Beware missionary Zeal over wind farms....
READ LATEST NEWS on Wind Farms at http://www.wind-watch.org/news/category/locations/europe/uk/
| "wind represented an illusory technology - a cul-de-sac that would prove uneconomic and a waste of resources in the battle against climate change" The recent Times article on Nobel Prize winning speaker at the Royal Society, Jack Steinberger |
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The RSPB now recognises that windfarms are a danger to raptors. The page about windfarms' threat to such birds , will attempt to catalogue the problem for threatened birds, including golden eagles whose grouse prey could be scared from the area affected by turbines.
Extract from last years The Guardian January 10th
- "...the government's and other agencies' promotion of wind turbines came about because of lobbying by industrialists, and not because of straightforward science or economics. Wind turbines are designed to last about 25 years, after which they must be dismantled. Within that time they will be profitable for the industry and investors only because of renewables obligation certificates (ROCs), which are part of a system that obliges electricity supply companies to progressively source more of their energy from "renewables". This means turbine investors can "earn" up to twice as much from selling ROCs as from selling electricity. We pay for both through our increased electricity bills..." Read in full
February 3 2010 ~ Professor Bob Carter on YouTube
- With quietly impressive voice and with extraordinary illustrations, Australia's Prof Carter, a geologist and expert of thirty years experience and member of the Australian Climate Science Coalition, delivers blow after blow to global warming alarmism and its selective use of data. The message one is likely to get from the speech is that the whole sorry shambles is politics and economics allowed to run amok - not science. Meanwhile, the really serious issues of pollution and poverty are ignored. He calls the lack of understanding and ignorant sneering among governments an "absolute disgrace". He concludes with a warning about the effects of a possibly disastrous global cooling for which no one is planning.
February 3 2010 ~ "it is not technically feasible to deliver 33GW of wind power within any foreseeable time frame, irrespective of whether the finance is available..." Richard North
- One of today's posts on EU referendum Blogspot. Extract on off shore windfarms:
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"...... additional technical difficulties - not least undersea cabling problems and growing concerns about the durability and reliability of turbines in highly aggressive offshore environments.
...... ...
Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan is saying that without what he euphemistically calls "reform" there could be a "degree of crisis" in 2013 or 2014 and warns the situation could then become "quite uncomfortable". ..
What he is actually saying is that, to stave off short-term problems and price increases....we must adopt a price and control system which will ensure vastly increased prices and fail to deliver the necessary capacity.
In fact, what is already happening is that the generators are investing in increased gas-fuelled capacity, notionally needed as back-up to the wind system but which will actually become our base-load provider. That will precipitate precisely the problems which Ofgem claims to be seeking to avoid, with local gas shortages during peak demand, requiring emergency purchases of gas on the spot market, at highly inflated prices.
The really worrying thing here, then, is that Ofgem is living in a fantasy world, which has not even the slightest acquaintance with reality, bolstered by the idiot Ed Miliband, who says the Government is "confident" of meeting energy supply needs, with a low-carbon transition plan delivering secure supplies until 2020. And waiting in the wings is David Cameron, whose plans for a "low-carbon transition plan" are indistinguishable from Miliband's fantasy..." Read in full
February 1 2010 ~ Ed Miliband's "reforms" will be in a document to be published in April called Roadmap to 2050, published with the 2010 Budget.
- See
The Times
today
"Labour prepares to tear up 12 years of energy policy". Ed Miliband is now saying that big reforms are essential to deliver the estimated £170 billion of investment to meet the government's goals of huge carbon cuts.
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"....He said that the changes were essential to help Britain to prepare for a doubling of electricity demand by 2050, driven by other policy objectives such as a growth of electric cars and a move from gas to electricity for heating.
A huge expansion of wind power is expected to have a big impact on the reliability of the national grid, which capacity payments could help to offset. Wind energy is intermittent and heavily reliant on back-up power generation for use when it is not blowing."
January 31st 2010 ~ "This company is not interested in Radnorshire, Powys or the environment and the impact it will create, what they are interested in is what the company will get out of it at the end of the day."
- So says one of the residents who has been fighting the Pentre Tump windfarm plan for seven and a half years. Next week they will find out if a windfarm will be built on a hill above their homes or whether their long challenge has been successful. As one says,
- "The turbines first reared their ugly heads in June 2002. Seven years ago we did lots of work; we produced leaflets and held exhibitions around the area and marches to the top of the hill and it just seems incredible that a decision day has come. I think it will damage the whole environment here; for the people living along the lane it has been hanging over them for almost eight years. I think people are relieved that a decision will be made and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the committee will make the right decision."
January 30th 2010 ~ Campaigners "over the moon"
- We hear that both appeals against Coronation Power (4 turbines) and Airtricity (9 turbines) along the southern fringes of Exmoor have been refused at appeal.
Congratulations are due to the tireless efforts of David Cocks QC and Bob Barfoot of the CPRE. The Two Moors Campaign was joined in this fight by both the CPRE and the Exmoor Society. We understand that "an amazing array of expert witnesses pulled off a wonderful job. We are over the moon!"
We hear too from Cumbria that the Inspector (see pdf file) has refused the Sillfield wind farm appeal close to the Armistead wind farm which is still under Judicial Review.
January 28th 2010 ~ Wind turbines by numbers
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"The Government wants to built up to 6,000 new wind turbines on land over the next ten years.
At the moment there are more than 2,500 turbines onshore.
The turbines are around 300ft high
Onshore wind provides around 2.5 per cent of the country's electricity needs The current limit for noise is 43 maximum decibels at night Campaigners want it reduced to 33 decibels at night" From an article in today's Telegraph "Wind farms can cause noise problems finds study"
January 27 2010 ~ Ten wind turbines more than twice the height of Nelson's Column are set to appear on the horizon for Mersea residents.
- Grim news from www.gazette-news.co.uk
"A planning inspector has given the go-ahead for the wind farm at Bradwell, across the Blackwater Estuary from West Mersea.
Town mayor Peter Clements said the decision raised the prospect of islanders looking out on "nothing but power stations", with Bradwell a recommended site for one of the new generation of nuclear power stations currently being proposed by the Government.
The application from NPower Renewables had been refused by Maldon Council, but planning inspector Robert Mellor over-turned that decision after a public enquiry...."
January 26 2010 ~ Angela Kelly: "..there is a real opportunity to make your voice heard by making your points and comments"
- The Government has
published a draft set of National Policy Statements concerned with various large
infrastructure projects. Of these, No.3 is concerned with Renewable Energy including onshore wind farms (pdf file). There is a
deadline of February 22nd, so a quick response is needed if you are unhappy about any of the following:
- There is a section on "proximity to dwellings" which mentions "appropriate distances" but does not give any specific details of what might be appropriate.
- It claims that a wind farm of 25 years' life (with an option to "repower") is not to be considered permanent!
- It says that "there will always be significant landscape and visual effects" without saying that the wind farm should not be built if these are unacceptable.
- It states that ETSU-R-97 should be used for noise assessments without pointing out its multiple defects.
- it states that shadow flicker should be considered for a turbine within 10 rotor diameters of a house - where is the justification for this distance?
www.energynpsconsultation.decc.gov.uk/home/responding/
January 26 2010 ~ "When large wind turbines are erected, some people living near them will find their lives disrupted. That wasn't supposed to happen here..."
- An extract from a news article from Maine (Portland Press Herald) which begins:
- "Cheryl Lindgren was excited when the three wind turbines down the road began turning in November, but within days her excitement turned to disbelief. The sound at her house, a half-mile or so away, wasn't what she had expected. As she sat reading in her quiet living room, she could detect a repetitive "whump, whump" coming from outside.
"I can feel this sound," she recalled thinking. "It's going right through me. I thought, 'Is this what's it's going to be like for the rest of my life?' "
....a sense of shock among some neighbors. They say the noise, which varies with wind speed and direction, ranges from mildly annoying to so intrusive that it disturbs their sleep. And they say they lament losing the subtle silence they cherish living in the middle of Penobscot Bay...
The folks living around North Haven Road aren't anti-wind activists. Lindgren and her husband, Art, supported the project as members of the local electric co-op.
But now the Lindgrens are discovering what residents in other communities, including Mars Hill and Freedom, have learned: When large wind turbines are erected, some people living near them will find their lives disrupted...The Lindgrens built their home 10 years ago next to Seal Cove. They have goats and ducks and heat with wood.
After much travel and a career in software development, the couple looked forward to a peaceful retirement. Instead, they now spend much of their time measuring sound levels, comparing notes with neighbors and learning the details of wind power.
."
January 25th 2010 ~ Campaigners who failed in their battle to stop a Northumberland wind farm say the council of made approval easy
- The Journal reports that the wind developer Catamount Energy has been given the go-ahead to put up six turbines 110 metres high at Barmoor near Berwick, even though proposals at nearby Moorsyde and Toft Hill have been thrown out. The Barmoor scheme had been opposed by hundreds of local people, led by action group Save our Unspoilt Landscape (SOUL) who put forward an expert witness to mount what it said was a "very strong" and "relevant" case on cultural heritage, but the council did not use the witness - and John Denham, the Communities Secretary, ruled that there would be "no significant effect on cultural heritage in the area".
Now, SOUL has claimed the council's "very disappointing" decision not to oppose the scheme on this ground made it easier for Catamount to win approval and argued it shows the authority had lacked commitment for the fight."
SOUL believes the council did not present such an objection as it would have cost the authority more in hire of expert witnesses. Read in full
January 24 2010 ~ "Wind farm subsidies top £1 billion a year" Sunday Telegraph
- The article shows that next month's annual report from Ofgem will show that the hidden levy which is part of a Government scheme to force energy companies to fund green energy has risen above £1 billion for the first time. The proceeds of the levy, known as the Renewables Obligation (RO), are divided between the main renewable energy sources, with wind receiving 40 per cent, landfill gas 25 per cent, biomass 20 per cent, hydroelectric 12 per cent and sewage gas 3 per cent.
Critics are saying that the subsidy scheme is being used to fund "unrealistic" plans to increase the use of wind power.
Dr John Constable, director of policy and research at the Renewable Energy Foundation, is quoted:
- "... Since the cost of the scheme is passed onto businesses as well as households, there will also be a significant impact on the economy. The Government's plans for wind are wildly unrealistic. Wind power is going to be very expensive, very difficult and ultimately very costly."
- "Consumers simply don't realise the cost to them of supporting the renewable energy industry. Not only is there a cost to consumers but there is a cost to businesses as well. So people will not only see the huge cost of the RO scheme in their household bills but also on the High Street, as they see shops put up prices to meet the rising cost of electricity. Subsidising wind farms is far too expensive, and the money could be better spent by investing in other forms of power."
Jan 22 2010 ~ Council votes to oppose wind farm
- Western Mail
"A Planning committee yesterday voted to lodge an objection to plans for the biggest wind turbines in Wales.
The planned Npower Renewables 19-turbine wind farm would be visible from the Brecon Beacons National park and the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Councillors also heard yesterday Npower Renewables accepted the turbines, almost as big as the London Eye, would kill some red kites, kestrels and golden plovers plus bats.
The objection by Swansea council to the development on land to the north of the city will be powerful evidence in a public inquiry on plans for the wind farm at Mynydd y Gwair Common later this year."
January 22, 2010 ~ Protesters' joy as wind turbine bid is rejected.
-
South Wales Evening Post
- "....Swansea planning chiefs firmly rejected the Mynydd y Gwair wind farm application.
All but one of the councillors present supported their officers' recommendation to object to the scheme - and then added further reasons.
However, developer RWE npower renewables lodged an appeal prior to yesterday's meeting because the authority took so long to "determine" the application, meaning it will be decided by an Assembly-inspector following an inquiry in July.
Councillors lined up to voice their opposition to the 19-scheme north of Felindre on traffic, disruption, visual impact and intermittent power-generating grounds, among others. They were told the wind farm would take 22 months to construct, require 88,000 tonnes of stone for nearly 14km of service roads, with 172 "abnormal" lorry loads needed to transport the 127m turbines to the site. The turbines would generate electricity for 28,100 average households, and have a 25-year life-span. Councillor Wendy Fitzgerald said her Penllergaer ward would suffer huge disturbance due to extra construction and installation traffic..."
- "This beautiful, virgin landscape will be turned into a building site. Is it really worth it? It is worth it for the developer and the landowner. Wind farms are heavily subsidised."
January 20 2010 ~ New Albion Wind Farm gets the green light. Wind turbines standing 100 metres tall are to be built between two county villages
- www.northantset.co.uk
"...Councillors last night approved developer Infinergy's plan to build seven wind turbines between Rushton and Pipewell.
Derek Booth, who has lived in a cottage 800 metres from the proposed site for 38 years, said: "I'm pleased they have taken the right decision.
"It's a decision of the future."
More than 70 people packed into Kettering Council chamber to hear the
controversial decision and councillors almost cleared the room on several occasions due to disturbances.
The decision was deferred in December because of a legal issue, but councillors followed planning officials' recommendation and approved the plan this time. Opponents including Rushton Parish Council, Wilbarston Parish Council and Northamptonshire Campaign to Protect Rural England raised concerns over the visual impact and noise levels. The council received 269 objections to the plans and 64 letters in favour." Bob King, chairman of the Rushton and Pipewell Action Group is quoted:
- "We are disgusted but there will be a judicial appeal. Kettering Council has handled it very badly. We are going to carry on fighting."
January 19 2010 ~ "In its submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs' investigation of Renewable Energy (2008), E.ON UK estimated that a back-up provision of over 90 per cent of the installed wind capacity would be needed."
- From a letter from Dr John Etherington last August in the Independent
- "Paradoxically, we shall have to build thermal power stations to allow the deployment of already very expensive wind turbines. These back-up power stations by definition will run below maximum output for much of the time and so cannot pay for themselves, nor can they pay off their energy and carbon dioxide capital as quickly as an ordinary station.
Until a proper independent cost-benefit study is made, mass destruction of countryside by wind power is being concealed under the parliamentary carpet.
Dr John Etherington"
January 19 2010 ~ "...as more wind farms are built, more back-up generation will be needed for when the wind does not blow, particularly during cold weather
- The Guardian reported yesterday that
almost 100 large power users had to switch to alternative sources when National Grid triggered clauses in their interruptible supply contracts during the snow and ice. "Ageing coal-fired power stations should be exempted from environmental regulations and kept open to stop the lights from going out, the chief executive of E.ON UK has urged the government."
- "... view is privately supported by many UK power station operators who fear a looming energy gap in a few years when old coal and nuclear plants have been closed but new reactors, clean coal plants and wind farms have not been built.
The idea puts the energy industry on a collision course with environmentalists, who are vehemently opposed to any continued use of coal in the energy mix. .....
Golby warned that as more wind farms are built, more back-up generation will be needed for when the wind does not blow, particularly during cold weather. E.ON's UK wind farms operated at only 16% capacity on average during this month's cold snap.
The E.ON UK chief said it was not economic to build new plants which would only be used occasionally but admitted that the plan would antagonise some environmentalists. "There is bound to be an environmental emotional response I guess. But if that was the only way that this quantity of wind can be built maybe it's a price that may be worth paying."
18 January 2010 ~ Letter: Sunday Telegraph
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"SIR - Last week, there were ice-laden wind turbines idle in the still air, solar panels covered in snow, gas reserves down to eight days, and pensioners burning books to keep warm.
This is happening because politicians have been conned by anti-industrial greens into neglecting Britain's reliable and economical coal and nuclear generators, while wasting time and money on pointless climate crusades.
When this global warming madness passes, future generations will remove this derelict solar and wind infrastructure and return to the only reliable and economical electricity options - coal, gas, hydro and nuclear.
Viv Forbes
Queensland, Australia
January 15th 2010 ~ Unreliable ".. wind energy will remain just one element in Germany's energy mix." Der Spiegel
- In its look at renewables and how efficient each method is last month, Der Spiegel had to sound more than a note of caution After mentioning doubt about the effect on birds and wildlife of turbines:
-
Wind power, though, has a potentially bigger problem: It is unreliable. The wind doesn't always blow, and when it does, it sometimes blows too hard for the facilities to harness it. Furthermore, there is as yet no good way to store excess energy produced by wind power, meaning that if strong winds are blowing at a time when consumers are using little electricity, much is wasted.
In addition, the wind blows stronger in northern Germany whereas the most energy is consumed in the west and the south of the country. New power lines stretching across the country are necessary -- which will drive up costs for the consumer. As a result, wind energy will remain just one element in Germany's energy mix"
January 14th 2010 ~ Eishken giant windfarm approved on the Isle of Lewis
- Thewww.scotland.gov.uk website reports that "A 33 turbine, 118 Megawatt (MW) wind farm at Muaitheabhal in the
Western Isles, providing green electricity for 55,000 homes, nearly
four times the number of homes on the islands, has been given the go
ahead by Energy Minister Jim Mather."
January 14th 2010 ~ "our dismal record on renewables" - " a tidal lagoon in the Mersey would generate 650 GW of energy a year - much more than wind farms "
- In the exchange on Tidal Energy, (Hansard) Dr. John Pugh (Lib Dem) remarked,
- "given that something as modest as Peel Holdings' proposal for a tidal lagoon in the Mersey would generate 650 GW of energy a year - much more than wind farms - is it not time the Government got solidly behind such schemes, given our dismal record on renewables? We have had plenty of studies. We now need some action."
- "if we covered the windiest 10 per cent. of the country with windmills...we would be able to generate...half of the power used by driving an average fossil-fuel car 50 kilometres per day."?
Monday January 11th 2010 ~ "Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap"
- Telegraph today "The cold weather has been accompanied by high pressure and a lack of wind, which meant that only 0.2pc of a possible 5pc of the UK's energy was generated by wind turbines over the last few days.
Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), gave warning that this could turn into a crisis when the UK is reliant on 6,400 turbines accounting for a quarter of all UK electricity demand over the next 10 years.
He said the shortfall in power generated by wind during cold snaps seriously undermined the Government's pledge on Friday to build nine major new wind "super farms" by 2020.
"If we had this 30 gigawatts of wind power, it wouldn't have contributed anything of any significance this winter," he said. "The current cold snap is a warning that our power generation and gas supplies are under strain and it is getting worse." Read in full
January 14th 2010 ~ Lichfield's three-spired cathedral would be dwarfed by proposed turbine.
- See MP: Wind turbine plan 'a joke' in theLichfield Mercury which reports that Lichfield's MP, Michael Fabricant says of Severn Trent Water's plans for a wind turbine at its sewage works on the outskirts of Lichfield:
- "Conservation of the environment ought to be a balance between the need to conserve non-renewable energy sources while not destroying the immediate environment.
While near neighbours will be disturbed by the noise, Samuel Johnson's spires of Lichfield's cathedral and churches - which he named The Ladies of the Vale - as well as more recent constructions like the Armed Forces Memorial, will all be totally overshadowed by this incongruous and ill-placed construction."
January 14th 2010 ~ The Baillie Hill wind farm was given consent on 12th January 2010.
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See ww.johnogroat-journal.co.uk.
Below is an extract from a letter addressed to the Minister, Mr Jim Mather MSP, From a "neighbour" of the Baillie wind farm.
- ... This proposed development is located slap bang in the middle of a community - and will ensure misery for all those in the vicinity and inability for any local to sell their home at a reasonable value and move. There are 61 homes within 2km, and 160 within 3km. Several hundred people will be affected. The only person who can now afford to move is the Developer.
Following Public Inquiry in March/April 2009, the Reporter's recommendation was received by ECU in August 2009, and the decision only published on 12 January. During the months awaiting a decision, New Zealand and Canada have become very aware of health problems for those who live in the vicinity of wind turbines, and indeed Canadians are now calling for a moratorium on further wind turbine construction following findings by an expert group. I would refer you to: http://www.windvigilance.com/awea_media.aspx
We have also seen published uncertainties regarding the ETSU-97 noise guidelines, which throw those guidelines into disrepute. These are the guidelines used to assess wind turbine noise. There have also been a number of accidents with operational wind turbines, including the documented throw of a piece of turbine blade in Norway over a 1.3km distance. Given how close the Baillie turbines are to houses, I am - frankly - disgusted that Scottish Government has chosen to put political targets ahead of public health and safety. .."
January 10 2010 ~ Et tu, Observer? "The government's new green initiatives are unlikely to come online fast enough to plug our growing energy gap"
- An emailer remarks today that
- "The Observer, along with its sister paper,The Guardian, has promoted wind power relentlessly for two decades.
Can it really be possible that they are at last beginning to see the light - or more likely,the lights go off - if we
continue to invest in wind power?"
- "The whole situation is very, very difficult and we have got to stop pretending we have got anything other than chaos."
Jan 10 2010 ~ Energy supplies: "It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. It might happen this year, it might happen next year, but gas is a depleting resource and there will be a crisis at some stage"
- Roland Wessel, chief executive of StarEnergy, the UK's second largest onshore oil producer, is quoted here. He says no one foresaw the rapid decline in reserves that will see the UK shift to being an importer of 50 per cent of its gas this year and 80 per cent by 2018.
Unlike Mr Brown, Mr Wessel is seriously afraid that the UK will face a gas supply shortfall if it doesn't increase its storage capacity. StarEnergy has been developing onshore storage since 2000, but has been able to complete only one project owing to the time needed to navigate the tortuous planning consent procedures.
As for the government's claim that a £100 billion green revolution is underway, Christopher Booker's column in the Sunday Telegraph calls this pure "fantasy" and reminds readers that "a new study last week predicted (that electricity bills) will quadruple during this decade to an average of £5,000 a year. This would drive well over half the households in Britain into "fuel poverty".... the cost of the Climate Change Act alone has been estimated by our Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband at £18 billion every year until 2050 - a law that only three MPs in this Rotten Parliament dared oppose." (See also energy page and windfarms page)
January 10th 2010 ~ "Climate change: the true price of the warmists' folly is becoming clear"
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph warns that from the Met Office's mistakes to Gordon Brown's wind farms, the cost of 'green' policies is growing, that caving in to the climate change lobby
has been ruinously expensive and that the government's boasts about a £100 billion green revolution is pure fantasy
- "... There is no way we could hope to install two giant £4 million offshore turbines every day between now and 2020, let alone that they could meet more than a fraction of our electricity needs. But the cost of whatever does get built will be paid by all of us through our already soaring electricity bills - which a new study last week predicted will quadruple during this decade to an average of £5,000 a year. This would drive well over half the households in Britain into "fuel poverty".... the revelation that more than 90 per cent of the £2 billion cost of Britain's largest offshore wind farm project to date, the Thames Array, will go to companies abroad, because Britain has virtually no manufacturing capacity.... For years governments, including the EU, have been shovelling millions of pounds into the coffers of "green" lobby groups...
The bills for such follies are coming in thick and fast. Last winter's abnormal cold pushed Britain's death rate up to 40,000 above the average, more than the 35,000 deaths across Europe that warmists love to attribute to the heatwave of 2003. Heaven knows what this winter will bring. And remember that the cost of the Climate Change Act alone has been estimated by our Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband at £18 billion every year until 2050 - a law that only three MPs in this Rotten Parliament dared oppose. Truly have they all gone off their heads."
January 8th 2010 ~ "During yesterday's extraordinary chill, while the nation huddled by the gas fire, the wind turbines were motionless.
- The Times "...According to the British Wind Energy Association, we have about 4,000 megawatts of wind turbine capacity, representing about 5 per cent of Britain's installed power generating capacity. But yesterday, in the windless cold of January, our expensive wind turbines provided 0.1 per cent of our electricity.
Most of our power, about 80 per cent, comes from gas and coal and that will increase as the ageing nuclear power stations come offline. What incentives can the Government offer these energy companies to build exotic machines that work only with a following wind? How big must the carrot be for a utility to spend £500 million on a gas-fired power station that only works when Ed Miliband's low-carbon whirligigs are not spinning in the breeze?" Read whole article
January 8th 2010 ~ Energy Security. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is angry at "scaremongering"...
- Not noted for a capacity for irony, those at the Dept of Energy and Climate Change are, according to yesterday's Guardian, dismissive of suggestions that poor planning has left Britain heading towards an energy crisis. The reason why 100 factories and 4000 homes in southern England were left without power may be unclear at present - but one is tempted to ask how many gritter trucks could be paid for out of the salaries of climate change advisors.
Meanwhile the Times today announces that nine giant new wind farms - 6,000 turbines - are to be built in the seas around Britain - but less than 10 per cent of the £1.7 billion investment will be spent in Britain. Each megawatt of wind capacity will cost up to £3.1 million, compared with £1.5 million a decade ago, because of the fall in sterling and our growing reliance on imports. Component parts are expected to be made in Denmark or Germany since no major company is yet willing to commit to manufacturing them in Britain. (Vestas closed last Summer).
January 8 2010 ~ When the Wind Blows
- The Times article says, "The nine farms announced will generate enough electricity to power more than half of Britain's homes, but only when the wind blows..." The EUreferendum blog's headline that
all this is a "very,very sick joke" is hard to dispute.
- "We're peaking at 59GW and wind was supplying a pathetic 3.5 percent of installed capacity, delivering a mere
147MW just after midnight, or 0.3 percent of our total power requirement. Coal, on the other hand, was bashing out 48.3 percent while gas came in second place with 33.2 percent."
January 6 2010 ~ "A massive rethink on the cost of 'green energy' is taking place in Whitehall..."
- "...among senior regulators and industry, leading some to question whether the public will be prepared to pay increasingly high bills for the UK to become greener than most countries.
Officials at regulator Ofgem now privately admit that a report they issued only last year severely underestimates the cost of cutting carbon emissions by building a new energy infrastructure for the UK...new research from an energy-switching company that calculates £548 of the average household bill of almost £5,000 in 2020 would be to pay for the investments in nuclear and renewable energy.
This does not take into account payments to keep energy prices low for poorer people and grants for lagging and insulation for the fuel poor.
.." Financial Mail Jan2nd
January 5 2010 ~ " a not uncommon phenomenon in the UK - an almost total lack of wind."
- "And here we are again,"writes Richard North at eureferendum.blogspot.com "with the temperatures struggling to get above freezing and we have, effectively, a zero wind state - see below right." Writing about this week's launch of a "£100 billion green power revolution" (see below) he says,
- "these monuments to folly can no more deliver the goods when needed than can Mr Brown...With a theoretical capacity of 35 GW - but an actual load factor a third of that - this puts the construction cost at about ten times that of nuclear. And then there is the cost of the back-up generation.
There can be no greater monument to the folly of our current batch of leaders who are prepared to countenance this absurdly expensive and unreliable scheme, saddling us with massive costs which we can ill-afford to pay."
Jan 5 2010 ~ "errors and exaggerations such as that which is evidenced in the IPCC's defective graph do not inspire confidence in the reliability of the IPCC's scientific case"
- From the Open Letter to the IPCC's Chairman, Rajendra Pachauri by Lord Christopher Monkton (read pdf file in full)
- "Given this and other mistakes that an international body of this nature ought not to have made, and given your numerous and direct conflicts of interest that have, in our opinion, been insufficiently disclosed, we are also copying this letter to the delegations of the states parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with a request that you be stripped of office forthwith."
- "He is telling us all this because we need to be vigilant against the dark forces of denialism and scepticism which, like the Orcish hordes of Mordor, threaten in the coming year to trample all over The Shire and its peaceful, honest, vegetarian community of scientists, green activists, nurturing technocrats, and sweet, gentle, life-affirming carbon traders...."
January 4, 2010 ~ Windfarms threat to curlews
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Daelnet
"Rare upland bird species like the curlew... are being driven from their traditional nesting sites by wind farms, according to research in Scotland.
Other species affected are buzzards, golden plovers and red grouse, say scientists from the Scottish RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage, who believe that the turbines act as "giant scarecrows" frightening birds and driving them away.
This news will cause anger in the Yorkshire Dales and many other hilly areas of Britain, which are threatened with a massive increase in onshore wind turbines......it sets a conundrum for the environment department Defra, which has a widely quoted public policy devoted to restoring the numbers of farmland birds which have been in decline for decades.
Some officials at Defra believe that a healthy wild bird population is a key indicator to the health of the local environment - yet others are pressing for more and more windfarms." Read in full
January 3 2010 ~ "Gordon Brown unveils £100bn wind farm gamble"
- The Sunday Times reports on the construction of nine enormous offshore wind farms "on parcels put up for auction by the Crown Estate, owner of the UK's territorial seabed. The sites will cost more than£100 billion to develop..." (Read article)
One comment: ".. All this offshore wind plant, thanks to its unreliability, will require at least 90% of back-up from mainly gas-fired plant onshore! Therefore, consumers and taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the extra back up plant as well as the wind plant, connection cables etc. These all require finite earth-sourced materials for their manufacture, including 'rare earth' minerals. How "sustainable" is that?" (And as the Independent reported yesterday, "... supplies of Chinese-produced terbium and dysprosium - irreplaceable elements of magnets used in the batteries of hybrid cars and wind turbines - are likely to be cut sharply in the coming months.")
January 3 2010 ~ "Scientific method has gone out of the window, to support a theory that looks more questionable than ever..."
- Both Christopher Booker and Richard North have, independently of each other it would seem, today written in national newspapers about the extraordinary miscalculations of the Met Office, with its expenditure of nearly £170million a year, 1,500 staff and its team of scientists "operating a £30million supercomputer capable of 1,000 billion calculations every second, with a carbon footprint the size of a small town."
In the Sunday Telegraph, Christopher Booker writes that
- "... the Met Office, Hadley Centre, the CRU, the IPCC - looks hopelessly compromised...Yet our politicians, from Gordon Brown and David Cameron down, are so in thrall to this new religion that they cannot see evidence staring them in the face..."
- "... From a technical body, the Met Office has now become the producer and purveyor of endless propaganda on climate change. Its latest production is an expensive, glossy, 20-page pamphlet.. packed with highly controversial and disputed assertions...delivered with the authority of a government agency as if they were unarguable fact."
What is becoming more and more evident is that the powerful climate change industry has become a juggernaut with so many political and financial eggs in its basket that its overturning would make a gigantic mess - unthinkable to those who have invested so much in it. Meanwhile, the determination to cover the countryside with giant turbines in the name of saving the planet, seems equally unstoppable.
January 1 2010 ~ The chairman of the IPCC has no qualifications in climate science at all and is personally involved in a vast number of organisations which stand to benefit from the IPCC's recommendations.
- (Earlier in December) Telegraph: ".... an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC 's policy recommendations.
These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in 'carbon trading ' and 'sustainable technologies ', which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year. ..."
Meanwhile, as today's Daelnet article says of hilly areas in the UK, they
- "... could soon be peppered by huge wind turbines which are grossly inefficient and make their living from subsides from the taxpayer rather than the wind."
December 31 2009 ~ "not allowed to publish his findings on the orders of the government.."
- In the debate column of Daily Mail (print edition only) on 28 December
the lead comment, from a David Stevens, Austhorpe, Leeds, writes of a scientist at the University of East Anglia whose
- "...job entails measuring and recording global weather conditions, including the average temperatures often spoken about by governments. He claims his department is one of four which analyses temperature across the globe.
He's not allowed to publish his findings on the orders of the government.
...He also stated that the average temperature today is lower than it was during the sixties. If this is true - and I'm sure he's telling the truth - why are we being led by our Government to believe that temperatures are rising?"
December 31 2009 ~ "the whole dishonest affair has been summarised as a promotional venture for the world 's fastest growing financial bubble, international carbon trading..."
- A letter from Dr John Etherington in the Western Mail today."...This will very soon to be a trillion-dollar money-maker for some of those very same key players who have stoked the fires of climatic warming and destroyed the credibility of climate science for that pot of gold which really is at the end of this rainbow.."
December 27 2009 ~ A turbine at the Fenner wind farm Madison County (USA) has toppled. No one yet knows how or why.
The tower is more than 200 feet long and the entire tower was separated from the concrete base.
The Cohoctonwindwatch website quotes Jill Van Allen, who lives across the street from the group of 20.
"I was turning over in bed and it sounded like a big clap of thunder. I was waiting to see the lightning through my bedroom window (but didn't)".
- Fenner Town Supervisor Russ Cary was notified by company officials at Enel North America, which owns the farm. He tells us Enel did not have any answers as to how it happened, but adds, the towers were built a distance away from homes for this very reason-that if they collapse, they won't do any harm.
December 16 2009 ~ "Whitehall's solution was to suppress that part of the report..."
-
"How can we be expected to believe any research-based report that has been through the busy, grubby hands of civil servants and politicians?"
asks an article in today's Independent
commenting on the quiet doctoring or "streamlining"
of report (see below) into the noise made by wind turbines and the effect on people who live near them.
Although commissioned by the government, its findings were not what the government wanted to hear. The proposed reduction in permitted noise was awkwardly large - so Whitehall's solution was to suppress that part of the report.
-
"Naturally, there was a cover-up. A request by the Den Brook Judicial Review Group to see early drafts of the report under the Freedom of Information Act was rejected by officials on the grounds the information was not in the public interest..."
December 14, 2009 ~ "giant wind turbines and the millions of euros behind them..... an eco-friendly image that seems above political reproach.."
- Dr John Etherington is quoted in this article from yesterday's New York Times, With Wind Energy, Opportunity for Corruption about the impact of government subsidies:
: "I'm not sure that the industry is regulated at all - let alone well regulated" Extract,
- "...The town of Santa Lucía Tirajana... yearlong investigation by the Guardia Civil... turned up irregularities in a plan to build a new wind park. Now the mayor, five town officials and two wind park developers are fighting criminal charges that include influence peddling, misuse of public office, misappropriation of land and bribery. The motivation? Up to €40 million in European Union subsidies....
The European wind association does not have a code of conduct for developers, though Mr. Kjaer, the chief executive, said it would have no trouble operating with one. The board of his association includes a representative from the National Italian Wind Energy Association. In November, Oreste Vigorito, the leader of the Italian association, was arrested in the Gone With the Wind case and accused of participating in an illegal scheme to collect European subsidies. Mr. Vigorito's lawyer says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
As long as wind energy benefits from generous subsidies, sometimes "easy money can be made in the sector and that can attract the unscrupulous," said Jason Wright, a Milan-based director of Kroll Associates, a risk security investigative firm, which has uncovered evidence of bribery and fraudulent environmental evaluations for Italian wind parks..."
