Wind Farm Interference

[Jeff]

Before we moved tothis house one of our new neighbours explained that he had lost all his terrestial TV Channels and when he called the TV Aerial repair man he was told that it was due to the nearby windfarm. A call to Scottish Power Renewables got him Sky TV at their cost !

Once having the keys work started on the repairs upgrading ets but annoyingly my little radio only managed to pick up AM (Medium Wave) stations properly. FM was hopeless on tyhat radio and a newer one.

At last the garden railway has some track down and I find that both of my FM rc controllers have problems. This afternoon one loco stood glitching like mad back and forward, fast and slow all without any touch on the controller.

Can anyone tell me if there is a windfarm interference problem - has anyone else experienced the problem ?

 

[funandtrains]

It could be the windfarms but I would bet more on military eqipment if they exercise in your area.

 

[garrymartin]

I will probabley find out all too soon as they :clown: are going to surround our village with the useless f**king things.

 

[whatlep]

Can anyone tell me if there is a windfarm interference problem - has anyone else experienced the problem ?

Among their numerous disbenefits, windfarms can have considerable electromagnetic effects both by interfering with radio transmissions and inducing unwanted interference on radio aerials (e.g. model railway transmitter/receivers). The effects depend on a host of factors, but it's a fair bet that there will be interference. The BBC and Ofcom offer services to help assess the range and severity of effects. See, amongst others:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/windfarm_tool.shtml

 

[KeithT]

Only 2 wind farms in the entire country are working at their designed level.
Both are in the Outer Hebrides and supply no power to the Mainland. The rest are running at 2-27% only. 40% was originally quoted as the optimum output.
The continuing subsidy is the only reason they are being built. So far as I am aware not so much as a nut and bolt on them comes from the UK.

 

[funandtrains]

I've had to do some research into renewable energy for my work and there is no perfect solution although wind turbines can work in the right location, government policy has forced them to be fitted in daft places though like city centres. My personal opinion is that the best solution would be to plant lots of copice woods for burning in combined heat and power plants but some people are bound to object to either the woods or the power plants.

 

[spike]

Can anyone tell me if there is a windfarm interference problem - has anyone else experienced the problem ?

Among their numerous disbenefits, windfarms can have considerable electromagnetic effects both by interfering with radio transmissions and inducing unwanted interference on radio aerials (e.g. model railway transmitter/receivers). The effects depend on a host of factors, but it's a fair bet that there will be interference. The BBC and Ofcom offer services to help assess the range and severity of effects. See, amongst others:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/windfarm_tool.shtml

One "disbenefit" is the ability to put blindspots in ATC radar.
It's a disgusting waste of public money.

 

[funandtrains]

I think you are missing the point in that gas in running out and becomming too expensive, coal pollutes too much and people are scared of nuclear. Since we don't get enough sun for large scale solar or have more mountain valleys to put hydro elctric dams which are the best working renewable power generators if you want to get using electric appliances a whole load of new power generation schemes of different types have to built all over the country. Like all things new the first don't work that well but they soon get better and no one knows yet which method will work out best.

The biggest farce is are the electric solar panels which cost a lot to make and after 15 years use only generate 1/3rd of their starting output.

 

[KeithT]

Unfortunately those "things" cost more in energy to make, construct and maintain than they can ever return in power. The environmental cost of installing IMMENSE foundations and the miles and miles of heavy duty roads needed is vast not to mention that the clowns never costed the price of cabling them from remote areas into the grid
Utter farce!

 

[mike]

now your just beeing silly.. itsa well know fact(check wilkapoodia) they are actually cloud minceing machines.. they break up the clouds ,that are made in thouse huge towers facturys...

 

[Ferrysteam]

Lets get a few things straight here.England is a block if coal floating on a sea of oil & gas,it is not going to run out in the next million or more years.There are ways of filtering the smoke off coal so it doesn't polute the atmosphere.What the problem is is that Germany builds and owns most of these wind farms and we have corrupt governments that have their hands in each others pockets.I hate the b***ards.

 

[Tony Walsham]

Leaving aside the politics, and other emotive issues, of renewable energy and returning to the actual subject of this post, "glitching" or "The rusty bolt effect" was all too common with live steamers using AM and FM radios until the advent of 2.4 GHz R/C.
My advice would be to get rid of your old radios and replace them with 2.4 GHz rig which will solve the problem once and for all.

 

[gregh]

Can anyone tell me if there is a windfarm interference problem - has anyone else experienced the problem ?

Do you get interference on days of no wind ??

 

[Martino]

My late father used to refer to 'wimwams for grinding smoke' is that what they are?

 

[MRail]

My advice would be to get rid of your old radios and replace them with 2.4 GHz rig which will solve the problem once and for all.

Well said Tony.

 

[vannerley]

Interesting comments ... the current largest current installation is the London Outer Array, off the coast of Thanet, owned by a Swedish company (Vatenfall) whose manufacturing and maintenance establishments in Kent are producing real jobs in two of the most deprived parts of England (the Isles of Sheppey and Thanet). There is now more power coming ashore at Richborough into the national grid than the former coal powered station ever managed to produce in its intermitent life.

When the small Kentish Flats installation (only a couple of dozen of turbines) was proposed there was a lot of talk about damage to bird life and the noise of the turbines. Strangely, the birds seem to have learnt to fly around the turbines and you can't hear anything from the beach ... they are six miles out to sea. Not a single new road to build and they came with ready made foundations: hollow concrete tubes floated into place and flooded, to meet the conditions of the licence they have to be removable without trace.

One last thought - is there any record of continental G scalers complaining about interference from such installations, which have been active there for decades longer than UK.

 

[garrymartin]

... they are six miles out to sea. Not a single new road to build
.

EDIT + Also on the Continent I Believe that they have to be built more than 2Km away from anyones house, a rule which they don't have to bother with here. So they interference issue may not arise.

 

[themole]

Everything here powered on methane !!!!!!!!

 

[stockers]

The national grid agrees to buy power from the suppliers each end everyday. The grid knows fairly exactly how much energy it needs and to switch on extra power at short notice is extreamly expensive. They also know that wind power is unreliable so tend not to factor this into the calculations - its cheaper not to - so the wind farms are paid for power that is not needed and often not even produced.

 

[Jeff]

Well tht's cleared that up then !

Having done some work on building windfarms I was apalled at both the enormous cost and the total lack of skillled jobs for the UK. All the clever stuff is made abroad and the jobs in the UK are mostly grunt ones, digging holes and filling them with concrete.
It also amazes me that the same politicians who complain about fuel poverty also inflict the huge cost of the "renewable" energy on us poor bill payers. Rant over !