Thistle Wind Partners Rename 2 GW ScotWind Offshore Wind Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Thistle Wind Partners (TWP), a consortium founded by DEME Concession, Qair, and Aspiravi, has announced the final names for its two ScotWind offshore wind projects
This is the first paragraph.
TWP won the seabed leasing rights for two offshore wind projects in the ScotWind auction last year, in which 25 GW of capacity was awarded.
These paragraphs give details of the new names and an update on the sizes of the turbines.
The consortium plans to build the 1 GW Bowdun offshore wind project, originally named Cluaran Deas Ear, located off the coast of Stonehaven and lying 44 kilometres out from the landmark of Bowdun Head.
The site covers an area of 187 square kilometres (in the E3 leasing zone). The project is planned to feature between 50 and 60 wind turbines with an individual capacity of 18-25 MW each, depending upon the final design choice.
The second wind farm, located 33 kilometres from the East Mainland of Orkney in the NE2 leasing zone, is named the Ayre Offshore Wind Farm, originally called Clearan Ear-Thuath. This will be a 1 GW floating wind project following a similar base case for turbine numbers and capacity as Bowdun.
Note.
- They appear to be using 18-25 MW turbines.
- These are the first wind farms, that have talked about using such large turbines.
- 18 MW turbines would need 55 turbines for a GW.
- 25 MW turbines would need 40 turbines for a GW.
- Ayre wind farm has a web page, which says that it will have 56 x 18 MW turbines.
- Bowden wind farm has a web page, which says that it will have 56 x 18 MW turbines.
- The web site does say that the size and number of turbines is provisional.
Construction of both farms should start in 2029, with commissioning in 2033.
A Worthwhile Tailpiece
The article has a good tailpiece in the last paragraph.
TWP is one of the founders of a new initiative from the University of Highlands & Islands to deliver a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) outreach programme for primary schools in Scotland, providing materials and teacher training.
TWP obviously intend to catch the next generation of technologists young.
Conclusion
Thistle Wind Partners have gone for the bold option.
Landmark Levelling Up Fund To Spark Transformational Change Across The UK
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from the UK Government.
These are the four bullet points.
- More than 100 projects awarded share of £2.1 billion from Round 2 of government’s flagship Levelling Up Fund.
- Projects will benefit millions of people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and create jobs and boost economic growth.
- £672 million to develop better transport links, £821 million to kick-start community regeneration and £594 million to restore local heritage sites.
- Successful bids include Eden Project North in Morecambe, a new AI campus in Blackpool, regeneration in Gateshead, and rail improvements in Cornwall
The press release expands the last bullet point.
Projects awarded Levelling Up Fund money today include:
Eden Project North
Eden Project North will receive £50 million to transform a derelict site on Morecambe’s seafront into a world class visitor attraction. It will also kick-start regeneration more widely in Morecambe, creating jobs, supporting tourism and encouraging investment in the seaside town.
Note.
- Because of its closeness to the West Coast Main Line, it will have excellent rail connections to all over the North of England and Central and Southern Scotland, through Lancaster, which will only be a shuttle train away.
- One of High Speed Two’s direct destinations will be Lancaster, which will be served by High Speed Two by hourly trains to Birmingham, Carlisle, Crewe, London, Preston, Warrington and Wigan and by two-hourly trains to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lockerbie and Motherwell.
- London and Lancaster will be a journey of just two hours and three minutes.
I believe that this high quality rail access will ensure the success of the Eden Project North.
Cardiff Crossrail
Cardiff Crossrail has been allocated £50 million from the fund to improve the journey to and from the city and raise the economic performance of the wider region.
The Cardiff Crossrail is obviously a good project from the little that I’ve read about it. But it does need a web site to explain the reasoning behind it.
Blackpool Multiversity
Blackpool Council and Wyre Council will receive £40 million to deliver a new Multiversity, a carbon-neutral, education campus in Blackpool’s Talbot Gateway Central Business District. This historic funding allows Blackpool and The Fylde College to replace their ageing out-of-town centre facilities with world-class state-of-the-art ones in the heart of the town centre. The Multiversity will promote higher-level skills, including automation and artificial intelligence, helping young people secure jobs of the future.
Blackpool certainly needs something.
My suggestion in Blackpool Needs A Diamond, was to build a second Diamond Light Source in the North to complement the successful facility at Harwell.
I don’t think the two proposals are incompatible.
Fair Isle Ferry
Nearly £27 million has been guaranteed for a new roll-on, roll-off ferry for Fair Isle in the Shetland Islands. The service is a lifeline for the island, supporting its residents, visitors and supply chains, and without its replacement the community will become further isolated.
Note.
- Will it be a British-built ferry?
