It will come as no surprise to anyone who has braved the elements here in Scotland, attempting to stay upright on a mountain top or playing on the beach while being buffeted by a gale blowing in from the North Sea, that this country is said to have "the best wind resource in Europe".
To illustrate, see here my predecessor Bouncing Bertie, demonstrating how to stand firm on a typically blustery hillside.
Although my owner spent much of her working career looking for oil and gas, she well understands, like most earth scientists, that using renewable sources to generate power is the way forward for, oh so many reasons. In some parts of the world that means solar power, but in a country with only a few hours per day of weak sunlight in the depths of winter, we naturally look to our wind.
So Gail and I were pleased to see that Aberdeen's new deep water South Harbour is currently host to the 'Blue Tern', a vessel used for offshore wind turbine installation.
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| Image from the 'Marine traffic' website |
On Thursday afternoon (when, ironically, the weather was calm and sunny) we took a walk down to the harbour area, circumnavigating the golf course to take a closer look.
Gail and I are happy to think that soon the turbine blades loaded on to this huge vessel will be put to use producing nice clean electricity. If everyone is to follow the lead of our dear friend YAM-aunty and start driving around the country in an electric vehicle, we will most certainly need to generate a lot more of the stuff.
Happy Nature Friday!
Big changes in UK's east coast working harbours in the last couple of decades. We saw changes like that in East Anglia too. It has to be the way to go - 'renewables'.
ReplyDeletewow that are super big things... how impressing....
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that Bertie was able to stand firm at the same time as chewing a stick!
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteWell Nobby, I loved this post today - as you might imagine, being both the renewables and ship-a-holic that I am!!! Hugs and wags, YAM-aunty xxx
What a most impressive post, Nobby!
ReplyDeleteand when alll the batteries die and need to be replaced they will fill our earth with battery acid. the problem with our world is now that people are living a hundred years the world is overpopulated. we think the batteries will do more damage than fuel does. although most people will have to go to electric buses and trains because the new cars the average person can't afford. I wonder what all those wind turbines in the water will do the the marine life.
ReplyDeleteSadly we wonder if there will ever be enough electricity generated to fulfil the needs of every human on the planet. It's a similar problem to making sure everyone has enough food.
ReplyDeleteSolar power is the way for us to go here, because we have more than 300 days of sunshine a year, but it wouldn't suit at least half of the planet. It's a problem that will have to be addressed by each country.
Love,
Paca xx
Nobby what glorious blue skies. OMDs...Core stability I love it.
ReplyDeletePlant you feet and hang on.
thank you and Gail for this Nature Friday post
Hugs cecilia
Mom says the wind power was really big in Germany when she lived there. Here, it isn't as popular. She also had wind when she lived on the North Sea Coast and they would not allow trucks on bridges as it was so powerful.
ReplyDeleteI(Beth) remember driving through the "wind farms" of West Texas and Southern California...but I am not sure how, exactly, they were used.
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful topic for Nature Friday, Nobby!!
That is an interesting ship you found. We hope all that wind generates lots of electricity.
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome. We need more wind power.
ReplyDeleteVery cool...and standing in that wind must be cool too! We are trying to be better here energy consumers, mom is checking out investing in solar now too! We must all try to do our part.
ReplyDelete