December 13, 2009 ~ "even if it were practically possible for Mr Miliband to build his turbines, they would still only provide a tiny fraction of our electricity at no overall gain in carbon dioxide savings"
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph says that when asked by the fearless Jon Snow what would be the cost of all his measures to fight climate change, Ed Miliband replied "an 8 per cent rise" in our energy bills. Yet Mr Miliband's departmental website, says Booker, gives the estimated cost of his Climate Change Act alone as £18 billion a year, or £725 per household every year for the next 40 years. "That is 800 per cent more than the figure Mr Miliband was allowed to get away with claiming in front of the cameras."
-
"He then said we would all be able to hold the world's climate at bay by building 10,000 wind turbines and driving electric cars. Neither Snow nor the audience (which included a hapless Cockermouth bookseller who blamed the recent flooding of her shop on global warming) pointed out that, even if it were practically possible for Mr Miliband to build his turbines, they would still only provide a tiny fraction of our electricity at no overall gain in carbon dioxide savings (because of the need for proper power stations to provide back-up when the wind isn't blowing). Nor was Mr Miliband asked how all those cars would get their electricity - namely, through the national grid, from conventional power stations. Again, no savings.
Mr Snow's programme has won a reputation for exposing official cover-ups and for terrier-like grilling of ministers over facts they wish to hide. When it comes to global warming, however, it seems Channel 4 News is only too happy to let a minister have his head and to operate in a bewilderingly fact-light zone.
December 13, 2009 ~ Officials cover up wind farm noise report
-
The Sunday Times reports that
- "Civil servants have suppressed warnings that wind turbines can generate noise damaging people's health for several square miles around.
The guidance from consultants indicated that the sound level permitted from spinning blades and gearboxes had been set so high - 43 decibels - that local people could be disturbed whenever the wind blew hard. The noise was also thought likely to disrupt sleep.
The report said the best way to protect locals was to cut the maximum permitted noise to 38 decibels, or 33 decibels if the machines created discernible "beating" noises as they spun.
It has now emerged that officials removed the warnings from the draft report in 2006 by Hayes McKenzie Partnership (HMP), the consultants. The final version made no mention of them."
- "Our problems started three days after the turbines went up and they've carried on ever since. It's like having helicopters going over the top of you at times - on a bad night it's like three or four helicopters circling around,
We abandoned our home. We rent a house about five miles away - this is our fourth Christmas out of our own home. We couldn't sleep. It is torture - my GP describes it as torture. Three hours of sleep a night is torture."
December 9 2009 ~ "The sluggish turbine market and political opposition to large-scale wind development in the UK...."
- An article on the USwebsite earthandindustry.com reports on the pausing of production of turbines at the Colerado Wind Turbine plant owned by Vestas, the company that closed the plant on the Isle of Wight.
Some might regard the linking together of the words "opposition" and "political" as bizarre. People from all walks of life and every kind of political and non political leanings object to giant wind farms because they are inefficient, inhuman in scale, destroy the last wild and beautiful places - and decisions about them seem less and less democratic but rather skewed to support political ends and private profits.
December 1 2009 ~"...the wind industry trying to convince us that the only way to save the planet is to cover all of our wild uplands with machines "
- A customer review of
The Wind Farm Scam by John Etherington. (Amazon.co.uk)
- " it laid out in clear, easy to follow tables and charts the reason why we should stop building wind turbines today. Technical details which I have previously found hard to get to grips with were explained in plain language...
If all of our politicians read this book we might at last get a well balanced and realistic policy on energy for the UK. For too long we have been subjected to propaganda from the wind industry trying to convince us that the only way to save the planet is to cover all of our wild uplands with machines reminiscent of H G Wells 'War of the Worlds'
Please read it and come to your own conclusion. The government is advised on energy by the very people who stand to benefit from the subsidies. How can that be right?"
November 30 2009 ~ "accumulating evidence of adverse health effects from Japan, New Zealand, the UK, USA, and Canada."
- Dr Nina Pierpont's book, Wind Turbine Syndrome, is available and can be ordered online. From the blurb:
- "....There are also some 357 organizations from 19 European countries demanding an enquiry by the European Union about health and many other adverse effects of wind farms. At a minimum, the EU would be wise to consult with Dr. Pierpont..."
November 30 2009 ~ "...wind farms divide communities, ruin landscapes, affect tourism, make a minimal contribution to our energy needs and a negligible contribution towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions".The Duke of Northumberland
- The Telegraph today on how the Duke had repeatedly turned down bids by the wind power industry to erect turbines on his land.
-
"However, despite opposition from campaigners, two wind farms close to the Duke's 700-year-old family seat in Alnwick, Northumberland, have been granted planning permission...
In a letter to the Journal newspaper, the Duke explained.. he had remained silent on the issue because he did not want to be accused of double standards, as he and his forebears had developed mines, quarries, supermarkets and homes which had at times drawn local criticism.
But he had always privately opposed wind farms and wrote to let councillors know his thoughts."
November 28 2009 ~ " industrial wind is a bunco scheme of enormous consequence"
- Jon Boone's review of "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington points out yet again that
- "...A wind project with a rated capacity of 100MW, for example, with 40 skyscraper-sized turbines, would likely produce an annual average of only 27MW, an imperceptible fraction of energy for most grid systems. More than 60% of the time, it would produce less than 27MW and, at peak times, often produce nothing..."
November 25 2009 ~ "for most of the time its turbines are not turning.."
- Mrs. Jacqui Lait (Beckenham) (Con): " I feel desperately sorry for DEFRA, because nobody has mentioned that Department so far. It is lovely to see the Secretary of State here; he has sat patiently wondering if anyone will mention anything to do with the countryside. ... We have a wind farm on the Romney Marsh, although I am afraid that it is not taken terribly seriously because for most of the time its turbines are not turning. There is endless anecdotal evidence that wind farms have not been built quite correctly...."
Her contribution during yesterday's debate about how energy recources could be better utilised is worth reading.
On the subject of nuclear power she noted "...It does not take a great brain to work out that the consultation will not end before the general election. There is an immediate and built-in delay in the progress of national policy statements."
November 22 2009 ~ "saving the planet has risen steadily higher on the EU's agenda, as the perfect idealistic cause to justify more new laws..."
- says Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph, ".. from the landfill directive that has reduced our rubbish collection to chaos, to the legislation that forces us to encumber our countryside with useless wind turbines, and to use nasty, inefficient, mercury-filled light bulbs.
Still the one thing lacking, despite that 1992 proposal for a carbon tax, has been some way to harness this noble cause to provide an almost limitless source of money for the EU itself. How appropriate then that the coming into force of the EU's constitution should bring to power a man who wishes to see the EU funded entirely from taxes designed to save the world from global warming...."
November 21 2009 ~ the Inspector today dismissed the appeal by Tegni for 13 turbines at Gorsedd Bran, a hill just to the north of Llyn Brenig
- We hear that the village of Nantglyn is "over the moon".
The two main reasons were the effect of the turbines on views of Snowdonia from the top of Moel Famau, and the number of houses close by which would be affected by both visual intrusion and noise. We read in an email that:
- "I attach the Appeal Decision (pdf), which might give a few pointers to others.
By the way, Gorsedd Bran is firmly inside Strategic Search Area A. So it's not a foregone conclusion that anywhere inside an SSA is doomed! At the Inquiry, 4 local people spoke in favour, and 19 local people spoke against. That most certainly had a bearing on the result. "
November 21 2009 ~ "huge beasts ..will plant their feet all over our remotest regions - the infrastructure needed is expensive, intrusive and energy-consuming"
- From Charles Moore's article yesterday: " In Scotland, the proposed Beauly-Denny transmission line would send more than a hundred miles of new and enormous pylons through some of the most beautiful country there is. Near us in Sussex, when wind turbines were installed on Romney Marsh (overruling almost unanimous local objection, of course), each one required concrete foundations 116 feet deep. Concrete manufacture is the largest source of industrial carbon dioxide on the planet. According to the chief scientific adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, if onshore wind were to produce just a fifth of the power used per Briton per day - the equivalent of us each driving a fossil-fuelled car 25km every day - we would take up 10 per cent of our landmass and double the entire world fleet of wind turbines.
The phrase "carbon footprint" is well known. If we go ahead with wind power, huge beasts, the technological equivalent of the dinosaurs, will plant their feet all over our remotest regions. Also like the dinosaurs, they will fascinate future generations, by their weird size, and by the fact that they have become extinct."
November 20 2009 ~ "whatever the formal process of local objection, government is desperate for wind power. And what government wants, government usually gets."
- From Charles Moore's Telegraph article
-
"....an interesting example of the great wind debate. The Lammermuirs are very beautiful, with lots of upland birds such as curlew, wheatear and golden plover. They are also unusual, because this wild space is extremely close to Edinburgh.
At Fallago Rig there, North British Windpower and the Duke of Roxburghe, who owns the land, want to put up 48 wind turbines, 120 metres high. Against the duke are all the local community councils, the Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, and, piquantly, another duke, the Duke of Northumberland, who, like Roxburghe, has a grouse moor there. The Ministry of Defence also objected, because the wind farm would interfere with its radar, which defends the neighbouring Torness nuclear power station.
Last year, an inquiry found against the wind farm, but the Scottish executive refused to publish the inquiry's report. The objectors discovered, almost by accident, that the Reporter had sustained the objection about radar. The Scottish executive, desperate to push for its targets, put pressure on the MoD, and the objection was quietly withdrawn. The executive eventually agreed to have a reopened inquiry, but with the same Reporter, on the issue of radar alone, making approval of the wind farm inevitable.
This ploy has now failed. Under threat of judicial review, the Scottish executive has had to widen the scope of the inquiry to include environmental factors. Meanwhile, the Scottish Borders Council accuses Roxburghe Estates of starting to develop the site without waiting for permission, which they deny.
I do not know if the developers are indeed jumping the gun, but it would be rational for them to do so, because what emerges from this case - and from many others - is that, whatever the formal process of local objection, government is desperate for wind power. And what government wants, government usually gets. When I talked to North British Windpower, they were eloquent on how the present generation had a duty to the next. Wind power, they said, will fill a gap of energy over the next 20 years while other forms of renewables are developed.... .... I began this column by questioning predictions. But now I shall be rash enough to make one. We shall not meet any of these targets. Within a few years, we shall have to seek EU derogations to allow our old coal-fired stations to stay open longer, just to keep the lights on. We shall not be the jolly green giant of Europe, but the dirty old man..."
November 18 2009 ~ "We now await with anguish the outcome of that inquiry while looking out day in day out on the cherished landscape we have fought to protect..."
- A comment on the Farming Today website from a listener called Clare Dakin She
thanks the programme
- "for allowing John Henderson to articulate so well the feelings of many landowners.
We too turned down the opportunity to make a small fortune by allowing wind turbines on our farm in north Northumberland. We thought about it, about the heritage assets on our farm and quickly realised that our obligations as stewards of the landscape far outweighed the personal gain available not to mention the lack of evidence that onshore wind farms provide any contribution to the overall CO2 emission reduction agenda. However several neighbours went ahead leaving a small community to find hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the cost of putting the opposition case to a 6 week public inquiry into 3 locally refused schemes.
It was essential that we did so because the local authority is so lacking in funding that there was no assurance that they would be able to fund a case at inquiry! It has been a deeply distressing and exhausting experience for many of us also trying to hold together our business and family lives in the meanwhile.
We now await with anguish the outcome of that inquiry while looking out day in day out on the cherished landscape we have fought to protect from this cynical political game."
November 18 2009 ~ "UK ministers and their civil service advisors do not appear to comprehend the nature of these basic technical problems and are continuing blindly to promote windpower on land and sea."
-
Also emailed to BBC Farming Today by Alan Shaw DEng(Hon) BSc CEng MIET
Extract:
- "...It is quite obvious that the wayleave rentals per wind turbine are an offer that few farmers can resist accepting. Also the developers, who retain the ownership of the wind turbine, obtain huge profits from the electricity they sell to the National Grid. Neither farmer nor developer can lose. Thus support for the government's windfarm promotion policy is assured.
Unfortunately wind turbine output is entirely dependent on wind speed , unpredictable, variable and strongest in the far north and west of Scotland while the UK main demand for electricity is below a line between the Humber and the Bristol Channel. Thus huge costs are incurred in building new overhead and underground transmission lines and in reinforcing relevant existing lines to convey outlying wind power to demand centres.
But UK total demand for electricity in the whole UK system must be balanced exactly by generation at every second of the day. A shortfall causes system frequency, normally maintained at 50 cycles per second , to fall, slowing down electric motors nationally. Excess generation causes frequency to rise causing motor overspeed.
Beyond a certain point either eventuality can destabilise the grid causing wind turbines and power stations to trip out, An extreme case can cause national black out...we are heading into an unprecedented situation in which, due to lack of government generation planning, this could be a daily occurrence over many years.
...every wind turbine must be "backed up" by construction of dedicated fully controllable fossil fuelled turbine of nearly equivalent capacity whose capital cost must be added to that of the wind turbine..."
November 2009 ~ "current knowledge indicates that there should be precautionary avoidance of locating wind farms in all important bird areas and/or migration routes"
- An important paper Impact of wind turbines on birds in Zeebrugge
(Belgium)
Significant effect on breeding tern colony due to collisions
Joris Everaert Æ Eric W. M. Stienen
Received: 18 April 2006 / Accepted: 12 June 2006
- "....
An exhaustive study before the selection of future wind farm locations is a key
factor to avoid deleterious impacts of wind farms on birds. In general, current
knowledge indicates that there should be precautionary avoidance of locating wind
farms in all important bird areas and/or migration routes."
Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Kliniekstraat 25, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium
November 16 2009 ~ "He actually came close to admitting that turbines, with their "intermittent wind" (this sounded like a much-loved but elderly dog that lies in front of the fire turning the air in the sitting room foul) were a waste of time and money."
- Simon Hoggart's Sketch in the Guardian last Tuesday
after listening to the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, explaining that after only 12 and a half years delay, the government was going to speed up the planning process for lots more nuclear power stations. "It was, we gathered, an emergency. If we didn't get the power stations, the lights would start going out.."
- "...But these monstrosities have never been there to provide quantities of clean power. Turbines are the cathedrals of the green religion, huge, vastly expensive and largely useless symbols of faith. However, unlike wind turbines, most cathedrals are beautiful. Except Guildford, of course."
November 16 2009 ~ "A report has exposed the true costs of wind generated electricity"
-
Eugene Henderson in the Sunday Express yesterday:
- "The Government's renewable energy strategy is in tatters after a report exposing the true costs of generating electricity by wind power.
An internal document from the National Grid, seen by the Sunday Express, says wind turbine energy will at times cost over 3,000 per cent more than conventional power.
Industry experts say over-reliance on wind power could mean fuel poverty for consumers, as older power plants reach the end of their working lives while Britain's new generation of nuclear stations is still a long way off completion. Some experts claim the cost of upgrading the nation's electricity grid - so it is possible to use all the renewable energy- could be £250 billion or 10 times the Government's estimates...."
November 15 2009 ~7,000 wind turbines by 2020? This will involve building 2 giant wind turbines a day, including Saturdays and Sundays, for the next ten years.
- Professor Phillip Stott's Blog is a breath of unpompous fresh air. Here he is on the subject of Ed Miliband's Energy and Climate Change White Paper in July
- "...for the next ten years, an impossibility. And the projected cost ... it also emerged that the renewable energy strategy is likely to add £200 to the average household's utility bills. The strategy paper will say Britain needs to spend more than £100 billion on renewable energy infrastructure by 2020, including 7,000 wind turbines. This money will come from a levy on energy bills, which will have to rise by about 20%." Splendid! It is rubbish on stilts. The emperor has no clothes...."
- "But why do you not go back to your older and better ways?"
"Our Great Leaders, The Grodonbrun and Decameron, prevent it, Sir. They tax us even more heavily if we seek to use aught but wind - and straw for our little homes. Sir, I beg you not to stay or to tarry. They are surely mad, for they believe that they can rule the wind and the weather. You should go and use the wind at sea for sail, and not partake of our toil on and. Sail at once, Sir, for, if the Milibandians come, they will surely set you to the poles for ever and a day."
November 14 ~ Huge wind farm in New Zealand turned down because fears of dangerous man-made global warming were not supported by the evidence and there were no grounds to build it to "fight climate change".
- It is interesting to see that a judgement in New Zealand has revoked consent for Project Hayes, a 630 MW wind farm proposed for an upland plateau in
the South Island.
Seeveral groups had appealed on the grounds that it would destroy an area of outstanding natural beauty while a businessman appealed on the grounds that it was seriously uneconomic compared to alternative generation and that, because fears of dangerous man-made global warming were not supported by the evidence, there were no grounds to build it to "fight climate change". See more detail.The 350 page judgement was delivered after nine months of deliberation by the Court. For New Zealand at least, this decision may well impact on all other wind farm proposals.
November 13 2009 ~ Artists against windfarms. "I, like many others, remain completely unconvinced about what difference these wind farms will make..." Tom Hutton
-
Tom Hutton, an award winning photographer from Mid Wales, has joined other artists in speaking up for the Cambrian Mountains. Here, he writes
- "Anything that compromises the skyline or the tranquility of this area would be nothing short of vandalism. Doing this purely because it's an uninhabited region with no residents to stand up for it is, in my opinion, underhand cowardice.
As a conservationist, I am only too aware of the need for renewable energy, and if there were no other options, I'd understand the need to build these huge turbines in some of our most precious countryside. But there are other options and I, like many others, remain completely unconvinced about what difference these wind farms will make. It's time that our government looked at real solutions in both the production of energy, and more importantly, in the reduction of our usage of energy." Tom Hutton
November 12 2009 ~ "The proposal is located within the Forest of Bowland Area of Natural Beauty (AONB)"
- An application for 20 turbines, each 415 ft high is under consideration. Such a windfarm would dominate the Lower Lune Valley that runs up into Cumbria from North West Lancashire. The proposal is located within the Forest of Bowland Area of Natural Beauty (AONB) See application
This application is 6km INSIDE the Forest of Bowland AONB. Objectors are given 21 days only in which to respond - that is by December 1st. Emails can be sent to dcconsultationl@lancaster.gov.uk (Your name must be provided but do not include any telephone numbers. It is best to send your comments as an attachment so that your email address is not published but your postal address should be provided.) (View Non-Technical Summary of the windfarm proposal.)
Together with the 9 turbines in Scoping from E-ON, the scene from Lancaster to Kirkby Lonsdale will be permanently affected if the proposal is accepted.
November 11 2009 ~ Thou shalt not take the name of climate change in vain!
- We read on www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com/ that the film of BAFTA-nominated documentary maker, David Graham Scott, has been banned by the BBC because, according to the BBC, it shows a lack of impartiality about wind farms.
Scott is quoted:
- "This was not meant to be a political film. It is more about the impact of modernity on an ancient landscape where people are having to cope with the modern world.
I don't have a problem with the BBC's impartiality guidelines, but I think my film has been misinterpreted. I wouldn't want to alter the film to get it broadcast as that might ruin it."
November 9 2009 ~ The UK's so-called Britannia Project is looking precarious.
- The problem, of course, is money. While onshore turbines only generate the energy of which they are capable for an average of a quarter of the time and need costly electric backup, offshore windfarms are considered a little more efficient and do at least avoid the worry about dependency on foreign energy. However, one with a capacity of 3 gigawatts will cost more than £10 billion to build - twice the price estimated three years ago. In addition, bringing the power ashore needs hundreds of miles of undersea cable, at an estimated cost of another £15 billion. And what of breakdowns? Andy Cox, energy partner at KPMG, is quoted in the Sunday Times:
- "The hostile environment that awaits these projects must be a real concern to investors. Even in the more benign onshore wind sector, there have been numerous problems with gearboxes and blades failing."
Ofgem, the regulator, recently warned that annual household energy bills - today about £1,100 - could increase to £2,000 by 2016.
Warned by the wind industry that Britain's wind energy revolution would die without more, the government responded by increasing the subsidy by a third - but within weeks, costs for turbines, cables and other equipment rose by a similar amount.
Whatever the truth about the need to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, it is hardly surprising that voices are raised to say the money would be far better spent on making sure household energy efficiency is improved.
Instead, the government is throwing more and more money at the ever more voracious windmills.
November 8 2009 ~ Dr John Etherington's letter to the Western Telegraph
-
Wind power paradox
9:30am Saturday 7th November 2009
- ..."
Pembroke Design director Gareth Scourfield described the Wear Point wind turbines as the "right thing in the wrong place" (Objections to wind farm bid, Western Telegraph, October 28th).
As the author of the recently published book The Wind Farm Scam, I query Mr Scourfield's understanding of the situation.
One of the UK's major wind power operators, EON UK, submitted evidence to a House of Lords select committee in 2008, pointing out that wind power needs backup from conventional fossil-fuelled power stations equal to about 90% of the wind installed capacity.
In other words, once we have a lot of wind power, the paradox is that we have to build extra power stations to support it.
.."
November 8 2009 ~ "There are hundreds of thousands of people who are opposed to windfarms who can only benefit by acquiring a copy of this book. "
- An email just read: "On a personal note I have sold over 40 copies in my local area in the last 2 weeks. I can only urge others to do likewise -
I guarantee that people will buy them.
Stacey-International (020 7221 7166), the publishers, will supply a minimum order of 10 copies at £5-99 each plus postage...or see the book at Amazon.co.uk
.... doubters understand that they are subsidising the UK wind industry to the tune of almost £1.5 million per day See the website http://www.swindlefarms.com extract:
- "...every megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity generated by a windfarm costs us approximately £50 in subsidies. In the financial year ending March 2009 this worked out at £1.2 million per day. The story doesn't end there because the electricity is then sold for approximately £50 per MWh, thus making wind generated electricity double the cost of that from normal sources. The criminality of this system beggars belief, particularly when you consider that there are now more than 6 million households in the UK suffering from fuel poverty. Surely this money would be better spent helping them..."
November 6 2009 ~ Petition
-
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to set up an independent working party of acousticians and medical experts to fully explore the problems of wind turbine noise and the health consequences as ETSU-R-97, the measurement presently used, is invalid and does not protect our communities from unbearable noise pollution. More details
November 5 2009 ~ "Rural rejecters of wind power aren't bumptious bumpkins, says Adrian Snook. We are asserting our rights as consumers and voters"
- Guardian
- ".....The notion that commercial electricity providers would be able to win large-scale public support for inland wind projects was completely misconceived. As a starting point, organisations that make vast fortunes from producing carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power stations are not well positioned to lecture voters on saving the planet. Moreover, power suppliers are widely distrusted by most consumers as a result of windfall profits and a history of dubious doorstep sales practices....
It was clear from the outset that Labour's hugely ambitious plans for inland wind power would involve forcing through the most visible and controversial changes in rural land use since the Enclosure Acts. It was entirely predictable that this would create deep waves of social and political anxiety, yet nothing was done to calm the legitimate fears of rural people.....
.... As the polls suggest, most rural voters remain in favour of renewable energy and even wind turbines, providing it is clear that these are planned in the national interest and are not simply a cynical scheme to line the pockets of big business...... In the end, politicians cannot blame the electorate for their own mistakes."
October 14 2009 ~ To: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Call for a Moratorium on Proposals to site Wind Farms in Sensitive Areas
-
(For signatories: in signing this you accept that this petition will be copied to the following agencies: UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Countryside Agency, Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature, Environment and Heritage Service Northern Ireland, Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage. This bracketed text will be removed before the petition is printed and posted.)
".....We welcome the concern that the RSPB has demonstrated, and the many objections it has lodged, about proposals for the erection of wind farms in areas where significant bird and other wildlife populations and habitats are likely to be adversely affected. We also support the aim to increase the usage of a broad mix of effective forms of renewable energy, offering long-term potential for the production of clean energy with minimal impact on the environment. However, on the issue of wind farms, it is our view that the RSPB should initiate urgent action in order to wholly fulfil its traditional and primary objective of the protection of birds. The RSPB's stance on the core of the windfarm debate does not go far enough...." Read petition
October 11 2009 ~ "There was one bright side - as soon as the blade snapped off the TV signal instantly improved and I could see all my programmes properly again."
-
The
Telegraph yesterday reported that a
wind turbine in Sheffield has been broken by the wind - for the second time in 15 months.
-
"...Manufacturers of the 190ft high turbine, one of three owned by Sheffield University, are now investigating the damage at the site.... residents who live close to the site at Catcliffe, near Rotherham,
have expressed fears that they could pose a danger to local people.
Martin Oldfield said : "I'm worried about them from a safety point of view as they are quite close to the road and a supermarket where a lot of people go. There are workmen up there now starting work on repairing it but now that it's happened a second time clearly there is a serious issue. There was one bright side - as soon as the blade snapped off the TV signal instantly improved and I could see all my programmes properly again."
October 10 2009 ~ We live in a "very, very strange world" now
- A campaign costing £6 million has produced a film shown first last night in the prime ITV1 slot during Coronation Street.
Ministers are worried that people will resent "carbon-reducing policies" such as higher energy bills and the advertisement's evident aim is to make parents feel guilty. It shows a father telling his daughter a bedtime story of "a very very strange" world with "horrible consequences" for today's children. Joan Ruddock, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, is quoted in the Times
- : "The survey results show that people don't realise that climate change is already under way and could have severe consequences. With over 40 per cent of the UK's C02 emissions a result of personal choices, there is huge potential for individual behaviour change to lower emissions."
- "It is straight out of Orwell's 1984: an attempt to control with images of a perpetual war against something, in this case climate change."
Oct 10 2009 ~ Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and the Tory energy spokesman Greg Clark have both said they would protect the Lake District's landscape from windfarm proliferation.
- Westmorland Gazette
"....
They spoke out after ...
Prof David MacKay, the new chief scientific advisor at the Department of Engergy and Climate Change, warned Britain could begin running out of power within seven years because new energy sources were not being built fast enough.
... Mr Clegg told The Westmorland Gazette
"I know how committed people in South Lakeland are to creating renewable energy - but the focus must always be on energy generation that is suited to each local area," he said.
"
We will protect the historic landscape of the South Lakes and will not allow it to become industrialised. What Cumbria needs is an ambitious programme to make sure that its hydro and tidal energy potential is properly tapped.
Meanwhile, Mr Clark, the Conservative Shadow Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, told the Gazette that under a Tory government windfarms would not be imposed on South Lakeland against local democratic wishes. In what amounts to a criticism of a planning inspector's decision to approve the Armistead windfarm at Old Hutton after it was rejected by local planners, he said: "While I support the need for renewable energy - including both onshore and offshore wind - I believe that such developments should be fully subject to the planning decisions of the communities in which they would be sited." ... South Lakeland has just one operating windfarm at Lambrigg, with construction of the second, Armistead, yet to get under way. "
Oct 6 2009 ~ "We are aware that wind farms are not the solution to CO2 emissions in the UK and we are not convinced by the misinformation put out by the wind industry and the government."
- Part of a letter posted to Feedback, following Any Questions on Sunday:
- "...If wind energy is so good, why the need to deceive? Why do developer's visualisations always minimise the impact on the landscape? Why the need for the unnecessary and misleading claims that a particular development will save so many tons of CO2 and will power so many thousands of homes, when it is obvious that it cannot do that when the wind is not blowing. Why are we not told the full story about government incentives and subsidies? Why does the industry deny that there is a real problem with noise from wind farms?
Why does Denmark, which has the highest number of turbines per capita of population in the world, also have the highest domestic electricity prices (although heavily subsidised), and yet at the same time produce more CO2 per capita than the UK?
We oppose the destruction of the landscape for little benefit to either the UK or the planet. That is not NIMBYism..."
Sept 30 2009 ~ "We are asking for a moratorium on the construction of windfarms...the current policy is unsustainable, unbearable, and unfair."
- There has been an international protest march to save Mont-Saint-Michel from windfarms. Jean-Louis Butré, president of Fédération Environnement Durable (FED) and European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW), declared to the press is quoted here: "we are asking for a moratorium on the construction of windfarms...the current policy is unsustainable, unbearable, and unfair. For the first time, we address the President of France. If he maintains his windfarm policy, he will bear the historical responsibility of the massacre of the French landscape."
On the banners exhibited by the demonstrators one could read words like: "Monsieur Sarkozy, your machines devastate the country", or "developers have become predators", and "France is not for sale".
Sept 30 2009 ~ Published today "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington
-
"INDEPENDENT MINDS
• Pits common sense against the politically correct
• Challenges received wisdom with the hidden facts
• Confronts the 'dire inevitable' with the viable alternative"
Press release extract: "Publication of "The Wind Farm Scam" comes at a crucial time, as our government appears determined to confront public opposition to deployment of wind power. Just a few months ago Energy Secretary Ed Miliband publicly stated "It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines . . ." and more recently Huw Irranca-Davies, DEFRA minister for marine and natural environment, supported the fast-tracking of wind power through the planning system by allowing developers to finance local projects. Such action is contrary to the government's own 2007 policy set out in "Delivering Community Benefits from Wind Energy Development: A Toolkit" which contained the categorical statement that: "To put it simply, planning permission cannot be 'bought'.
Despite the government's statement that 81% of people are in favour of wind power and that 62% would be happy to live within 5 km of a wind power development, media polls have recently shown a consistent 70% to 90% of people opposing local wind farm development. (See also blog comment by Cllr Paul Robinson in Yorkshire)
Sept 24 2009 ~ Danish consumers "paid huge additional charges on their electric bills for almost three decades, based on an ideological desire to promote the development of wind turbines."
- See cphpost.dk
".....The government's ally, the Danish People's Party, welcomed the proposal, pointing out that the subsidies had cost residents and electric companies billions of kroner.
Party group chairman Kristian Thulesen Dahl said consumers had paid huge additional charges on their electric bills for almost three decades, based on an ideological desire to promote the development of wind turbines.
"When the current energy agreement expires in 2012, we expect a new agreement will be reached where support for onshore wind turbines is phased out."
Sept 20 2009 ~ " the green and pleasant land itself, or what remains of it has never needed more protecting"
- James Lovelock said recently
- "The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due.."
- "..a new quango - created, symbolically, by the unelected Lord Mandelson- may usher in the biggest change to the landscape in our lifetime.
...the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) ..was stealthily slipped into last year's Planning Act without anyone realising how vast would be its power to drive a steamroller through the checks and balances of the current planning system... wind-farm developers are constantly being delayed, or even thwarted, by challenges from local objectors and conservation groups such as the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. So ministers have set up the IPC to wrest large-scale planning decisions - not just about big wind farms, but motorways, airport expansions, power stations, waste-treatment plants and big housing estates - away from local councils and independent inspectors, and instead to decide such matters according to "national policy" In other words, in line with what the Government wants. And what it wants is a vastly increased spread of those unlovely wind turbines across the landscape."
Sept 13 2009 ~ "multiple night time background noise of the rotor blades.. ruined her life"
- From Sleaford Standard - 10 September 2009
- "People left a public meeting anxious and frustrated having struggled to find out more information about a proposed wind farm at Heckington Fen, near Sleaford.
Project developers Andrew Muir and Jamie Baldwin for Ecotricity attended a public meeting at Heckington Village on Monday night called by the parish council as a fact finding exercise for all parties about the proposed 50MW-plus wind farm on land at East Heckington, to the east of Sidebar Lane.
Feelings ran high as people demanded answers on the specifics of the wind farm but Mr Muir insisted that until more thorough investigations, consultations and tests had been carried out he could not say for certain how many wind turbines could be installed there. He estimated a maximum of 30 turbines, measuring 100m to the tip of the rotor blade, of a similar size to those already installed at Bicker Fen...." Read in full
September 11 2009 ~ New adviser blames the public for energy shortfall
- The BBC reports today that the government's new energy adviser, a researcher from Cambridge called David MacKay, blames the public because they keep "objecting to energy projects".
Blaming the public seems a novel way to view the looming threat of blackouts. By 2015, nine oil and coal-fired power plants and four nuclear power plants will close. By 2020 the UK will be importing between 45 per cent to 70 percent or more of its energy. Given the global recession, Government plans for wind, wave and solar to supply 40% of the country's power by 2020 are optimistic to say the least. James Lovelock's recent comment puts all the political hot air on the subject into perspective:
- "The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism..There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas...Let us be proud to be nimbys, our backyard is the countryside and that is the face of Gaia."
Sept 8 2009 ~ "For many people, ill-judged actions that can mop up billions of pounds for no predictable outcomes are far more frightening than any "global warming". "
- Letter in the Times
Sir, Lord May of Oxford is misguided (report, Sept 7 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6823909.ece when he castigates the BBC for abandoning Planet Relief and for thus not participating in Energy Saving Day (E-Day). For once, Aunty displayed wisdom in grasping that, whatever one's view of climate-change science, the choices to be made are essentially political and economic, and that these are highly contested, involving adaptation or pseudo-control, punitively high costs, retrogressive and retrospective taxes and near-impossible international agreements.
For many people, ill-judged actions that can mop up billions of pounds for no predictable outcomes are far more frightening than any "global warming".
Emeritus Professor Philip Stott
Gravesend, Kent
Sept 7 2009 ~ "THE WIND FARM SCAM" by Dr John Etherington
-
should be on the book shelves late next week (13-19 Sept).
It is being launched as the first of a series entitled "Independent Minds" which will also include
THE BIOFUELS DELUSION and THE FACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE.
" Independent Minds" will present the findings and conclusions of distinguished
scientists and scholars whose voices have been marginalised by the fashionable
but muddled clamour of accepted wisdom on the major issues of our troubled planet.
"Wind power is a swindle...Please read this book and find out why" David Bellamy OBE For more details go to http://www.stacey-international.co.uk/v1/index1.asp and click the book-cover to get to ordering page. It is also on Amazon
-
The Wind Farm Scam
John Etherington
"The spectre of global warming and the political panic surrounding it has triggered a goldrush for renewable energy sources without an open discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each. In The Wind Farm Scam Dr Etherington argues that in the case of wind power the latter far outweigh the former. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what's more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the inefficacy of wind power there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape, which wind turbines entail. Dr Etherington argues that wind power has been, and is being, excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been consulted, nor informed that this effective subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support."
