Four years ago Barack Obama was President Elect. Here's a speech he gave at that time:
Notice his concluding remarks:
Once I take office you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in…. negotiations, and help lead the world towards a new era of global cooperation on climate change. Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences too serious. Stopping climate change won't be easy and it won't happen overnight, but I promise you this. When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.
Stopping climate change hasn't happened overnight, or over the last four years for that matter. The stakes are higher. The consequences more serious. Stopping climate change is now much harder. Whether as a result of Michael Bloomberg's last minute introduction of climate change onto the agenda or not, Mr. Obama has just been voted another four years in office by the U.S. electorate. Here's his 2012 acceptance speech:
As we reported recently, Lightsource Renewable Energy have applied for planning permission to build a 10.7 MW solar PV park on a 54 acre site just south of Exeter. Now:
A group of local people who are enthusiasts for renewable energy
Believe that solar energy, in particular, can make an important contribution towards the UKs efforts to enhance energy security. However, we also believe that solar projects must be:
Sensitively positioned, so that they preserve and enhance our valued countryside,
Appropriate in scale, so that they fit within the characteristics of the local landscape,
On low-grade or brownfield sites, so that they do not contribute to food shortages or undermine national food security,
Properly structured and financed to minimise the chances of leaving future generations with unfunded environmental clean-up costs,
Meticulously planned and researched so that there are no unforeseen adverse consequences for land or water pollution, or for human or animal health and wellbeing,
Thoroughly scrutinised so that everyone can benefit from the right scale of project, in the right position, and on the right type of land.
Solar energy is too important to be allowed to suffer a similar fate so it’s important that we do everything we can to make sure that projects are appropriate, sensitive, sustainable and of benefit to all. Above all they must be projects which can act as a positive role model for future developments.
We believe that the proposed site at Bowhay Farm falls well short of meeting these criteria, and that planning permission should be refused.
Regular readers will no doubt conclude that their third bullet point is the one that most concerns me! However if you are also resident in the Shillingford locality and a fan of large scale solar PV and/or concerned about any of the above bullet points you may wish to attend the next meeting of the Shillingford Parish Council planning committee, which will discuss the Bowhay Farm proposals. It will take place on Monday November 12th at Shillingford St. George Village Hall. The doors open at 7 pm to allow time for viewing plans of the proposal, and the meeting is due to start at 7:30 pm. Our straw poll about the Bowhay Farm project (see the top right of this page) currently reveals 5 votes strongly "for" the proposals, versus 18 votes "against". It may turn out to be quite a lively meeting!
This news has caused us to make yet another addition to our interactive map and list of large scale solar PV projects in South West England. In this case details of site specific "informational" web sites.
Having spent some days blogging about the effects of Hurricane Sandy, I had intended posting today about some of Sandy's causes. That will have to wait for a while now though, since a post about the politics of climate change has suddenly risen to the top of my to do list. My headline today comes to you courtesy of Bill Clinton, via Michael Bloomberg.
Just in case one or two of my European readers haven't heard of Mr. Bloomberg, perhaps I should explain that he became "10th-richest person in the United States" selling the eponymous Bloomberg Terminals and the financial data and news they display to the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He became Mayor of New York City in 2002, and then in 2009 his company bought BusinessWeek magazine. Here is the cover of the latest edition of the retitled Bloomberg Businessweek:
In their last public advisory bulletin concerning "Super Storm" Sandy the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center said yesterday that:
WINDS, ACCUMULATING SNOWS AND RAIN FROM THE REMNANTS OF SANDY CONTINUE TO DIMINISH. MULTIPLE CENTERS OF CIRCULATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE REMNANTS OF SANDY CAN BE FOUND ACROSS THE LOWER GREAT LAKES.
GALE WARNINGS REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES. FLOOD WATCHES AND WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT ACROSS NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND AND FLOOD WARNINGS REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR AREAS OF THE NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC STATES. LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNINGS HAVE BEEN ISSUED FOR PORTIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES. WINTER STORM WARNINGS AND WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES REMAIN IN EFFECT ALONG THE CENTRAL APPALACHIANS.