- Will it be hydrogen-powered? After all by the time it is built, the Northern Scottish islands will be providing enough of the gas to power a quarter of Germany.
- Surely, a hydrogen-powered roll-on, roll-off ferry will be a tourist attraction in its own right.
I hope the Government and the islanders have a good ship-yard lined up
Gateshead Quays And The Sage
A total of £20 million is going towards the regeneration of Gateshead Quays and the Sage, which will include a new arena, exhibition centre, hotels, and other hospitality. The development will attract nearly 800,000 visitors a year and will create more than 1,150 new jobs.
I don’t know much about the Sage, but this project seems very reasonable.
Mid-Cornwall Metro
A £50 million grant will help create a new direct train service, linking 4 of Cornwall’s largest urban areas: Newquay, St Austell, Truro, and Falmouth/Penryn. This will level up access to jobs, skills, education, and amenities in one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in the UK.
I wrote about this scheme in The Proposed Mid-Cornwall Metro, where I came to this conclusion.
I believe that a small fleet of Hitachi Regional Battery Trains could create an iconic Metro for Cornwall, that would appeal to both visitors and tourists alike.
Judging by the recent success of reopening the Dartmoor Railway to Okehampton in Devon, I think this scheme could be a big success. But it must be zero-carbon!
Female Changing Rooms For Northern Ireland Rugby
There is £5.1 million to build new female changing rooms in 20 rugby clubs across Northern Ireland.
Given the popularity of the female version of the sport in England, Scotland and Wales, perhaps this is a sensible way to level it up in Northern Ireland. As rugby is an all-Ireland sport, perhaps the Irish have already sorted the South?
Skills And Post-16 Education Bill
On this page of The Times, there is an outline of the bills that the government will bring forward.
The title of this post is the name of one of the proposed bills.
This is said about the proposed contents of the bill.
A right to government-funded training for all adults lacking A-levels or the equivalent. The bill will also extend the student loan system to those who want to study at local further education colleges. All adults will be entitled to four years’ worth of loans for training or education that can be taken at any point in their life.
I know one person, who will be overjoyed, if he is still alive; John Eardley, who was my Personnel Officer at ICI Runcorn around 1970.
I can remember a story he told.
After a meeting with several union representatives, one of them asked if he could have a personal chat with John. The guy was a foreman in their vehicle maintenance department for ICI’s specialist chemical transport.
He told John how his last daughter had got married at the weekend and he perhaps needed to do something more challenging.
John found him an interesting position. He became a volunteer for Voluntary Services Overseas.
His job was part of a small team, who went to Zambia to sort out the elderly buses in Lusaka.
John was an excellent Personnel Officer and his guidance on personnel matters certainly stuck with this twenty year-old graduate, as I then was.
The Skills And Post-16 Education Bill appears to be what John really needed in the 1970s for the many employees he developed.
I can certainly see members of my own family, who would have been empowered by such a Bill since the Second World War! These include my father, mother and sister for a start.
It should be noted, that I am the first of my family to go to University.
Conclusion
I am totally in favour of this proposed Bill.
The Schoolgirl Who Helped To Win A War
The title of this post, is the same as a programme to be shown on the BBC News Channel, this weekend.
Seeing the trailers on the BBC this morning, I am reminded of my mother, who was my mathematical parent. The girl in the story is Hazel Hill, who was the daughter of Captain Frederick William Hill, who worked on armaments research.
My mother would be a few years older than Hazel and won a scholarship to one of the best girls schools in London at the time; Dame Alice Owen’s, which was then in Islington.
I get the impression, that contrary to perceived opinion, that in the 1920s and 1930s, girls with aptitude were well-schooled in practical mathematics.
I’d be very interested to know, where Hazel Hill went to school.
I shall watch the programme.
Liverpool Calls In Volunteer Student Doctors
BBC Breakfast has just run a report about how student doctors at Liverpool University are going to be used to help out in local hospitals.
According to the BBC report, two hundred students have volunteered.
The BBC also interviewed a senior Professor, who was very happy about it all.
I suspect other medical schools will volunteer and there are reports, that Cambridge already has, but I do think that this is the way to get better doctors.
A Personal Story
A few years ago, I was in a teaching hospital after suffering a collapse.
A senior tutor approached me and asked, if I would mind, if I was used for interview practice by final year students.
I hope the students benefited as much as I did, whilst they sorted out what was wrong with me!
Conclusion
We should look upon COVID-19, as something that will make us all better people and doctors.
Is COVID-19 for my generation and those younger than myself, our Second World War?
Could Modern Energy Systems Have A Secondary Role?
Close to where I live is a small heat and power system, that I wrote about in The Bunhill Energy Centre.