Sept 6 2009 ~ Wind farm threat to Wales' national bird
- Wales on Sunday
An energy company has admitted precious Red Kites are at significant risk from its planned new wind farm complex in South Wales.
Now, campaigners against the controversial proposal in the Swansea Valley say they will prosecute npower renewables under the Wildlife and Countryside Act if the farm goes ahead and Red Kites - dubbed Wales' National Bird - are chopped up in turbine blades.
The soaring hawks were so prevalent centuries ago, Shakespeare called London "a city of Red Kites and crows"...
Sept 6 2009 ~ Unmasked: the landowner set to make millions from Moray wind farm
-
"A landowner worth £237 million with a chequered past is set to make a killing from hosting one of Scotland's most controversial wind farms, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
Christopher Moran, a self-made financier from London with links to the Conservative Party, owns the 40,000-acre Glenfiddich and Cabrach estate on Speyside, south of Dufftown. A plan to build 59 wind turbines on the estate is due to be considered by Moray Council at the end of this month.
Moran has been reprimanded for business misconduct in the past, and his estate has one of the worst records for wildlife crime in Scotland. Yet now he stands to make more than £20m from the wind farm over the next 25 years. The revelation has provoked an angry response from national campaign groups and local residents. They accuse Moran of having "his nose deep in the renewables trough" and of neglecting his estate....
The wind farm, known as Dorenell, is being developed by the Dutch company, Infinergy. It has been opposed by a powerful coalition of local businesses, including two whisky distilleries, William Grant & Sons and Glenfarclas, as well as the famed shortbread makers, Walkers of Aberlour.
The Cairngorm National Park Authority has also strongly objected to the development, which is 2.2 kilometres outside the park boundary. It is concerned about the wind farm's impact on the landscape and the dangers it poses to eagles.....
Moran did not response to requests for comments last week. But the developer, Infinergy, argued that the Dorenell wind farm would bring substantial benefits to the local community.
The company has promised to set up a fund to provide £354,000 a year for local projects over 25 years...."
Sept 1 2009 ~"Although the council has received more than 40 letters objecting to the scheme and only three in favour, it is expected to be recommended for approval by Aberdeenshire councillors by the end of this month."
- From the Independent
- ".....Controversial plans to build a wind farm on a remote hillside in north-east Scotland has provided a classic example of the difficulties surrounding the Government's plans to increase Britain's renewable energy sources. Accusations of foul play, misinformation, environmental destruction and dirty tricks have abounded in a fight over the siting of 21 turbines, each as large as a 30-storey block of flats, close to the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road.
Renewable Energy Services (RES) plan to invest £15m in the construction of the turbines, each 78 metres high, on the Hill of Bainshole and nearby Play Hill, in the Glens of Foudland, near Huntly in Aberdeenshire. When fully operational RES claims it will produce enough power to supply more than 11,350 homes in the towns of Huntly, Inverurie and Turriff....Earlier this week the Government launched an initiative to encourage farmers and landowners to allow small wind farms to be developed on their property so that Britain can meet its target of producing 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010....
...an organisation called Country Guardian, which was established 10 years ago "to oppose the inappropriate development of commercial wind farms on our finest coasts and hills and to promote conservation of energy". Angela Kelly, the chairwoman of the organisation, said:
- "Wind farms do far more harm to the environment and communities than good. They exist on hill-tops as symbols so local politicians can be seen to be 'green' and doing something to combat global warming. These people are not environmentalists, they are not green, they are the least green people you can imagine. They are businessmen with only one aim in life and that's to make as much money as quickly as possible. These turbines divide communities wherever they go,"
August 24 2009 ~ "Conservation Banking" - buying off those who want to say "No"?
- The Sunday Times article by Tricia Holly Davis yesterday, "Objectors to wind farms to be bought off", explained how DEFRA "ministers", (or Huw Irranca Davies in particular) consider that planning objections to wind farms can be overcome by ".. financing local environmental programmes, such as improving wildlife habitats."
- "People respond to financial incentives so, if there's a way for the local community to earn money from conservation banking, then it might help get more projects approved."
In 2001, farmers' objections to the mass culling of their livestock were softened by excessive "compensation" payments. These were at least more substantial than lightweight arguments that all was done "on the best scientific advice".
The countryside, however, is not "property" to be bartered with. It is our heritage and it is beyond price. As Caroline Cranbrook says (below) "Government must also listen and act on the advice of its parliamentary committees, scientists, engineers, technologists, economists - and local people."
August 24 2009 ~ BBC's ANY ANSWERS - Listen Again
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m53qd
There are 5 days left to hear Robin Laird and Ann West (vice chairman, Country Guardian)
responding to D.J.Gent's question:
- "Is the answer to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions blowing in the wind?"
August 21 2009 ~ "Wind farms must be in the right place - where there is most wind. In Britain, this is offshore."
- A letter from the Countess of Cranbrook appeared in Country Life on August 12 2009. Extract
- "Across most of the country wind speeds are low: the amount of electricity produced does not justify the subsidy required to attract developers. Historically, the energy industry perceived onshore wind as a demonstration technology to blaze a trail for big energy projects offshore, but it is now dominant since it yields large profits to developers. Unfortunately this is bad value for the subsidising consumer.
They should not be put in important landscapes, nor within a few hundred metres of houses. People live in these places. Their concerns must not be dismissed as Nimbyism but recognised as real and justified. Wind turbines are a hazard to birds and to bats. They should be distanced from important bird areas and migratory routes.
Unfortunately, wind farms provide only supplementary energy, not reliable capacity, so there are limits to their usefulness. We have to be realistic, listen to the advice of the engineers and do the job properly, offshore. Instead, we see government distorting planning guidance and instigating £1bn in bank loans for developers to push through approval for uneconomic onshore wind farms whose benefits are exaggerated and disadvantages under-estimated..."
August 21 2009 ~ The vision for the 'NOVA' (Novel Offshore Vertical Axis) project is 1 GW of offshore vertical axis turbines installed by 2020, via a large scale demonstrator installed offshore within six years.
- More on the NOVA project, mentioned in the Country Life letter from Caroline Cranbrook (here)
From the Nova project website: "Offshore vertical axis wind turbines offer the potential for a breakthrough in offshore wind energy availability and reduced life-cycle costs due to their inherent design characteristics of few moving parts, insensitivity to wind direction, and the placing of the generator at base level potentially allowing large-scale direct drive. Their relatively low centre of gravity and overturning moments (in the case of NOVA's Aerogenerator) make the turbines highly suitable for offshore installation. In addition, they are potentially'radar friendly' compared to existing horizontal axis wind turbine technology.." Read in full
August 19 2009 ~ Scheme near Cairngorms national park thrown out
-
Plans for seven 410ft turbines on Pressendye hill, three miles from the border with Cairngorms National Park, proposed by Cushnie Wind Energy
attracted hundreds of objections - and have been thrown out by councillors.
Nearly 600 letters were received by Aberdeenshire Council opposing the windfarm.
Paul Anderson, of the Stop Turbines on Pressendye group (SToP) said: "This damaging development is far too high a price for our community to pay for the meagre national and local returns. The currency which drives our local economy is our landscape." See Press and Journal
August 15 2009 ~ Replacement transformers for broken wind turbines must come from abroad.
- A month after its official opening, a power fault has shut down nearly a quarter of the Romney Marsh wind turbines. The Telegraph says that each of the 26 wind turbines at the site is 377ft (115m) high and weighs more than 275 tonnes. Replacement transformers have to be made in Belgium by the firm that constructed the site - RWE Npower renewables - which has been owned by Germany since 2002. On many websites, this company is still referred to as "one of the UK's leading renewable energy developers and operators".
August 14 2009 ~ Yet another application to build a windfarm in the Highlands.
- 8km North East Of Tomatin
Proposal: Construction of wind farm comprising 17 wind turbines, associated access tracks and infrastructure, 2 x temporary construction compounds and 2 x temporary borrow workings
The tireless and remarkable veteran campaigner, Angela Kelly, writes to say this one is right next to another application for a large development.
The link attached takes you (new window) directly to the Highland Council page which facilitates objections, should you want to tick the "object" box - a very easy process.
August 13 2009 ~ Dark days ahead - "Even if the windmills are built, they will not in themselves plug the generation gap"
- From The Economist print edition "A shortage of power-generation capacity could lead to blackouts across Britain - and a dangerous reliance on foreign gas
.....Britain's energy grids are already showing signs of stress. A cold snap in the winter of 2005-06 led to a spike in demand for natural gas, which is used both as a heating fuel and to generate electricity. Prices shot up but, despite several pipelines linking Britain to Europe, no extra gas was forthcoming from the continent. ...
Last year two power stations - one nuclear, one coal-fired - failed within minutes of each other, causing blackouts across the country. Officially, this was a one-off stroke of bad luck, but privately some think that a system with more spare capacity could have kept the lights on. Less obvious but just as worrying, says John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a think-tank, is that electricity prices are becoming more unstable.... most of the nuclear plants, and around half of the coal plants, are due to close in the near future.."
- "...ministers want to see a big expansion in the amount of energy Britain gets from the waves, the sun and the wind - especially offshore wind. They are hoping to see 33GW-worth of maritime windmills (somewhere around 5,000 turbines in all) built over the next 11 years. That is quite an ambition, and many doubt whether it can be realised. Britain's entire offshore capacity in 2008 was only 0.6GW, although admittedly this was the biggest in the world.
... Even if the windmills are built, they will not in themselves plug the generation gap because they do not generate power on a calm day. National Grid reckons that compensating for that uncertainty of supply will require a huge amount of over-engineering. 25GW of wind power, it reckons, would be worth only around 5GW of fossil-fired generation..." Read in full
August 13 2009 ~ wind farms - 'Monstrously silly!' says James Lovelock
- See the Guardian August 9.
- "... A 500-ton concrete base support and 4,000 of them needed to equal the output of one coal-burning station - how is that helping? There was a report in Der Spiegel saying that in Germany, where they've got 17,500 of the things, the amount of CO2 now being produced in the country is greater than ever."
August 11 2009 ~ Jeremy Paxman's brother launches battle against wind turbines - Telegraph
-
Telegraph Aug 10 "Jeremy Paxman's brother has launched a battle against plans for nine 120ft wind turbines overlooking Dartmoor national park which he said would "stick out like a sore thumb....He said the proposed wind farm in Den Brook Valley, north Tawton, would ruin the landscape and affect tourism, a major part of the local economy.
Mr Paxman, 55, is the chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA) and gave evidence at a public inquiry this week over whether the farm should be built.
....".
August 10 2009 ~ Climate Change Discovery - Scientists on Youtube demonstrate how it is the sun, plus cosmic rays and their effects on cloud formation that are driving climate change today (as they did in the past)
- Part 1 here (followed by the other 4)
August 7 2009 ~ Scottish Highlands - Lochaber's first wind farm development in doubt
- www.lochaber-news.co.uk
"The verdict on controversial plans for Lochaber's first wind farm development was put on hold this week by Highland councillors..." The paper is running a poll on this issue. (When we voted, the proportion was 80/20 against. When you vote the paper invites you to email the reason for your vote. A nice touch.)
August 4 2009 ~ "When the wind don't blow, the power don't flow."
- Comment from Australia's Herald Sun (The article is based on the work from the Australian Landscape Guardians - Technical and Economic Committee contributing professional experts: Tom Quirk, Andrew Miskelly, Paul Miskelly, Peter Mitchell and Peter Lang.)
-
"... Even more devastatingly... the wind not only don't blow an awful lot of the time. It tends to not blow 'everywhere' at the same time.
This utterly shreds the claim that if we build enough of the so-called 'wind farms' across southern Australia, the wind will always be blowing somewhere.
No it won't. But you'll look in vain for 'official' advice saying that.
What makes the analysis even more damning is that wind fails even in the main reason for its costly and ineffective existence - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Precisely because of that pesky little problem.
An unreliable 484MW wind farm would not only cost more than two times a gas-fired 550MW power station. But it would allow perhaps only 25MW of coal-fired generation to be shut down - whereas the gas plant could close its full 550MW. ..."
August 3 2009 ~ Lord Robert May, the former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, describes Dr Pierpont's research as "impressive, interesting and important".
- The Mail on Sunday, too, ran a lengthy article on the condition Dr Nina Pierpont calls "wind turbine syndrome" See this weekend's articles
August 3 2009 ~"People describe the noise as like an aeroplane that never arrives."
- From the Independent "....My husband developed
pneumonia very quickly after the turbines went up, having never had chest
problems before. We suffer constant headaches and ear nuisance. My mother-in-law
developed pneumonia and my husband developed atrial fibrillation - a rapid
heartbeat. He had no pre-existing heart disease. Our blood pressure has gone up.
My father-in-law has suffered a heart attack, tinnitus and marked hearing
loss.
" I understand this can be regarded as a coincidence, but nobody was ill before 2006." (Read in full on the page about "wind turbine syndrome")
August 2 2009 ~ "Weather records are a state secret"
- Christopher Booker in the Sunday Times:
- "....as CO2 levels continue to rise, temperatures have failed to follow suit as the IPCC's computer models predicted they should. Part of the reason why the Met Office has made such a mess of its forecasts for Britain is that they are based on the same models which failed to predict the declining trend in world temperatures since 2001.
....
When Mr McIntyre made Freedom of Information requests to see the data used to construct the HadCrut record (as he has chronicled on his ClimateAudit blog) he was given an almighty brush-off, the Met Office saying that this information was strictly confidential and that to release it would damage Britain's "international relations" with all the countries that supplied it.
The idea that temperature records might be a state secret seems strange enough...." Read in full
August 2 2009 ~ "A wind farm is not the answer"
-
"The green movement's fixation with technology reveals that we are asking the
wrong questions," wrote Paul Kingsnorth in yesterday's Guardian.
- ".....the challenge posed by climate change is not really about technology. It is not even about carbon. It is about a society that has systematically hewed its inhabitants away from the natural world, and turned that world into a resource. It is about a society that imagines it operates in a bubble; that it can keep growing in a finite world, forever.
When we clamour for more wind-power stations in the wilderness, we perhaps think we are helping to slow this machine, but we are actually helping to power it. We are still promoting, perhaps unintentionally, the familiar mantras of industrial civilisation: growth can continue forever; technological gigantism will save us; our lives can go on much as they always have..."
August 2 2009 ~ ""The wind industry will try to discredit me and disparage me, but I can cope with that. This is not unlike the tobacco industry dismissing health issues from smoking. .."
- The Independent on Sunday takes up the research of Dr Nina Pierpont. See below - or in full here.
July 31 2009 ~ Wind Turbine Syndrome - headaches, heart palpitations, hearing problems, stress, anxiety, and depression
- An article yesterday in www.frontpagemag.com
reports on the research conducted by Dr. Nina Pierpont in America on what she calls "wind turbine syndrome," the clinical name she has given to the "constellation of symptoms experienced by many (though not all) who live near industrial wind turbines." These include sleep problems like insomnia; headaches; dizziness; unsteadiness and nausea; exhaustion; anxiety; anger and irritability; depression; memory loss; eye problems; problems with concentration and learning; and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
-
"...Dr. Pierpont is no agenda-driven fright merchant. She received her PhD in behavioral ecology from Princeton and her M.D. from John's Hopkins School of Medicine. But she does believe that the enthusiasm for wind power, espoused by the Obama administration, is seriously misguided. "As industrial windplants proliferate close to people's homes and anywhere else people regularly congregate (schools, nursing homes, places of business, etc.) Wind Turbine Syndrome likely will become an industrial plague," Dr. Pierpont warns..."
July 31 2009 ~".... if we are going to keep the lights on and the wheels of industry turning, we are already facing a big increase in energy bills..."
- Bernard Ingham writing in the Yorkshire Post on Tuesday:
- "...you have to add on £548 a year for 15 years to pay for the planned £233.5bn energy investment. Some of that investment is desperately needed - £52.1bn for new coal, gas and nuclear power stations and most at least of the £39.8bn earmarked for upgrading pipes, networks and gas storage.
So, if we are going to keep the lights on and the wheels of industry turning, we are already facing a big increase in energy bills.
But that leaves another £141.6bn of the proposed investment to be accounted for. It is here that the Government - and, to be fair, every other (stupid) political party in this land - is hell bent on fleecing you.
Some £112.5bn is to go on renewable energy - mostly utterly useless on-and offshore wind turbines - another £13.4bn on so-called smart meters whose utility seems grossly exaggerated for political reasons; and £15.7bn on trying to hit unachievable European carbon reduction targets.
All this because our pathetic political class have suspended their critical faculties over man-made global warming, cast the concept of value for money to the four winds and insist we pay for setting an example to a world that will cheerfully ignore it."
Wednesday 29 July 2009 ~ NEWSNIGHT Tonight: Wind turbine plant protests
- Adrian Snook of STOP THE SPIN
will be head to head with Ed Miliband
on
BBC 2 - 10.30 pm
July 29 2009 ~ An aquarium in Devon has taken down two wind turbines after seagulls were killed when they collided with the blades.
- BBC reported
"The 15m (50ft) high 6kW turbines at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth were installed in 2006 for a £3.6m sustainable energies project.
But the Hoe-based attraction has taken them down after several birds died, it said.
The aquarium also said they had not produced as much electricity as hoped. .....following a gale, the turbines were damaged."
July 29 2009 ~ Adverts 'halved size of turbines'
- BBC "....Promotional images for a windfarm in Northumberland were likely to mislead the public, the UK's advertising watchdog has ruled.
Energy firm E.ON's adverts for the West Ancroft, Berwick, site showed turbines half the size of those planned, said the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
A photomontage was also "not sufficiently representative" of the likely visual impact in the area.
E.ON said the images were intended to be for illustrative purposes only...."
Saturday July 25 2009 ~ "....very serious electricity price increases simply to make those wind farms happen"
- (The Register) "...the only reason they ever get built is the government's Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) scheme. By cranking up the ROC system, the government can drive more wind into the market; this process is already underway, and set to continue for a long time. ROCs are often misleadingly described as a "subsidy", but they cost the Treasury nothing: their effect is to pay renewables plants a guaranteed minimum sum of extra money for every unit of power they put into the grid, on top of the market price, and pass the costs of this on to the consumer via the distributing companies...." Read in full
Thursday 23 July 2009 ~ Armistead wind farm to go ahead - in spite of numerous and well-informed objections.
- The
Inspector has granted the appeal for the Armistead wind farm after a two year fight by those who felt so strongly that it would be a very bad plan.
As one commentator puts it, "I said..this would be a hard one to stop because of the existence of the
Cumbria Wind Energy Supplementary Planning Document and the raft of Regional and National guidelines and targets - and so it has proved.
I have always said that it depended on whether Mr Pike took a Government perspective or a human perspective and sadly he has leaned towards the former. We now have to refocus and ensure that this does not become a 9 turbine wind farm with the Sillfield application due to go to PI shortly."
The Inspector's decision can be read here. As the greatly respected veteran campaigner Angela Kelly says, "Read it as a lesson in what you must must expect to face if you oppose an industrial wind farm."
Thursday 23 July 2009 ~"... the 7,000 or so wind turbines Britain will install over the next decade to help meet its climate-change targets will have to come from abroad"
- Vestas Wind Systems plant on the Isle of Wight, which makes wind turbine blades, is scheduled to close on July 31 with nearly 600 redundancies.
Last night was the third night of occupation by the workiers there. Climate-change campaigners have set up an ad hoc camp outside the factory and have been passing food to the occupiers. Independent quotes Nick Clegg : "This closure exposes the hollow truth of Labour's climate change strategy."
July 22 2009 ~21st-century "gold rush" to secure dwindling supplies of neodymium
- A fascinating new insight into what has to go into the lightweight permanent magnets of wind turbine generators comes from this article from theatlantic.com"Clean Energy's Dirty Little Secret". Neodymium is necessary for the rare-earth magnets "that make Prius motors zoom and for the generators that give wind turbines their electrical buzz." The article says that " if we are going to make even a few million of the hybrid and electric cars that are supposed to help rescue the planet from global warming, we will need to double production of neodymium in short order." Mountain Pass supplied most of the world's rare earths until 1989 but in the early 1990s, cheaper Chinese rare earths began eating into the mine's market share. In 2006, nearly all of the world's roughly 137,000-ton supply of such rare-earth oxides came from China but over the past few years, China has cut exports in order to supply its own permanent-magnet industry. (See article in full)
Monday July 20 2009 ~ "considered debate beginning on the cost of the low-carbon electricity production"?
- Some interesting letters in today's Independent. The second, from the
Special Professor in Sustainable Energy at Nottingham:
- ".... incomprehensible that the Government places such reliance on wind power. According to statistics from the department for Energy and Climate Change, offshore wind power in 2007 had a load factor of a mere 25.6 per cent, meaning that nearly 75 per cent of rated capacity was lost.
There is a theory that tidal energy is not favoured because it would deny funds to nuclear energy. Both will be necessary to bridge the energy gap. The Manchester report favoured the thorium alternative to uranium. This has much to recommend it now there is less enthusiasm for nuclear weapons."
Monday July 20 2009 ~ "Switching from uranium to thorium as our primarily nuclear fuel could lead to cheaper, safer and more sustainable nuclear power"
- An article in the Guardian last week
- "....a growing number of scientists and energy experts believe that the world should switch from uranium to thorium as its primary nuclear fuel. Compared to uranium, thorium is far more abundant as well as much more energy-dense...waste products generated by thorium are virtually impossible to turn into plutonium..they remain dangerous for hundred of years rather than thousands.
.This technology...was shown to have many benefits... reactors of this type can be smaller
Despite its early promise, research into liquid-fluoride thorium reactors was abandoned - the most likely reason being that the technology offered no potential for producing nuclear weapons. Sorensen estimates that between 5,000-6,000 tonnes of thorium could produce as much energy as the world currently consumes each year..."
July 19 2009 ~ "Renewable Energy Strategy is Inconsistent and Implausible"
-
Last week, the Renewable Energy Foundation expressed grave concern about the credibility of this government's Renewable Energy Strategy and the analysis behind it.
- "...
The strategy is intended to map out the UK's policies to meet EU targets requiring us to obtain 15% of Final Energy Consumption from renewable sources by 2020.
In its response to the Consultation last year REF pointed out that it was unlikely that UK final energy consumption (150 million tonnes of oil equivalent) would remain at current levels up to 2020, as was assumed by the Government's consultation text.
Today's strategy document is grounded in the still more extraordinary view that consumption will actually fall..."
-
"By assuming that UK energy consumption will actually fall by 2020, in spite of rising population and economic growth, the Government has lost any claim to credibility.
It seems that in a desperate attempt to make this infeasible target appear realistic, the Government has resorted to the expedient of making up the numbers.
We are deeply concerned that such flawed calculations will lead to counterproductive policy and uncontrolled cost at a time of economic vulnerability and rising levels of fuel poverty."
July 19 2009 ~ When wind power blows, jobs will fall
-
Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times
Extract:
- "....Because the wind blows intermittently, and may be at its calmest at times of freezing weather, Germany has not been able to close a single one of its conventional power stations, despite its vast investment in wind power....
The powerful wind-turbine lobby in Germany constantly harps on about the number of jobs "created" by its subsidised investment, quite ignoring the number of jobs destroyed by high-cost energy, or indeed the greater number of jobs that could be created if the same amounts were invested in more profitable activities. This is why the Bremen Energy Institute argues that "wind energy macro-economically has a negative employment impact"....
Sunday July 19 2009 ~ "Even more alarming than the media's credulity is that of the ministers themselves..."
- Christopher Booker today How can wind turbines generate so much lunacy? The Ministers, he says are trying to pretend that their £100 billion dream of building three giant turbines every day between now and 2020 has the faintest practical hope of being realised.
- "...Most alarming of all, however, in the desperation to reach EU "renewables" target, is the setting up of a new Infrastructure Planning Commission to force through thousands of these absurd objects over the wishes of local people and councils, who are now to be robbed of any right of appeal."
Meanwhile, also in today's Telegraph, Damian Reece speaks of the uncertainty of future gas supplies and that the £120bn-£170bn that the CBI estimates we need to invest in order to bring about the transformation of our energy system as last week's White Paper describes, "hasn't even begun to be raised, never mind spent.... In 2016, where up to a third of our power stations have to close under EU law, how do we ensure security of our energy supply, and avoid relying on uncertain gas imports, while keeping the lights on and hitting our environmental targets? If we stick to current government policy we will need more gas from increasingly expensive sources"
July 17, 2009 ~ Don't blow our £100 billion on wind power
-
Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow of New College writes in the Times that
" it is one thing to understand that there is a problem and another to find a way to address it. So far very little has been achieved. ... The test for the Government's renewables White Paper, The UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, published this week is: will it make much, or indeed any, difference?
...It is immediately obvious that even if all the wind turbines the Government (and the Opposition) wants are built, they will make not even a tiny dent in the carbon concentration in the atmosphere.... the emphasis on renewable energy could even make it worse: for the costs of commitment to it are great - £100 billion, and possibly a lot more - and may accelerate the migration of energy-intensive industries to countries such as China and India...
The question that should have been at the heart of the White Paper is this: given our (limited) resources, where can Britain add the maximum benefits to this global problem? Where can it make a difference? The answer is largely in technology: we have some of the best scientists, very good engineers and best universities in the world. Where we can really help is by investing in developing carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear energy and new technologies for networks, batteries and the electrification of transport.... new technologies may do for energy what the internet has done for communications. But progress will not happen spontaneously: research and development is one area where government commitment, strategic vision and £100 billion would make a lot of difference. Even then it will take time for us to see the fruits. But the White Paper is driven by hitting 2020 targets...Where will the money come from? Who is going to pay? Putting aside that we are in the middle of an economic crisis, ultimately raising this money relies on taxpayers and customers. Will they be willing to pay? Will they even be able?... Whether voters will recognise that these costs are yielding very little in terms of an impact on global warming and will continue to want to pay them remains an open question." The article should, of course, be read in full.
July 17 2009 ~ "How can we save the environment without trashing the landscape?"CPRE's Chief Executive
- Well worth reading are the calm and balanced words of Shaun Spiers, CPRE's Chief Executive (here):
-
"We are delighted that Ed Miliband has agreed to address the very difficult question of how to get the energy infrastructure the country needs in order to keep the lights on and combat climate change, without unacceptably damaging the countryside. How can we save the environment without trashing the landscape? 'These questions aren't going to go away. They are asked every time a new wind farm is proposed. And communities asked to accept intrusive new renewable energy infrastructure such as wind farms will ask how serious the Government is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions when it is still prepared to allow carbon intensive opencast mining.
Energy debates are highly complex. On wind farms, it often seems that there is no debate - just impassioned arguments from both sides with neither side listening to the other...."
July 16 2009 ~ "putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket"
-
Ellie Zolfagharifard in "The Engineer Online"
writes,
"Sections of the power industry - including voices from the renewables sector itself - have lined up with business leaders to warn the government of the perils of backing wind too strongly in today's carbon change whitepaper. Power technology experts and tidal energy specialists joined the CBI in urging caution ahead of the expected announcement of a major expansion of the UK's wind output. The CBI believes that the UK will risk its low-carbon future if it continues to focus on wind power at the expense of nuclear and clean coal energy...In a report issued ahead of today's UK Low Carbon Transition Plan whitepaper, the CBI referred to the government's existing energy policy as being 'disjointed...
John Cridland, CBI deputy director general, said: 'Large chunks of our energy infrastructure urgently need replacing. While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants. If we carry on like this, we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket.'
The CBI warned that, unless its recommendations are followed, the UK will be too reliant on gas supplies, with only 64 per cent of its energy generated through low-carbon technologies by 2030. The group claims that its 'Balanced Pathway' plan would lead to 83 per cent of the UK's energy being produced by low-carbon methods. It believes the majority of this energy would come from nuclear, 14 per cent from clean coal technologies, 16 per cent from gas, 20 per cent from wind and 15 per cent from other renewables. Other industry figures claim that wind provides only part of the low-carbon energy solution, while concerns remain about funding for other forms of renewable energy. ...." Read in full
July 16 2009 ~ A quango that the Tories have pledged to scrap is set to fast-track controversial projects, from wind farms to runways, in the run-up to the election
- The Guardian reveals that ".....the Conservative opposition, alongside countryside campaigners and environmental groups, is preparing for a long, drawn-out battle opposing the new planning system.
At the centre of this battle stands an emerging quango known as the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), which begins work this autumn. It has been created ostensibly to take decisions on specific large-scale projects out of politicians' hands and, crucially, slash the time it takes to get planning approval by consigning the lengthy public inquiry process to history in key areas.
Society Guardian has learnt that developers are preparing to submit more than 50 schemes to the IPC in its first year, with large energy projects topping the list - including scores of wind farms...." Read in full
July 15 2009 ~ "all the wind turbines planned in the UK in the foreseeable future will be imported..."
- Vestas, Britain's only significant manufacturer of wind turbines, will tomorrow cease production of wind turbine blades at its factory in Newport in the Isle of Wight. This is somewhat ironic, given Ed Milliband's aggressive policy of support for expansion of wind energy. Given the level of scepticism and outrage at the way Britain's wildest places are being sacrificed to a concept that relies on an intermittent source of energy via giant structures that have to be backed up by fossil fuel or nuclear power when there is no wind, Ed Milliband now plans that wind farm planning applications shall be "forced through".
Meanwhile, a consortium of 20 large industrial companies, banks and insurance companies forming a group called Desertec has a rather more ambitious idea. This is to use efficient solar-thermal energy in the vast deserts of Africa. If it is successful, a significant portion of Europe's energy needs could be supplied. (See Desertec website)
July 14 2009 ~ Scotland. The Beauly-Denny electricity transmission line inquiry "took evidence on transmission only from organisations that agreed.."
-
(Published Date: 10 July 2009 in the Scotsman)
A letter from Helen McDade,
Head of policy, John Muir Trust
- "Your report (1 July) that the Scottish Parliament's economy, energy and tourism committee has said the Beauly-Denny electricity transmission line must go ahead as soon as possible is no surprise since, in its year-long inquiry, it took evidence on transmission only from organisations that agreed with this - mainly the power companies.
It refused to take evidence from Sir Donald Miller (ex-chairman of Scottish Power), Colin Gibson (a previous member of National Grid's board) and the John Muir Trust, all of whom have been extensively involved in examining the case for the line.
Since the committee found it had no time to listen to these alternative views, it would be interesting to know how many hours it managed to find to meet with industry lobbyists within and outwith the committee.
The committee system at the Scottish Parliament is supposed to be the safeguard against poor decision-making by the executive arm of government. There is a serious question about whether, in some cases, committee members are mostly following the party whip rather than giving serious independent thought to major issues.
Some people believe the decision-making process on electricity generation and transmission is the next big scandal, after the banks. There is no doubt that the public's interest is not being best served, by the UK or Scottish governments, in the shambles that is our energy "policy".
July 14 2009 ~ "Britain is facing an unprecedented crisis. Before long, we will lose 40 per cent of our generating capacity."
- Once again, Christopher Booker is undaunted at the prospect of challenging the current dogma. He writes today:
"...unless we come up quickly with an alternative, the lights WILL go out. Not before time, the Confederation of British Industry yesterday waded in, warning the Government it must abandon its crazy fixation with wind turbines as a way of plugging this forthcoming shortfall and instead urgently focus on far more efficient ways to meet the threat of a permanent, nationwide black-out...over the past 20 years, our politicians have made an even more unholy shambles of Britain's energy policy than they have of our economy - and the cost, when the chickens come to roost in a few years' time, will be almost unimaginable. The causes of Britain's impending energy crisis are manifold. Michael Heseltine's 1992 'dash for gas', when he closed down most of our remaining coal mines because North Sea gas was still cheap and abundant, and because its CO2 emissions were only half those of coal, was one of them.
But nothing has done more to take the politicians' eye off the ball, egged on by environmentalist groups such as Friends Of The Earth and Greenpeace, than their quite incomprehensible obsession with windmills.
For these white elephants can never produce more than a fraction of the electricity we need, and by no means always when we need it - as we saw last winter when, for weeks on end, they were scarcely turning at all.
Do politicians never look outside the windows of their centrally-heated offices to see how often the wind is not blowing?
The Government has now shovelled so much money in hidden subsidies into the pockets of the turbine companies that the 'wind bonanza', promoted on a host of fraudulent claims, has become one of the greatest scams of our age.
But if and when our lights do go out, it will be important to remember just why we got carried away by such a massive blunder.
Left with a land blighted with useless towers of metal, we shall look on those windmills as a monument to the age when the politicians of Britain and Europe collectively went completely off their heads." Read in full at www.dailymail.co.uk
July 13 2009 ~ "The one discordant element is the wind turbines, an affront to the eyes and an insult to the intelligence."
-
From The Times
June 24, 2009
Times Literary Walks: Brontë territory ".... the moors become a sea of purple, heavy with the scent of heather, the landscape is a variety of greens, browns and greys that change with the season and weather.
The silence is broken only by the plaintive cry of sheep, the liquid warbling of curlew and the lyrical crescendos of lark-song. The one discordant element is the wind turbines, an affront to the eyes and an insult to the intelligence...."
July 13, 2009 ~ Tilting at Wind Farms
- Times Editorial
"The Government's plans to concentrate on wind power at the expense of other renewable energy sources could prove to be a costly mistake
...
If hot air could be harnessed and fed into the National Grid, the environmental rhetoric emanating from Westminster could power London. ....Wind power, the great renewable energy hope of the Government, is neither cheap nor bountiful. ...
.... if a free market in energy would not support a wholesale switch to a ruinously expensive and volatile energy source, why should the taxpayer, or the electricity customer?
As we move to a planned energy economy which we are expected to pay over the odds for, we have the right to expect a serious, unsentimental debate on what we are paying for. Nuclear power must be brought into the centre of the planned economy, in from the cold. A wind farm producing the same amount of energy as a nuclear plant would cost up to three times as much. The Government is charging ahead with plans for wind farms, while its programme for the nuclear sector is far less ambitious. The aim is merely to replace ageing existing plants.
If the Government wants a target which is, for once, both sensible and achievable, it should aim to double our nuclear energy capacity. Nuclear may be unpopular with the green lobby, but it is still cleaner than coal and cheaper than wind."
