Welbeck, 29th November 2015

Today's walk ... 

... started at the Dukeries Garden Centre before heading east across the Welbeck Estate ...
The group herding together against the wind
... over Welbeck's Great Lake ...
... and past the 5th Duke of Portland's famous tunnel entrance ...

... a place visited on a previous walk (twice).  

Then it was back through Creswell Crags ...
 ... and past one of Nottinghamshire's many solar farms.
Hunciecroft Solar Farm, Welbeck
We have seen several of these recently on walks, including a large one during the Norfolk weekend near Cromer.  There are a few in the Vale including a recently built one near Colston Basset.  Out of interest I have included some details below.

Rated power, MW      5 MW
Number of panels     20,000
Site area                   9.7 hectares
Homes supplied       1150 
Capacity factor         11% 

Cost, £m                   £5.7 million
Feed-in tariff (FIT)     6.16 p/kWh
FIT income                £303,000 per year
Export price               4.9 p/KWh
Export income           £241,000 per year
Payback period         10.5 years
Life                            25 years

How do we get to 5MW, the peak output of the farm at mid-day in the summer.  Well, even in Nottingham the sun's power then is about 1 kW per square metre.  With 20 thousand panels of 1.8 square metres and a solar to electricity conversion efficiency of 14% we get the 5MW.

But the sun does not shine all the time so the actual output is only 11% of 5MW.  Comparative figures for wind are 25% (onshore) and 35% (offshore).  The figure of 11% may seem very low, but it's worth pointing out that these solar panels are ten times better at capturing the sun's energy than any crop grown in this country.  Photosynthesis is hopelessly inefficient when used for this purpose.

The sizes of these schemes are often quoted in terms of how many homes are supplied.  This is calculated by dividing the average farm output in kW by the average domestic electricity use of about ½kW - hence 1150 homes.

I have calculated a payback period (actually this is simply the cost divided by the annual income based on the current so-called feed-in tariff (a subsidy to encourage investment in renewable energy of 6.16p/kWhr) and an assumed export price of electricity of about 4.9 p/kWh and you can see that this is 10.5 years.  Not bad, but this is actually an oversimplification and does not take account of financing costs, inflation, maintenance and panel degradation of ½% a year.  In fact investors have been promised an annual return of 7%.  In addition, the farmer can graze the field so the loss of land for agriculture is not as high as might be assumed.

HOWEVER, this feed-in tariff has just been reduced to about 1p/kWh. The government admits that the proposed reductions would wipe 6GW off UK renewable generation capacity by 2020/21.  And this just ahead of the climate change conference in Paris!  Well, what do you expect from the new Energy Secretary whose first pronouncement was "Britain’s new nuclear power stations ... must be designed to look beautiful to garner essential public support".


Well, glad to know everything is under control then - but just in case, get your candles out!

Edge of Stanage, 20th December 2015

This is the route of John's walk on 20th December.



East of Waltham-on-the-Wolds, 21st November 2015

Steve wrote the following description of next Saturday's walk (21st November) for the Nottinghamshire Post which I am reproducing here for your benefit.

This relatively easy-going walk takes in south and east of Waltham-on-the-Wolds and has some great country views. We start outside the Nags Head public house in Saltby at grid reference SK850264 (Sat Nav LE14 4QW).
Heading away from the Nag's Head we leave the village heading SSE to Sproxton across open fields, connecting with the Buckminster Road to walk through Sproxton to a fork at grid SK860239 where we branch left.
Almost immediately we head off SE onto the Buckminster estate path, across a large field to the south side of Bottom Plantation and Buckminster Park before meeting the minor road at the north end of the village.
Walking SW through the beautiful village of Buckminster we meander out on the Sproxton road briefly before taking the footpath at grid SK875227 heading WSW to the B676 and turning right to connect with the prominent NW trackleading to a footpath crossroads at grid reference SK839234.


Turning left we drop SSW along a minor road to the ford at Coston and cross the stream using the adjacent footbridge into the village. At the T-junction we head NW until the road turns into solid track and soon after we turn right (NE) at the next track T-junction at grid reference SK230835. Arriving at the footpath crossroads at grid reference SK838234 we can see Sproxton Thorns copse nearby to the east. We head left (NW) at this junction and ramble on to Stonesby Lodge and beyond to Stonesby village.
Arriving at the village T-junction we turn right and left (N) through a gate with our path running beside a property before heading NE across open country. Avoiding paths which cross our way we continue NE detouring NNW at grid reference SK820260 to head to the south side of Bescaby Oaks copse. Walking NE along the edge of the woods we arrive at the east side before dropping onto the SE footpath running to the north side of a small strip wood and back into Saltby to finish.
There are great opportunities to see wildlife on a lucky day and the countryside and villages are fabulous.

* Steve Goad, Vale of Belvoir Ramblers. Steve is leading this walk for the group on Saturday November 21, starting at 10am. All are welcome to join, but walkers should bring a picnic lunch.

Caunton, 15th November 2015

Eileen's walk today started at St Andrew's Church in Caunton ...
 
Eighteen of us at the start
... and east along Caunton Beck.
 Then across fields and through woods ...
... with (very) distant views of Lincoln Cathedral ...

... and eventually back via Norwell.
St Laurence's Church
On the way, Elaine raised £19.36 for Children in Need by selling Dave's Winter supply of lemon cakes.  Thanks everybody.

Rushcliffe Country Park, 8th November 2015

Paul led 15 ramblers on this 9½ mile walk starting in Rushcliffe Country Park

We stopped at Bunny Church for coffee.  Bunny is derived from the old English word bune meaning reed meaning it was previously a very marshy area - but don't let that put you off.

Lunch at the church in Gotham
We then walked back along the Great Central Railway line from Sheffield to London (not all the way). Opened in 1901 it was the last major GB railway line.


Cropwell Butler, 1st November 2015

 A good turnout for Janet's walk which preceded the AGM at Cropwell Butler Village Hall.  A report will follow soon.

The best I could do today