They say one of the best ways to learn is to teach. Certainly having to teach others does make you think a lot harder about how you explain things.
My favourite subject is meteorology. Trying to explain the weather, what causes it and what to expect in certain conditions does get you thinking about the British climate and how it affects us on a day-to-day basis.
As I write this, the weather forecast is for a few days of high pressure. A couple of weeks ago we also had a spell of high pressure, this time one that had come for Scandinavia. It brought some of the coldest weather of the winter and record cold temperatures.
One of the features of high pressure is light to no wind. This makes a pleasant change from strong winds brought about by deep low-pressure systems coming off the Atlantic. We have had a few of those this winter, too – in fact several back to back with winds regularly above 70 miles per hour.
"The University of Edinburgh has reported that wind-powered energy is expensive and can only be delivered with a subsidy from the customers, who pay over the odds."
For your average wind turbine the typical British weather is problematic. When the wind does not blow the turbines don’t go. But it is worse: in very cold weather, instead of giving electricity to the National Grid, the turbines take energy to turn them so they don’t seize up. In the absence of wind, the grid also has to rely on coal and gas to provide back-up electricity.
When the wind blows too much, the poor old turbines blow down, catch fire or are shut down to avoid damage. The operators get compensation when they have to shut down as they get paid for not producing electricity.
The University of Edinburgh has reported that wind-powered energy is expensive and can only be delivered with a subsidy from the customers, who pay over the odds. You would think that common sense would prevail and that the government would be halting the implementation of more turbines, especially those sited way out at sea.
Unfortunately, it is not the case because, under European Union law, energy consumed needs to be 15% renewable by 2020.
I may have given the impression that just the UK has a problem with wind power. But in eastern Europe it is even colder and it is where the winter high pressures come from, so they don’t have wind either.
The good news for the construction industry is there will be a need to build back-up plants to burn gas shipped from halfway across the world.
The more I try and explain the weather to student pilots, the more I see stationary wind turbines.
