Surfers protest wave power project
You're killing the surf!
Surfers based in Cornwall, by habit staunch environmentalists, have found themselves lining up against Wave Hub, one of the UK's first wave power projects.
The installation is an experimental set up, being installed off the coast by local authorities and power companies.
It will be used to test and develop new technologies to harness the power of the oceans, helping the UK increase the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources and decrease its dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Ultimately, authorities say it will lead to a large terminal embedded in the sea bed connected to four wave-power generators and feeding into the national power grid.
But according to Reuters, local surfers are worried that the installation will drain their beloved waves of their power. One study cited by Reuters suggests that the worst affected area could see wave height reduced by as much as 11 per cent.
But opinion within the surfing community is divided. John Baxendale, an engineer and long-time surfer, likens the project to putting windmills up on golf courses.
"Imagine the uproar if golf courses were required to close two holes each in order to accommodate wind farms," he said.
On the other side of the fence is Alex Dick-Read, editor of Surfers Path magazine, who says the whole debate has been bad for the sport's image.
"There'd be no need for a Wave Hub if we harnessed the energy from this enormous storm in a teacup," he told the news service. ®
COMMENTS
Windmills on golf courses
Don't they already have these? I was playing a course just last week with a windmill. It wasn't so bad... The next hole where you had to shoot the ball up the ramp into the clown's mouth was a lot harder.
Protest about "protest" usage
They aren't protesting the wave power project. They are protesting *about* it.
Wind farms are beautiful!
I live in Denmark. There are windmills all over the place, so listen to someone that has actually lived near a wind farm. I can see a bunch of them beyond the end of our road. They're mounted about 1km offshore but visible between the buildings.
They are exuisitely graceful and elegant because of the way the blades spin slightly out of sync with each other. An array of white windmills, sails rotating against a blue sky gives you that warm fuzzy feeling of harnessing the power of nature without spilling out ghastly waste products.
You can only hear them if you get right up close and then they make a wonderful deep-toned 'swoosh'. Most people who complain about the aesthetics of wind farms have never been anywhere near one. Anyone who appreciates the aesthetics of golf should 'dig' wind farms. They look so clean, and they operate in complete safety even when unattended.
Compare with a nuke plant or a CHP installation: Chimneys, smoke haze, cooling towers, high security fences, the accumulation of dangerous waste products, ugly, monstrous architecture which doesn't even move, and which (in the case of nukes) are always at risk of causing major disasters, genetic mutations, cancer and so on if not continually supervised. (That makes them ideal terrorist targets too. Would Al Qaeda be interested in blowing up a windmill?)
They key word here is British *Isles* - i.e. surrounded by WAVES. Not using them for energy is absurd. Plenty of wind too, and I'm not just talking about the warm guff breezing out of the politicians mouths.
If wave farms are even one tenth as elegant as wind farms, I'm almost sold on the aesthetics alone.
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