total £77.86 - including running both cars! Compared to before the solar panels were fitted for the same period last year of £105.85 plus petrol and diesel for the old cars. This saving will be even larger in the summer.

During the summer months we expect to be exporting far more than we can use. So 10 hours at 3.65 Kw per hour at 15p equates to 36.5 Kw or £5.47 per day. A 30 day month should generate £164.25. Any excess that cannot be exported should be used to keep the cars fully charged. By comparison we are using currently about 8Kw per day in the house, but should drop lower when we reduce using the tumble drier. This should cost about £20.40, so we should be getting paid about £145 per month less the standing charge.

We may change or export tariff from a fixed price of 15p to a variable tariff where we get paid more during the busy times of the day. It is possible to use cheap rate electricity to sell it back to the grid at upto 35p. This then lends the possibility of increasing our battery storage to do this. Sorry no figures calculated yet.

Hope these numbers show that solar panels are worth fitting, especially if you get an electric car.
 
Concerto said:
My solar panels were commissioned on 1 October. Since then we have produced 385 Kw, most of which has been used in the house via the battery with the fully charged on cheap rate overnight. We also have 2 electric cars that we charge overnight on 8.1p Kw cheap electricity. To fully charge one car from 25% to 75% can be done in one night between 00.30 and 05.30, but to fully charge the battery for a long run takes 2 nights. This costs about £3.00 and currently gives us about 120 miles running. We have also been exporting a small amount to the grid and get paid 15p per Kw.

Just checked my electricity bill covering 16 Nov till 15 Dec. Our charge for electricity including standing charge and VAT was £84.56 less the credit for the 45Kw exported of £6.70, making the final total £77.86 - including running both cars! Compared to before the solar panels were fitted for the same period last year of £105.85 plus petrol and diesel for the old cars. This saving will be even larger in the summer.

During the summer months we expect to be exporting far more than we can use. So 10 hours at 3.65 Kw per hour at 15p equates to 36.5 Kw or £5.47 per day. A 30 day month should generate £164.25. Any excess that cannot be exported should be used to keep the cars fully charged. By comparison we are using currently about 8Kw per day in the house, but should drop lower when we reduce using the tumble drier. This should cost about £20.40, so we should be getting paid about £145 per month less the standing charge.

We may change or export tariff from a fixed price of 15p to a variable tariff where we get paid more during the busy times of the day. It is possible to use cheap rate electricity to sell it back to the grid at upto 35p. This then lends the possibility of increasing our battery storage to do this. Sorry no figures calculated yet.

Hope these numbers show that solar panels are worth fitting, especially if you get an electric car.
Click to expand...
Did the same in March 2025 ... bought an electric car in summer because we had so much excess from Apr to September we didn't know what to do with it, added a heat-pump in May and got rid of the gas system, and we're still managing to charge the batteries full by lunch time so we use tumble dryer, washing machine, dishwasher etc. in the afternoon to reduce our export to the minimum. Also have a smart meter and a dynamic tariff and when we have that finally sorted out, then we switch on an AI which uses weather forecast info combined with electricity day-ahead prices so should be able to provide another level of flexibility during early spring/late autumn. We get a feed-in rate of 7 cents, so it's better to use it ourselves, but excess wind energy can be had for negative prices in the winter. We've gone from an energy bill of €300 per month + fuel for the car, to around €90 a month, including standing charges. The car is the wild card, as it is 100% dependent on usage which is not really predictable.
 
Concerto said:
My solar panels were commissioned on 1 October. Since then we have produced 385 Kw, most of which has been used in the house via the battery with the fully charged on cheap rate overnight. We also have 2 electric cars that we charge overnight on 8.1p Kw cheap electricity. To fully charge one car from 25% to 75% can be done in one night between 00.30 and 05.30, but to fully charge the battery for a long run takes 2 nights. This costs about £3.00 and currently gives us about 120 miles running. We have also been exporting a small amount to the grid and get paid 15p per Kw.

Just checked my electricity bill covering 16 Nov till 15 Dec. Our charge for electricity including standing charge and VAT was £84.56 less the credit for the 45Kw exported of £6.70, making the final total £77.86 - including running both cars! Compared to before the solar panels were fitted for the same period last year of £105.85 plus petrol and diesel for the old cars. This saving will be even larger in the summer.

During the summer months we expect to be exporting far more than we can use. So 10 hours at 3.65 Kw per hour at 15p equates to 36.5 Kw or £5.47 per day. A 30 day month should generate £164.25. Any excess that cannot be exported should be used to keep the cars fully charged. By comparison we are using currently about 8Kw per day in the house, but should drop lower when we reduce using the tumble drier. This should cost about £20.40, so we should be getting paid about £145 per month less the standing charge.

We may change or export tariff from a fixed price of 15p to a variable tariff where we get paid more during the busy times of the day. It is possible to use cheap rate electricity to sell it back to the grid at upto 35p. This then lends the possibility of increasing our battery storage to do this. Sorry no figures calculated yet.

Hope these numbers show that solar panels are worth fitting, especially if you get an electric car.
Click to expand...
That is fantastic. We have a plug in hybrid but 90% of the driving is on free electric.

For an example of the close minded thinkingthat was on this forum in the post here is one of many threads.

https://forums.ybw.com/threads/renewable-energy-down-on-quota-but-experts-ignore-facts.252059/5
 
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