July 11 2009 ~ Families face a charge of up to £120 to fund thousands of wind turbines
- The Government White Paper to be unveiled next week is expected to propose 'social tariffs' to ease the burden of higher energy bills on the poor and the elderly with energy companies told to subsidise the cost for the poor by adding extra to the bills of others. It will also introduce incentives for householders to produce their own energy from solar panels, ground source heat pumps and combined heat and power units. The Mail quotes Matthew Sinclair of the TaxPayers' Alliance:
- "The last thing that the Government should be doing right now is pushing up electricity bills even more to line the pockets of renewable energy firms. Wind farms aren't delivering reliable energy when we need it, and their massive subsidies are paid for by pushing up ordinary people's bills.
It would be a complete betrayal if they were to add to that burden while families are struggling to cope in a recession. Action needs to be taken to reduce the burden of ineffective climate change policies, instead of ploughing blindly on and throwing even more money at the problem."
July 9 2009 ~CUMBRIA UNDER SIEGE
-
Latest update on Cumbria wind farms (table here).
On the list, 29 is High Raise which is mis-located in the CG listing with the wrong grid reference.
July 9 2009 ~ "to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad...."
- James Lovelock, whose views on global warming could be described as cheerfully pessimistic, compares "sustainable development" to "deathbed snake oil peddled by an alt-medicine quack..."
James Lovelock told the New Scientist shortly before the release of his latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia that
- "Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It's not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it'll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning.....I am not against renewable energy, but to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad."
July 9 2009 ~"the best answer was 'we do not know'...."
- How difficult it is for non-specialists to know whom to believe on the question of climate change. Today's Mail :
- "....There is always a temptation to assume that anyone labelled a scientist thinks scientifically. Learned philosophers have discussed how experiments are regularly conducted to prove a desired conclusion rather than to ascertain truth.
Prof Plimer (see Ian Plimer's book 'Heaven and Earth. Global Warming, the Missing Science') provides the sharp-end view of this. The use of computer models excites his particular disdain....."
2 July 2009 ~ Silton, North Dorset. No turbines announcement greeted with cheers and applause
- Guardian ".. Planning chiefs today rejected proposals for six wind turbines.. in a beauty spot in Dorset. Green energy firm Ecotricity submitted the plans to build six 120-metre turbines (395ft) close to Silton, near Gillingham. North Dorset council's planning officers recommended the scheme for approval, but a development control committee unanimously rejected the plans to cheering and applause..."
2 July 2009 ~ 3,600-name petition says no to wind farm
- Scotsman "
Protestors campaigning against proposals to site Europe's biggest community wind farm in the heart of the Shetland mainland presented councillors with a petition bearing more than 3,600 signatures yesterday.
Viking Energy, a consortium formed by Shetland Islands Council and Scottish and Southern Energy to build the 150-turbine wind farm, formally lodged an application in May to develop the scheme, which, it is said, will produce enough power to supply 20 per cent of Scotland's domestic energy needs.
The turbines will be spread across 252 hectares of moorland. Viking Energy says the project will generate £37 million a year in revenues and create hundreds of jobs.
But opponents say devastation will be wreaked on a pristine, fragile landscape. Billy Fox, chairman of campaign group Sustainable Shetland, said the petition showed the level of opposition among local people..."
June 29 2009 ~ "an important case because the decision could have implications for future wind farm applications near to other national parks in the UK"
- Telegraph "...a battle that could have important legal implications for the siting of wind farms across Britain"
The Peak District National Park Authority has joined forces with Derbyshire Dales District Council to ask the High Court to reject planning permission for four giant turbines being built at Carsington Pastures just outside the Lake District National Park and adjoins the Carsington Water beauty spot.
- "The planning application was originally rejected by the district council two year ago, but developers Carsington Wind Energy Ltd took the matter to the Planning Inspectorate, which overruled the local councillors..."
June 25 2009 ~ "Stop the Spin, a movement dedicated to opposing planning applications for inappropriately sited industrial-scale inland wind farms"
- . See
www.stopthespin.org.uk
This website has just been created and will expand rapidly in the coming weeks and months. The site says, "To find out more about the Stop The Spin movement please attend our public meeting on Thursday June 25th at 7.30pm in Watford Village Hall, Station Road, Watford, Northamptonshire....We need all the help we can get to help save our villages and our rural environment!" Links are given to some local groups.
22 June, 2009 ~ 60 - 80 turbines each the size of Nelson's column at Nant y Moch, one of the most stunning areas of Ceridigion
- - and the company Airtricity says "... there will be considerable monetary benefits to local landowners involved in the scheme" See their website FAQs
UPDATE Now on the Artists Against Windfarms blog and also links on Nant-y-Moch page on website :-
http://www.artistsagainstwindfarms.blogspot.com
http://www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com/walks-2009/nant-y-moch/nant-y-moch-june.html
22 June, 2009 ~ Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has pushed the red button over a plan which could see more wind turbines built in the Norfolk countryside.
- EDP24 "
Miss Holden... said she was "incensed" after a planning application was submitted to put up an anemometer on Honey Hills, between Docking and Fring with a view to building a seven turbine wind farm.
She has joined the protest after more than 100 residents living in the villages surrounding the proposed site have lodged letters of objection to a wind measuring device being put up in the area.
At a West Norfolk council development control meeting on Monday, a decision on the planning application was deferred so councillors could make a site visit to the area.
Although Miss Holden's would not be directly affected, she said her loyalty and love of Norfolk would mean she would be supporting the villages affected.
....
A report to West Norfolk council recommends the planning application for approval. It said: "In the light of the central government's stated policy of supporting the exploitation of renewable energy resources and because of the temporary nature of the consent for this single mast, approval may be granted, subject to condition of a period of 36 months." The planning application will go before West Norfolk council tomorrow at 11.15am following a site visit."
9 June, 2009 ~ Are wind farms a good idea - BBC poll
- This BBC poll is on a BBC children's page. We were unable to get the voting mechanism to work. Can anyone else or has the poll now expired?
While the answer may be that wind turbines are a brilliant "green" idea in theory, the hard facts - as we have tried to show below - suggest that giant turbines are actually wasteful of resources, inefficient and irreversibly destructive of the environment.
June 2009 ~ "Europe should scrap its support for wind energy as soon as possible to focus on far more efficient emerging forms of clean power generation including solar thermal energy..."
- The Times quoted
Professor Jack Steinberger, a Nobel prize-winning director of the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva:
"Wind is not the future...I am certain that the energy of the future is going to be thermal solar,....There is nothing comparable. The sooner we focus on it the better."
Professor Steinberger said that all known reserves of fossil fuels would be depleted within 60 years and that a network of solar energy farms in the Sahara could reliably supply nearly 80 per cent of Europe's energy needs by the middle of this century.
The Times continues: "He called for European governments to fund a big pilot project in North Africa linked to Europe via high-voltage undersea cables. Solar thermal power was already economic and on the brink of big advances that would place it way ahead of rival forms of wind, geothermal, wave and tidal energy, he said. "Governments need to focus on this area right now."
A 3-3.5 gigawatt solar thermal project in North Africa, which would generate enough electricity to supply two million homes, would cost £20 billion to build. "I am certain you could make electricity and ship it to Europe at a price equivalent to fossil fuels."
He said that intermittent energy sources, such as wind, required back-up power generation, which undermined their contribution to emissions reductions. In contrast, solar thermal power could generate heat energy that could reliably generate 24-hour electricity...."
Britain has made wind energy a priority in reducing carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. The Government plans to build 33 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2020, which the professional services organisation Ernst & Young estimates will cost more than £100 billion. Professor Steinberger said that it would cost about £440 billion and take 30 years for Europe to remove its reliance on fossil fuels, which supply 80 per cent of its energy needs, but that governments needed to make bold decisions about which technologies to support....." Read in full
May 28 2009 ~ "it made no sense to put wind turbines in a low wind area, but there were so many other reasons why these turbines should never have been considered..."
- Montreathmont and Rossie Moor public enquiry - result. these wild areas of lowland Angus ARE SAVED from being turned into industrial wind parks. The Scottish Government reporter has recommended that the applications be refused.
- "....The proposals were fought on two fronts by action groups Friends of the Forest (FoF) and STORM (Stop Turbines on Rossie Moor), with one campaigner last night lauding their combined drive as a key factor in convincing the government reporter to block the bids.
FoF chairman Jim Hair said, "We are so pleased with this decision..."
May 2009 ~ The sheer volume of articles says it all
- Wind Power News: U.K is just the UK section of the global "Wind Watch" website. Every day, more and more articles from across the world chart the increasing concern of those who oppose wind turbines, new information about the ecological impact of windfarms and evidence that the technology is unable to produce anything approaching the amount of energy that might counterbalance objections to the disadvantages it presents.
May 27 2009 ~Time to celebrate?
-
Letter in The Scotsman 22 May 2009
- "Yippee for the completion of Whitelee, operated by Spanish-owned Scottish Power ("Energy is renewable but lost market share is not", Business, 20 May). This monstrous adornment to the landscape can produce 322 megawatts (when the wind blows very hard). However, the Spanish owner, Iberdrola, released a statement just a few weeks ago that, "Britain, which aims to install about 30 gigawatts of wind turbines by 2020, will need to build almost as much backup power generation.
This will incur huge extra cost from the new fossil fuelled plant, which cannot pay for itself while standing-by, and will negate part of the intended carbon dioxide saving. However, it makes money from the Renewables Obligation subsidy and no doubt political fingers are in the till, as elsewhere."
(DR) JOHN ETHERINGTON
Llanhowell
Solva, Pembrokeshire
May 2009 ~ ".. helping the victims of this destructive industry"
- Angela Kelly writes that "Dr. Nina Pierpont continues to do a wonderful job researching and unmasking the truth about noise from
wind turbines and helping the victims of this destructive industry".
Please visit her excellent website for more information :
http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/ One extract:
- "....Professor MacKay is not promoting one kind of energy source over another. He has no axe to grind. His goal is simple: to compare current energy usage throughout the United Kingdom with what can be reasonably expected from non-renewable and renewable energy sources. In other words, he uses numbers to show this is what we consume and this is what wind, solar, oil, nuclear, coal, and natural gas can realistically provide."
May 2009 ~ "Even though polls consistently show that 80 pc of the British Public favours offshore wind, local and national anti groups crowd meetings and twist the facts" (sic)
- Quoted in the Telegraph. The 'expert' consulted by the Telegraph, who considers that those who are opposed to windfarms "crowd meetings" and "twist facts", is Ed Wilson, head of energy (and environment finance)
of Bank of Scotland Corporate. He also counters the reasoning of what he calls 'the small but well-organised and vocal anti-wind lobby' that wind is both inefficient and intermittent by offering this: "Intermittency is often cited as a reason not to use wind, but all power stations are intermittent - for example, Britain's nuclear fleet experiences more outages than any other nuclear fleet in Europe...."
May 2009 ~ "My party shows every sign of being likely to gain office next year, but I can spot very few signs of it being about to adopt sensible energy policies."
- On May 7 in the House of Lords, Lord Reay's speech contained the following thought-provoking words:
- "... The current fashionable pursuit of so-called renewable energy must rank as one of the most lunatic policies ever adopted .... The expansion of renewables today means the expansion of wind power. However, wind power is inefficient...government figures show that the load factor - that is, the percentage of what would be produced by turbines over a year if running at full capacity, even of offshore wind turbines - barely rises above 27 per cent. For between 55 and 110 days a year, depending on where they are sited, wind turbines are idle, the wind being too weak, or, more rarely, too strong to power them.
Moreover, this absence of wind is very likely to coincide with periods of extreme cold, or, in the summer, extreme heat, when electricity demand surges.....
.... per delivered megawatt the capital cost of wind is three to five times the cost of nuclear, 10 times the cost of gas and 15 times the cost of coal.....
.... If the Government's renewable targets were to be met, this would rise to some £6 billion per annum - enough to build two nuclear power stations - and a cumulative total by 2020 of some £32 billion....
... They also have other disastrous effects, one of which is the industrialisation of those beautiful upland landscapes throughout the United Kingdom that attract visitors from all over the world..... Faced as we are with the need to find the capital for an enormous rebuild of conventional power stations, can we afford to more than double that amount, perhaps much more than double that amount - I have seen an estimate of £200 billion all told - and to do so by increasing consumers' electricity bills by 30 per cent to 50 per cent?..."
May 2009 ~ A recipe for disaster?
- U.K. energy regulator Ofgem said on Friday it is "temporarily relaxing industry rules to allow faster connection to the electricity network for generators of low-carbon electricity such as wind." See www.dowjones.de
It claims that the move will "speed up the connection of 450 megawatts of power from small and large wind farms in Scotland that will be able to connect to the high-voltage electricity networks as soon as they are ready..." but what about the grid itself? Are connections are going to be "speeded up" before the grid has been upgraded to receive them?
April 29 2009 ~ Linton wind farm: "since the application was made almost all the correspondence has been against."
- James Paice MP seems to be largely in agreement with www.stoplintonwindfarm.org.uk He writes,
- "There is no doubt in my mind that the issues of landscape, road safety and impact on peoples' homes are very considerable. I have always been concerned that planning guidelines in Scotland recommends a turbine to be at least 2 kilometres from any house yet no such rules apply in England though I believe they should.
I am also very disappointed that the developers have refused to attend any public meeting since they submitted the application. I invited the chief executive to attend such a meeting under my chairmanship in order that we could hear their answers to these questions. Regrettably he saw fit to answer that he believed "a public BUN FIGHT is totally inappropriate". I have since suggested to him that his refusal means he is losing the argument by default. He has not as yet replied.
I have therefore concluded that with all the obvious negative aspects of this particular site and in the absence of any clear positive argument for it that the application should be refused and I am setting out that opposition to the planning authority."
April 25 2009 ~ "We all stood up and clapped as it was such relief. We have our piece of England kept to what we love and know."
- The BBC reports how Councillors have rejected plans to build a wind farm in Oxfordshire of four wind turbines, each 411ft (125m) high proposed at Willow Bank Farm in Ardley, north of Bicester.
April 24 2009 ~Scottish Power worried about wind power
-
Scottish Power, one of the leading power companies in the UK says that Britain is going to need a back up for its wind power solution. Right now, Britain is aiming to install about 30 gigawatts worth of wind turbines by the early date of 2020. However, the problem is that Scottish Power says that the UK will have to come up with just as much power from another source to generate energy during calm weather periods. More
April 23 2009 ~ Reports of wind farm health problems growing
-
CTV.ca News Staff
"More people are coming forward saying they're experiencing sleep problems, headaches, and heart palpitations caused by living near windmills.
Ontario physician Dr. Robert McMurtry told a news conference in Toronto Wednesday that while wind energy may offer a cleaner, more efficient way to generate electricity, those who live near the giant turbines are suffering through serious health problems. ....
Krogh and a group of volunteers distributed questionnaires in areas near wind farms, asking residents to describe whether they have experienced any effects from the turbines.
Of 76 people who responded to their informal survey, 53 reported at least one health complaint. They complained of:
- headaches
- heart palpitations
- hearing problems
- stress, anxiety and depression
April 2009 ~ "if we wanted to go totally green, we'd have to carpet the country with more windmills than exist in the whole world.."
- Article in the Mail, April 22 ".....the arguments about wind energy must be based on cold, hard economics, not emotion. The truth is that it is simply too expensive to cover all our needs.
What we really need is a new energy policy, one which involves building a new generation of nuclear stations - and soon.
We also need to invest, now, in research into 'clean coal' technology, in which the carbon dioxide produced when coal is burned is captured, liquefied and stored, harmlessly, undergound. This is a technology in which Britain leads the world (and we still have plenty of coal).
And, yes, we need to invest in more renewable energy.
But we also have to recognise that while energy from the natural elements such as the wind must form part of the mix, it cannot be anything like the sole solution to our energy crisis as the romantic greens hope.
The answer is messy, expensive and fraught with controversy and debate..."
April 2009 ~ 'We are six years away from an energy crisis'
- 'We are six years away from an energy crisis' wrote Dieter Helm,
Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford in the Times on April 16. Professor Philip Stott commented "Helm's analysis of the
current energy debacle should be force fed into every politician in the
land...." Read Professor Helm's view in full at www.timesonline.co.uk Extract:
- ".... because of the EU Renewables Directive the Government has
committed itself to a crash programme to increase wind's share of
electricity generation from the current 5 per cent to perhaps 35 per cent by
2020. But not only will wind power do little to combat global climate change
(the big issue is the projected increases in coal burn in China, India and
developing countries), it is also expensive and may even reduce the security
of supply. It is uncertain too. Few think that wind supply on this scale
will be achieved - though, unsurprisingly, few politicians will admit this
in public.
The security problem arises because wind is intermittent. When it does not blow, back-up capacity is needed; and when it does blow, it reduces the profitability of power stations whose alternative energy supplies it displaces.
If current capacity were around 70GWs, by 2020 even if demand stayed the same we might need as much as 90-100GWs of capacity to meet peak demand. So not only do we need to replace at least 30GWs of existing power stations, but we also need to add another big tranche of capacity to support the vagaries of wind power. Wind power is largely additional to the existing system: it does not replace the capacity that is being closed. ..".
April 2009 ~ Cumbria's windfarms
- 55% of Cumbria is designated National Park, AONB, Heritage Coast,
or World Heritage Site (Hadrian's Wall) AND the Lake District itself is seeking World Heritage status - yet there are more windfarms there than anywhere else. The many independent dissenting voices making disturbing comments about inefficiency include
- The head of development at West Danish generating company ELSAM (one of Denmark's largest energy utilities): "Increased development of wind turbines does not reduce Danish carbon dioxide emissions."
- Der Spiegel - which reports that "Germany's CO2 emissions haven't been reduced by even a single gram".
- Danish electricity generation costs are the highest in Europe.
- Niels Gram of the Danish Federation of Industries :"windmills are a mistake and economically make no sense."
- Professor David Bellamy :"These turbines are 22 storeys high put on hills where everyone can see them. They kill bats and birds and need 1,000 tonnes of concrete as well as a road infrastructure. It beggars belief that some environmental groups can say they are 'green'."
- Aase Madsen , the Chair of Energy Policy in the Danish Parliament: "a terribly expensive disaster."
- James Lovelock: "I was asked to open the windfarm at Delabole. At that time nobody was talking about a gigantic programme, getting 15 or 20 per cent of the country's energy from wind turbines. It was a kind of nice green gesture. I think, now that I know as much as I do, I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole."
April 12 2009 ~ After a delay of almost two years, German wind developer Enertrag (anagram of Green Rat) has finally registered its eight 125 metre turbine application spread over 24 acres of attractive rising chalklands
- about 7 miles to the south east of Cambridge. The historic Icknield Way runs close beside the site, and the Roman Road from Cambridge to Horseheath is nearby.
The rural site is surrounded by attractive villages - a number of them designated Conservation Areas.
Linton Zoo has an internationally important endangered species breeding programme and has succeeded in rearing two Madagascan White Collared Lemurs - the second rarest primate on earth..."
The deadline is 22 April, but there is some leeway of a day or two. The campaign is very active and the local forum wind thread has so far had 48,131 visits. The group would very much appreciate help - read in full
April 7 2009 ~ "The mountains went into labour, and gave birth to a ridiculous mouse."
- In spite of enormous pressure from financial and ideological lobbying, Europe's cut in emissions, we read, will amount to a miniscule 4 percent by 2020, far below the ambitious 20 percent target. The Charter of Palermo is an urgent bid to save the European countryside from the devastating impact of giant turbines - which anyway "don't fulfil the fundamental demands of sustainable development". Put forward by the European Platform against Windfarms
(EPAW), the Charter notes that windfarms have, for decades, drained most of the public funding dedicated to renewable energies, degrading the European countryside without ever having demonstrated their usefulness.
In the UK Ed Miliband says we have "no option" but to support 'a massive expansion of wind farms in the face of the growing threat from climate change'. Cutting harmful emissions and weaning ourselves off fossil fuel is certainly important - but windfarms, as James Lovelock has said, "won't cut it at all." Giant wind turbines, absurdly destructive and inefficient, gash, tear and tower their way across areas of wild beauty. Mr Miliband, concerned about political targets, dismisses as "a small minority" those who feel this is a tragic madness and must be opposed.
March 30 2009 ~ James Lovelock says Ed Miliband's moral stance on wind turbine opposition is an erosion of freedom and close to facism
-
The Observer reports his view:
- "It seems that we are now subject to a campaign that uses social rejection as a force to make us accept industrial-scale wind energy stations across the UK, to call them wind farms is disingenuous. As part of this campaign, the great and the good are now hectoring on the moral need to embrace wind energy...The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism. If wind energy were the one practical and affordable answer to global heating then I would grit my teeth at the loss of the countryside and accept it. There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas."
- "It is false pride and hubris to think that we can do anything to 'save the planet'...It is time we fully and deeply understood that our Earth can and always has saved itself although not necessarily for our benefit."
March 27 ~ Wind farms could damage your health says A&E consultant
- Cambridge News:
"An accident and emergency consultant warned a public meeting the long-term health impacts of wind turbines were 'still relatively unknown'..."
Also on Cambridge News was the poll " Do you think we should build more windfarms?" Out of 100 votes: Yes (42.0%) No (58.0%) Closing date 27-Mar-2009
March 26 2009 ~ "the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland."
- Extract from an article in Scotland's Press and Journal about the RSPB's support for inshore windfarms:
- "conservation charity the John Muir Trust yesterday urged the government to tackle climate change by further investment in energy efficiency rather than an increase in "costly and environmentally damaging" onshore wind power.
Bob Graham, chairman of Highlands Against Windfarms, said:
- "Germany and Denmark have seen no reduction in their CO2 emissions despite having more wind turbines per head of population than any other European country. Farcically, the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland.
"The RSPB, have for years, been feathering their nest with a cosy deal with Scottish and Southern Energy in which they get paid for every customer they sign up to so-called 'green energy'. This latest announcement is particularly cynical as they are more than aware that thousands of birds are killed every year around the globe by windfarms."
March 13 2009 ~ "major concerns about instances where the council followed officials' recommendations only to see the verdict reversed"
- The BBC quotes the Scottish Borders
Executive member for planning and the environment, Carolyn Riddell-Carre:
- "I think that is very unfair if a council makes a decision in line with its policies approved by ministers.
If that happens much more often it could be a case of saying let's get local government out of this because it is a farce. Just because we are not an overpopulated area does not mean it is acceptable for them to rain down an endless supply of wind turbines. My main concern is our picturesque landscape must not be destroyed in order to satisfy some national agenda," she said.
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Highly Recommended: Latest UK News at wind-watch.org (new window)
Recent news stories
| "Wind power is one of the great self-deceiving fantasies of our age.... it threatens to become a central ingredient in our forthcoming energy disaster." Booker's Notebook, Sunday Telegraph, March 2 2003 |
|---|
| "Wind energy is not as clean as its proponents would have us believe. It is an industrial development and as such causes degradation of the environments where turbines are sited. The result is a loss of habitat for wildlife. The proposed environmental benefits of windfarming...will only come from the very large-scale use of turbines. One environmental problem will simply be replaced by another." Dr John Hedger at the Institute of Biological Sciences at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth |
|---|
What's wrong with windfarms? The Case Against Wind farms'
wind represented an illusory technology - a cul-de-sac that would prove uneconomic and a waste of resources in the battle against climate change.
| "other measures deserve to be given closer consideration, but they involve much greater political sensitivity. ... it is time for the UK and other EU Governments to face up to these realities, and open up a wider debate." "CO2 Emissions Reduction: Time for a Reality Check?" Oxford Institute for Energy Studies February 2005 |
|---|
- A pdf file of the Gazetteer of wind power in Scotland, produced January 2005 by The Scottish Wind Assessment Project "..an
important document which maps and lists all the windfarms proposed, refused,
approved in Scotland. "
(Useful links about windfarms in the UK)
photo from http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/windfarms/turbulent.asp
James Lovelock (Gaia theory) has told the Western Morning News that he now regrets his endorsement of windfarms in the Westcountry "Windfarms won't cut it at all," he said..."
David Bellamy : "If I wanted to build in an area of outstanding natural beauty I wouldn't be allowed. Yet these turbines are 22 storeys high and put on hills where everyone can see them. They need 1,000 tonnes of concrete and a road infrastructure. It beggars belief that some environmental groups say they are 'green'."
Jan 2004 Lord Sainsbury has told peers that the Government's target for a massive expansion of renewable energy will be driven mainly by new windfarms, despite calls for greater investment in tidal power.
March 2003......the most frightening part of the paper is the section that, with a startling absence of facts or figures, endorses our EU obligation to spend billions of pounds on wind power.
To reach this target, Prof Fells points out, we would have to build 20 two-megawatt turbines every week until 2010. Most are much smaller than this, so we may need some 20,000 wind generators, up to 400 ft high (we have only 1,000), dominating thousands of square miles of countryside.
July 2004 "Some respected environmentalists believe here is only one realistic alternative available, and it is recognised by the man who opened Britain's first wind farm, Professor James Lovelock, the much-admired seer behind the Gaia concept of the planet as a living organism. He, too, has now turned against wind power. He believes nuclear power is the greenest energy option. It is a proven
supply of significant capacity and does not consume fossil fuels. Fells
also supports it.
"Fells said: "There
is no doubt that we need all the electricity we can get that doesn't
create carbon dioxide, but predicating this almost entirely on wind when
there are other, less obtrusive technologies seems simplistic, stubborn
and perverse....." (Sunday Times)
( See also http://www.wind-farm.org for those who "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.")
See also 'Ye Compleat Windde Warrior'
Latest SWAP Report (PDF new window)
READ LATEST NEWS
on Wind Farms at http://www.wind-watch.org/news/category/locations/europe/uk/Recent Examples
April 2009 ~ The sheer volume of articles says it all
- Wind Power News: U.K is just the UK section of the global "Wind Watch" website. Every day, more and more articles from across the world chart the increasing concern of those who oppose wind turbines, new information about the ecological impact of windfarms and evidence that the technology is unable to produce anything approaching the amount of energy that might counterbalance objections to the disadvantages it presents.
April 12 2009 ~ After a delay of almost two years, German wind developer Enertrag (anagram of Green Rat) has finally registered its eight 125 metre turbine application spread over 24 acres of attractive rising chalklands
- about 7 miles to the south east of Cambridge. The historic Icknield Way runs close beside the site, and the Roman Road from Cambridge to Horseheath is nearby.
The rural site is surrounded by attractive villages - a number of them designated Conservation Areas.
Linton Zoo has an internationally important endangered species breeding programme and has succeeded in rearing two Madagascan White Collared Lemurs - the second rarest primate on earth..."
The deadline is 22 April, but there is some leeway of a day or two. The campaign is very active and the local forum wind thread has so far had 48,131 visits. The group would very much appreciate help - read in full
April 7 2009 ~ "The mountains went into labour, and gave birth to a ridiculous mouse."
- In spite of enormous pressure from financial and ideological lobbying, Europe's cut in emissions, we read, will amount to a miniscule 4 percent by 2020, far below the ambitious 20 percent target. The Charter of Palermo is an urgent bid to save the European countryside from the devastating impact of giant turbines - which anyway "don't fulfil the fundamental demands of sustainable development". Put forward by the European Platform against Windfarms
(EPAW), the Charter notes that windfarms have, for decades, drained most of the public funding dedicated to renewable energies, degrading the European countryside without ever having demonstrated their usefulness.
In the UK Ed Miliband says we have "no option" but to support 'a massive expansion of wind farms in the face of the growing threat from climate change'. Cutting harmful emissions and weaning ourselves off fossil fuel is certainly important - but windfarms, as James Lovelock has said, "won't cut it at all." Giant wind turbines, absurdly destructive and inefficient, gash, tear and tower their way across areas of wild beauty. Mr Miliband, concerned about political targets, dismisses as "a small minority" those who feel this is a tragic madness and must be opposed.
March 30 2009 ~ James Lovelock says Ed Miliband's moral stance on wind turbine opposition is an erosion of freedom and close to facism
-
The Observer reports his view:
- "It seems that we are now subject to a campaign that uses social rejection as a force to make us accept industrial-scale wind energy stations across the UK, to call them wind farms is disingenuous. As part of this campaign, the great and the good are now hectoring on the moral need to embrace wind energy...The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism. If wind energy were the one practical and affordable answer to global heating then I would grit my teeth at the loss of the countryside and accept it. There is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas."
- "It is false pride and hubris to think that we can do anything to 'save the planet'...It is time we fully and deeply understood that our Earth can and always has saved itself although not necessarily for our benefit."
March 27 ~ Wind farms could damage your health says A&E consultant
- Cambridge News:
"An accident and emergency consultant warned a public meeting the long-term health impacts of wind turbines were 'still relatively unknown'..."
Also on Cambridge News was the poll " Do you think we should build more windfarms?" Out of 100 votes: Yes (42.0%) No (58.0%) Closing date 27-Mar-2009
March 26 2009 ~ "the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland."
- Extract from an article in Scotland's Press and Journal about the RSPB's support for inshore windfarms:
- "conservation charity the John Muir Trust yesterday urged the government to tackle climate change by further investment in energy efficiency rather than an increase in "costly and environmentally damaging" onshore wind power.
Bob Graham, chairman of Highlands Against Windfarms, said:
- "Germany and Denmark have seen no reduction in their CO2 emissions despite having more wind turbines per head of population than any other European country. Farcically, the Scottish Government admits to not having a clue if any CO2 has been saved by the 15 years of windfarm development in Scotland.
"The RSPB, have for years, been feathering their nest with a cosy deal with Scottish and Southern Energy in which they get paid for every customer they sign up to so-called 'green energy'. This latest announcement is particularly cynical as they are more than aware that thousands of birds are killed every year around the globe by windfarms."
March 13 2009 ~ "major concerns about instances where the council followed officials' recommendations only to see the verdict reversed"
- The BBC quotes the Scottish Borders
Executive member for planning and the environment, Carolyn Riddell-Carre:
- "I think that is very unfair if a council makes a decision in line with its policies approved by ministers.
If that happens much more often it could be a case of saying let's get local government out of this because it is a farce. Just because we are not an overpopulated area does not mean it is acceptable for them to rain down an endless supply of wind turbines. My main concern is our picturesque landscape must not be destroyed in order to satisfy some national agenda," she said.
March 15 2009 ~ When computer modelling goes haywire.....
- From today's Sunday Telegraph. Christopher Booker writes about the climate conference held in New York
- ".. organised by the Heartland Institute under the title Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?. In Britain this received no coverage at all, apart from a sneering mention by the Guardian, although it was addressed by dozens of expert scientists, not a few of world rank, who for professional standing put those in Copenhagen in the shade.
Led off with stirring speeches from the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the acting head of the European Union, and Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, perhaps the most distinguished climatologist in the world, the message of this gathering was that the scare over global warming has been deliberately stoked up for political reasons and has long since parted company with proper scientific evidence... it is already painfully clear that the computer forecasts are going hopelessly astray..."
- "... there is no dialogue on these issues.."
With what gratitude and affection many of us remember Professor Fred Brown and his gently persistent attempt to bring sanity to the FMD policies of 2001 - yet another case where seductive but flawed computer modelling drowned out any voice of humane reason, however distinguished.
February 16 2009 ~ " These figures should alarm all policymakers..."
- In the cold weather, wind turbines provided only 0.4 per cent of the energy needed.
As a letter in the Times today:
- "There were periods in January when wind hardly registered at all.
These figures should alarm all policymakers when one considers that the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) will result in the UK having to close down nearly a third of its coal-fired power stations by 2015. ....Wind energy's failure to deliver during the continuing cold period should be a wake-up call. We need to better support more reliable and predictable renewables such as tidal stream."
February 13 2009 ~ Reeves Hill - Herefordshire councillors decided to recommend approval for the plans. Is it to be left to Hazel Blears to decide?....
- After the decision by Herefordshire Council yesterday, the government will now decide whether four large wind turbines can be built
in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The novelist Ian McEwan, in a letter of objection, wrote that although he is a "passionate advocate of clean energy development" he is opposed to building the turbines in such an area of "great and fragile beauty for a near negligible gain."
BBC
- "...
A spokeswoman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said the application would now be assessed.
If it is called in the secretary of state Hazel Blears will make the final decision.
Applications that are called in are those which are of regional or national, rather than purely local, significance, the spokeswoman added."
February 11 2009 ~ "new wind turbines and solar cells haven't prohibited the emission of even a single gram of CO2"
- Der Spiegel (in English) , Feb 10 2009:
- "... The EU-wide emissions trading system determines the total amount of CO2 that can be emitted by power companies and industries. And this amount doesn't change -- no matter how many wind turbines are erected.
Experts have known about this situation for some time, but it still isn't widely known to the public. Even Germany's government officials mention it only under their breath. No one wants to discuss the political ramifications...big energy companies have an interest in maintaining the status quo. As a result, no one is pushing for change. Everyone involved is remaining silent.."
January 20 2009 ~ If you missed the S4C programme at 7pm yesterday it is repeated at:
-
S4C -3pm TODAY
Included in the programme (English subtitles) is coverage of the highly professional film made by
The Cambrian Mountains Society.
Members of the Society are interviewed. Shots are taken from the CMS film showing the beautiful Cambrian mountains as well as wind turbines and their effect on the landscape. Highly recommended.
January 2009 ~ Join the international demand for a moratorium on European wind energy
- The European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW).
whose aim is
- "to defend the interests of the numerous groups that are either fighting individual windfarm projects, or denouncing the ineffectiveness of windfarms for solving the problems of man and the planet .."
- "We originally represented organisations from Germany, France, Belgium and Spain. But since our foundation, associations from the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries whose number keeps increasing, have joined us, and we hope more will after reading EPAW's draft letter to the European institutions (below). All you need to do is send an email to contact@epaw.org saying you wish to join, signed by the head of the organisation.
Request for a moratorium: We have prepared a letter, below, that we shall send to the European institutions demanding that a moratorium be declared on the approbation of new windfarm projects and the construction of approved ones..."
