dumnonia

Monday 19 December 2011

wind turbines in the South West.


Two hundred more wind turbines for South West?


To put that in context there are currently just over 100 - so that would mean a threefold increase.
Senior figures in the renewable energy industry are calling for nearly 200 more onshore wind turbines in the South West.

Here's Robert Norris from Renewable UK (the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries) setting out his stall:
The cue for this was the government's recently published Carbon Plan, which aims to generate 30% of the country's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
This envisages a combination of onshore and offshore wind helping in the push to meet the target.
At the moment three quarters of Britain's wind power is generated onshore.
According to Mr Norris, though, offshore will be the dominant partner within the next 10 years.
But he insists this still leaves a large gap to be filled by onshore turbines - "the cheapest form of renewable technology which can be deployed on a mass scale in the time frame that we need".
'Giant' turbines
And Mr Norris isn't a lone voice.

Johnny Gowdy, director at Regen South West, agreed that 200 more onshore turbines was "about right" when he joined me on the Politics Show this week.
Wind turbines
Cornwall Council is also talking about adding more onshore turbines to the county's sizable existing stock - though "not thousands", according to Cllr Julian German, Cabinet Member for Climate Change.
Everybody agrees that new wind farms are likely to be much smaller clusters of just two or three turbines.
The turbines themselves, though, will be much bigger - like the giants inaugurated by Energy Secretary Chris Huhne at Delabole this spring.
Needless to say, the prospect of the region's wind turbine population tripling - and the turbines themselves doubling in height - is a nightmarish vision to some.
Folly or solution?
Steve Bazeley, chairman of Residents against Turbines, which campaigned unsuccessfully against the installation of a new generation at Carland Cross near Truro, dismisses wind turbines as "inefficient, unreliable and expensive".
eyesores
"Wind turbine generation", he says, "is going to prove to be, in the long term, the biggest folly that this generation has ever had to stump up for".
Wind turbines in countryside
And before you even get on to arguments about efficiency, reliability and cost effectiveness, many people voice the more fundamental objection that turbines are unacceptable eyesores.
It's now clear, though, that onshore turbines won't be standing aside or slipping quietly into retirement to make way for their offshore cousins any time soon.
But getting 200 giant windmills through the planning system will be interesting and eventful to say the least.

Cornish shipwreck


Mount Edgcumbe to display Cornish shipwreck cargo


Mount Edgcumbe estate by Stephen BennettThe exhibition will include interactive displays and an introductory film about the ship

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Artefacts from a ship that sank off the Cornish coast in the 18th century will be on show at a country park when £41,000 has been secured.
The Metta Catharina sank in 1786 off south east Cornwall. Its cargo, including calf hides and glassware will be on display at Mount Edgcumbe House.
For 32 years divers have retrieved the artefacts which will be on show alongside an exhibition in 2013.
A lottery grant has provided the money to help fund the project.
Items found on the Metta Catharina von Flensburg included Russian calf hides, wine carriers, clay tobacco pipes and shoe buckles, a spokesperson from Plymouth City Council said.
'Fitting location'
Ian Skelton, chairman of the Metta Catharina Trust, said: "It is wonderful news that after 32 years of diving and research, the story of it can be told.
"Mount Edgcumbe is a fitting location for the artefacts to be displayed."
The total cost of the project will be £60,500 with additional funding coming from the Friends of Mount Edgcumbe, the Metta Catharina Trust and Mount Edgcumbe, the council spokesperson added.
Hides at the wreck siteDivers found the Metta Catharina in 1973
The Metta Catharina lay almost completely buried in deep silt off Mount Edgcumbe and was discovered by divers in 1973.
Some of the leather recovered from the wreck was "extremely well preserved", the council spokesperson added.
The exhibition will include interactive displays and an introductory film about the ship.
Mount Edgcumbe House & Country Park is jointly owned and managed by Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council.

cash bid for Military Wives Choir single


VAT cash bid for Military Wives Choir single by Devon MP


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Tax raised from the sales of a hit single should be donated to armed forces' charities, a Devon MP has said.
Wherever You Are was written for Gareth Malone's Military Wives Choir whose husbands served in Afghanistan.
The song is tipped to knock X Factor's Little Mix off the top of the charts and become the Christmas number one.
Oliver Colvile, Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, is to ask the Treasury to donate the VAT to the choir's chosen charities.
The song was performed by the women from Chivenor and Plymouth at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in November.
Live aid 'precedent'
Proceeds from the sale of the single will go to the Royal British Legion and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen Families Association (SSAFA).
Mr Colville said allowing the charities to benefit from the VAT would not only help them continue to deliver good mental health services for military personnel, but would also be a fitting way to thank their families.
"I think its very, very important that we thank the families and wives who have put up with an enormous amount during the course of the past nine or 10 years," he told BBC News.
The Military Wives Choir, featured in the BBC Two television programme The Choir, is made up of about 100 wives and girlfriends from RMB Chivenor in north Devon and Plymouth.
Their husbands and partners spent six months earlier this year in Afghanistan as part of 3 Commando Brigade and the song is based on letters sent and received during the deployment.
Prime Minister David Cameron praised the choir after it performed at 10 Downing Street during a reception for troops involved in operations in Libya.
Mr Colville said, although he was not confident the government would agree, a precedent had been set in 2004 when VAT raised by sales from a new version of Do They Know It's Christmas was given to Bob Geldof's Live Aid charity.
Mr Colvile will make his request to the Secretary of State for Defence in the House of Commons later.
"If you don't bother to ask the question, nobody's going to take any notice," he added.
The Official Singles Chart will announce the Christmas number one on Christmas Day.

Money raised for homeles sstaff


Chudleigh pub fire: Money raised for homeles sstaff 


Investigators believe the blaze, which gutted much of the Old Coaching House, in Chudleigh on Wednesday night, was accidental.

The fire also left a number of staff without a home.
Residents took to the streets with buckets to collect money for them and visited other pubs in the area too.
Fire at Coaching Inn A quiz evening is also being planned for Friday at the nearby Globe pub to raise funds.
Local resident Chris Fleet said: "The local community has really come together. Stuff has been donated, there's about £1,000 collected now.
"For some of the staff, quite literally the clothes they were wearing for work that night, that's all they have left in the world."
The fire is believed to have started just before closing time on Wednesday.
It took more than 30 firefighters about 24 hours to extinguish the fire in the old building.
The fire came at one of the pub's busiest times of the year with hundreds of people booked in for Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Managers said they hoped they would be able to transfer bookings to a function room separate to the main pub.
However, they said that depended on getting health and safety clearance.