It was interesting to read that the Duke of Northumberland intends to have 38 hectares of solar panels installed on ‘his’ land (TCW, Wednesday. April 16).
No doubt experts will have calculated the energy returns over the 25-year (if lucky) life of the installation. They probably hail from the south of England and may never have seen Northumberland between October and April. The sun does shine now and then, but it is usually almost invisible with thick cloud cover on even a warm day.
Defra publishes graphs of ultraviolet levels from stations around the UK which are a wealth of information for sunlight at ground level. Sadly there are none between Leeds and Glasgow. So the payback must have been calculated using some other method, perhaps hours of daylight, which has little correlation with energy at ground level. Perhaps monitoring at the site for a few years may be advisable.
Apparently enough energy for 9,000 homes will be available. In the remote areas of Northumberland 9,000 homes are some large distance away. This means that the low voltage power from the panel must be converted to AC with an inverter and perhaps 10 per cent losses during conversion. Then it must be transformed to high voltage for transmission, losing about 4 per cent. The overhead wires can get very warm and again lose few more per cent before they arrive at the user, where they will be reduced to a lower, useable voltage. Yes, more losses.
This is the dilemma of solar energy. Use in the building where it is produced may well be a sensible option in the right climate. Solar panel and wind turbines have vastly different requirements for an economic scheme, which I’m sure is lost on our political experts
Our policy seems more to use any or all convenient land, regardless of weather or of local need, neglecting the scientific and physical needs to produce an economic project. Perhaps I should be writing in Greek, as it is equally likely to be understood by the lunatics making these decisions as anything on this page.
How long can we continue to try to run a country with idiots making decisions? My advice to the Duke is to consult an intelligent adult about his investment, although he can’t go wrong since he’s spending our money, not his.
And for the best results the Duke should stick his solar panels where the sun DOES shine.
Jim Tumilty
County Durham
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