January 2009 ~ "an authoritarian government bent on steam rollering its obsession with nigh-on useless wind power through the planning system, rather than allowing that well-tried system to do its job"
- A letter sent to the Guardian - (for which, it seems, the Guardian could not find space) - sums up what people feel about 'wind power at any cost' - and the present government's attitude to democracy. Extract:
- "... The problem is countrywide and not just at Shipdham. It lies in the profoundly anti-democratic attitude of an authoritarian government bent on steam rollering its obsession with nigh-on useless wind power through the planning system, rather than allowing that well-tried system to do its job, and regardless of the democratic rights of opposition by host communities. Never before has Government sold its heart and soul to an industry that purveys a product which promises so much and delivers so little.
The spectre of windpower anywhere at any cost antagonises communities and causes them to rise in protest. The true reason why the wind programme takes its time in a democratically based planning system is that intelligent people right across Britain have worked out that it conveys a false prospectus against climate change and pollution, and in the end is only a short cut to masses of money for the very few, as well as threatening the very roots of our democratic society. ..."
December 12 ~ Wind farm scheme 'will wreck our village'
-
"A £3 million wind farm scheme will wreck the tranquillity of South Devon villages and drive money- spinning tourists away, a public inquiry has been warned.
A power company wants to build three 100-metre high wind turbines on a prominent ridge near Kingsbridge, near the villages of Goveton, Buckland tout Saints and Ledstone.
Town planner Graham Percival warned that tourists could choose to holiday elsewhere rather than have to see the huge turbines as he gave evidence in the Totnes planning enquiry.
He also warned of the impact of the huge turbines on the residents of surrounding villages and invited the inspector to spend an evening in them to see just how quiet they are. "In my life I have never been to places that are quite so tranquil as Ledstone and Goveton," he said. He warned that even if people could not see the turbines from their homes or gardens they would still be forced to see them as they went about their daily lives..."
December 2008 ~ Windfarms now a threat to air safety
-
"AIR safety will be threatened in Allerdale if any more wind farms are built.
That's according to the company responsible for traffic control of all planes flying in UK air space.
Air traffic control service NATS, in a letter to Allerdale council planning boss Ric Outhwaite, has warned that the district has reached what it regards as the safe acceptable limit of wind farms and that any more could compromise safety...." Read in full
September 16 2008 ~ New report slates windfarms
- Friday's Telegraph reports on the study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank. Extract:
- "...Energy companies want to erect more than 3,000 turbines over the next five years, leading to fears that hundreds of acres of rural landscape will be blighted.....
The report says that wind farms are unprofitable and rely on hefty subsidies that ultimately come from consumers....
The report, written by John Constable, of REF, and Robert Barfoot, the chairman of the North Devon branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, says...
- "The market for renewable energy is an artificial one created and maintained by government legislation. The question is whether this consumer-derived money is well spent. It is worth noting that the excessive subsidy offered to onshore wind development has drawn developers even to sites where the wind resource is very weak and the environmental impact severe."
.... Critics have estimated that by 2020 the cost of the Renewables Obligation could rise to more than £3 billion. .."
August 2008 ~ "In the 11 years I have been an MP, I have never known an issue which has engendered so much hostility.
- 2,000 letters of objection were received by North Shropshire District Council over plans to build a wind farm in Norton-in-Hales. Just five letters of support were received - but seven giant wind turbines at Lower Farm, Bearstone are to get the go-ahead. North Shropshire MP, Owen Paterson, in a letter to the District Council, has said:
- "I am writing to you to express my shock on reading your NSDC officer's report recommending its approval. In the 11 years I have been an MP, I have never known an issue which has engendered so much hostility. I understand officers have to take note of central government policy, councillors though are free to take a different view, based on the interests of local residents. You are the leaders of this community and this is a real opportunity to show strong commitment to those you represent. There is no benefit to the people of North Shropshire, the only beneficiary of this wind farm is to the developer, who gains very handsomely indeed, but at a terrible cost to my constituents."
August 2008 ~ 92 per cent of installed wind capacity would have to be backed up by traditional power stations.
-
" A leading power company has claimed wind energy is so unreliable that even if 13,000 turbines are built to meet EU renewable energy targets, they could be relied on to provide only 7 per cent of the country's peak winter electricity demand.
E.On has argued that, during the coldest days of winter, so little wind blows that 92 per cent of installed wind capacity would have to be backed up by traditional power stations..." Scotsman
July 2008 ~ Research: Wind power pricier, emits more CO2 than thought
The next line of defence for wind advocates is normally the idea of hooking up the UK's grid with high-capacity links to those of other European nations, creating a "Supergrid" with wind so widely spread that output would be sure to even out. But ... Not only does the large continental wind base exhibit nasty rollercoaster surges in aggregate output, these surges tend to match those to be expected in the UK. When the wind isn't blowing across most of the UK, it isn't blowing in Germany, Denmark etc. either. Worse still, this happens in the dead of winter when electricity demand is highest.
... ... (one) passage in the report aroused particular ire from the British Wind Energy Association, speaking to the Sunday Telegraph on the matter at the weekend. "When you look at the UK system as a whole, there is electricity coming from wind 100 per cent of the time," expostulated a testy spokesperson. "There is no moment in time when the output of the pool falls to zero."
Oswald's report... it is true that aggregate wind output is never exactly zero. Sometimes it's less than zero, though. It was during the nasty calm of 2006, for instance: ... Oswald said that a realistically feasible UK pumped-storage base would only cope with one or two days of low winds at best. He said that there's a five-day calm most winters; and every twenty years or so you can expect a ten-dayer. "I'm quite rude about pumped storage," he told us. ... Power swings from wind will need to be compensated for by power swings from gas-powered plants, which in turn will induce comparable power swings on the gas network as plant ramps up and down. This will have a cost implication for the gas network, an implication that does not seem to have been included in cost of wind calculations …
In essence, wind plans aren't actually wind plans, according to Oswald. They're gas plans with windfarms used to reduce the amount of gas actually burned in the plants. But he thinks the assumptions now made on costs and emissions reductions to be anticipated are unduly optimistic. From one perspective, one might argue that this is the exact purpose of renewable plants, namely to reduce fossil fuel burning. However, it does this not by obviating the need for that plant, but instead by reducing the utilisation of power plants which continue to be indispensable. Electricity operators will respond to the reduced utilisation … high capital [cleaner gas] plant is not justified under low utilisation regimes … it is critically important that the carbon saving achieved by the whole system is known, understood, and achieved in practice. The effect of this higher carbon calculation does not appear to be mentioned …" Read in full
July 12 ~ FIRST EVER GIANT WIND TURBINE IN A NATIONAL PARK IS TO BE BUILT
- We read in the Campaign for National Parks Glyndbourne press release
"National and regional environmental groups have criticized the government's decision today to grant permission for a giant wind turbine at Glyndebourne in the South Downs. The turbine will be the first industrial-scale turbine ever to be built in a designated national park.
Ruth Chambers of the Campaign for National Parks, a member of the South Downs Environmental Protection Consortium, said "We are hugely disappointed by the government's decision in this case which our view fails to appreciate the national importance of the South Downs landscape. ..." and somewhat uncheered by one paragraph:
- "Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has imposed several conditions which must be met before the wind turbine is built, including the closure of Glyndebourne's helipad, and a programme of measures to encourage the use of non-car modes of transport. The Consortium welcomes the Secretary of State's recognition that the carbon footprint of Glyndebourne's visitors should be tackled, a point which we argued during the public inquiry which took place earlier in 2008." Read in full
July 7 2008 ~ Assumptions made on costs and emissions reductions of wind turbines "unduly optimistic"
- Phillip Bratby says in his evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry into 'The Economics of Renewable Energy'
- " It has been apparent for a long time that the renewable energy policy is target-driven and is not based upon any engineering or economic analysis of the effect of renewable energy on the UK electricity supply industry..."
May 22 ~ Parish councillors are calling on district planners to refuse a controversial application by green power company Enertrag UK to build a wind farm at Hempnall.
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EDP "The Diss-based firm is seeking consent to site seven 125m high turbines on land at Bussey's Loke, in the south Norfolk village near Norwich, to supply renewable energy for the National Grid.
But the scheme has sparked fierce opposition from local residents who claim the development would create a huge visual impact on Hempnall and surrounding villages, and have set up campaign group Showt (Stop Hempnall's Onshore Wind Turbines)....The parish council considered the proposals at their meeting on Wednesday. The application includes an environmental impact statement comprising more than 200 pages.
Parish clerk Ian Nelson said: "The decision was to recommend refusal to the planning authority and it was unanimous. The primary concerns were visual impact, noise, flicker shadow, and not in accordance with the South Norfolk wind turbines sensitivity analysis. It is contrary to that, as the site is in a designated area of high sensitivity."
Mr Nelson said the parish council also believed there to be inconsistencies in the application.
The consultation period, in which people are invited to make written comment to South Norfolk Council, has been extended to June 10. This follows a request by Saxlingham Nethergate Parish Council for additional time "in view of the size of the issue, and the volume of material submitted with the planning application".
April 17 2008 ~ Struan Stevenson, MEP, is calling for action to stop any further building on peatland.
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Mr Stevenson is the president of the Intergroup on Sustainable Development:
"We are getting the whole development of wind power catastrophically wrong if we allow wind farms to continue to be developed on peatland," Mr Stevenson said.
There are 980 wind-farm proposals in place across Europe, of which 187 would be built on peatland. Some are gigantic wind farms, such as that proposed for the Scottish island of Lewis. See warmwell's front page today.
April 7 2008 ~ Plans for a Perthshire wind farm rejected by the Scottish Executive "... they would still represent an intrusion on a sensitive skyline".
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The proposal for five huge wind turbines at Tillyrie Hill, four kilometres north-west of Milnathort, was scrutinised by the Scottish Executive and then rejected.
Michael Shiel, acting on behalf of the Executive, conducted a public inquiry in Kinross last year and after listening to details for and against the wind farm proposals he reported: "I find the proposal not to be environmentally acceptable." Perthshire Advertiser
07 Apr 2008 ~ Fast track windfarms fear
- Todmorden News
"There is a serious danger that three wind power proposals above Todmorden will be "fast tracked" through the planning appeal process, and local concerns set aside in favour of the Government's "green" energy targets, say local campaigners. ..Local campaigners against the wind turbines are very concerned that the three sites proposed, with a total of 20, 410ft high turbines, will be treated by the Inspectorate as one big wind farm. If the total installed capacity is 60MW or over, the Inspectorate refer to it as a site "of major importance having more than local significance".
If this happens, local concerns such as the risk to people's spring water supplies, or the threat of flooding due to loss of peat on the tops, or loss of the open moorland that gives Todmorden its character, could be set aside, in favour of Government targets on renewable electricity, says a local spokesman...."
April 6 ~ "Chris and dozens of his neighbours wonder why they are necessary in such a sensitive area when Gordon Brown recently announced a series of enormous projects to build a series of such wind farms offshore..."
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"One of the more tawdry innovations of modern politics has been the ever-increasing use of obfuscation, a deliberate attempt by politicians and their spin doctors to persuade the public that they are doing one thing when in fact they are doing exactly the opposite.
A good example of this is the so-called " public consultation" over 2,500 post office closures, which - as former Labour minister Kate Hoey has admitted - is a " total sham" because the list of branches due for the chop was agreed behind closed doors months ago...Over recent years, many of us have leaned a wary ear towards most public announcements, trying to discern the background noise of real intent, but in my long career I have never heard a statement quite as startling as this:
- " It was easier to penetrate a gang of international drug smugglers in Hong Kong than it is to find out exactly what is going on in the attempt to build a giant wind farm in Craven."
Make no mistake, these machines are giants: over 400 feet tall and - should they get planning permission - they will stand on top of a hill already 600 feet above sea level. They will be plainly visible from as far away as Penyghent to the north, Malham Tarn to the east, Pendle Hill to the south and across the Forest of Bowland to the west - four of the most beautiful landscapes in England.
Put simply, Chris and dozens of his neighbours wonder why they are necessary in such a sensitive area when Gordon Brown recently announced a series of enormous projects to build a series of such wind farms offshore. ."cravenherald.co.uk
April 5 2008 ~ Work on a controversial development of a major wind farm off the North Wales coast restarts next week as rows continue over the plans.
- "....Although the project is moving forward there remains firm opposition to the plan with campaigners demanding a full public inquiry.
They recently presented their case before the Welsh Assembly Petitions committee - alleging that the public was not given a proper chance to comment on the plans in 2002 because of the misleading name in the original proposal by Celtic Offshore Wind Limited (COWL) over the location of the site.
They also say an independent inquiry is required to assess the environmental impact of the work ...." Daily Post
April 4 2008 ~ Windfarm benefits not proven
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Lorne MacLeod praises windfarms (Press and Journal, April 2) saying " considerable benefits can be brought to communities from having their own income streams" . Readers should be wary of those who say the public will benefit from windfarms because that's not proven. Mr MacLeod appears unaware that parliament has asked the UK Government's chief scientific officer to research the possibility that mechanical vibrations from windfarms installed on peat are an environmental hazard likely to seriously harm taxpayer and business interests such as whisky, bottled waters and tourism.
I asked Mr Macleod's associates, Highland Alternative Energy, the wind turbine manufacturers' umbrella body, British Wind Energy Association, and local authorities in the north and north-east if they will indemnify taxpayer and business interests against such consequential loss.
No one is prepared to ...." Letter " Press and Journal
March 22 2008 ~ Last-ditch bid to halt wind turbines
- South Norfolk councillor Michael Windridge, leading the campaign against a green energy company's proposals to build seven 130m high wind turbines in a South Norfolk village has appealed to landowner Elizabeth Allen not to disregard the wishes of the majority of villagers who he says are opposed to the scheme being proposed by Enertrag UK. "....Mr Windridge said that South Norfolk Council's own independently-commissioned wind turbine sensitivity study has concluded that the Tas Valley tributary farmland landscape " is especially sensitive to large-scale developments due to its strong rural and tranquil character" .
He said it is his belief that everyone has a vital role to play in helping to reduce carbon emissions by supporting the development of renewable energy sources including wind, solar and tidal power.
But he added: " The solution to global warming won't be found by spoiling the scenic beauty, tranquillity and diversity of such a sensitive rural environment." ..." Eastern Daily Press
March 22 2008 ~ A "sham of democracy"
- "......The government survey by Glasgow Caledonia University concluded 97% of tourists would not be deterred from revisiting Scotland.
However, a poll of more than 1,600 people from 21 nations for Wilderness Scotland found that 91% of visitors would not return if major windfarms were built.
A survey for tourism industry association Wild Scotland showed that 61% of operators in Scotland felt the impact of windfarms would be negative. Another, by holiday operator Activity Scotland, found 88% of businesses agreed with that conclusion. Wilderness Scotland director Neil Birnie said: " The government study clearly does not represent the situation accurately.
" It appears not to have consulted the tourists who would be most affected, those who come to savour the unspoilt scenery and environment. This type of tourism is worth over £1billion to the Scottish economy each year." ...." Press and Journal
March 22 2008 ~ "plans for two 365ft-high wind turbines on the outskirts of Shotton Colliery are still in the pipeline.
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Applicants from alternative energy firm A7 Energy placed an appeal with the District of Easington council on the basis that the original planning process was dealt with outside of the timescale for planning applications.
The company is seeking planning permission for the turbines on appeal.
But the news was met with dismay from airfield owner Ian Rosenvinge, who said he has plans for new hangars, disabled facilities, toilets and baby changing at the airfield, which have to be put on hold while the turbine issue remains unsolved.
All of the airfield's plans for expansion already have planning permission...." Peterlee Mail
March 15 2008 ~ Wind farm plans rejected at Thackson's Well, Grantham
- Grantham Journal
... plans to build a huge wind farm north of Grantham were rejected by councillors on Tuesday.
Members of South Kesteven District Council's development control committee voted 11 to 3 to throw out the plans to build ten 410ft turbines at Thackson's Well in the Vale of Belvoir, despite planning officers recommending they be approved....Members of campaign group BLOT - Belvoir Locals Opposing Turbines - cheered as the result was read out.
The group spent five months campaigning against the proposals, which would have seen turbines built less than a mile-and-a-half from some residents' homes.
Chairman Pandora Mawer said she was delighted with the committee's decision.
She said: "I am relieved. The support we had here was completely overwhelming.
"Having given up five months of our lives to do this, we are so relieved that the district councillors listened..." There will be an appeal.
March 15 ~ PLANNING inquiry into a windfarm planned for the Eden Valley ended yesterday.
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The government planning inspector reserved his decision in the case but it is expected to be made public in about two months.
Members of Eden Council's planning committee went against the recommendations of their own officers last year when they turned down the scheme.
The turbines, 95m high to the tip of the blades, could have supplied power to more than 2,000 households for the next 25 years.
But councillors voted 13-0 against the plans after hearing from three local objectors - an outcome that prompted loud applause within the meeting at Penrith Town Hall.
Bill Thwaytes, who lives at Maulds Meaburn, argued then that allowing the development would set a precedent and produce a domino effect in the Eden Valley. .." News and Star
March 15 ~ "the county has exceeded its wind targets and is becoming a dumping ground for developers"
- In Durham
Cornwall Light and Power is planning to submit a application to build four turbines on land at South Sharpley Farm near Seaham, a part of Durham which residents say is already overdeveloped. The Journal: "....
Spokeswoman for the group Anne Brough:
" No one in the village wants these turbines going up, but we fear our views will not be listened to."
.....
Now STOP have called for recognition that Durham has already played its part. ...."
March 6 2008 ~ Developers have vowed to press ahead with a wind farm despite protests which drove a farmer to take his own life.
- EDP
"Marshland Wind Farm wants to build 19 turbines on low-lying farmland between Marshland St James and Outwell.
....
Feelings have been running high in Marshland and its surrounding villages since plans for the wind farm were first revealed by a consortium of farmers early last year.
In May, father-of-three Richard Herbert, 47, who was part of the consortium, drowned himself in the Middle Level Drain.
An inquest recorded a verdict of suicide after hearing he had no history of mental illness but had become anxious and depressed as protests mounted.
.... Developers say surrounding villages could receive a windfall of up to £500,000 to improve community facilities if the plans get the go-ahead. West Norfolk Council's development control board will decide whether the wind farm gets the go-ahead. At a meeting yesterday, neighbouring Fenland District Coun-cil heard new government guidelines said councils should view renewable energy schemes "sympathetically". Deputy leader Fred Yeulett told councillors: "Failure to do so exposes the council to a planning appeal and all the costs of that appeal." Last night it emerged planning officials had recommended approval for seven turbines alongside the eight already at Coldham, near Wisbech. A report said the landscape could comfortably absorb more turbines without its character being affected."
03 Mar 2008 ~ Village dismayed by turbines decision
- Morpeth Herald "Lynemouth residents have been dismayed by a Planning Inspector's decision to allow an appeal and grant planning permission for three wind turbines. Two of the 110m to blade tip and 65m to hub structures will be constructed to the North of Lynemouth Power Station and close to the shore. The third wind turbine will be inland ..."
03 Mar 2008 ~ Windfarm 'obsession' criticised
- BBC
"Wales is in danger of being smothered " in a blanket of wind turbines," says the Conservatives assembly environment spokesman. Darren Millar AM told delegates at the Welsh party's conference in Llandudno that the assembly government had a " blind obsession" with wind power. Mr Millar said the Conservatives were not against wind energy, only large scale windfarms..He said the current policy was leading to a " massive democratic deficit" .
Mr Millar said the decisions of local councillors were being ignored and the views of local communities disregarded.
He said Wales' landscape and tourism industry must not be " sacrificed on the altar of a minister's obsession" ..."
Feb 23 2008 ~ 'We are just dumping ground for anything'
- The Journal
"People in a cluster of former mining villages fear they are about to be invaded by huge wind turbines after plans for a mini-windfarm on the Northumberland coast were approved by the Government. Harworth Power - an offshoot of UK Coal, which owned nearby Ellington Colliery - will be allowed to put up three 110m turbines ... disappointed villagers in Lynemouth, Ellington, Linton and Cresswell fear the decision makes it more likely that a bigger windfarm - of 13 turbines surrounding the nearby Alcan aluminium smelter - will also be approved by the Government.
The Scottish Power project for 121m turbines was also rejected by Castle Morpeth councillors last year, but the company has appealed and a public inquiry will be held in April..." Many local people have opposed the windfarms, saying they will bring no jobs and stifle efforts to regenerate an area still suffering from the demise of deep mining...."
February 22 2008 ~Planners turn down towering turbines
- Controversial plans to put five huge wind turbines on Todmorden Moor have been dealt a blow.
Calderdale Council Planning Committee voted to agree to a report recommending refusal of the 410-ft turbines, due to their impact on the surrounding area.
Objectors at the packed meeting applauded the decision but said there was still a long road ahead.
Chris Edwards, of Friends of the South Pennines, said: "This is a victory for us and we are very pleased at the criticism of the plans.
"The turbines are huge and a real threat to the area."
Objector Denise Mcgowan, of Todmorden, said: "From the outset there have been serious flaws in these plans. All in all there is substantial agreement to object to them."
The final decision will now be taken at a public inquiry expected to last several days..." Halifax Courier
February 20 2008 ~ Major wind farm scheme approved for Lewis
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A large-scale wind farm proposed for Lewis has been given the go-ahead by Western Isles councillors, says the BBC "Comhairle nan Eilean Siar's environment committee approved 13 of the 16 planned turbines for Eishken Estate.
Although not big enough to be called in automatically by the Scottish Government, it could be for environmental reasons.
A decision on 181 turbines proposed for Barvas Moor on Lewis remains outstanding."
It may be remembered that battle for Lewis began in 2004 (source) "....the plan is a disaster because it would wreck the habitat of thousands of endangered birds. For the developers, it is a money-spinner that will rejuvenate the local economy and help combat climate change. It could be a long, fierce and expensive conflict...."
February 10 2008 ~ "absurd and absurdly expensive hook"
- Lord Lawson of Blaby (Lords Hansard): "My Lords, is the Minister aware of the report by officials in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which was fortunately leaked to the Guardian. It pointed out that the Government's 2020 renewable energy target was unattainable, and that even if it could almost be attained, it would cost between £18 billion and £22 billion. Should not the noble Baroness instead be thanking the Ministry of Defence for getting the Government off this absurd and absurdly expensive hook?..."
February 9 2008 ~"... the environmental agenda has now been hijacked by marketing and large companies.."
- A letter in the Hexham Courant yesterday sums up the realisation that greed often masquerades as green.
- "....Tynedale Council had the intelligence not to be taken in by the " all windfarms are good" mantra so glibly abused by the companies who wish to make millions by erecting giant industrial turbines in the most environmentally ludicrous areas.
Anyone without a vested interest, who has taken the trouble to actually investigate remote onshore wind power stations, will not be asking why Tynedale is fighting them. They will want to know how such developments ever got this far in the first place."
February 4 2008 ~Energy companies profit from wind farms without building many more windmills
- Ecologist
"Subsidies paid to electricity generators through users bills are generating profits for the companies without translating into many new turbines.
A massive expansion in wind energy is needed to meet the government's target or producing 15 per cent of the UK's energy renewably by 2015. ....
The government's method of promoting growth is subsidies. These are paid through consumers electricity bills and are set to rise from over £600m a year to £3bn a year by 2020.
......
The cost of these is passed on to the consumer. ... Quoted in the FT Peter Atherton, head utilities analyst at Citi Investment Research, said: "It's a bonanza. Anyone who can get their nose in the trough is trying to." ...."
February 4 2008 ~ overambitious claims for the potential of wind power
- Times Leading article
".....Supporters of wind energy may be underestimating the seriousness of the damage done to radar signals, and the ease with which problems can be corrected. Not for the first time, they may be guilty of making overambitious claims for the potential of wind power, while countryside champions increasingly rue the way wind farms spoil sweeping vistas. For its part, the Ministry of Defence may be too Quixotic. But this is a genuine conundrum, not a laughing matter. A cost-effective solution must be found quickly. It may be a simple question of coordination and communication. If so, it is high time that different branches of government came together to avoid an unnecessary and potentially damaging conflict."
- "In tirelessly promoting windpower it was noticeable how the BBC never explained the most basic technical facts about wind turbines: their inefficiency and unreliability: the hidden subsidy system which disguised their true cost; how little electricity they generated relative to other power sources. The BBC invariably echoed the propaganda put out by the wind industry, wildly exaggerating the benefits of turbines and caricaturing opposition to them as coming only from "nimbys" who did not want them spoiling the view. Only in 2007 did Radio Four finally respond to criticism of its one-sided stance with a brief documentary admitting some of the drawbacks of wind power (Costing the Earth August 30 2007)"
Nearly 10,000 wind turbines will be spinning on land and sea by 2020
The estimated fivefold increase in the number of turbines would be required to meet a new renewable-energy target for the UK under a plan detailed by the European Commission. (See Scotsman Jan 24)August 2007 ~ "mounting evidence of the inefficiency and unreliability of wind turbines in the U.K..."
- From
Energy Tribune
"....A 2006 report from the British Renewable Energy Foundation showed that, despite the millions of pounds expended on wind across England, Scotland, and Wales, turbines operated at an average capacity of well below 30 percent. The report went so far as to designate some lowland England sites as "real turkeys." In 2007, a study of turbine production figures published in the National Grid's "Winter Consultation Report 2007/8" showed that, even in the world's windiest nation, wind turbines were highly erratic and unreliable. Between October 2006 and February 2007, National Grid figures, including offshore as well as onshore developments, revealed that there were 17 days when output from the 1,632 windmills studied was less than 10 percent, 5 days when it was less than 5 percent, and 1 day when it was 2 percent. During the entire time studied, at best the wind turbines performed at 35 percent efficiency. .."
August 2007 ~ YouTube and "WIND MADNESS"
- Angela Kelly writes,
"Please spread this message to as many people as possible
so that they may register their objection to the Planning White Paper" It will only take a minute but will make a huge difference so thank you.
A coalition of civic and environmental organisations with over 5 million members is calling on the Government to rethink their plans and introduce a planning system which allows people a say on the decisions that affect them.
See www.planningdisaster.co.uk and the YouTube presentation:
Defend your rights in the planning system
The Government wants to change the law to stop you having a meaningful say in what happens in your local area.
This will make it easier for nuclear power stations, major roads, wind farms, airport runways, and waste incinerators to be built where you live without your say.
There is a public consultation on these proposals -- until 17 August 2007.
This is your last chance to make your voice heard.
Feb 5 2007 ~ ".... I reckon the wind farm lobby has some serious explaining to do.
- www.fwi.co.uk/blogs/
Unfortunately, development is being driven by a government desperate to be seen to be green, and slick salesmen working for an industry hell-bent on making a fast buck, regardless of its colour.
It has to make sense to explore further the potential of less intrusive and potentially more efficient alternatives, such as biofuels, tidal power and the nuclear option, as well as clean-burn technology for fossil fuels, before blighting vast tracts of our countryside with potential white elephants. ..."
The Big Debate: Are wind turbines a good thing for farming? - Vote
Angela Kelly writes, "The wind industry have mustered their powerful and numerous forces (which includes huge numbers of *ill-informed greens') to vote on this issue so your vote is of vital importance. Please vote and spread the message - thank you."Archive selection
December 2006 ~Oswald Consulting Reports commissioned by REF (Renewable Energy Foundation).
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25GW of distributed wind on the UK
electricity system
7th Dec 2006
An engineering assessment carried out for the
Renewable Energy Foundation, London pdf file. The research shows that, for most of the UK, windpower fails to generate its claimed return, and that when it does, the sites are remote. The assumption that the wind is always blowing somewhere and thus makes a worthwhile and useful contribution is also found wanting. Power generation is subject to wide fluctuation countrywide and does little to help either the grid or to replace conventional generation. See also Telegraph report
July 17 2006 ~WINDFARM DISASTER THAT COULD STRIKE SCOTLAND TOO
- http://www.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk "...Experts are warning that an environmental disaster in Ireland which was linked to the construction of a windfarm could happen in Scotland.
The peat landslip in 2003 at Derrybrien saw a bog slide almost two miles down a hillside in County Galway - polluting waterways, killing 50,000 fish and engulfing a farmhouse.
The windfarm operators were fined but construction of the 71-turbine project - Ireland's largest - was completed.
Now a report from the Scottish Wind Assessment Project (Swap), which investigates claims for and against the wind industry, concludes that lessons from Derrybrien have not been heeded - despite legal action by the European Union against the Irish Government.
Moorland specialist John Phillips, a contributor to the report, said: "Windfarms tend to be located on ridges because that's where the wind blows.
"Anything that's got more than half a metre of peat on top of the bedrock is, potentially, something running in parallel with Derrybrien - which is the case for the majority of Scottish windfarms."...."
June 29 2006 ~wind turbines WMN "Campaigners against onshore windfarms say they are horrified to learn of moves to build four of the tallest turbines in the Westcountry .... at Bickham Moor, between Rackenford and Tiverton. Opponents of the scheme warned it would devastate the landscape and hit the rural economy...Two Moors campaign secretary, Caroline Harvey, said the turbines proposed for Bickham Moor could be taller than any previous proposal.
- "They would soar to a height nearly 100ft taller than Big Ben," she said.
"The possible development at Bickham Moor combined with the plans for Batsworthy Cross will rip apart our stunning natural environment and wage war on our rural economy and the communities in Devon."
Veteran onshore wind turbine opponent Alan Nunn, of St Austell, said: "The windfarm companies are trying to get bigger and bigger turbines so that they can have more installed capacity. In theory that should mean the need for fewer turbines, but it won't as the companies want to keep putting more turbines in everywhere. These turbine proposals are getting out of hand. You can't stop people putting in applications, if that is Government policy."
Mr Nunn warned that putting massive wind turbines close to the A361 North Devon Link Road could be a distraction hazard for motorists.
Earlier this year, Coronation Power revealed it had already begun investigating the possibility of four 410ft turbines at Wheelers Cross, close to the three turbines already in operation at Forest Moor, Bradworthy, which are 246ft high. But now, the firm is in the process of seeking planning permission to put up a 200ft-high wind-measuring mast as a precursor of its proposed turbines at Bickham Moor.
A special meeting of Oakford Parish Council was held earlier this week to consider the proposals at Bickham Moor. People at the meeting were horrified to learn of the turbine plan.
Among those at the meeting was Ashley Gray, the chairman of the Two Moors Campaign, who said rural communities were bearing the brunt of the Government's failed energy policy. .......... A spokesman for the firm promised extensive public consultation and said: "The precise number, height and location of the turbines will be finalised once our consultations and technical assessments have been completed and we have decided that this site is viable."
June 18 2006 ~ Booker's Notebook "....somehow, in environmental terms, the loss of Scotland's unique landscape to these vast steel structures is never taken into account. Forty years ago we pointlessly sacrificed the skylines of our cities to building tower blocks of council flats, many of which have since had to be demolished. When this mad obsession with turbines comes to be seen as a similar fantasy, who will then restore the wild beauty of those Scottish hills?"
May 28 2006 ~ The implications of this decision for those who are fighting turbine proposals on the basis of planning law and scientific argument are highly disturbing.
- Booker's Notebook " If inspectors are now to ensure that central Government diktats override everything else, there is no expert counter-argument that cannot be swept aside.
The inspector could have reached his decision without leaving London, and would have saved everyone much time if he had made this clear from the start. For our democracy and the rule of law, the implications are alarming." Read in full
March 19 2006 ~ Lottery throws #10m to the wind
- Sunday Times "...
THE government has been accused of raiding #10m of lottery money intended for good causes to subsidise the construction of a wind farm by a foreign energy company.
The grant to a subsidiary of Elsam, a Danish energy giant that is being taken over by the Danish state, will help to pay for a wind farm four miles offshore in Liverpool Bay.
This weekend the manager of the project admitted it would have gone ahead with or without the lottery cash.
"The project in itself is viable without the grant," said Adrian Maddocks. "I think it was just pot luck."....."
See also windfarm news roundup for today
March 19 2006 ~ "A logjam in the planning process for developers means that many wind farms will not be operational for a decade.
- Independent on Sunday "... Unless financing rules are changed, Wind Energy is warning that many will never even get built, which could force the Government to miss its targets on renewable energy.
The timing of the protest is embarrassing for the Government, which next month will close consultation on its energy review on nuclear power. Its previous review - only three years ago - was supposed to back renewable energy such as wind power..."
March 13 2006 ~ "I want to establish to what extent the DTI is working with local councils when larger wind farm proposals pass over to them.
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"I also want to hear what ministers have to say about listening to the local people who will have to live with the DTI's decisions.".... a roundup of three recent stories in the press about Ministers' Concerns, the Scottish National Trust's stance (anti) on an application to erect 17 turbines on Knoweside Hilland; and opposition to giant turbines in Castle Morpeth.
March 12 2006 ~ "Germany has devastated its countryside with a surfeit of wind farms yet they produce only 16 per cent of their rated electricity output,
- and Germany now emits more CO2 than it did before they were installed. As a good city needs its parks, so we on this crowded island need the countryside. Incredible that Greens, of all people, should wish to make it an industrial site filled with giant wind turbines. The history of world power production shows nuclear to be the safest - 10 times safer than hydroelectricity and hundreds of times safer than carbon fuels..." James Lovelock in the Sunday Telegraph
March 3 2006 ~ Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean said that only as a last resort should windfarms be looked at on land.
- In ther article about Whinash, Cumberland News
Windfarm rejection hailed as victory for democracy
quotes David Maclean: "We have got to restart the nuclear industry, we need bio-fuels, wave power and large windfarms out at sea."
Cumbria Tourist Board chairman Eric Robson said the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks were cherished landscapes and if Whinash had gone ahead it would have been "open season" in other upland areas.
Cumbria County Council, Eden District Council, the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks and South Lakeland Council opposed the scheme at the inquiry.
Prior to the inquiry talks were taking place about extending the Lake District National Park to take in land in the vicinity of the proposed wind turbines.
Those discussions can now continue following the ministers' decision yesterday...."
March 3 2006 ~ Wind farms 'stupid' says famous botanist
- New Zealand's The Age quotes
David Bellamy " he thought wind farms were are bad way of helping the environment because they did more harm than good and they were not a reliable source of energy.
"I think they are a stupid idea. If you want to put them in, put them far away from where people live."
He said back in the UK with a higher population density, wind farms were a blight on the landscape and were only generating power a quarter of the time.