Here's video taken from a National Guard helicopter showing how parts of New Jersey looked from the air following Sandy's departure:
Construction and operation of a 10.7MW Solar Photovoltaic Farm, including ancillary buildings and security system
The application form states they propose to do this on 54 acres of land at Bowhay Farm, Shillingford Abbot. Whilst this may be correct as far as the Royal Mail are concerned, we locals know that the land in question is actually closer to Dunchideock than Shillingford. In fact if I jump up and down at the top of my garden I can just about make out the far corner of the site. If I then walk up to the top of the hill I get an extremely good view of it. Whilst these views are very familiar to me, it seems that the planners at Lightsource are unfamiliar with them, since neither appears in their Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment document.
Be that as it may, Bowhay Farm has now moved from the "Screening Opinion" section to the "Planning Applications" section of our interactive map and list of large scale solar PV projects in South West England.
Last summer we speculated about what might happen if the winds and/or storm surge from Hurricane Irene happened to hit the Brunswick nuclear plant in North Carolina head on. As luck would have it Irene weakened and veered to the north, but did she did go on to cause the shut down of the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in New Jersey, amongst numerous other problems.
Operators at Oyster Creek Generating Station removed the generator from service at midnight today to begin a planned refueling outage. During the outage, Exelon employees and supplemental workers will perform maintenance activities and replace nearly one-third of the reactor’s fuel to keep the unit running safely and reliably for a two-year operating cycle.
Hurricane Sandy turned sharp left as (ultimately) predicted, and crossed the eastern coast of the United States last night rather earlier than anticipated earlier in the day. Advisory bulletins on "Post-tropical Cyclone Sandy" are now being issued by the HPC instead of the NHC. Their first one says that:
POST TROPICAL CYCLONE SANDY MOVING WESTWARD ACROSS SOUTHERN PENNSYLVANIA. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS 65 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 960 MB.
GALE-FORCE WINDS WILL CONTINUE EARLY TODAY OVER PORTIONS OF THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES FROM VIRGINIA NORTHWARD THROUGH NEW ENGLAND. EVEN THOUGH WATER LEVELS ALONG THE COAST HAVE BEEN SUBSIDING THE COMBINATION OF STORM SURGE AND THE TIDE COULD STILL CAUSE NORMALLY DRY AREAS NEAR THE COAST TO BE FLOODED BY RISING WATERS, ESPECIALLY DURING THE NEXT HIGH TIDE CYCLE.
Monday morning has dawned, and it's raining again here in not so sunny South West England. Over on the other side of the Atlantic the news about Hurricane Sandy hasn't improved overnight. Here's how the latest National Hurricane Center prediction looks at the moment:
NHC forecast track for Hurricane Sandy at 08:00 EDT on Monday October 29, 2012
MagicSeaweed surf forecast for The Cove on Monday October 29th 2012
As you can see, the forecast at the moment is for swell 23 feet high arriving at the same time as high tide tomorrow evening. Roughly the same predicted height as last year, but with the swell direction more directly onshore and a somewhat longer period.
A 5 megawatt solar PV farm on 13.24 hectares of grade 3 agricultural land
at Hatchlands Farm between Harberton and South Brent. This site is literally just down the road from the 8 MW solar PV park at Marley Thatch Farm that was approved by South Hams earlier this year. Here's what the area between South Brent and Totnes currently looks like on our interactive map and list of large scale solar PV projects in South West England:
Large Scale Solar PV projects between South Brent and Totnes in October 2012
As you can see, both the sites (with red markers) have convenient high voltage overhead power lines running nearby. Note there also two green markers, representing prospective solar PV parks at Hazard Farm and the Bidwell Solar Park near Dartington. When taken together with the prospective Totnes Community Wind Farm nearby, this all adds up to getting on for 30 MW (peak!) electricity generating capacity in one small area of South Devon countryside.
