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[quote author=Andrew Ferguson link=topic=17.msg21#msg21 date=1408867720]
Having seen that they want to make a wind turbine farm locally to me (out to sea) I'm trying to get the facts together.  I have heard differing stories that they are not generating as much as the government says they are, and others that say we should convert more to wave and wind power.  I'm even thinking about getting one at my house (see my other thread).

What are the outputs and savings for these please?
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about 25-30% of capacity. So if it is rated as 4MW it will generate on average 1MWh per hour.

Didcot has(or should I say had) 2 power stations on one site, the coal station which was demolished, and a gas fired station which is still there.

You can hear the noise if you are very close to it, but this is very rarely a problem as they are usually quite a distance from houses.

In certain circumstances. The small wind turbines on many buildings do not look as much of an eyesore as some of the largers ones do. However the one's on hosues do look like a bit of an eyesore.

I know that some people may be able to provide their own source of fuel, but for those buying the biomass, is it a cheaper system to run than conventional boilers?

I think you underestimate how much solar energy there is in winter. It is only cold because of the air, but there is still a significant amount of solar radiation hitting the panels. Sure less than summer, but easily enough to make a significant dent in heating costs.

I've seen quite a few solar heating systems around, but rarely do I see PV panels on homes. It seems that the difference in prevelance is quite significant. Why is this?

Ban fracking first and foremost. I'd invest a lot of subsidies in development of infrastructure, especially electric recharging stations and pumped storage stations to make renewables more reliable.

I'd even aim at becoming a power exporting nation, that way other countries that don't care can buy your energy, and they reduce their impact by proxy.

In the same way that many Arab countries export oil as a source of national income, in the future could those same countries (and others) export solar energy as a source of national income?

Scotland could do the same with wind too.

I had never heard of it existing, but I often wondered why there couldn't be a combined in home power generator, with excess heat used for hot water in the home.

The main advantage is that there is no loss of electricity due to transmission, as you would get on the national grid. Also for those who use district heating there is no loss of power there either.

Both the system and generation costs are cheaper, so it may be a while, but better to install one of these if you ever needed to install a new boiler.

I don't have exact figures but I've heard some say that subsidies make it slightly cheaper than conventional systems, but that would apply only to new builds really.

Surely it's sometimes better to have the water not be pumped outside, so how does the system know how to function? I've never understood this, as sometimes sending the water into the pipes would be counterproductive.

Sounds reasonable, sort of like district heating so not something unheard of exactly. I didn't know there was that much excess heat there. But anything helps I suppose.