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59 minutes ago, caradoc said:

Perhaps Swampy, Larch, Blue, Dipsy and La-La might consider turning their attention away from HS2 onto another risk to trees, which somehow we don't hear so much about: 

 

https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/02/22/1600-trees-a-day-axed-to-pave-the-way-for-turbines/

 

The article (whose, to be fair, accuracy and impartiality I cannot of course vouch for) states: 

 

Around 1,600 trees a day are being cut down to make way for ever-increasing numbers of wind turbines.

Five wind farms alone have resulted in millions of trees being axed – flying in the face of a Scottish Government commitment to plant 25,000 acres of trees every year to help meet climate targets.

The figures, from Forestry and Land Scotland, have led to warnings that the country has reached ‘saturation point’ for onshore wind, with turbines posing a growing threat to the landscape.

Iain Milligan, spokesman for campaign group Save Our Hills, said: ‘It’s hard to see how any well-thought-through environmental policy could result in the felling of millions of trees.

 

Those numbers can best be described by a word beginning with B and ending in ollocks, by a pressure group who happen to dislike wind turbines.

If they were correct, each onshore turbine being built in the UK  would require roughly 1000 trees to be felled to erect it.  Considering how many wind farms are on un-forested upland hills, this is clearly unrealistic.

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1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Those numbers can best be described by a word beginning with B and ending in ollocks, by a pressure group who happen to dislike wind turbines.

If they were correct, each onshore turbine being built in the UK  would require roughly 1000 trees to be felled to erect it.  Considering how many wind farms are on un-forested upland hills, this is clearly unrealistic.

 

It is all very well saying "stop that" but you need to provide an alternative & does anyone arguing against them seriously believe that planners are too stupid to not have already considered potential alternatives?

 

Of course they are not. They can provide very good reasons why wind power is currently the best option, but the nay-sayers are too narrow-minded to believe it.

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7 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

t is all very well saying "stop that" but you need to provide an alternative & does anyone arguing against them seriously believe that planners are too stupid to not have already considered potential alternatives?

 

I don't think 'stupid' is quite the right word here. 

 

8 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

Of course they are not. They can provide very good reasons why wind power is currently the best option, but the nay-sayers are too narrow-minded to believe it.

I refer my honourable friend to events in the US state of Texas over the last few weeks. 

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16 minutes ago, billbedford said:

I refer my honourable friend to events in the US state of Texas over the last few weeks. 

The Texas power outage had more to do with several gas-powered generators (a larger percentage of capacity) being off-line at the same time, which was expected to be a period of low demand.  It doesn't help that in America's Southern States, they don't like to insulate their homes against the prevailing weather, but prefer to just turn up the air-con a notch or two.

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5 hours ago, caradoc said:

https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/02/22/1600-trees-a-day-axed-to-pave-the-way-for-turbines/

 

The article (whose, to be fair, accuracy and impartiality I cannot of course vouch for) states: 

 

Yup, another NIMBY group... Though to be fair the bottom of the article with the official statements does rather deflate their attention grabbing headline...

Quote

 

A spokesman said: ‘Last year Scotland planted over 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) of new woodlands and forests – a total of 22 million new trees, or around 60,000 new trees a day, and over 80 per cent of all new UK woodland.

‘Trees cut down to accommodate wind farm sites are generally commercial conifers which would have been felled as part of normal forestry activity.’

George Anderson of the Woodland Trust said: ‘In some instances trees have been removed for wind farms and the peatland restored. That is good for biodiversity and carbon capture. Active peat bogs are important carbon sinks.

‘Our concern would be for ancient woodland. Cases where we object to wind farms threatening ancient woods are rare.’

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

I have never understood how they have the audacity to claim that that is environmentally friendly.

Jonathan

 

It's almost by definition carbon neutral because it is from a renewable carbon capturing source.

 

 

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2 hours ago, billbedford said:

I refer my honourable friend to events in the US state of Texas over the last few weeks. 

 

The Texan turbines were somewhat cheap ass "warm country" versions that weren't prepped for the exceptional conditions they endured.