"One minute it's blowing too hard and the next minute there is not enough wind. All this time the power has to be backed up by other sources," he said.
"They have industrialised the landscape. Why can you suddenly stick up these large road systems, all in huge concrete blocks, and huge towers? They're noisy, they're ugly, and they kill birds and bats," he said.
He suggested solar power as a much more environmentally friendly option for an alternative fuel source.
"If I was your prime minister I would have subsidised solar power a long time ago."
And on Scoop.co.nz ".... Professor Bellamy ... said, " hills covered with massive wind turbines would never attract tourists or enhance recreation areas in the long term. In Britain a few tourist centres opened initially but they had closed down or gone into receivership; industrial wind turbines are monsters and have no place in treasured landscapes. This outstanding scenery would be industrialised, and the Makara community driven out of their homes, how can this be good for the environment? .... if New Zealand wants to harness wind power then it must think very carefully about suitable placement. In his opinion the Makara site is not the right place. He said, "New Zealand is a windy country, you have plenty of choices".
March 2 2006 ~ 'Bravo the government: beauty wins over the beast.....'
- From Professor Stott's blog
- "It is not too often that one can laud government with unqualified praise, but today's rejection of the monstrous proposal for a wind farm on the edge of the iconic Lake District National Park is a triumph for the real environment over environmentalist hysteria and hype:
'Giant wind farm plan thrown out'
February 26 2006 ~ "...Bob Mills, a Powys county councillor, was told by officials that, because he had criticised wind turbines in a letter to the local paper, he would not be permitted to attend any debates on this issue.
- His letter showed that he had a "pre-determined" view. It was fine for the council and the Welsh Assembly to have a "pre-determined view" in support of turbines, but because he opposes them he must leave the chamber whenever they are discussed.
Similar instances are sprouting up all over the country, thanks to zealous interpretation by council "monitoring officers" of Mr Prescott's Local Authorities (Code of Conduct) Order 2001. By excluding from council business any councillor who can be considered to have a "prejudicial interest", the code is now being widely used to silence councillors who wish to speak on behalf of the communities they represent.
And, like the bulk of the laws which now rule our lives, this astonishing revolution in local government was imposed by means of a statutory instrument - a ministerial edict which Parliament had no chance to discuss." Booker's Notebook
February 9 2006 ~ Windfarm developer seeks compulsory purchase powers
-
Western Mail
"
A FIRM behind a huge windfarm development in mid Wales is seeking the power to take over more land, sparking protests from campaigners and politicians.
CRE Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of Scottish Power, aims to extend its network of windfarms across the UK. It says it would be "helpful to have the power to acquire land compulsorily"...."
February 8 2006 ~ Protests over 415ft high turbines at Middlemoor near Alnwick
-
BBC Protesters who are against a proposed new windfarm in Northumberland have called for a public inquiry.
The plans, for 18 wind turbines to be built five miles north of Middlemoor near Alnwick, are being considered by the Department of Trade and Industry. ...
Campaigner and farmer Dominic Coupe organised a public meeting at Northumberland Hall, Alnwick, on Tuesday to discuss the plans, which was attended by more than 200 people.
He said: "This is an important issue that people feel strongly about.
Our objection isn't to wind energy, but to very poorly sited wind turbines which would be visible for miles around in a beautiful, lowland area right up against a coastal area of outstanding beauty. The turbines would be the equivalent of a 36-storey building which is four times the height of the High Level Bridge in Newcastle - you would certainly be able to see them 25 to 30 miles away. The plans are being considered by the DTI because of the scale of the project which is classed as a "power station"..."
BBC
February 8 2006 ~ "Save our Scenery" say the opponents of Gwynt Y Mor's 200 turbines
-
The BBC reports today on a
new report by officers of Conwy Councilays saying that plans for a wind farm off the coast of north Wales could damage tourism nd that not enough had been done to assess the risks of siting 200 turbines 15km off Llandudno.
- "The council is now due to discuss whether to call for a public inquiry before the scheme goes ahead.
Developers NPower Renewables have said wind farms elsewhere on the coast have done little to damage tourism.
The wind farm - called Gwynt Y Mor - would involve wind turbines, offshore sub-stations, inter-turbine cables and an onshore sub-station. ...Protesters claim that as well as being detrimental to tourism, the wind farm would have an effect on noise levels, ecology and coastal defences.
..."
February 7 2006 ~ " There are over 400 turbines being considered on numerous sites around this wonderful county."
An email from Jean Bennett in Northumberland:- "I have attended a crowded meeting at Alnwick this evening to protest against windfarms in Northumberland, particularly the Middlemoor application which has been put before Alnwick District Council. The organisers of the meeting are trying to get enough objectors to call a public enquiry. I notice on your windfarms link, you have no mention of any of the sites in Northumberland listed at all. There are over 400 turbines being considered on numerous sites around this wonderful county. The person who is dealing with Middlemoor is a Robert Thorp his email address is robertthorpe@charltonhall.co.uk Their website address is www.stopturbines.com.
Hope you can publish this fight somehow. "
February 5 2006 ~ "Why wreck the countryside with wind turbines when they are not going to do any good?"
- James Lovelock interview in the Sunday Times " If we will be drowned in rising waters, does the desecration of his view really matter? But his argument about the uselessness of wind turbines is compelling: they only work 25% of the time when it is blowy and cannot store energy. ..."
February 1 2006 ~ NINE-TURBINE WINDFARM REJECTED BY PLANNERS
- Western Morning News
today:
The battle over a proposed nine-turbine windfarm to the north of Dartmoor could go to appeal after it was rejected by planners yesterday. West Devon Borough Council's planning and licensing committee supported the recommendation from their officers to reject the scheme for the turbines, in the Den Brook valley between North Tawton and Bow.
Each turbine would have been 394ft high to the tip of the blade. Their size meant that they would have been double the height of St Paul's Cathedral in London and three times the height of Exeter Cathedral.
....
Maureen Thomson, chairman of the Den Brook Valley Action Group, said: "We were very pleased with the debate. If they do go to appeal we shall be ready to fight them." Read in full
30th January 2006 ~ windfarms worse than useless...you still have to have three quarters as much fossil fuels to back them up...
- James Lovelock on "Start the Week" A delight to Listen Again "remember we won't have a constant supply of food coming in from abroad"
"...mankind a plague reprieved by civilisation... windfarms worse than useless...you still have to have three quarters as much fossil fuels to back them up... I am not a wild enthusiast for things nuclear but they can at least provide a safe way to provide electricity in the next difficult years.... You can't have civilisation now without electricity...The most important job for us in Britain is to preserve our civilisation and remember we won't have a constant supply of food coming in from abroad..." Lovelock sees the whole picture.
29th January 2006 ~ "The new pylons for this vastly expanded grid threaten to scar some of the wildest and most beautiful landscapes in Britain"
-
However, the building of them promises to be so expensive that several wind-power companies, asked to put millions of pounds on the table before their turbines are even built, are having second thoughts as to whether to proceed at all." Sunday Telegraph
- "Do our ministers, one wonders, actually know anything about the monstrous ranks of wind turbines that they wish to see festooning our countryside and our coastal waters? Lord Sainsbury, junior energy minister, seemed taken aback when he learned in the Lords last week that the 236 turbines planned for an immense installation off the coast of North Wales will be 546ft high - taller than the Blackpool Tower. A similar forest of 270 giant towers is proposed to dominate the approaches to the Thames estuary (bringing to their developers a hidden subsidy, at current prices, of #180 million a year)...." Read in full
28th January 2006 ~ the claim that 'there is documentary evidence of funds from the nuclear power lobby finding their way through Country Guardian to anti-wind farm groups' is a rather serious one.
- It is intended to suggest that those opposed to wind farms are a mere front for the nuclear power industry..."Bernard Ingham writes in the North Devon Journal.
-
The facts are somewhat different. I became vice-president of Country Guardian some 14 years ago. I object to the industrialisation of our countryside with wind turbines and consider it unacceptable that our wild places should be wrecked by a renewable source of energy that is no answer to global warming.
Later I became a consultant to British Nuclear Fuels and now I am secretary of Supporters of Nuclear Energy, SONE. I saw, and see, no incompatibility in opposing wind farms and promoting nuclear power.
The two are not competitors.......
So far as I know not a single penny of nuclear money has passed through the hands of Country Guardian for any purpose. Indeed, nuclear companies have, over the years, thought of going into wind power, no doubt because of the subsidies they would be able to farm.
28th January 2006 ~The Times : Wind farms condemned as eagles fall prey to turbines
-
Valerie Elliott writes, "The drive for clean energy is bad news for one of Britain's rarest birds
WIND turbines have caused the deaths of four white-tailed eagles on isolated islands off the Norwegian coast.
Thirty other eagles have failed to return to their nesting sites within the wind farm area on Smola, 9.6km (six miles) northwest of Norway, according to wildlife campaigners. ..." read in full
25th January 2006 ~ The Beatrice 'Demonstrator'(Talisman) project has received #10 million of public money
and will not supply any electricity to the grid, and will not have the slightest effect on climate change. In fact it will be carbon positive and will cause considerable environmental problems.
The 2 turbines will be 151 metres (490 feet)above sea level, this is 170 feet taller than Big Ben.
A Scottish campaigner asks us to write an objection to this project. Closing date is 19th February. Not content with destroying all of the landscapes around the Moray Firth they are now hell bent on destroying the seascapes as well.
See http://www.beatricewind.co.uk/home/default.asp The environmental statement, a very large pdf file - 4.5 megabytes - prepared by Talisman itself, admits to Key potential environmental effects associated with the Demonstrator Project" Underwater noise from piling operations Noise disturbance to marine mammals
Physical presence of operating WTGs
Collision risk to birds
Visual impact on landscape and seascape
Damage to seabed communities
Interference with aviation and telecommunications
Collision risk to commercial and fishing vessels
Presence of subsea electrical cables Effects of electromagnetic fields on fish" (see pdf file)
Members of the public have just 28 days to make any objection.
23rd January 2006 ~ "We are still giving wallets of cash away to encourage an energy source that makes insignificant energy and no sense."
- Ian Liddell Grainger MP writes in today's Western Daily Post
- "
A couple of days before Christmas, when everyone else was far too busy being festive to take notice, a Scottish electricity firm submitted a sneaky little application to the body that is supposed to regulate the energy industry - Ofgem.
Ofgem's slogan is protecting customers is our first priority - but believe that and you'll believe anything.
.......
The timing of this application must have been deliberate. Perhaps the company was hoping that nobody would notice, because wind farms are controversial in Scotland and Somerset....
The day after tomorrow your friendly neighbourhood postmen could be delivering a compulsory purchase order to you, and you, and YOU. No argument and no appeal. .......
Never mind the fact that every energy expert on the planet regards them as more of a plaything than a power source. Once one firm gets compulsory purchase powers it opens the door to all of the others. ...
Even Prime Minister Tony Blair is now beginning to admit that nuclear power is a far more realistic solution to a national energy crisis that is pushing up prices faster than my hard-pressed constituents can afford. Wind power simply can't come anywhere near plugging the gap when North Sea oil and gas runs out. The gurus of the turning turbines are just well-meaning windbags. ...."
22nd January 2006 ~ ".....last week's speech by Elliott Morley, the environment minister, attacking the "blanket opposition" to wind turbines
- and curiously arguing that one of their virtues is that, unlike nuclear power stations, they are "quick and easy to remove". Does our environment minister not realise that the concrete foundations for a turbine may weigh 1,000 tonnes, buried more than 100 feet in the earth?
Anyone who thinks that wind factories are environmentally friendly should Google "Cefn Croes Photo Gallery", to see 100 chilling pictures showing how many miles of unspoiled Welsh countryside were disfigured to create the largest industrial site in Britain: all to "save" annually less than a quarter of the CO2 emissions from a single jumbo jet...." Booker's Notebook. Read in full
22nd January 2006 ~ pressure on the Government over the levels of subsidies it grants windfarm companies.
-
WMN
" An Opposition MP is putting pressure on the Government over the levels of subsidies it grants windfarm companies.
Geoffrey Cox, the Conservative Member for Torridge and West Devon, has launched a probe into the amount of public money the government is spending subsidising companies that develop windfarms.
Mr Cox has tabled a series of parliamentary questions demanding that the Government should reveal how much it is paying windfarm development companies such as Renewable Energy Systems (RES).
RES has submitted a planning application to build nine 394-foot-high turbines in the Den Brook Valley near North Tawton. The giant turbines would each be twice the height of Nelson's Column.
The site at Den Brook valley is just five kilometres from the edge of Dartmoor National Park.
In a separate application, West Coast Energy last year applied for planning permission to build three turbines near the village of Yelland, less than a mile from the boundaries of the national park. The application was rejected by West Devon Borough Council, but the developers have since prepared an appeal, which has been lodged with the Planning Inspectorate.
Mr Cox said:
- "These turbines would dominate the countryside for miles around, permanently altering and industrialising its appearance.
"Wind turbines on this scale are not the green solution that their manufacturers claim.
Yet the Government continues to subsidise their construction to the tune of many millions of pounds, to the detriment of other emergent technologies which could more effectively fulfil our energy needs."
16th January 2006 ~ "the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous."
- James Lovelock in the Independent
"By failing to see that the Earth regulates its climate and composition, we have blundered into trying to do it ourselves, acting as if we were in charge. By doing this, we condemn ourselves to the worst form of slavery. If we chose to be the stewards of the Earth, then we are responsible for keeping the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface right for life. ...... we cannot pollute the air or use the Earth's skin - its forest and ocean ecosystems - as a mere source of products to feed ourselves and furnish our homes. We would have felt instinctively that those ecosystems must be left untouched because they were part of the living Earth.
.......
Unfortunately our nation is now so urbanised as to be like a large city and we have only a small acreage of agriculture and forestry. We are dependent on the trading world for sustenance; climate change will deny us regular supplies of food and fuel from overseas.
We could grow enough to feed ourselves on the diet of the Second World War, but the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous. We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of emissions. The worst will happen and survivors will have to adapt to a hell of a climate. .... We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady. So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth ...." Read in full
15th January 2006 ~ Western Morning News BIG CHUNK OF TURBINE BLADE SHEARS OFF
-
"Part of a wind turbine blade weighing more than half a ton snapped off and crashed into a field during high winds. A chunk of the 18 metre (59 feet) long blade sheared off at the Cold Northcott windfarm on Bodmin Moor at about 9am yesterday.
.......
The Cold Northcott site has 21 turbines which straddle the A395 Launceston to Hallworthy road, just past the village of Piper's Pool.
Operators Cumbria Windfarms said the site has been running since April 1993 and nothing like this had happened there before." An email from Angela Kelly shows that this claim is not the case.
11th January 2006 ~ Another wind turbine threat in Devon
- As is Knowstone hadn't suffered enough...The Welsh firm Dulas is looking to build turbines more than twice the height of Nelson's Column on the southern fringe of Exmoor near Knowstone. See WMN
6th January 2006 ~Wind-farm company in land purchase row
- Scotsman
"....In its application, CRE explained that it intends to develop a series of wind farms at various locations in the UK, in respect of which it considered it would be helpful to have the power to acquire land compulsorily. CRE also considered that it would be helpful to have the power of compulsory wayleaves [permission to pass] available to it for activities such as the installation and connection of associated cables, the export of power off site, construction and lay-down areas and access. In its application, CRE confirmed that, in the first instance, it is its intention to attempt to acquire land and/or wayleaves by negotiation with the relevant landowners and not by seeking authorisation for compulsory acquisition and/or compulsory wayleaves from the Secretary of State."
3rd January 2006 ~ "... the French state electricity generator, Elictriciti de France (EDF), withdrew a planning application to place four 459ft (140m) wind turbines
half a mile from the battlefield. (of Agincourt) The plan had been fought by campaigners on both sides of the Channel, including the actor, Robert Hardy, who said that it would desecrate the battlefield..." Times3rd January 2006 ~ "Who wants to go for walks in the Cotswolds when all they're going to see is turbines?"
- The Gloucester Echo reports that Green Amps' chief executive, Nick Brown wants to see 100 more turbines going up in Gloucestershire
- ".....A member of the Gloucestershire branch of the Ramblers' Association, Mr Taylor said tourism would be affected.
"It's going to ruin the landscape and will have a detrimental effect," he said. "Who wants to go for walks in the Cotswolds when all they're going to see is turbines? I'm strongly against the idea of wind turbines in Gloucestershire. They're ineffective because they make little impression on the issue of sustainability."
Mr Brown said the second round of turbines would come next summer. He said the potential sites would be known by July.
Green Amps proposes to have 34 turbines operating in the county by April.
Farmers at three of the sites have pulled out because of the strength of public opposition from neighbours.
The initial programme of turbines will be put forward for sites including Brockhampton, Twyning, Somerford Keynes, Fairford, Hardwicke, Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton-on-the-Water, Longborough, Upper Rissington, Coln St-Aldwyns and Stinchcombe.
Mr Brown says 32 farmers have come forward at public meetings to host extra turbines. "Even with these turbines going up there's plenty more we can do in Gloucestershire."
1st January 2006 ~ Sunderland's spectacular display of 'safe' energy
- Booker's Notebook
'It was like a great flaming Catherine wheel," said a Sunderland resident just before Christmas, when flames engulfed one of the six 180-foot wind turbines recently installed at a cost of #2.3 million to provide just 5 per cent of the energy needs of the Nissan car plant. After a blaze visible for miles, the fibreglass blades crashed down into a field.
It appears that the colossal confidence trick of "safe", "cheap", "environmentally friendly" wind power is finally being exposed. Plans to erect thousands more of these inefficient and expensive contraptions are arousing informed opposition throughout Britain.
Meanwhile, new figures show that Denmark, which derives 20 per cent of its power from wind - the highest percentage in Europe - not only has Europe's highest electricity bills but has also fallen short of its Kyoto and EU targets for savings on carbon emissions by a staggering 25 per cent.
The Advertising Standards Authority has just upheld a complaint against Renewable Energy Systems for exaggerating - by no less than 100 per cent - the emissions savings made by its turbines. Yet the formula used by the firm to arrive at these figures is the same used by the British Wind Energy Association and almost every other company seeking to build wind farms in Britain.
And just as the falsehoods behind the "Great Wind Scam" are being exposed, David Cameron proudly announces that he plans to erect a turbine on his roof, and recruits the charming but hopelessly naive Zac Goldsmith as a key adviser on energy. Goldsmith is as ardently a booster of wind as he is an opponent of nuclear power - without which, in a few years, we face a complete breakdown of our energy supplies."
27 December 2005 ~ "The landscape is being raped with governmental collusion and fraudulent claims."
- A letter from Dr John Etherington in the Scotsman, about what he calls "the outrageous approval of Glenmoriston at Loch Ness", says that an adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority, released on 21 December, during the life of the turbines they will save only half of the emissions claimed. In many cases it was the promised saving of that swayed the votes of councillors and planners. Thus, says Dr Etherington, the Glenmoriston permission is founded on a lie. Read letter.
23 December 2005 ~ " A key component of this code should be an agreement that wind farms not be constructed against the wishes of the local community that will be most affected."
- Autralian Environment and Heritage Minister Senator Ian Campbell has sent to all State Environment Ministers on the issue of wind farms a letter that, it is to be hoped, the UK government will notice.
-
Alana Lacy
Office Manager
HON WILSON TUCKEY
0898 426228
Dear Minister
I am writing to you and to other State and Territory governments to propose an agreement to development of a national code for the location of wind farms. A key component of this code should be an agreement that wind farms not be constructed against the wishes of the local community that will be most affected.
I am most concerned that members of local communities are often being given only limited involvement in determining if a wind farm is to be established in their area. While wind technology is a part of the portfolio of power sources that the world needs to combat greenhouse gas emissions, it is vital that local communities, including those in often sensitive and scenic coastal areas, do not have wind farms thrust upon them. If such action continues to be taken it will make wind farms increasingly unpopular and this will create an animosity towards wind energy and be counterproductive to all our interests. I believe that we need a truly inclusive and consultative local planning process.
As you would be aware, the EPBC Act currently allows me to regulate to define specified actions as requiring referral under the Act. Because I am so concerned about the growth in negative sentiment toward wind energy which is occurring as wind farms are established against the expressed views of the democratically elected councils, I am considering making a new regulation under the EPBC Act in relation to wind farms. This regulation would require all proposed wind farms to be referred under the EPBC Act.
As you know, economic and social factors such as the views of local councils and their communities would be relevant considerations in any decision I make to approve a wind farm following assessment. I would certainly be reluctant to approve a wind farm in the face of clear local opposition expressed through votes of shires of councils.
I also intend to examine my programmes to consider future funding arrangements for those wind projects that are clearly against the expressed wishes of the local community.
Yours sincerely
IAN CAMPBELL
23 December 2005 ~ Angela Kelly writes..."'What drives our politicians and decision-makers to this 'Windmill Madness'?"
-
"I received this 'Christmas card' from Bob Graham who campaigns ceaselessly to stop wind 'farms' in his beloved Scotland, the land of his birth.
But his concern for the countryside knows no borders he cares about it all.
In spite of the fact that his own county and country are being plastered with wind turbines, he has given practical help to others all over the UK, and travelled hundreds of miles to that effect.
His well-informed presentation, born of years of experience, has benefited many campaigners. But he is a realist and delivers no false hopes, knowing how the planning laws and structure plans are regularly and ruthlessly swept aside to further the interests of the wind industry.
It is almost impossible to believe, that as the year 2006 dawns, we can be looking at a travesty such as indicated by this map of Morayshire. (pdf)
Again and again one asks 'What drives our politicians and decision-makers to this 'Windmill Madness' (Der Spiegel, 29.3.2004)?"
23 December 2005 ~Blazing turbine falls into field
-
BBC "Firefighters were forced to cordon off a Sunderland motorway when a 55m-high wind turbine caught fire.
At the height of the blaze at the Nissan car plant eight crews from the Tyne and Wear brigade attended after receiving 190 calls from the public.
At first the crews feared that the structure would fall on to the nearby A19 and they set up a cordon. The three-bladed turbine eventually fell into a nearby field and burned itself out. Investigations are now under way to find out the cause of the fire. Building work started on the #2m wind farm at the 750-acre site in September. The six turbines generate 7.5% of the factory's electricity."
23 December 2005 ~ "Disfiguration of the landscape by wind turbines is undoubted"
-
Scotsman Opinion "....The Cairngorms National Park Authority is objecting to a proposed 34-turbine wind farm development at Tomatin, following its opposition to similar plans at Strathnairn and Kildrummy which were deemed inappropriate. Meanwhile, more than 4500 local people have lodged their opposition to a huge wind farm in Lewis and there has been a high-profile campaign against the powerline set to scar the countryside from Beauly to Denny to bring power from renewable sources in the Highlands to the Central Belt.
Joining these protests is celebrity botanist David Bellamy, who has been enlisted for the battle against the 18 turbines set to be erected on Auchencorth Moss near Penicuik, a bog with some of the rarest forms of plant life in Europe. .....
The environmental lobby is caught on the horns of a dilemma: the desire to avoid nuclear power is understandable, but so too should it be counterbalanced by the potential for alternatives to wreck our natural heritage. ...."
20 December 2005 ~ fighting a proposed wind farm near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders.
- Dunion Hill Conservation Group (see below) writes
-
"Application went in on Friday 16th December - slight hickup for the
developers who sent the wrong fee with the application. Probably will
be deferred until after the holiday, but pretty typical of these
greedy **~>?!!!88+s."
18 December 2005 ~ Moorsyde Action Group website
- http://www.moorsydeactiongroup.org.uk/
They write: "We are a community-based group opposing 3 massive turbine arrays (14, 12 & 10 360-410 ft. turbines) within a few miles of each other on a small plateau of rolling farmland in North Northumberland.
As you will know, many farms in Northumberland and the Borders were hit hard by the FMD cull; WF developers are now threatening our tourist industry, which, with agriculture, is the economic mainstay of the area."
14 December 2005 ~WIND TURBINES? NOT HERE PLEASE Gloucestershire Echo
-
"
We don't want wind turbines here - that was the message from Cotswolds residents at a packed public meeting.
More than a 100 furious locals packed into Miserden village hall to get a picture of the effect turbines would have on their lives. They heard from Nick Brown, chief executive of Green Amps, the firm behind the scheme.
He told them a phone survey showed local people would like a turbine to help reduce carbon emissions.
The audience were in uproar. They said none of them had received a call...."
14 December 2005 ~ People across Mid Wales are fighting against plans for massive wind farms
- which would see 300ft masts towering into the air, countryside bosses have warned.
A meeting was called by the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales' (CPRW) Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire branches, who said their shires would be the most strongly affected by current proposals.
CPRW campaigner Ann West said new wind farms proposed for the region by the Welsh Assembly's technical advice note 8 would impose too much on the existing landscape...." Shropshire Star
12 December 2005 ~
- Professor Emeritus Philip Stott's EnviroSpinWatch Weblog focuses on "science, but not just on poor science. It will also bring to public notice good science that is being ignored because it may be politically inconvenient."
- "... the myths of carbon trading are likely to increase overall emissions, while binding targets are now off the agenda."
12 December 2005 ~ "....It would be nice, too, if this group of Tory thinkers could move some institutional goalposts. First, they need to smash up the crass Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, a planning department which, shorn of any environmental responsibilities, has become a delivery mechanism for whatever development Labour's corporate cronies want next, whether it is football stadiums or wind-farms..." Charles Clover in Saturday's Telegraph
11 December 2005 ~ " Wind power now appears to be pie in the sky
- while the penny drops that nuclear is the only answer. "Kyoto-ism" is seen as a mad self-deception, which can only result in crippling the world's economies to no purpose. .." Says Bookers Notebook
-
"Cue for Mr Cameron to pledge his support to it, and to enlist as his champion John Gummer - whose major contribution to the "environment" is his energetic chairmanship, for some undisclosed sum, of Valpak, a company set up to steer businesses through the crazy EU recycling rules which Gummer himself introduced when he was environment minister. .."
10 December 2005 ~ the game is up?
South Wales Evening Post, Dec. 10:"Carmarthenshire Council, which is publicly prowind energy, turned down an application for a wind farm at Pencader because of the adverse impact on the landscape of the Brechfa Forest, "despite the green energy it would produce."Members of West Glamorgan Commoners' Association voted to reject plans for 34 wind turbines on Mynydd-y-Gwair, north of Swansea, even though they stand to pocket #700,000 compensation between them if the plan goes ahead.
Suddenly the twin strategy of hefty public hand-outs and tempting individual sweeteners appear to be faltering. What can the pro-windies do? Provide clear evidence that wind turbines will make a significant and consistent conrtibution to reducing the CO2 emissions that are driving global warming.
If they can't, then the game is up."
30 November 2005 ~ Plans for five wind farms are thrown out
-
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2005/11/30/newsstory7790381t0.aspTHE ENCROACHMENT of wind farms into Perthshire was again halted by councillors as another five proposed schemes were knocked back....A raft of objectors from among the 100-strong crowd complained about the visual impact, environmental effect, disruption to water courses and wildlife, noise and the effect on users of the hills.
They included representatives from the Friends of the Ochils group, the Ramblers' Association, residents and regular visitors.
The developers argued not only would their projects save the planet, they would create jobs, wealth and community schemes.
.........Councillor John Hulbert was defeated in his attempt to have the plan approved but had already warned the committee not to give into "highly vocal NIMBY protest" and warned the Scottish Executive will soon get fed up of the authority refusing wind farm applications...
30 November 2005 ~ Giant wind farm will be a 'catastrophe', warns charity
-
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=2326132005
"CONTROVERSIAL plans to build the world's largest wind farm on Lewis will have an "unprecedented impact" on endangered birds and wildlife and the island habitat that supports them, a major charity said yesterday.
In a damning report, published to coincide with a meeting in Edinburgh today between the developers and MSPs, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland claims that the #411 million development, involving the erection of 234 wind turbines across 43km, will have a "catastrophic" effect on more than 6,000 hectares of protected peatland other vital habitats..."
29 November 2005 ~ Residents reject windfarm plan
-
"People living in North Northumberland have rejected the idea of another windfarm close to their homes. Residents from Lowick, Bowsden, Ford and Etal packed into Lowick Village Hall ....at a final vote by residents, the overwhelming result was to object to the scheme. Barmoor is one of four sites picked out for possible wind farms in North Northumberland.Tynetees tv
November 14, 2005 Wind damage
- Letter in the Times
-
Sir, The figure quoted for the payback time of wind turbines (letter, November 7) is strictly for the manufacture of the turbine itself and takes no account of the huge energy costs involved in making the massive foundations, the access roads, transmission lines, the re-engineering of other generating plant to enable switching in and out of intermittent supply, nor a share of the costs of back-up conventional plant on spinning stand-by. It is these costs that make wind energy not so attractive and make financial pay-back time more like seven years. For a lifetime of some 25 years per structure this is far less attractive and were it not for massive subsidy the current scramble to despoil our upland areas would not be taking place.
October 28 2005 ~ 'Better to have nuclear power than a blot on the landscape'
- Simon Jenkins in the Guardian
...The turbines have been opposed by every parish, district and county council in the area and by every known conservancy body...
... Given the energy that goes into building and backing up turbines there are moves, I am told, to declare turbine power no longer 'green' for global warming purposes...
...The greatest irony is that the Romney tragedy is unfolding down the coast from one of the world's oldest nuclear plants, still pumping out far more megawatts, at Dungeness. Like other early stations - Bradwell in Essex, Hinckley Point on the Severn, and Wylfa on Anglesey - Dungeness was located far from human habitation. There were complaints from naturalists at the time, not least at the pylons stretching across the marsh... ...But nuclear power is at least real power... ...If Wicks [the Industry Minister] can put turbines on Romney Marsh, nowhere is safe. .."
October 23 2005 ~ "..one of the most shameless confidence tricks of our time"
- Booker's Notebook today:
- "
The announcement last week by Malcom Wicks, the energy minister, that a giant wind farm on Romney Marsh in Kent could go ahead, has sent shock waves across the land. The 26 2.5-megawatt turbines proposed by the German-owned nPower for one of the most romantic and unspoiled landscapes in southern England were opposed by every elected authority in the area, including two county councils, two district councils and 12 parish councils; not to mention English Nature, the RSPB and a host of environmentalists.
The 370ft turbines, visible from 20 miles, will cover 1,000 acres of marshland, next to a famous bird reserve, requiring concrete foundations sunk 110 feet into the earth and six and a half miles of new roads, using 50,000 tons of roadstone. But so determined is Malcom Wicks's Department for Trade and Industry to meet its EU target of 10 per cent of energy from "renewable" sources by 2010 that the DTI used an obscure provision of the 1989 Electricity Act to call in the Romney Marsh scheme for decision by a DTI inspector.
The inspector was apparently not troubled by charges that the developers had made wildly misleading claims for their project (both the leader of East Sussex county council and Richard Hartley QC called these "lies").
More significantly, however, he made no attempt to address the argument that the 26 turbines will achieve no net savings in carbon dioxide emissions (because conventional power stations will have to be kept running to cover the three-quarters of the time when the turbines, through inappropriate wind speeds, are not generating)..." Read in full
October 21 2005 ~ We can't replace the Cotswolds. We can only destroy them.
- The Gloucester Echo reports on the aplication of Energy company Green Amps which wants to build two 56m turbines on Elsdon Hill. The article quotes distraught campaigners:
- "This development is verging on vandalism. The proposed site is in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
It will destroy the very landscape we have spent years trying to protect.
We care about the environment and we're not against wind energy. We're against the wanton vandalism proposed by this scheme. We can't replace the Cotswolds. We can only destroy them."
October 20 2005 ~GIANT TURBINES THREATEN MOOR
-
Western Morning News
"Plans for a chain of wind "superturbines", each twice the height of Nelson's Column, have been put forward for a site on the southern fringes of Exmoor.
Last night the scheme met a storm of protest from families living in the area, who said the 110 metre high (360ft) turbines would be visible across the moor and a huge swathe of Devon.
.............
The site of the proposed nine turbines is close to the North Devon Link Road between South Molton and Tiverton.
If built, they would dwarf Devon's largest existing turbines, which are 246ft high and stand at Bradworthy.
The new proposal, for a site at Batsworthy Cross, not far from the village of Knowstone, was announced by npower renewables. The company said the proposed 18 megawatt (MW) windfarm would generate enough power for around 8,000 homes. .................
...................... Sarah Child, chairman of Rackenford and Creacombe Parish Council, said: "Personally I am horrified. "We are all in favour of renewable energy, but we have learnt from the arguments raging around other windfarm proposals that this is not the way to get it. "Farming is in a bad way round here. If this proposal went ahead three farmers would make money, but the surrounding 30 would lose all hope of diversification into tourism or anything else. "You can't do bed and breakfast in a devastated countryside." .......................... The proposal comes only a week after Devon County Council's development control committee decided to oppose a longstanding application for 22 turbines, also 110 metres tall, at Fullabrook Down between Braunton and Ilfracombe. ...."
October 12 2005 ~ "The news has stunned campaigners, who have been fighting the proposals for more than 10 years."
- From the Times and Star (West Cumberland)
- " villagers in West Cumbria who have fought off windfarm plans four times now face a new battle.
Energy firm Wind Prospect has resubmitted a scheme to put six, 50 metre-high turbines on the outskirts of Pica first proposed in the 1990s.
The news has stunned campaigners, who have been fighting the proposals for more than 10 years.
The company was turned down twice by Copeland council, then again at appeal, on the grounds of the visual impact such a development would have.
A final attempt to have the decision overruled at the High Court also failed and villagers thought they may finally have won the war. Their hopes were dashed when the fresh application was made...."
October 9 2005 ~ The little people versus the giants
- Booker's Notebook
"The Government's policy on wind power is rapidly becoming such a fiasco that it is hard to know where to begin. While rows are raging all across the land, from Suffolk to the Cotswolds, from Romney Marsh to Antrim, and from Cornwall to Caithness, over plans for giant wind turbines, it is obvious that the Government's hope of reaching its EU target and generating 10 per cent of our power from "renewables" by 2010 is doomed to failure.