I first went over the centre during Open House.
Several of these modern systems are very good demonstrations of the principles of maths, physics and engineering.
So do these innovative energy systems do their bit in educating the next generation of scientists and engineers?
Some of the modern systems, that are in development like Highview Power’s energy storage using liquid air would be ideal for a secondary education role!
Most too, are very safe, as there are no dangerous processes or substances.
And in the next few years, there will be more systems all over the country and many in the hearts of towns and cities. Some schools, colleges and especially universities, will have their own innovative energy sources.
Liverpool University already has a system, which is described here.
University Of Birmingham Leases HST For Alternative Fuel Tests
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
A High Speed Train is being leased by the University of Birmingham to help analyse and test what alternative fuel could be used to power long-distance passenger or freight trains.
It will be interesting to see what results from the research.
A few of my thoughts.
Suitability Of A HST For Research
It must be suitable for research purposes, otherwise the University wouldn’t have obtained the train.
If you look at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education web site, they list the Research Areas.
- Railway Control and Operations Simulation
- Data Integration and Cybersecurity
- Condition Monitoring and Sensing
- Centre of Excellence in Digital Systems
- Power Systems and Energy Use
- Aerodynamics
- Climate Change and Weather Impact
There must be a lot of scope for the use of a real train, especially one which has a lot of free space in the engine, where test equipment can be mounted.
Porterbrook’s Interest
I can think of several reasons, why Porterbrook might need to partner with the Research Centre, for sound commercial reasons.
Most will probably seem small in the eyes of the general public, but might be based on Porterbrook’s feedback from customers about their extensive fleet.
Understanding The HST’s Success
The HST or InterCity 125 has been an undoubted success with passengers, drivers, staff and train companies for forty years and understanding the reasons could be invaluable in improving rail transport in the future.
Education
I suspect too that the train will be used to educate students, especially those, who want to work in train or railway design.
When I left Liverpool University with my Control Engineering degree in 1968, I was one of the few, who’d worked on bg heavy machinery in a factory environment.
These days, with Heath and Safety rules much tighter, I doubt, today’s students can gewt the same experience.
Conclusion
I do hope that Porterbrook and the Research Centre, when they look back in a few years, feel that this venture has been a success.
Thoughts On eScooters!
Consider.
- This article on the BBC is entitled Emily Hartridge: TV Presenter And YouTube Star Dies In Crash. It is an extremely sad tale and it has led to the inevitable call to ban electric scooters.
- There is also this article on the BBC, which is entitled Iris Goldsmith: Teenage girl dies in ‘quad bike’ accident. This is another extremely sad tale and many are questioning, what a teenage girl was doing, riding a quadbike.
- And then there’s this article on the BBC, Which is entitled Govia Thameslink Fined £1m Over Gatwick Express Window Death.
Young people and some older ones too, often do stupid things.
Many also crave danger and go mountaineering, riding on the tops of trains or jumping into rivers from a great height.
Doing things out of the ordinary is a natural reaction and is one of the reason, why humans are the most successful species on this planet.
I think the problem is the way we bring up children.
- My parents let me do anything I wanted up to a point.
- They also taught me lots of skills.
- From about twelve, I used to cycle all over London.
- I spent endless hours in my father’s print works doing things that would be frowned upon now, because they are too dangerous.
A couple of months ago, I was interviewed by a sixth-form girl student, in the volunteering I do at Barts Hospital in giving experience to prospective doctors.
She had lived in an over-protective environment and hardly left home on her own.
It was almost child abuse. She didn’t say, but I suspect she’d even been driven to and from school.
When it came to our own children, C and myself were fairly liberal and it was strange how, two became very street-wise and had the occasional scrapes, whereas the other was generally well-behaved.
Perhaps, we didn’t get everything right, but I like to think, we gave them a good appreciation of risk!
And that is one of the mot important things to learn in life, as often, those that ca’t assess risk, come to unfortunate ends.
I do feel my youngest son’s unhealthy lifestyle was a factor in his getting pancreatic cancer, especially if he was coeliac like me! But then he wouldn’t get tested!
His daughter though, seems to have a good appreciation of risk, but then if your father dies, you probably do!
To return to the eScooter, which is where this post started.
They Look Fun!
They certainly look fun and I constantly want to have a go on one.
Remember, I have crashed a twin-engined aeroplae and ridden horses in the Masai Mara.
At seventeen, I also sat on the back of a motorcycle, the wrong way round and went through the Mersey Tunnel.
Was I wearing a helmet? Of course not!
Are They Dangerous?
The risk depends on where they are used and how competent the rider is!