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2 hours ago, billbedford said:

I don't think 'stupid' is quite the right word here. 

 

I refer my honourable friend to events in the US state of Texas over the last few weeks. 

 

Never let facts get in the way of a good story as the press say.

 

It suited various vested interests in Texas and the Republican party to try and make out the use of wind power was 'to blame' as they generally refuse to believe the facts around climate change and think we should be continuing to burn as much coal and oil as possible 'to save jobs'.

 

The reality is wind turbines are used throughout northern Europe / Scandinavia to generate power and they can easily be made to withstand very low temperatures without affecting the ability to generate electricity.

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11 minutes ago, frobisher said:

 

The Texan turbines were somewhat cheap ass "warm country" versions that weren't prepped for the exceptional conditions they endured.

 

Texas is also about the only state in the USA that refuses to integrate with the wider national power infrastructure, preferring instead to rely on a collection of privately owned power generators to "guarantee" supply, but at an unregulated cost, which has now been exposed as "almost criminal", in the words of one Senator. It has been suggested that, if they had integrated, like all the states around them, most of the power cuts would not have been needed.

 

However, let's get back to HS2, shall we?

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"It's almost by definition carbon neutral because it is from a renewable carbon capturing source."

 

It is only carbon neutral if there is as much planting to compensate for the carbon released, which includes energy used in bringing much of it across the Atlantic and moving it on land at each end, and disposing of the ash afterwards, and that assumes that the trees so planted survive long enough to capture the carbon - see my post above about new plantations having a high failure rate.

But better than burning coal or oil, I agree.

I have to say that I don't accept the concept of "offsetting" either. I feel that it is a con trick.

Jonathan

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I reckon it would probably be better for the environment to burn locally mined coal at Drax than to ship wood chips in from the U.S.

 

If we're that short of wood to burn over here perhaps they could let builders put scrap wood in the recycling bins for free rather than skips that go to landfill.

 

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Went out today and saw new fencing alongside the route near us looks very smart footpaths all fenced and the route very clear now .New neighbours moved in working on HS2 here for three years so will find out more info now .

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 31/12/2020 at 13:36, Ron Ron Ron said:

Progress at preparing the former Eurotunnel site at Willesden.

Spoil from the OOC site and tunnel excavations will be delivered here by a conveyor, for onward removal by rail.

 

743f69c1c9a24128a2d95aa3c56bd4c5.jpg?wid

 

 

 

 

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3 months on, the latest view - March 2021

(Note, the new railway sidings have been installed)

 

picture5-png.1255662

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Ron Ron Ron
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Went for a drive out of Aylesbury yesterday and as we drove past the outskirts of town the HS2 works became visible.The area covered is vast and well fenced you can see just were the line is going and is visible clearly towards Waddesdon .Many chaps were engaged in different jobs but it did not have many heavy vehicles present.My journey then took me past were the line will cross the A413  I saw a group of chaps looking at trees behind the stone wall that follows the road from Stone.The other side of the road there are a great many signs of activity heading back to Wendover. The route is now clearly marked out and especially when viewed from the hill out of Wendover to Butlers Cross you get a much better idea of the work. The road from Butlers Cross to Wendover is closed as houses have to be demolished and the railway bridge extended .It will be interesting to see the result of works around Quainton Rail Centre ,an elongated roundabout is to be built and part of the rail centre has to be moved away from the new line .All in all things have suddenly reached a period of high work level and of course the viaduct has to be built.More news in April  .

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36 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

Went for a drive out of Aylesbury yesterday and as we drove past the outskirts of town the HS2 works became visible.The area covered is vast and well fenced you can see just were the line is going and is visible clearly towards Waddesdon .Many chaps were engaged in different jobs but it did not have many heavy vehicles present.My journey then took me past were the line will cross the A413  I saw a group of chaps looking at trees behind the stone wall that follows the road from Stone.The other side of the road there are a great many signs of activity heading back to Wendover. The route is now clearly marked out and especially when viewed from the hill out of Wendover to Butlers Cross you get a much better idea of the work. The road from Butlers Cross to Wendover is closed as houses have to be demolished and the railway bridge extended .It will be interesting to see the result of works around Quainton Rail Centre ,an elongated roundabout is to be built and part of the rail centre has to be moved away from the new line .All in all things have suddenly reached a period of high work level and of course the viaduct has to be built.More news in April  .

