Wind Power

One of the impressive things that I saw when I recently visited Denmark was the way that they approached carbon reduction and clean energy supplies. The coastline is dotted with small wind power farms. Generally these are no more than 3 to 10 and despite the flatness of the country merge well into the landscape. One day we actually sailed into a harbour where there was a large production facility, constructing wind farms. I am happy to see wind turbines in the right place. The UK still has a long way to go to meet the power demands of the next 20 years. Wind farms alone will not solve the problem, we will have to look to other generating sources, however last week saw the official opening of the UKs latest offshore wind farm. I actually flew over it on my return from Denmark. It is an impressive site some 48 turbines that will produce 172 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 125,000 homes on an annual basis). The visual impact of this development is much less than the equivalent sized development on land.

Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm, off the Lincolnshire coast Photograph: David Sillitoe /Guardian

There are many ways that we can all get involved in renewable energy and recent government incentives for the Feed In Tariff or the Clean Energy Buy Back Scheme is beginning to make it more viable for many households, farms and estates to invest in renewable energy. Under this scheme energy suppliers make regular payments to householders and communities who generate their own electricity from renewable or low carbon sources such as wind turbines, hydro electric or solar panels.
At Future Directions we can provide advice and guidance for those thinking about renewable energy and can identify appropriately qualified installers.
You can contact us on 01874 638979 or email us at enquiries@futuredirections.org.uk

 

The Joys of Sailing

Just imagine the joy of travelling without any motorised power. Well I had the experience of a 7 day trip round the coast of Denmark on a 44 foot yacht. As a first timer to this sport, I was looking forward to this for some time. It was really good fun, with my fellow crewmates being very sociable and knowledgeable. I now can navigate and steer, some of the complexities of the sails still escape me, but I will learn these further.












There is something magical about flying across the sea using nothing but the power of the wind. Sadly, the wind was not always blowing in the right direction, so I cant put my hand on my heart and say that we never used the engine, we did. I would recommend the sailing experience to all. Check out your local marina.