Ask any A & E doctor, what sport causes the most injuries and they’ll say something like rugby or horse-riding!
When A & E doctors start complaining about eScooters that will be the time for action.
Would Training Help?
Training isn’t the important thing.
However experience, especially that gained in a safe environment is important.
But to legislate that training should be mandatory will only have the reverse affect.
Conclusion
It’s a difficult problem, but we must teach everybody to appreciate risk.
When I joined ICI in 1969, I went on a formal Health and Safety course.
It has proven to be invaluable all my life an I haven’t worked on a chemical plant since 1970.
A College For Train Drivers
One of the successes of Crossrail has been TUCA or the Tunneling And Underground Construction Academy in Ilford, which I wrote about in Open House – TUCA, after my visit in 2012.
Since then a couple of other specialist colleges have opened to deal with other skill shortages in the rail industry.
So now another college is to open that will train drivers, replacing the rather ad-hoc system that currently operates.
It is reported in this article in the Daily Mail. They summarise the plan as follows.
- National academy will establish an apprenticeship providing train driving skills
- It is hoped the move will create more recruits to lower reliance on overtime
- Rail services have been hit by industrial action, leading to staff shortages
- Transport Secretary Chris Grayling could announce the plans next week
The Times also has details and their article says.
- The college will establish an apprenticeship to A-level standard.
- There will be classroom-based courses using simulators.
- Hopefully, it will cut train delays, as according to the Office of Rail Regulation, crew shortages are responsible foe one-in-ten train delays.
- Chris Gibb’s enquiry into the problems at Southern, called for a driver recruitment program to reduce reliance on overtime.
- The academy will be led by the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and the Institute of Rail Operators, the professional body.
- Funding will be from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
- It is supported by the union; ASLEF.
It certainly sounds like a well-thought out plan, that should have happened some years ago.
A steady supply of well-trained drivers, might mean that certain train companies would change their method of working, to improve and increase services.
Stepping-Up
If you look at the Victoria Line on the London Underground, method of working called stepping-up is used.
The driver of a train arriving at Brixton or Walthamstow Central stations doesn’t change ends, as they would do on many commuter lines. Another driver gets into the other cab and drives the train to the other terminus, when everything is ready.
The first driver, then walks to the other end of the platform, takes a break and then gets ready to step-up for their next scheduled journey across London.
The process obviously works well, but it does mean that you need more drivers than trains.
Some of the intensive services proposed by new train operating companies will probably need more services will be operated in this or some similar way, which will mean more drivers.
Two Drivers On A Train
In Would It Be Better To Run Some Suburban Trains With Two Drivers?, I’ll admit I was speculating, but I did have an e-mail from a driver, who said it would certainly increase services on the route they worked, without needing any more trains.
Conclusion
I can’t see any drawback to this College for Train Drivers.
The Electorate Has Changed
Rod Liddle, in a piece in The Sunday Times yesterday started like this.
The British public are not stupid, then. Everybody else, however, is. The politicians, pundits, commentators, psephoologists, me.
He then gives a series of tales of those who got it wrong.
But I think, on the whole the public have thought that the coalition had done a good job in sorting out the mess. So many people, who I would have thought sensible, said to me that they’d wanted a box on the ballot paper for the coalition. Simplistic maybe, but it shows the inherent conservatism (small c) of much of the British public.
The electorate has changed with each generation since mine, being more likely to get a good education and/or go to University. And at University they learn more than their subject. So we’ve probably got the most politically-educated population ever! They also understand about business and economics.
It is also likely that perhaps ninety percent of people in this country, has a close relative, who is well-educated.
Over the last couple of decades, there has been a massive expansion of the self-employed and ideas, and especially ideas disruptive of large monolithic business have proliferated. How many of the children of the so-called working class, are using their brains to earn money, even if as yet it’s not enough?
But many of this educated generation are ambitious and aspire to be rich.
Much of the offerings from politicians didn’t really stand up, but persuasive arguments from nationalists and little-Englanders appealed to some.
But many people looked at the candidates on offer and then voted with their brains rather than their breeding.
I wonder how many life-long Labour supporters, looked at Miliband’s London-centric left-leaning offering, decided it wasn’t for them and voted for someone else.
MacMillan, Wilson, Thatcher and Blair won elections because they gave the people hope that they would have a better life and might even end up well-off by their own efforts.
Miliband’s message to the aspirational for example, was that if you make a fortune by inventing a better mouse-trap, we’ll tax you to the hilt and steal your pension. Well, not quite like that, but he didn’t promise anything worth working hard for.
And to cast everything in stone, was the sort of thing that we might have done at University in the 1960s, to have a laugh in Rag Week.
No wonder Labour lost!
The Anonymous Widower 