This would require building more than 10,000 additional turbines, at a rate of more than 2,400 a year. The present total, which is the work of more than a decade, is only 1,367 - most of those much smaller than the giant turbines now proposed. There is no way the Government can hope to meet even a quarter of its EU/Kyoto commitment, with local protesters up in arms the length and breadth of Britain.
In Gorsley, Gloucestershire, 10 days ago, Sir Peter de la Billiere, the Gulf War commander, had to calm a stormy meeting of villagers outraged by just one of 22 proposed windfarms in the county, involving such Cotswold tourist sites as Bourton-in-the-Water, Moreton-in-the Marsh and Fairford. In Northumberland they are fighting proposals for more than 80 turbines; in Suffolk, six 328ft turbines planned for Framlingham; in Antrim, 36 similar giants on the hills around Broughshane.
The Dartmoor Preservation Society warns that the moor may soon be ringed by a "forest" of such "monsters", such as the ten 300-footers proposed for North Tawton, which have already drawn 1,500 letters of objection, the record for any planning proposal in the county's history.
The beauty of Scotland's landscapes is threatened by no fewer than 6,472 turbine proposals, including 502 in the Western Isles and 403 in Argyll. Prince Charles is unlikely to relish the prospect of looking at 45 giant turbines next to the Castle of Mey. The 600 giant pylons needed to carry wind-generated electricity from Inverness to Falkirk via the Cairngorms National Park have been decried by the Ramblers Association of Scotland as "disastrous"......." Read in full
October 5 2005 ~ "...campaigners do not object to wind power for windfarms are only a part of the technology, and not all wind converters need to be obtrusive..."
- Letters in the Western Morning News
"....The fact that windfarms only perform at an average of 24.1 per cent per annum seems to have escaped her. The Greens cannot see beyond idealism, and live in a world of their own.
Windfarms are a massive con at our expense and costing three times more than any other reliable source of power.
Renewable energy has many other avenues to go down even though they are all minute amounts of power which cannot keep pace with demand........... In not too many years we are likely to be buying nearly all of our power from abroad. The risk of being cut off by any country who wishes to hold us to ransom will be the dominant factor..." Read in full
October 1 2005 ~ From Gloucestershire Echo
- "The boss of energy company Green Amps faced a crowd of 120 angry residents
who packed into Shipton Oliffe Village Hall to object to plans to site
turbines in Withington and Sevenhampton.
Protesters heckled chief executive Nick Brown for nearly two hours.
They said the company had no siting strategy and was taking advantage of farmers who wanted to get money for hosting the turbines. Two turbines are planned behind the plantation at Upcote Farm in Withington. Another two are proposed for a track east of Sevenhampton. They are part of plans to site turbines at 22 sites across the county..
....Henry Coelho, who overlooks the Sevenhampton site, said: "You're an opportunist who is taking advantage of farmers and then passing the problems on to the community. "You're putting turbines anywhere you can with no strategy. We all support the principles behind renewable energy but you're circumnavigating every rule put down to protect our environment."
Ken Robertson, from Withington, said wind turbines would only scratch the surface of the problem and would ruin the countryside. He said half of the 2010 target would be met by offshore turbines and the siting of a handful of turbines across the Cotswolds would have no impact.
"You're riding a wave," he said. "Give it five years and other technologies will catch up so we won't need these things. It's a short-term solution." ."
"......Sites proposed include Bourton-on- the-Water, Moreton-in-Marsh, SomerfordKeynes, Fairford, Twyning, Sheepscombe and Hardwicke."
September 30 2005 ~ New website for Scottish Borders, Dunion Hill
-
The Dunion Hill conservation Group " is not against energy generation from renewable resources, but believe that windfarm sites must be carefully selected to avoid lasting damage to landscape, environment and the local economy.
The Dunion Hill site, in our opinion, will permanently damage an important area of magnificent Border scenery and your help in defeating this proposal, if a planning application is made, is vital. Comments or enquiries to secretary@dunionhill-conservation.org.uk"
September 22 2005 ~ Assembly planning guidance was only a "steer" for councils when they come to decide whether to approve a windfarm planning application says Carwyn Jones
- The Daily Post "LOCAL councils must decide if windfarms can be built in North Wales, Carwyn Jones insisted yesterday.
The Assembly environment minister's comments came during a debate on the sustainable development annual report. He said Assembly planning guidance was only a "steer" for councils when they come to decide whether to approve a windfarm planning application.
His comments were made in response to Neath AM Gwenda Thomas' concerns 38% of the total area recommended for providing windfarms under National Assembly plans to increase sustainable energy sources, falls within her area. She said the proliferation of windfarms could damage the local economy and affect levels of tourism in her constituency.
Mr Jones said: "The council's shouldn't take these decisions in a vacuum. Ultimately, it is the local authorities that must take the decision, but they must consider the impact of what they decide because there is an appeal process."
September 18 2005 ~ Michael Portillo, who says he "loathes wind turbines"
- writes in the Sunday Times, If we don't want to depend on oil, we must go nuclear
- "...turbines scythe down migrating birds. On a recent visit to Spain, where turbines have spread like a vicious pox, I learnt that this month 47 vultures headed for the Strait of Gibraltar had been felled by turbine blades.
Wind turbines are not efficient. In Germany during 2003 they were used to only a sixth of their capacity, largely because the wind is unpredictable. Fossil stations are kept turning over and emitting greenhouse gases in case they are needed to make up the shortfall, yet if the turbines produce too much electricity the excess cannot be stored.
The turbines are to the countryside in our times what the tower blocks were to the cities in the 1960s. I look forward to the parties when, 40 years from now, we dynamite them. .."
September 16 2005 ~ "unacceptable" that the subsidy was not subject to scrutiny by Parliament as it would be if it were paid directly by the state.
-
LABOUR'S #1BN WIND TURBINE RIP OFF was yesterday's WMN headline:
"MPs say treasury is milking cash for renewable energy
Chancellor Gordon Brown was last night accused of profiteering from high energy prices by exploiting the Government's support for windfarm development.
A study by the Commons public accounts committee concluded that up to #1 billion paid by electricity consumers to encourage the development of renewable energy was being recouped by the Treasury. The committee concluded that lavish subsidies paid to windfarm operators are too high and should be diverted to encourage other forms of renewable energy...................
Edward Leigh...........said it was "unacceptable" that the subsidy was not subject to scrutiny by Parliament as it would be if it were paid directly by the state.
The report will increase pressure on ministers to change the system of support. At present the level of subsidy paid to cheaper types of renewable energy like wind is the same as that paid for forms like wave power, which are still in development. Critics claim this has sparked a "dash for wind", as developers eyeing massive profits put in speculative applications for new windfarms.
......... A report by the National Audit Office earlier this year found that the scale of the renewable subsidy will force up average electricity bills by at least 5.7 per cent, although this figure is likely to be higher once the costs of connecting up hundreds of new windfarms to the national grid has been factored in. ......" Read in full
September 16 2005 ~ "The planned explosion in the number of giant wind turbines in North Wales could prompt a public backlash
- against efforts to save the environment.. the Public Accounts Committee today claim growing numbers of turbines could enrage members of the public and turn them off the idea of renewable energy.
In contrast, they say offshore windpower was less "en-vironmentally intrusive". ...."http://icnorthwales
September 9 2005 ~ Harrogate Council, which had refused permission for eight turbines on Knabs Ridge, close to the busy A59 and barely three miles from Harrogate, has been overruled.
- The decision has been overturned by a government inspector who claimed the need to produce more clean energy outweighed the "adverse impact" on the landscape. Councillor Richard Cooper, Cabinet Member for Planning, said
"For a Government Inspector to come to our district and ignore all the good planning reasons why these towering metal structures should not be allowed is a smack in the face to local people and the local council." See www.harrogatetoday
September 6 2005 ~ Inquiry allows wind farm in Dales
-
BBC
"The turbines are planned for Knabs Ridge near Kettlesing in the Dales
Countryside campaigners have reacted with anger over a decision by the government to allow a wind farm to be built in the Yorkshire Dales.
Harrogate Borough Council had vetoed the plan for eight 300ft high turbines at Kettlesing in Nidderdale.
But a government planning inquiry has overruled the council and decided that NPower Renewables can go ahead. ..."
September 3 2005 ~ "May I implore all Welshmen to wake up and defend their beautiful country from this blight?"
-
Three letters in the Western Mail of great interest:
As the Council for Science and Technology has recently advised Government that wind power cannot in any case solve the carbon dioxide problem without resort to large-scale technology such as nuclear power, why are we persisting in this harmful "wind rush", when a moratorium and independent cost-benefit study is needed?
It is now becoming politically expedient to shift wind farm proposals from onshore to offshore - that is from someone's electorate to no-man's land. Although this may reduce the concerns by people who do not want turbines nearby, and let weak politicians of the hook, it poses a devastating future for seabirds...."
August 29 2005 ~ Turbine maker's losses blow up to #72 million
-
Scotsman
"The world's largest wind turbine maker, Vestas, reported
larger-than-expected first-half losses and warned that hard-pressed
suppliers may prevent it from filling the surge in orders caused by record
oil prices.
Vestas, with a global market share of around 30 per cent, posted a pretax
loss of about #72 million against a pro-forma loss of #51m a year
earlier..."
August 26 2005 ~ " The focus on costs is likely to prove embarrassing for the onshore wind industry"
- WMN "Controversial subsidies for windfarm operators are to be examined by a committee of MPs in a new inquiry that is likely to raise fresh questions about the Government's strategy for meeting global warming targets. The Commons environmental audit committee has announced plans for a detailed inquiry into the costs and benefits of a range of energy sources, including wind power, "clean" coal generation, nuclear power and wave and tidal technology.The focus on costs is likely to prove embarrassing for the onshore wind industry, which enjoys lavish subsidies, although it could also raise difficult questions for those who favour a new generation of nuclear power stations..."
August 25 2005 ~ 110m high wind turbines in Carmarthenshire
- BBC Decision due on tallest wind farm.
Controversial plans could be given the go-ahead later.
More than 100 people have written to the council backing the scheme to build 10 turbines on Mynydd Llanllwni above the Brechfa Forest.
But more than 200 people have objected to the proposals. ...
Planning officers have recommended the project is approved at a meeting on Thursday, despite claims it will have a major adverse effect on the landscape. .."
17 August 2005 ~ ".. imperative that energy conservation schemes and alternative sources of renewable energy are more thoroughly explored before large swathes of unique UK countryside and coastal scenery are lost..
- An important paper (August 2005) appears on the Country Guardian website: Wind power in West Denmark. Lessons for the UK.
by Dr V.C. Mason
-
"....there are few areas in the region's rather flat or gently rolling countryside where turbines are not visible, and in particularly windy locations concentrations are high. For many residents this has seriously detracted from the former charm and beauty of their traditional, largely agricultural surroundings and coastlines, and it has also had a detrimental impact on associated wildlife habitats.....
Despite relatively favourable wind conditions in the region, only 20-24% of the potential annual output of West Danish wind turbines was actually achieved over the last five years. This compares with the 24.1% load or capacity factor recorded in 2003 for the much smaller number of UK onshore turbines (DTI, 2004), but is higher than the 15% calculated for Germany over the same period (see Reuters, 2004).
......The West Danish model clearly shows that the installation of large numbers of wind turbines can lead to severe and expensive problems with power transmission, and seriously degrade wildlife habitats and the aesthetic value of land- and seascapes for little or no reduction in carbon emissions.
It is therefore imperative that energy conservation schemes and alternative sources of renewable energy are more thoroughly explored before large swathes of unique UK countryside and coastal scenery are lost to industrial wind stations. Conservation measures alone could reduce UK carbon emissions by 30%..."
14 August 2005 ~ Tegni Cymru, a German backed company, plan to erect four massive wind turbines on the Riverside at the Northern end of the Weaver Valley at Aston in the Green Belt area designated as 'An Area of Special County Value for Landscape'
- See www.wind-farm.org
"....The massive 438ft (135m) high turbines whose tips will be the same height as Frodsham Hill will dominate the landscape and will be highly visible from Frodsham, Aston, Dutton, Kingsley, Crowton, Acton Bridge and other areas up to 20 kilometres away such as parts of Northwich, Warrington, Ellesmere Port and even Liverpool.
To put this into context the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope which can be seen from much of Cheshire is a mere 290ft (89m) high and is dwarfed by these enormous structures.....
....Anyone wishing to object to the proposed development should register their opposition by writing to Vale Royal Borough Council Planning Department Wyvern House The Drumber Winsford CW7 1AH and can get further information on the campaign by logging onto the SAW(Stop Aston Windfarm) website at www.stopastonwindfarm.net "
14 August 2005 ~ The BWEA are planning an all out PR exercise for the Bank Holiday weekend (27/28 August).
-
Details can be found on :
http://www.embracewind.com/weekend
Family-friendly 'open days' will be held at various windfarms in the UK including Cefn Croes.
One turbine sceptic writes, "Doubtless there will be organised petitions for the gullible, including the children, to sign and also encouragement to write letters to one's MPs. etc. etc...." Angela Kelly writes, "Doubtless the BWEA and supporters will be out in force and will have organised media, TV, Press (plus their own photographers) etc to witness and report the occasion. Do not miss this unprecedented opportunity to show the UK-wide opposition to wind turbines..."
10 August 2005 ~ Wales petition
- "This is the point behind the petition campaign. We demand our democratic right to consultation," he said yesterday.. "I'm a moderate man and I believe in renewable energy but when I read more about this I realised it was all about politics not climate change." Dan Munford. See also, front page article was on the Shropshire Star.
8 August 2005 ~ Welsh Petition update - the whole of Wales to be covered
- Angela Kelly writes, "Since circulating the message below we have received requests to expand the petition for a Referendum to include North and South Wales.
So now Dan Munford will be preparing separate petitions appropriate to those areas as well. This means that the whole of Wales will be covered.
Therefore it would be better to wait till we circulate all three petition sheets (i.e. North, Central and South) so that residents of Wales can respond to the area most appropriate to them. However, it does not matter if there is a certain amount of duplication owing to the first."
6 August 2005 ~ Protesters continue with Windfarm Fight
-
WMN "Campaigners yesterday vowed to challenge the findings of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after it rejected complaints ...... made following a leaflet sent to residents in North Tawton in November 2004 by development company Renewable Energy Systems, describing the benefits of a proposed windfarm in the area.
Renewable Energy Systems have yet to finalise the size and scale of the development, but have confirmed they are looking at a range of options, including the construction of 19 80m-high turbines or ten 100m-high turbines.
The ASA considered five complaints, which centred on the amount of electricity the windfarm would produce, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions it would save and the impact windfarms have on house prices.
The ASA failed to uphold any of the complaints, but said findings published by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors after the leaflets were distributed, which suggested windfarm developments reduced property values, meant Renewable Energy Systems could no longer claim there was no evidence in the UK showing windfarms impacted on house prices. .............. John Constable, from the Renewable Energy Foundation, which published an independent report by leading energy consultant Hugh Sharman criticising claims made by Renewable Energy Systems in their leaflet, said he was very surprised the ASA had upheld some of the claims the report made. He said: "The ASA's technical adviser has obviously bent over backwards to excuse Renewable Energy System's advertising. For example, it is surprising to see the ASA upholding Renewable Energy System's CO2-saving claim since these claims do not appear to be in line with DTI methodology and statements. In the light of this and other points in the ruling, it would probably be sensible for the ASA to refer this case to better-informed experts for review." ..."
August 4 2005 ~ Do you live in Wales?
- Country Guardian says that a "referendum petition" on the spread of windfarms in Wales is being organised by Dan Munford. "... It will aim to convince the National Assembly that large numbers of people living here are bitterly opposed to it both in terms of the destruction of the landscape and the financial impact on electricity generation. There has been very little public consultation, if any, at local level and this will be an opportunity for people to show the strength of opinion that exists against the loss of our wild and beautiful countryside..." Details
Aug 3 2005 ~ The technical advice note (Tan 8) issued by .... Carwyn Jones would tie the hands of local planning authorities. They would be left with "little option other than to agree proposals for new wind farm developments"
- See Daily Post's Owain fought for this land - it's not a Tellytubbyland
"............."No proper research has been conducted into how Welsh Labour's windfarm plans will affect the local tourism economy in areas such as Ceredigion. Turning large tracts of the most beautiful parts of mid and west Wales into a replica of Tellytubby land is hardly going to act as a beacon to draw tourists to the area."
She (Lisa Francis) said one casualty of "Welsh Labour's completely 'la-la' plans" could be the site of the historic 1401 battle of Hyddgen in Pumlumon, where Glyndfr led the Welsh to victory. .... lobbied culture minister Alun Pugh to publish a map of ancient Welsh battlefield sites, never properly recognised.
"I felt this would be of huge benefit to our cultural and walking tourism economy. I'm absolutely delighted that he agreed to do this, however, I can't see visitors to Hyddgen being impressed by the sight of more than 90 of Europe's tallest generators, as well as a conglomeration of substations, overhead power-lines and new roads blasted through a landscape which has lain undisturbed for centuries."
"It is abundantly clear this Welsh Labour government lacks the political will and imagination to concentrate on projects which generate clean energy and which are tourism friendly. It is not in the long term interest of Wales to place all our bets on a single technology such as wind, particularly one that imposes such a big cost on our landscape".
Aug 3 2005 ~ 'Beauty spot development should not be opposed'
-
Yorkshire Today "PLANNERS opposing eight 300ft wind turbines on a site only 50ft from an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty were accused yesterday of refusing to accept their obligation to contribute to Government targets for providing renewable energy.
Npower Renewables' barrister David Hardy made the claim at the start of a public inquiry into Harrogate Council's refusal of permission for a wind farm on an 197-acre site at Knabs Ridge, 708ft above sea level, three miles west of Harrogate...
...The inquiry continues. "
Aug 1 2005 ~ GERMAN WINDFARM INEFFICIENCY REVEALED
-
WMN
"...
Germany has the largest capacity in the world for generating wind-powered electricity, with the figure standing at 16,000 megawatts (MW) - more than 15 times the amount produced in the UK. However, statistics from two of the main energy groups in Germany, RWE and E.ON, indicate that efficiency of the windfarms is much lower than expected.
The unreliability of wind power, which cannot be created on demand, means that RWE windfarms are producing just 16 per cent of the power they should be creating.....despite the vast capacity on offer, the amount of energy provided is much less per head of population than previously predicted. These findings are likely to cause concerns in the UK, where the Government has set a target of generating a tenth of energy needs from renewable sources by 2010.......RWE's UK subsidiary, npower, said it was wrong to compare German and UK wind power. .... the UK is a much windier country than Germany......
The report also claims that according to the specialist investment bank, Climate Change Capital, meeting the UK's ten per cent investment in renewable energy will cost #6 billion.
Mr Hale said: "Wind power is not cost effective. According to the Royal Academy of Engineering it is more than twice as expensive, and even more for offshore windfarms for the amount of power it produces compared to fossil fuel, nuclear and tidal energy."
Aug 1 2005 ~" A slightly different approach has been taken in Wales...."
- Having in his Ministerial Statement, said that
- "...the UK Government believe that the private sector is best placed to decide exactly what energy infrastructure is needed and how, subject to planning and environmental requirements, to deliver policy objectives most effectively.."
July 29 ~ MoD to carry out wind farm tests
-
"Trials to test how wind farms could affect air traffic control radar systems are to be held in Mid Wales ....
It will be the first time such tests will have been carried out and follows news that hundreds more wind turbines could be erected across Wales...." Shropshire Star
July 27 2005 ~Common land fears over new wind farm
-
Swansea-based JCP Solicitors says it has received a phenomenal amount of inquiries at its stand during the four days of the Royal Welsh Show about wind farms on common land.
Steve Dube, of the Western Mail:
"....The company's agricultural team head Rory Hutchings :"..... wind farms are a very real issue for farming communities across the length and breadth of Wales...
....Common land is an integral part of the rural landscape in Wales and is an important resource in terms of farming, wildlife conservation and recreation.."
Mr Hutchings said the law on common land was complex, and some was arcane. ... He said JCP Solicitors have acted for both commoners and companies on wind farm-related issues during the past six months. "This really is a burning issue for much of Wales' rural community and the number of wind farm-related queries we've received so far this week is testament to that," he said. "We expect to be kept very busy over the coming months and, indeed, years, as it is clear that this is one issue which is with us to stay." ...."
July 23 2005 ~ "At Cefn Croes you can witness at first hand the appalling destruction of a landscape by commercial wind turbines."
- Angela Kelly writes about Sunday's special walk:
"Please make an effort to join those who have fought a long, hard and noble battle to save this once beautiful area. from the greedy maw of the wind industry.
The Cefn Croes campaigners have, tragically and quite undeservedly, lost their battle against undemocratic and insuperable odds.
However, with great generosity of spirit, they fight on to prevent similar destruction elsewhere by exposing the reality of the damage inflicted on the environment by the wind industry.
Read the story of how this disaster came about on: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hills/cc/"
(Cefn Croes Walk Sunday 24th July 2005 Leaders, Dr Kaye Little and Mr Terry Rogers Walkers to meet at the Forestry Commission car park at The Arch [B4574 between Devil's Bridge and Cwm Ystwyth] leaving at 1.00pm.)
July 23 2005 ~ "... the issues of integrating wind power with existing generators have not been widely publicised.."
-
In May 2005, the Council for Science and Technology published a report An electricity supply strategy for the UK (2005) (pdf) that recommends:
immediate investment in large scale, low-carbon, energy generation facilities to meet the Government's carbon dioxide reduction targets
keeping the nuclear option open and placing more emphasis on carbon sequestration and tidal power.
An electricity supply strategy for the UK: report (May 2005) (pdf - opens in new window. Click once only! Pdf files do take some time to arrive if your connection is not very fast)
Extract page 16/19:
- ".....UK, the issues of integrating wind power with existing generators have not been widely
publicised. This may lead to unrealistic targets being set for new renewable energy
sources or it may divert investment away from the energy infrastructure which is needed
to fully exploit renewable energy sources. E.on, have published a report
( 46 E.on Netz Wind Report 2004, Germany )
showing the contribution of wind power to the grid for a full 12 months in 2003. The maximum simultaneous wind power infeed from the windfarm was just under 80% of the installed capacity. The average annual infeed was less than one sixth of the installed capacity. In any year, for over 50% of the time, the wind power infeed was less than 11% of the installed capacity. This is why the provision of backup generation is important. If the backup generation uses fossil fuels, as is likely, then the reduction in carbon emissions achieved by the use of wind energy will be less than that commonly quoted..."
July 20 2005 ~ "The report from the House of Lords is important because it reminds us of the uncertainties shared by a number of scientists on climate science
- from Professor Ross McKitrick, who questioned the temperature graph used by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), to Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, or even Professor Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Based on that, the report's conclusions are unambiguous. "The science of climate change leaves considerable uncertainties about the future," it declares. "The costs of mitigation are uncertain, as are the benefits which are also more distant." The committee even questions the objectivity of the IPCC process and its models concerning emissions. It adds: "Positive aspects of global warming appear to have been downplayed in IPCC reports."
The committee also recognizes that the Kyoto Protocol will have only a very small impact on lowering global warming and that it is very unlikely the plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will succeed. It thus invites the British government to review its energy and climate policies.
Tony Blair has deplored the inability of governments to agree on climate change, but he will now have to face the lack of consensus in his own country, more so as it comes from such an institution as the House of Lords (which, granted, does not have much legislative power). Indeed, the assembly is known for its seniority, its prestige, its independence. It seems quite logical that its members remind us of truths too often kept from the public, which is hearing only one side of the story: the one saying we have to act fast whatever the price for it." Techcentral.com carries the article by Cicile Philippe, director of the independent, non profit Molinari Economic Institute.
July 15 2005 ~no wind installation will power any sector of a community, let alone homes, unless it has expensive battery storage units
-
Comment from a campaigner - forwarded by Angela Kelly
"It is good to note that some publications such as Investor's Business Daily are waking up to the avalanche of facts exposing industrial wind as a lot of hot air.
However, this writer still accepts as gospel the wind industry's claims about about the number of homes their plants will "power"--and even about the exaggerated capacity factor claims. Do you know, for example, of any large wind installations that provide an average annual capacity factor of 35 percent? And, as you well know, no wind installation will power any sector of a community, let alone homes, unless it has expensive battery storage units. In the example cited in this article, the author seems to assume 1.5 MW turbines (300-440 foot tall with 300 foot rotors) that would each power about "500 homes" 35 percent of the time. In reality, the best the industry could hope for with those turbines would be a capacity factor of 30 percent generating electricity into the local grid at levels that, relative to present and future demand, wouldn't dent a grape. And, if there were tens of thousands of them all generating, say, five percent of the grid's electrical supply, then expensive fossil-fueled backup generators would likely be needed to reinforce the grid's equilibrium."
July 14 2005 ~ Wind power will have no effect on climate change
-
Letters in the Telegraph on Wednesday
- SIR - Jonathon Porritt, the chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, has said that "climate change will have a devastating impact unless urgent action is taken to boost the contribution of renewables... We believe wind power is a critically important part of the overall energy mix."
He is selling a delusion. The Government's target figure for Britain's 2010 saving in carbon dioxide emission by means of all renewable electricity generation in Britain is 9.2 megatonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
This amount is less than four ten-thousandths of the global carbon dioxide emission of nearly 25,000 megatonnes per year recorded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
It stands no chance of altering atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration by a measurable amount, and will not divert climatic change.
Professor David Bellamy, Conservation Foundation London SW7 Dr John Etherington, (More)
July 12 2005 ~ Sites chosen for new windfarms will be revealed by the Welsh Assembly Government
- when it unveils its energy strategy later on Tuesday. BBC
See also Last chance to stop windfarm advance from the Denbighshire Free Press ".... they are hardly looking to go and take a holiday where there are all the whirling lavatory brushes in the sky."
July 11 2005 ~ An antidote to rage.
- Windfarm game at Save Our Common Mountain Environment(SOCME) website. Wonderful sounds - very soothing... The website link here is SOCME's home page which contains news-media that apertain to SOCME and other protest groups, who are campaigning against wind power developments.
July 8 2005 ~ Sir Donald Miller's Proof of Evidence at Whinash
-
http://www.persona.uk.com/whinash/Objectors_proofs.htm
As Angela Kelly says, "There is a mine of well-informed information here."
Sir Donald Miller was, for 18 years successively, Director of Engineering, General Manager and
Chairman of the South of Scotland Electricity Board, later Scottish Power.
- ".....My evidence will show that the large scale development of wind farms ignores the very real limitations of the National Grid System - or any electricity system - to absorb an intermittent and variable source of energy in the quantities proposed. My experience on these matters supports the earlier submissions from FELLS. Its use as a major plank in a national energy policy ignores advice from such prestigious bodies as the Royal Acadamy of Engineering (Ref 1) and the Royal Society and indeed experience from overseas such as in Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and Germany...." read pdf in full
July 4 2005 ~ Public Consultation Your Energy wants to build twelve 100m tall turbines on land near Hinkley Point
- BBC"A final decision is now expected some time in the autumn."
West Hinkley Action Group support the need for renewable energy but have the view that such giant industrial turbines be sited off-shore where they will be less detrimental to humans and wild-life. In fact, we strongly support more efficient forms of renewable energy from tidal, wave, geothermal, to solar and biomass, and feel that the government needs to develop a more coherent energy policy than the present 'bolt on' turbine concept.
July 4 2005 ~ prone to manipulation by the oligopolistic electricity suppliers
- An article by Dr David Toke (see Windworks.org) examines how the financial regime of the Government's Renewable Obligation is influencing wind power deployment in the UK.".. The UK's ROCs system seems is expensive, it is prone to manipulation by the oligopolistic electricity suppliers, and it is too inflexible to allow offshore wind schemes to be easily financed." Read in full
July 4 2005 ~ "... trying to prevent a private company from creating a wind farm on Whinash comprising 27 turbines, each one of them more than 370 feet tall.
- NY Times
".....That is roughly 70 feet higher from ground to the tip of a blade than the Statue of Liberty from a toe to the tip of the torch...
....Even on these buffeted uplands, wind does not blow steadily enough to generate constant power; Britain's 100 wind farms produce only a tiny sliver of the country's electric power; and government subsidies mean that wind power costs consumers much more than power from Britain's gas, coal and nuclear-powered stations...." Read article
July 3 2005 ~" In 2150, for example, a wind turbine constructed of steel, concrete and plastic may not be able to generate, during its lifetime, as much renewable energy as would have been used up in creating it...."
- " Imagine mining, refining and smelting the metal ores, quarrying and transporting the rock, growing the biomass; fabricating the component parts, and erecting and maintaining the structure, using only the trickle of electricity produced by another similar turbine. Vast engineering projects such as constructing the first Airbus A380 airliner (Bowie 2005), using only renewable energy from start to finish, would be unthinkable (to say nothing of flying the plane without oil!).
... The population of the World expanded six-fold in parallel with oil production during the First Half of the Age of Oil. William Stanton, author of The Rapid Growth of Human Population 1750-2000, contributes the following analysis of how population will have to return to pre-Oil Age levels. Let us hope that it does not come to this, but the options explained do have a certain chilling logic..." Peak Oil Newsletter
June 19 2005 ~ Recent windfarm articles
- A round up of some of the latest stories in full. John Vidal in the Guardian writes about the opening of Cefn Croes windfarm after the five year protest. In Scotland, a bid to build a windfarm in north-east Caithness has attracted a flood of objections within a few days of the planning application being lodged. See round-up
May 28 2005 ~ "Cornwall County Council has rebuked the Government
- over its plans to dramatically increase the number of windfarms. Coun Adam Paynter, the cabinet member for the environment, said that while the council supported the concept of renewable energy, it was vital that windfarms were not built in environmentally sensitive landscapes...." WMN
May 27 2005 ~ This is South Wales - Wind Round up for the past week or so
- 845 kilometres of massive high- tension routes would have to be built at a cost of EUR1.1 billion ($1.84 billion) to link the burgeoning wind farms to the grid.
- Despite considerable investment in improved technology, risks to the electricity supply could not be ruled out.
- The reduction in carbon dioxide emissions could be achieved more cheaply by other means.
- The net additional costs of the wind-generated electricity from 2003 to 2015 were estimated at EUR12 billion to EUR17 billion.
The report is sensitive because, while the Greens and the Socialists have been backing wind farms in parliament, the public is becoming increasingly restive about them. By their nature, wind farms tend to occupy shorelines, high points and open country, making them highly visible.
To catch the maximum amount of wind, the windmills have to be well separated and cannot be built in neat lines or the rear ones will be in the slipstream. Der Spiegel says: "Resistance to the encroaching 'asparagusing' of the landscape by the affected population is growing across the country."
Read in full in the wind roundup for today - the measures on which EU Governments are focusing are unlikely to deliver reductions on the scale they say is required.
- other measures deserve to be given closer consideration, but they involve much greater political sensitivity.
- it is time for the UK and other EU Governments to face up to these realities, and open up a wider debate.
- Significant bird mortality.
- Wildlife habitat fragmentation and degradation from road and transmission corridors.
- Increased erosion and stream siltation from construction of high-standard roads needed to build and maintain the 32-story-high turbines on ridge tops.
- Sound pollution -- the turbine blades make a sound like tennis shoes tumbling in a clothes dryer.
- Light pollution from the red and white strobes required by the Federal Aviation Administration on each turbine.
- Ice thrown from rotating blades, which can damage trees and pose a hazard to people.
Lives at risk on turbines route
28 May : Health chiefs are worried lives could be at risk if plans for a wind farm at Mynydd y Gwair are given the go-ahead. Fears are growing that if the project is approved roads leading to Morriston Hospital's accident and emergency unit could be blocked by massive lorries taking the turbines to the mountain.
Real cost of wind farms
27 May : I Went to Felindre on Friday to see what nPower had cooked up for the locals on Mynydd y Gwair and to protest. They had boiled sweets, coloured pencils, pictures, also pretty paper windmills for the children and offered tea to the adults to lull them into thinking they cared what we thought about their plans.
Tidal power is ignored
25 May : A Pro-wind farm letter from Roger Knight (Have Your Say, May 2) took me to task for introducing the words clean/green coal technology. Wind farm supporters like Mr Knight attack green coal technology because it destroys their last remaining argument that only wind technology is currently available to reduce UK CO? emissions and hence fight global warming. I refer Mr Knight to an article in The Times business section (November 22, 2004). The article, headlined Clean-coal technology could cut CO? bill by #3 billion, led to claims that Mitsui Babcock green coal technology could cut CO? emissions by 50 to 60 per cent from current levels of coal-fired stations. It further claimed that the technology was available now, waiting for the Government go-ahead.
Farmers stop turbine firm's plans
24 May : Fifteen Swansea farmers have prevented Npower from erecting a security cabin on mountains overlooking the city. They insist the wind power company has no right to put the cabin in an area which graziers have rights on - Mynydd-y-Gwair, between Craigcefnparc and Ammanford.
Wind farm firm opens PR display
21 May : The company behind highly contentious plans for a 34-turbine wind farm on mountains north of Swansea launched a three-day charm offensive yesterday. NPower opened the first of three exhibitions aimed at spelling out exactly what it plans to do on a mountainside at Mynydd y Gwair, between the city and Ammanford.
Proper use of the wind
20 May : I Have no objection to seeing wind farms on our hills and horizons. After all these sails, regarded as monstrosities in their time, became quite romantic in the agricultural and maritime histories of countries like Holland and Britain. What surprises me, though, is that in Swansea, of all places - where the potential power of the tide is second only to that of places in New Zealand - the authorities have chosen to invest so hugely in semi-efficient wind turbines that so many people regard as aesthetically abhorrent, instead of seeking to harness the prodigious and predictable power of the tide around our coasts.
Wind farm argument gets real
20 May : The headline of Jonathan Isaacs's interview with Mark Legerton of NPower, regarding the proposed wind farm on Mynydd y Gwair (Post, May 12) was: Now the wind farm argument gets real. When is NPower going to get real and speak the truth?
Have your say on plans for 34-turbine wind farm
20 May : People are getting their chance to have a say on plans for a 34-turbine wind farm on mountains north of Swansea. The plans for the towers at Mynydd y Gwair have caused huge local controversy.
