"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...

The UK is aiming for 25% of its power
generation by wind. CHP Stirling
boilers are also envisaged to fill gaps too.

CHP has its place in the right environment.
But there are lots of nimbys.

??? What have Nimbies to do with it? see:
http://www.microgendirect.com/

This is a boiler that generates electricity from waste heat.

It would surprise me if they ever got that
much wind power installed.

There is a mass installation programme right now, with much off it just
off-shore, out of sight and in direct line of wind.

Britain is the windiest country in Europe.

Though at the moment the emphasis seems to be entirely on installing
windmills and not on commissioning or operating them. The ones visible
along the A19 seem to be permanently feathered and non rotating. And
even if they were operating the wind doesn't blow continuously so you
still need backup conventional power stations for the cold windless
days.

But at least wind generation has more prospect of being useful than
solar power at our latitude and with the UK's cloudy maritime climate.

Not so. Solar in the UK is very feasible. In fact because they have a long
heating season, solar in Scotland has great advantages.

The idea is to reduce energy consumption at source and then power generation
is not so important.

No. Just that other panels, such as Thermomax, are far higher per squ
foot
area than a normal cheap flat plate.

Lashings of hot water on the few sunny days in mid summer, and horrid
technical problems in mid winter trying to keep the system from
freezing.

What are you on about?

The technology and engineering is there, and it is improving by the
month.
That is not the problem at all. It is educating the people about the new
technology and the will to push it through.

It is pretty hard to find applications where even the latest PV cells
are truly cost effective. You have to be a long way from any mains power
before their cost per watt justifies using them.

Superinsulation, passive solar house design, DHW solar panels on the roof,
CHP boilers (nearly here), all reduce power consumption greatly. You can
forget PV cells. Even so, if the take up of PV cell was all over then the
manufacturing costs would tumble, making them highly cost effective.

Solar power works reasonably at latitudes
below about 45 degrees, but it
is quite frankly a complete non-starter
at latitudes 55N and above.

Nonsense!!! Absolute Nonsense!!! St, George's School in Wallasey was built
in 1961 and was full solar and worked wonderfully. With modern materials
and controls, a school built to solar would be even better and far more
comfortable.

Have the whole south facing roof of a house an integrated solar panel and it
generates masses of heat. In winter it will not be too hot, so it is best
to use low temperature under floor heating in the house. The heated water
can be in a very large thermal store to cope with 3 cloudy days. The DHW
section may need topping up with backup heating in deep winter. All
feasible.



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