Electricity - brought from the sea

[Alan T]

I've included this oddity from my son's & my outing today, because I should think few of you will have seen anything like it. I believe it to be an offshore wind turbine under construction, because there are several operational sets of six of them visible nearby off the holiday beaches of Rhyl & Prestatyn, NE Wales. The UK has embarked on a major offshore wind generation programme, with but little government assistance.

We were on a hilltop in intermittent bright sunshine, but a severe gale. I rested the camera on a rock for this attempt at a shot,to try and steady it, in a very slightly sheltered position on the ground. Shortly afterwards I was blown off my perch while resting the camcorder on a fully exposed concrete trig pillar to film the coastal panorama. Fortunately both cameras and I survived the consequent acrobatic juggling act. These severe wind conditions were similar to those I've experienced a few times in the Scottishmountains in winter, but warmer.

This caused me to muse on the extreme conditions under which the builders and maintenance engineers of these machines must routinely operate, frequently in danger, to bring us our 'green electricity'.

This is an 800x600 1:1 clip from a 3072x2304 frame, taken at 1/813s, f/4.8, full 432mm equiv. zoom. Wide radius USM applied to improve clarity a little.

[selvin]

Alan,

Your photo looks like some monster shrouded in the mist. Given your experiences I would think the wind turbine is well situated.

Aloha