vesta have a plant in the uk building turbines, but its relatively small and the uk govt has set its course out against renewables because when you look at the companies who support the tory party and who sponsor and support individual mps, there are a hell of a lot of oil coal and gas companies paying the bills. wind has never made more sense, and we have lost the chance to lead in this field. and its not correct to say that the wind sometimes doesnt blow. what is more accurate is that the wind sometimes doesnt blow where you are, or where i am, but the reality is that the wind is blowing all the time somewhere round the uk, there isnt ever a stop in it, when the tide ebbs and flows, the wind blows, when the sun shines or it rains, the wind blows, its simple physics. on the occasion that i walk into the garden and its flat calm, then all i can say for sure is that its not windy in my garden at ground level. 50 or 150 feet up in the air it may be blowing, 10 miles up the road it might be blowing. but its never ever not blowing everywhere, thats just misinformation that the anti wind lobby like to put out there to help keep the gas oil and coal plants burning.
tidal power is a great resource because of the nature of tides. ok the power available tails off towards the slack at either end of the tide. but tidal limits vary with location, so high tide where i am on the fylde will come perhaps an hour before high tide off the cumbrian coast, and perhaps an hour after high tide on the welsh coast, etc etc, so the high and low tides will provide a constant variation arround the coast, meaning that there will always be peak tidal flow somewhere round the coast, 24 hours a day.
as for where all the solar energy goes, every living thing on the surface of this planet is where it goes to.