Thanks for this update; having visited Quainton a couple of times I will be interested to see how the Centre has to adapt to HS2 running through it.

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The Rail Centre Quainton  is going to have to lose the car park area and the entrance is going to be relocated but the new line going north will still pass under the last arch of the road bridge .Agreat deal of work is required along the route of HS2 beside Quainton hope they will get a shed load of money for the land they are giving up.

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On 03/03/2021 at 16:02, billbedford said:

I don't think 'stupid' is quite the right word here. 

 

I refer my honourable friend to events in the US state of Texas over the last few weeks. 

 

No need to go that far afield.  An examination of the contribution of the various generation technologies to the UK demand for November and early December 2020 shows 3 days where the weather conditions around the British Isles were such that the contribution of wind power was negligible.  The shortfall was made up in part from generating capacity slated for removal in the next decade.  The now infamous frequency drift/Siemens EMUs failing incident had a wind farm going offline as one of its underlying trigger events.

 

I don't have an ideological view one way or the other on renewable energy but it seems fairly obvious to me that a system dependent on weather conditions is occasionally going to encounter weather that is incompatible with its operation.  We've no doubt all heard stories of wind speeds being too high for the safe operation of turbines (which is kind of ironic) so the conundrum seems to me to be how to manufacture blades that will generate effectively at low wind speeds and yet still operate at high wind speeds.  Not my area of expertise at all but it has to be solved if a high proportion of the eggs are to be placed in the wind basket and power rationing or blackouts are to be avoided. 

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9 hours ago, lmsforever said:

The Rail Centre Quainton  is going to have to lose the car park area and the entrance is going to be relocated but the new line going north will still pass under the last arch of the road bridge .Agreat deal of work is required along the route of HS2 beside Quainton hope they will get a shed load of money for the land they are giving up.

 

Land is one part of the equation.

 

Another issue facing Quainton is that the combination of HS2 running across the back of the site, and pallisade fencing through the middle for EWR will make the site less attractive to film/TV companies who provide them with useful income. 

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1 hour ago, DY444 said:

I don't have an ideological view one way or the other on renewable energy but it seems fairly obvious to me that a system dependent on weather conditions is occasionally going to encounter weather that is incompatible with its operation. 

 

There's always seemed an irony to me in saying "The climate's changing. We don't know what it's going to do. Let's make our electricity supply dependent on the weather....." 

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And some ecology freaks (ie a small minority of those with an interest in the environment) are now saying we should not use hydro-electric generation because it affects the ecology of the river. Yes, it may do, but it can be managed. I have no sympathy with those who claim it takes away their water, as all that happens is that it usually misses a short stretch of the river and is then put back. But that claim is also frequent.

So my recommendation is to practise using flint tools and buy a nice warm cave.

Jonathan

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8 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

 

There's always seemed an irony to me in saying "The climate's changing. We don't know what it's going to do. Let's make our electricity supply dependent on the weather....." 

 

Which is of course true. But surely the answer is not “let’s keep burning irreplaceable raw materials until they just run out”. That strikes me as equally fatuous. 
 

Paul

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1. Production of the first pre-cast tunnel segments has begun at the Chiltern Tunnel south portal, fabrication factory.

 

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2021/03/19/first-hs2-tunnel-segments-produced-at-site-precast-factory/

 

https://railway-news.com/hs2-casts-first-of-112000-chiltern-tunnel-wall-segments/

 

 

 

2. Meanwhile, just a short distance away, piling work for the Colne Valley Viaduct is also starting.

 

https://railway-news.com/hs2-work-begins-on-uks-longest-rail-viaduct/

 

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2021/03/16/hs2-begins-work-begins-on-uks-longest-rail-viaduct/

 

 

 

.

 

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