although you’ve uploaded lots of amazing stuff on your channel, this is actually my favourite video (despite your really sad message). I grew up and live in Germany, so the imagination, that one day my computer might run with energy from a Grundtjärn wind turbine was quite a shock for me. What I realised next (after signing the petition), was that there are not so many things I could do against it. And, more than just sadness, I had a feeling of déjà-vu.
The last time I felt like this, was in March 2011, when I heard there was a nuclear meltdown in the power plants of Fukushima Daiichi, soon followed by a huge release of radioactivity into the environment. I can still remember that I was convinced I had to do something. I wanted to write an open letter to the German government, telling what I thought about the usage of nuclear power plants. Naming all the other issues that are freaking me out about German energy politics.
I didn’t.
Instead I concentrated on my everyday business, tried to forget about Fukushima and not to pay any attention to my own anger. And it seemed to work. The German government soon said, they are going to quit the usage of nuclear power until 2022. At that point, about 50 percent of my anger disappeared. But the other 50 percent of it were still existing and it has never gone completely. And by watching your video, everything from the past came back to my mind again.
Now I did it.
You can view my open letter in German and in English:
https://dotcom.poetry.blog/2019/01/10/energiewende-ein-offener-brief/
https://dotcom.poetry.blog/2019/01/10/energy-transition-an-open-letter/
Now this is quite a relief for me. It felt like carrying a backpack with lots of heavy stones inside and then finally laying this backpack down. I guess you might have had a similar feeling, when you finally uploaded this video, after struggling to film it. Anyway, thank you so much for helping me (indirectly) to leave my heavy backpack behind. This is priceless 🙂
Out of a technical point of view, it makes me wonder, what is the actual reason, why the wind turbines shall be built on land and not in the sea? This question spontaneously came to my mind, because in general a wind turbine over land can not produce as much power, as a wind turbine over sea does. This is due to the fact, that the wind over sea is much stronger and steadier, than the wind over land. So from a technical point of view, in a country like Sweden, which has a large amount of sea surface, I do not see a reason, to build any wind turbine on the landmass. All of them could be built into the sea as offshore wind turbines. So the actual motivation of the power company would be interesting to know. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out, that the company sees Grundtjärn as a cheaper alternative to the Gulf of Bothnia (Bottniska viken). Despite the better energy output, energy companies often don’t like building their wind turbines in the sea. They fear the extra costs for the expensive offshore underwater fundaments as well as the costs for additional underwater cables. So they’re quite happy, if they find a piece of land, where they can build some less effective but also less expensive onshore wind turbines. The assembly is much easier and the costs are easy to calculate. So the location-question is in fact not (only) a technical but very much an economically influenced question. I’m quite sure there is a bunch of alternative locations for wind turbines, but these alternatives are more expensive, so they’re not very interesting for the company. The onshore-offshore-debate also takes place in Germany. But as you can see on the map, Germany doesn’t have so much open sea surface, so it is likely that Germany needs onshore wind turbines as well. This is a big difference to Sweden.
Anyway, for all the readers of this text I would strongly recommend supporting Abbie McGrath’s petition:
https://www.change.org/p/berit-högman-don-t-build-wind-turbines-in-grundtjärn
This is the best way to apply pressure on decision makers, so they might fulfil their responsibility. Please do not hesitate to keep on reporting, what happens in Grundtjärn. Even though it’s terrible sad news, it’s important to raise awareness of what’s going on there. It may sound strange, that this is my favourite video. But it released some kind of force inside my head, that made me doing things, that seemed impossible in the past. Therefore I just have to say: „Ett stort tack!“ (hoping I wrote it Right :))
I wish you and Grundtjärn all the best. Keep up your faith and let the wind be stronger than the turbines.
Lots of Greetings from Germany
mutopix
mutopix 