Wind farm show gets on the road
19 May : A Series of exhibitions outlining controversial plans for a 34-turbine wind farm on Mynydd y Gwair, north of Swansea, will be held this weekend. The exhibitions have been organised by the developers, NPower Renewables, and will give people the chance to influence the design of the proposed wind farm.
Who will be responsible?
18 May
: Are your readers aware how dangerous wind turbines can be?
May 22 2005 ~ Wind farm boss puffs up Labour's election funds
-
Sunday Times "The owner of a wind farm company which stands to make millions from Labour's push for alternative energy will this week emerge as one of the party's biggest donors during the general election campaign.
Nigel Doughty, a venture capitalist, gave Labour 3250,000 after a dinner with Tony Blair held for potential donors earlier this year. His investment company owns LM Glasfiber, the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer, which is likely to profit from the huge expansion of wind power under Labour. It has already won many major contracts in Britain. The donation will be disclosed by the Electoral Commission this week..." read in full
May 18 2005 ~ a massive wind farm on the Isle of Lewis could be "catastrophic".
- The environmental impact of the world's largest proposed onshore wind farm could be 30 times worse than expected, a peatland expert has warned.
A report commissioned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says a massive wind farm on the Isle of Lewis could be "catastrophic".
Richard Lindsay, of the University of East London, said the developers had undervalued the quality of the habitat. .." BBC
15 May 2005 ~ Cambridge wind farm fight
- ".When nearby residents heard that the planning application for 16 wind turbines on farmland between Boxworth and Connington had been turned down by South Cambridgeshire District Council, they thought they had heard the last of the plan.
But Your Energy, the company behind the plan, has now decided to appeal against the council's decision
...there is a blight on the village and it will continue as long as there is any chance of this application going ahead."
May 15 2005 ~ BBC 2 (TV) Programme, Newsnight, 10.30 pm, Monday 16th May
-
Debate about Energy and in particular nuclear power.
Professor Ian Fells will be taking part in the debate
conducted by Jeremy Paxman.
You can watch/listen online.
May 11 2005 ~ Dartmoor National Park Authority voted to object to the planning application for three wind turbines at Yelland Farm
-
WMN : 11.05.05
Plans for a controversial windfarm on the edge of Dartmoor have suffered a severe blow as the park's authority unanimously voted to oppose the application. Dartmoor National Park Authority voted to object to the planning application for three wind turbines at Yelland Farm, near Okehampton.
May 10 2005 ~ "...they neither produce a reliable or efficient amount of electricity... a negligible effect on the decrease of carbon dioxide emissions. We are fighting to save the mountains and moorlands" : Christine Lovelock
- ARTISTS' SIT-IN TO PROTEST AGAINST WIND TURBINES
WMN 10.05.05
"Artists set up their easels on a potential windfarm site in the Den Brook valley between Bow and North Tawton to capture the landscape 'while it's there'. The painting 'sit-in' was held as a protest against the plan. The initiative was launched by the North Devon artist Christine Lovelock who has set up Artists Against Windfarms.
Similar 'paint-ins' were also held at Fullabrook in North Devon and Goveton in the South Hams. AAW members hope that by capturing the views on canvas it will highlight the threat posed to those views by onshore wind turbines.
"In organising this day I hope to draw attention to the nationwide opposition among many artists and people alike throughout the UK and in doing so unite many of the opposition groups in a successful day of painting," said Christine Lovelock. "I oppose wind turbines because they neither produce a reliable or efficient amount of electricity, they split up communities and have a negligible effect on the decrease of carbon dioxide emissions. We are fighting to save the mountains and moorlands of Scotland, Wales and the Lake District, but we are also fighting to save rural England, like these small Devon fields, hedgerows and meadows, where wild flowers still bloom."...."
May 7 2005 ~ "I am happy to be called the ugly face of ecology (George Monbiot, April 26) by supporters of wind turbines on unspoiled uplands.
- Sir Bernard Ingham has written to the Guardian " ...I agree with Mobiot that wind farms will not overcome climate change. I therefore do not agree with him that they are a necessary evil.
As for branding the opponents of Whinash as cheats and exaggerators, Monbiot immediately tars himself with the same brush by repeating without qualification the developers' claim that Whinash wind farm would provide enough electricity for 47,000 homes. It wouldn't when the wind didn't blow or blew too hard. It would then leave them in the dark.
Finally, to put another Monbiot exaggeration in perspective, I did not co-found Country Guardian. Joseph Lythgoe founded it alone. He came out of the blue to me and used me as a sounding board. I had no position with the nuclear industry when he first approached me. But I have never seen a conflict of interest. Wind is no competitor of nuclear and never will be.
(Sir) Bernard Ingham, 9 Monahan Avenue, Purley, Surrey CR8 3BB
May 6/7 2005 ~ "The findings of many studies are kept secret for commercial reasons, while supposedly public information produced for planning applications comes without raw information or is of poor quality."
- "It's difficult even to find out what data is out there, and when we know it's there, it is extraordinarily difficult to get hold of." The New Scientist quotes the researchers of Systematic Review 4 "Effects of wind turbines on bird abundance" (pdf file) by the CENTRE FOR EVIDENCE-BASED CONSERVATION at Birmingham University. - which concludes:
"... Pending
further research, if impacts on bird abundance are to be avoided, the available
evidence suggests that windfarms should not be sited near populations of birds of
conservation importance, particularly Anseriformes." (read in full)
May 5 2005 ~ Wind farms could have a devastating impact on Britain's wild birds, conservationists have warned.
- Scotsman
"Ducks and waders are among the species that could pay the ultimate price for green electricity.
A worldwide review of previous studies into the effect of wind farms on the overall number of local birds paints a grim picture.
It said: "Available evidence suggests that wind farms reduce the abundance of many bird species at the wind farm site."
Among the worst affected are waders and ducks around wind farms on estuaries and in shallow coastal waters, New Scientist reported. ..."
May 5 2005 ~ "Our Government's own words are that renewable electricity generation will save at most 2.5 million tonnes of carbon emission per year by 2010.."
- (Defra Review of the Climate Change Programme 2004).
Letter from Dr John Etherington in Western Morning News 3 May 2005 "....This will mainly be by wind power and represents much less than one-thousandth of global carbon emission (6,611 million metric tonnes of carbon in 2002).
This tiny drop in the ocean can make no measurable difference to atmospheric CO2 concentration, and has no chance of altering climate which, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change, needs a one-third reduction in CO2 concentration, involving a vastly greater amount of CO2 than do the emission controls by renewable electricity generation.
Meanwhile, every consumer enormously "subsidises" wind power, paying for it to threaten landscape, property values, tourist income, birds and bats, all to no good effect. It is time to stop and consider why we are doing this...."
May 3 2005 ~ "Politicians are burying their heads in the sand on an issue that affects this generation and future generations..."
- WMN "....
Jonathan Cardale, chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association, said: "We wholeheartedly welcome the Ramblers' Association's involvement. Clearly their members are people who will appreciate Dartmoor and not want to see it spoiled by wind turbines."
The Ramblers campaign is calling on the next Parliament to shift financial incentives away from large scale, land-based wind turbines to smaller scale, community-based schemes that will meet local needs. The association also wants offshore alternatives to be developed. ......
Nick Barrett, chief executive of the Ramblers, said: "It is maddening that the environment has become a forgotten issue in this election. Politicians are burying their heads in the sand on an issue that affects this generation and future generations. The climate change crisis will not be solved by constructing massive windfarms in the countryside. Wind energy policy should be based on small-scale community-based turbines on land, with the massive, 100-metre plus turbines used only in offshore developments. Otherwise we will soon see an industrialisation of our countryside on a scale never experienced before. The desecration of our countryside by giant turbines, inadvertently encouraged by excessive government generosity, is potentially making a few landowners and multinational energy companies very rich, but doing little to address the real problem of climate change."
May 2 2005 ~ Row over who gets what if wind farm goes ahead
- Scotsman
"A row has broken out ....
Members of the Moorlands Without Turbines (MWT) group on the Isle of Lewis are claiming that if the proposal for the 133-turbine farm goes ahead they will not be entitled to any financial benefits generated by the development.
......
A spokeswoman for MWT said: "These proposals have already damaged our communities. The last thing we need are divisive manoeuvres by developers that threaten to create a have/have not society based on handouts.
It also has serious ethical implications in respect of planning as a democratic process."
However, Iain McIver, one of the three trustees currently appointed to administer the construction of the farm, said yesterday that if the wind farm went ahead it would be up to the nine trustees to decide how any resulting revenue was distributed. ....."
May 1 2005 ~ "the helium-filled balloon reached the height of the tip of the blade of the tallest turbines proposed for the area."
- WMN "...
"We are doing this to let local people know how high these proposed turbines are," said Mrs Goodman. "We want them to be able to imagine what ten of these structures, which would be much more visible than the balloon, would look like. This would be industrialisation of the landscape and there would also be noise when the wind blew and the turbines were turning."...Among objectors at yesterday's balloon launch was local resident Phil Hancock, who said the application to build wind turbines in the Den Brook Valley, was "dastardly" and driven by commercial greed. "It has got to be stopped and one of the ways stopping it is by raising public awareness," he said. "
April 30 2005 - Whinash - A steel noose
-
Telegraph Filed: 20/04/2005 "....David MacLean, the Conservative candidate for Penrith and the Borders, said: "A steel noose is being placed around the neck of the Lake District.
"There are applications to build massive wind farms all around the national park which will destroy this precious landscape and fail to plug the massive energy gap we will have by 2010.
"Giant wind turbines cause visual pollution, destroy jobs in tourism and only work a third of the time. Wind power is not the answer to the energy gap and is not as cheap as we first thought."..."
April 30 2005 ~ they claim the turbines will kill birds and there is no evidence to show that and I am sure cats and cars would kill a lot more.....
- Jill Perry, of Friends of the Earth isquoted in the article above
However,
" ... in Germany, with its huge windpower industry, the bird-life organisation NABU has recorded the killing of 41 red kites.." (letter in today's Telegraph)
April 29 2005 - Cumbrian uplands facing devastation from windfarms, Whinash inquiry told
- Cumberland News
"Dr Mike Hall, founder director of the Renewable Energy Foundation and vice chairman of FELLS the Friends of Eden, Lakeland and Lunesdale Scenery campaign group told the seventh day of the hearing at Shap Wells Hotel that the sacrifice of Whinash and many other wild upland areas could not be justified by the savings that might be made.
Dr Hall said Britain's "ill-considered" dash for wind-generated electricity was not being driven primarily by the need for the power itself, but by the second of the government's targets, namely its obligation under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
....Sir Christopher Audland, the former head of the Foreign Office science and technology department and Director General for Energy to the European Commission from 1981 to 1986, also gave evidence for FELLS, of which he was founder chairman. ... "Should we be considering sacrificing some material goods and services to save humanity?" he asked. Sir Christopher added: "I don't think by the sacrifice of any amount of landscape you could possible give the British people all they are coming to expect nowadays." . ..."
April 27 2005 - "divisive, pointless, and widespread plunder of the British countryside being perpetrated by the UK wind industry today"
- "Whether or not CO2 is responsible for climate change, it would be prudent to use precious fuel resources with care and reduce emissions. This would be better achieved by shifting targets away from generating renewables electricity, towards targets for reducing CO2. If applied Regionally, this would open up a range of practical possibilities such as efficiency schemes, local incentives and renewable energy alternatives.
Most importantly it could create a strong sense of local participation and responsibility the exact opposite of the divisive, pointless, and widespread plunder of the British countryside being perpetrated by the UK wind industry today'..." Dr Mike Hall, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Institute of Biology and Vice-Chairman of FELLS - from part of the press release National Gathering of Wind Farm Protest Groups which is on the English version of an excellent french website ventdubocage.net (opens in new window)
April 26 2005 - Wind farms,...a classic example of what environmentalists call an "end-of-the-pipe solution".
- George Monbiot today finds himself - somewhat reluctantly perhaps - giving both sides of the story of Whinash and giant turbines
- " Instead of tackling the problem - our massive demand for energy - at source, they provide less damaging means of accommodating it. Or part of it. The Whinash project, by replacing energy generation from power stations burning fossil fuel, will reduce carbon dioxide emission by 178,000 tonnes a year. This is impressive, until you discover that a single jumbo jet, flying from London to Miami and back every day, releases the climate-change equivalent of 520,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. One daily connection between Britain and Florida costs three giant wind farms.
Alternative technology permits us to imagine that we can build our way out of trouble. ...there is no sustainable way of meeting current projections for energy demand. The only strategy in any way compatible with environmentalism is one led by a vast reduction in total use. .."
April 24 2005 - VoSNews e-mailed the Scottish offices of the main political parties as follows:
-
'VIEWS OF SCOTLAND represents individuals and
groups in Scotland who campaign against the
proliferation of wind turbines.
'We are preparing a six-sentence pricis of the
renewable energy policies of all the major parties
to distribute to members and those who feel the
issue might have a bearing on how they vote on 5
May.
'Could you help by forwarding something as
soon as possible?'..." VOS newsletter 5 (pdf file new window)
April 24 2005 - From Warmwell's Inbox section in past few days
24 April 2005 ~ Angela Kelly writes to say that Professor Philip Stott's new website (illustrated with a picture of a damaged wind turbine) is well worth a visit:
http://parliamentofthings.info/
He still hosts his site on:
http://www.greenspin.blogspot.com/
See also Professor Stott's article last week "The failure of our political parties to be realistic about future energy demand could be catastrophic"
23 April 2005 ~ "The Westcountry's biggest windfarm could fall foul of a string of environmental obstacles, the Western Morning News has learned. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is demanding a series of surveys into the threatened effects of 22 huge turbines at Fullabrook Down in North Devon on the landscape, wildlife and tourist economy of the area. It has raised concerns about the possible impact on the adjacent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) of the North Devon coastline..."
23 April 2005 ~ ".. the No 10 review of Britain's energy needs is not mentioned in the manifesto. But a team in the Strategy Unit, led by Lord Birt, the former BBC director general and one of the Prime Minister's closest advisers, is studying whether nuclear power should play a central role in combating global warming..." Independent Global warming? Or a global problem that no politician is prepared to discuss?. See peak oil pages
22 April 2005 ~ Wind Turbines - TELETEXT Page 348 - 21/4/05
"Do you support more wind farms?"
1,137 Votes were cast:
YES 29%
-
NO 71%
(See politics and the peak oil news pages for more on the energy question. It goes far beyond nimbyism and far beyond even the very important question of preserving the last wild places of Britain for the health of the nation.)
April 20 2005 - From Warmwell's Inbox section today
- Whinash Inquiry
20 April 2005 ~ No apologies for concentrating on energy and windfarms ; in the near future we may well look back on the present moment and curse our inaction.The Public Inquiry into Whinash starts today. Windfarms "Britain is heading for a crisis in power supplies to which no amount of preferential treatment for renewable energy sources can do more than make a peripheral contribution for decades to come".
20 April 2005 ~ "the uplands of Britain are being industrialised. ... By subsidising the market rate for electricity to the extent of 300 per cent and offering #1 billion in other subsidies, Ms Hewitt has invited a Klondike goldrush from American, Japanese and European entrepreneurs. The Whinash scheme in Cumbria is subsidised desecration. Few Britons, especially those who holiday abroad, will have any idea just what is being done to the western uplands of Britain in their name. These turbine parks are truly massive, requiring to be serviced by networks of new roads, quarries, pylons and substations across virgin moorland. The saving in greenhouse gas is negligible less in a year than is exhaled by one transatlantic jet...." Simon Jenkins today .
20 April 2005 ~ The Today programme discussed Whinash yesterday but not one speaker mentioned the crucial point which is that these heavily subsidised windfarms are inefficient The energy produced is minimal, needs constant back-up from conventional power stations and they do not reduce Co2 emissions. If this were not the case we might think twice about opposing these nature-dwarfing monstrosities. We hope that readers who are good at proven facts and figures might contact the Today Programme. (new window)
20 April 2005 ~ "..Weary and depressed at yet more infighting in the election on the minutiae of issues I log on and just have a quick look at Warmwell's inbox page - and find, to my relief, that I am not alone in thinking the election is silent on the really big issues.." email received today
20 April 2005 ~ A concerned Cumbrian writes, "Many thanks for the fantastic mention of the Sunday Times Leader article about the proposed wind farm in Cumbria. Blair's mob are desperate to have our lovely countryside swamped with these horrible things.
May I ask you to feature two polls currently going on in Cumbria?
Julian is featuring a poll on his www.visitcumbria site
He will pass the poll results to the Whinash Public enquiry.
The other Whinash poll can be found at the local 'Evening News & Star Poll' www.newsandstar.co.uk (Results stood at 43% for 57% against when we visited.)
April 18 2005 ~ ' The dream of environmentally friendly energy has turned into the highly subsidised destruction of our countryside '
- said David Bellamy.
"Leading Environmentalist and Broadcaster Professor David Bellamy and Country Guardian Vice President Sir Bernard Ingham joined scores of representatives from Wind Farm Protest Groups throughout England, Scotland and Wales to speak out against the governments current energy policy and its 'Drive for Wind' at the National Conference organized by the Saddleworth Moors Action Group in Association with Country Guardian. ...
He has described the attempts to sell Wind Farms to the British public as 'Green' and a serious contribution to Britain's energy needs as 'Lies, Damned Lies and Wind Farms'
Sir Bernard Ingham, was a senior civil servant and Head of the Department of Energy's first Conservation Division under the then Energy Minister Tony Benn. Sir Bernard had responsibility for the development of renewable sources of energy following the oil crisis in the 1970's. He was also Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Press Secretary. 'Wind power is for the brain washed and brain dead' he says. He criticises the government for its obsession on short term target chasing in the wake of Kyoto and its failure to develop a coherent strategic policy for Britain's long term energy needs.
Professor Bellamy and Sir Bernard Ingham are no NIMBYs. They have put their famed heads above the 'politically correct' parapet and, as a matter of principle, have opposed commercial wind turbines for 15 years...." (Huddersfield Daily Examiner April 13th)
18 April 2005 ~ Westcountry artist Christine Lovelock will be leading a nationwide protest against windfarms on May 1.
- The daughter of the internationally renowned environmentalist James Lovelock will take part in an event called "Paint it while it's there - when it's gone it's gone".
WMN
17 April 2005 ~ we're trying to protect a landscape that has been unchanged for centuries.
- "..Soon after discovering the turbines plan, Mulders sent out leaflets to villagers in nearby Dalmellington. Within weeks meetings had been arranged, community councils had become interested and official objections had begun.
"Letters, " recalls the 40-year-old Mulders, "thousands of them. People began doing what I was doing - asking questions.... "I work on it all the time and I've ploughed a lot of money into resources. It can be frustrating. I talk to other protesters more than I do my own wife, but we're trying to protect a landscape that has been unchanged for centuries. " The Herald April 2 2005.
13 April 2005 "..at the Clean Energy Show in London (May 7 - 9) the prototype of an 8 MW vertical axis wind powered electricity generator specifically designed for offshore use will be unveiled.
- The technology makes all existing proposals for
onshore wind generated electricity obsolete as it will generate
electricity offshore cheaper than horizontal axis onshore.
The technology has been proven with the aid of a DTI Innovation Grant
prepared by Camrow Ltd."
6 April 2005 ~ Greenpeace opposes the turbines on Lewis
- See BBC report "Greenpeace, is opposing a giant wind farm planned for the Western Isles.
It is concerned about the size of the scheme which will see 234 turbines sited across 30 miles of Lewis.
Greenpeace said that it backed the use of wind energy as a way of reducing global warming.
But it said the cost of laying an undersea cable to the mainland had determined the scheme's size. It also fears for the impact on bird numbers. ..."
5 April 2005 ~ "the statement that no wind farm has affected house prices in the UK is definitely false and this should be picked up on"
- Cambridge News "The prospective buyer who contacted the group's website, who wishes not to be named, said: "I can tell you one thing, the statement that no wind farm has affected house prices in the UK is definitely false and this should be picked up on.
I have seen a village near to a wind farm in Wales that is horrendous in the effect it has had on the surrounding residential area."
5 April 2005 ~ "When I was a town planning officer I had a duty to resist proposals likely to harm the environment.
- I am therefore appalled at the prospect of Wales becoming a gigantic windmill theme park..." This is southwales
".......the debate in the Evening Post, with the overwhelming technical evidence showing the inefficiency of wind power, is significant and remains largely unanswered by those who prefer to warn of nuclear dangers.
Surely that is a scare tactic designed to take our attention away from the relative inefficiency of wind power and a recent National Audit Office report showing it will add at least five per cent to householders' energy bills for comparatively little return.
Tidal and solar-generated power seem more dependable and productive and I cannot understand why our Assembly is not vigorously promoting them.
But most puzzling of all is the fixation of those who think making Britain a nuclear-free area will somehow protect us from any nuclear accidents...."
4 April 2005 ~ St Paul's Cathedral has pulled the plug on plans to build England's largest onshore wind farm on a remote stretch of coastal marshland.
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"The decision by the dean and chapter at the cathedral represents a remarkable change of heart by the church authorities, who, until recently, were urging villagers to go along with the scheme.
The role of St Paul's was crucial to the viability of Npower Renewables' plan to build 26 wind turbines 400ft tall because, since being gifted the land in AD 604 by the King of Kent, the cathedral owns 1,000 acres around the Essex villages of Bradwell-on-Sea and Tillingham.
People living in about 850 village homes and scattered farms were appalled by the plans, which they said would destroy the unspoiled coastal marshes, threaten the thousands of migrating wildfowl and waders and cause intolerable noise pollution of "blade thump" from the turbines..
... cathedral authorities have pulled out of the scheme because of the strength of local opposition. .." Telegraph
3 April 2005 ~ " an industry that has been created by London-based politicians who care nothing for the Highlands of Scotland and for those who love its special wild qualities. ."
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One brave, desolate voice, is that of Cameron McNeish, moved to tears, and not ashamed to lament. He writes: in the Sunday Herald
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"....Such wanton destruction, and all for a growing industry that is patently both inefficient and uneconomic, an industry that has been created by London-based politicians who care nothing for the Highlands of Scotland and for those who love its special wild qualities. .."
. (warmwell blog for Sunday 3 April)"..... the British flock of milk sheep, are not hardy, nor capable enough en-masse of raising their voices against the desecration - needless and unthinkable - of the last refuges of wild beauty. Afraid of the NIMBY label, they forget that "My back yard" in this context is what used to be called our "country" in both senses of the word.
Voices stay very quiet because they have been fed prozac; the notion that gigantic human-dwarfing wind turbines are a genuine "green alternative"- cuddly green giants.
Our ovine compatriots seem already to have learned to love Big Brother
29 March 2005 ~ the elimination of ugly farm buildings, power lines, masts, turbines and defunct warehouses
- Simon Jenkins in the Times"This involves far more than species protection. It means a care for horizons, views and coastlines. It involves the elimination of ugly farm buildings, power lines, masts, turbines and defunct warehouses. It means treating the landscape, and the farms to protect it, as an aesthetic as well as a scientific reality.
There is none of this in the new policy because Britain has no lobby for beauty. Any fool can save a sedge but it takes a genius to save a scene. Yet it is Britain's scenery which, in truth, we are now all paying to protect. We need the courage of this revolution, to think big as well as small." Read in full
23 March 2005 ~ " the windfarm would ruin the unspoilt beauty of Dartmoor and deter tourists from visiting."
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"This area thrives on tourism, and people visit, and return, because the area is so beautiful.
A planning application has been submitted for three wind turbines at Yelland Farm, just west of the A386 on Bowerland Road, around three miles south of Okehampton. ..
Mr Edmonds, who is chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation, said: "...Dartmoor is one of the jewels of Britain. And if anyone cares about Dartmoor, from anywhere across the country, they have to join the fight to prevent these turbines from being built".
Mr Bainbridge only learnt of the application yesterday morning and said he was surprised there had not been a public consultation, and accused the developers of trying to gain permission for the "industrial development" through the back door.". .... It was not clear last night how high the wind turbines would be, but the ones erected in early last month, at Bradworthy, North Devon are 246ft high, three times the height of Nelson's Column. Plans are also afoot for 20 turbines at Fullabrook Down, near Great Torrington, North Devon, which would be 360ft high - the largest in the Westcountry - and for anything between ten 328ft and 19 262ft turbines on land near North Tawton, between Crediton and Hatherleigh. There has also been a proposal for a windfarm at Goveton, near Kingsbridge, South Devon. .." WMN
23 March 2005 ~ it's unlikely that we'll run out of wind
- Scotsman "Alex Kapranos, the lead singer of the band Franz Ferdinand, said: "Our modern lives depend upon easy access to huge resources of energy. We're going to run out of fossil fuels so we need to find an alternative resource - and it's unlikely that we'll run out of wind."
Leaving aside the questions about efficiency and political expediency, this is one of the first statements we have seen that suggests the rush to build turbines is less about Kyoto and more about peak oil. See today's Scotsman.
22 March 2005 ~ Campaign to prevent the construction of one of the largest onshore wind-farms in the UK
- We have received this plea on behalf of the quiet stillness of the marshes between Bradwell and the village of Tillingham.
- "Can you please add our Bradwell & Tillingham (Essex) 26 Wind Turbine battle to your site?
Our contact site is www.bradwell.info
They are now trying to march over the Essex Marshes with twenty six 410ft high turbines.
The Bradwell site has the oldest church (604 AD) in the country - but then the land they are proposing to build it on belongs to St Paul's Cathedral. This land was given to St Paul's 1400 years ago. We fight on .."
20 March 2005 ~ General Election - Getting the message across !
- Saddleworth Moors Action Group in association with Country Guardian
2nd National Gathering of Wind Farm Action Groups
.... Professor David Bellamy, Sir Bernard Ingham and Dr Mike Hallwill be speaking on April 12 at Saddleworth Hotel, Huddersfield Road, Delph OL3 5LX. Click here if you would like to go
20 March 2005 ~ "....With each project, Kirkendall's conclusions were the same windmills are not reliable.
- Virgil Kirkendall , an engineer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 26 years, helping to construct and repair the first large windmill projects.
After he retired, NASA asked him to come back in the mid-1980s to supervise the first windmill farm, which he did for five years...
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"I've seen so much bull about wind turbines that I don't feel is true. They try to sell people on wind power, and it's not for free. The truth is, it's very difficult to get," Kirkendall said. "I just don't want them to feed a bunch of misinformation to people who have no experience in it"
....Almost everyone said the windmills were "fascinating" and "amazingly clean." But many asked: "Why aren't they turning?"
Toward the end of the project, one of the turbines completely shut down due to significant wear in one of the blade tip spindle bearings.
"There are about six different elements that blade fights every time it goes around," Kirkendall said. Wind forces at the top of the blades are stronger than at the bottom, causing fatigue at the center of the turbine, he said.
The cost of building and maintaining windmills are not worth the amount of energy produced, Kirkendall said.
"Just below the hill was John Day Dam," he said. "It would have taken 720 turbines to equal the dam." Kirkendall took dozens of pictures of the windmills being dismantled, an operation that required a 240-foot crane secured by steel cables.
"We worked on this for five years and we finally tore them down and took them to the junkyard..."
17March 2005 ~Council rejects turbine proposals
-
BBC
"The company behind plans to create a wind farm in Cornwall says it is considering appealing against a decision to reject the scheme.
Councillors decided on Wednesday that the proposed turbines near Lanlivery would be too tall and would affect the lives of people living nearby."
Councillors voted unanimously to reject the proposals, but the company, NPower Renewables, says Cornwall "has to meet government targets for energy produced by methods like wind power" and they will be appealing.
16 March 2005 ~ 'Dirty tricks' claim over proposed windfarm
- is one of the stories in the round-up of news for 16 March.
Campaigners fighting plans for a windfarm next to the A14 in Cambridgeshire say letters of support for it are being fabricated. Also included in the round-up are items about work recently undertaken by Fritz Van Den Berg, of the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands on the noise of turbines,
news that work is to begin next year on a huge wind farm in Swansea Bay where thirty 400 foot turbines will be erected. However, "... Using The Freedom of Information Act, it transpires that the Welsh Assembly Government acted against the advice given to it by its own head of the planning decision branch whose recommendation was: "To recommend, in line with the inspector's conclusion, that the order should not be made and that deemed planning permission for the associated onshore works be not granted." Read round-up
15 March 2005 ~ "The issues are huge but we can all make a small difference."
- WMN "... Noel Edmonds has called for "people power" to avert an energy crisis that could lead to power blackouts.
...the issue was "too important to be left to politicians" as he urged a huge take-up of renewable energy.
He was speaking at a conference in Wincanton, South Somerset, which brought together some of the most far-sighted developers of "green" sources of power. These included producers of biodiesel as a clean transport fuel, heat pumps which replace boilers using fossil fuels, solar heating specialists, and companies using hydro-power and small domestic wind turbines. Mr Edmonds, who lives at Jacobstow in Devon, and is chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), emphasised the enormous potential of power and conservation from all these sources but said it could only be realised with a "ground up, not top down" approach.....
"Campbell Dunford, chairman of Save the Vale, which hosted the forum, and has fought off plans for giant turbines in Blackmore Vale, said: "The issues are huge but we can all make a small difference." Read in full
14 March 2005 ~ The fiddling has to stop and a major reappraisal of our approach to energy supply and demand is required.
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Independent letter
"On the one hand the Government is subsidising the desecration of the most scenic and ecologically important areas of our countryside by the construction of thousands of giant wind generators. To achieve the target of 10 per cent of electricity generation by 2010 requires around eight thousand 3 MW generators occupying in excess of 1600 square kilometres.
On the other hand, our nuclear power stations are being closed and combined cycle gas generators (that result in emissions of both carbon dioxide and methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas), are set to be doubled if the Government's Energy White Paper is to be believed.
It is technically feasible for the developed countries such as the UK to stop using fossil fuels for electricity generation within a few decades...... feasible alternatives such as hydrogen fuel cells and advanced batteries will require substantially increased electricity generation. This only makes sense if the electricity is generated free of greenhouse gases.
The fiddling has to stop and a major reappraisal of our approach to energy supply and demand is required.
Professor BRIAN EYRE Southampton
11 March 2005 ~ Lincolnshire Opposed to Onshore Turbines (LOOT), were strongly attacked by a Labour councillor for allegedly "attempting to intimidate him and other councillors".
- He challenged Loot to report him to The Standards Board for England. Loot says "We are happy to confirm that we did indeed report him many weeks ago and The Standards Board have now confirmed to us that they have passed our complaint to the Ethical Standards Officers for formal investigation." Press release
March 7 2005 ~Author, broadcaster and mountaineer Cameron McNeish has urged the Government not to blight the Highlands with giant wind turbines
- Some of the latest windfarm news from round the country. Extract "Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas "The country can't solve its energy problems without creating energy problems, but I was horrified when I heard about these proposals."
The Labour MP vowed to do everything he could as a member of the Government to make sure that the turbines are not built.
".... we must maintain a balance. We need strict planning laws to guide where these energy facilities can be built because the idea of putting these turbines in an area of beautiful countryside is appalling. Alternatives need to be developed."
Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Keith Chapman said a number of options could be explored that did not involve building wind farms...."
March 7 2005 ~A lot of landscapes which have inspired generations of painters and writers are in danger of being lost because of the rush to build these gigantic turbines."
- The Independent today. ".....Anti-wind farm campaigners claim plans for more than 6,000 turbines to be built across the country threaten to damage the unique scenery that has influenced a host of writers, artists and poets.
A report by the Scottish Wind Assessment Project (Swap), (See Here) which represents a consortium of businesses and landowners concerned at the proliferation of turbines, claims there are plans for more than 250 wind farms across Scotland from the Highlands to the Borders.
Among the most controversial are plans to erect thirteen 400ft turbines at Broadmeadows....which will be clearly visible from Scott's View - the Border region's most famous beauty spot ..."
March 6 2005 ~ Germany "The 490-page report is still censored, but a copy has been leaked to Der Spiegel, which published the main conclusions"
4 March 2005 ~ The Cambrian Mountains "are now being ruined for the largest land-based wind turbine acreage in Europe, at a cost of millions of pounds of public subsidy"
- Simon Jenkins "Nationalisation ... ranks with the National Trust's 1998 publicity stunt in spending #4 million to "save" the already protected Snowdon, yet refusing to save the unprotected Cambrian Mountains to the south. As a result, the latter are now being ruined for the largest land-based wind turbine acreage in Europe, at a cost of millions of pounds of public subsidy. That is where Mr Prescott's national park should be and where of course it is not. ..." Read in full
3 March 2005 ~ in it for the money
- "... Tom Murley, director of HgCapital, told the second annual Wave and Tidal
Energy Conference it was not so much about saving the planet from global
warming as about market share.
....
They were in it for the money, so should the green electricity industry be, he said. It was a straightforward commercial fight...."
Read Reuters alertnet.org article or in full here
3 March 2005 ~ ".. National Audit Office's damning criticism of the Government's renewable energy policy"
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Freepress now.co.uk
The masters of Spin
Chris Tomlinson (Postbag, February 9) tells us that over 50 surveys have been carried out, showing that people love wind turbines.
Why, then, does his industry have to spend so much of our money trying to tell us that they are efficient, clean and harmless? Has something suddenly gone wrong?
Well, it has been wrong for a very long time. The rich wind industry and its political backers have fed us their propaganda for so long that people actually believed them, seeing the wind turbine as a 'green' symbol that could do no wrong.
The good people of Denbighshire have now seen the reality, with their landscape sold to an American company as a mere investment chip even before the first turbine had been erected: it's money that drives wind power, not environmental care.
He quotes 'surveys' as evidence to support his view. Of course, they're all commissioned by the industry to prove their case, but don't bear scrutiny. There are the unrepresentative samples; people questioned who have never seen a wind turbine; those who have, but have never seen one of the new 350ft high ones; and the loaded questions such as "Would you rather have a wind turbine behind your house or a nuclear power station?"
The spin-masters have had a field day.
The news is indeed bad. First we hear that Denmark saves no emissions by building more turbines, because they have to build new back-up generators to cover the transmission losses and when the wind is too weak or too strong.
Then we read the German report, leaked to the national press, which has been sent back for editing because it paints such a bad story of wind power. Now we read the National Audit Office's damning criticism of the Government's renewable energy policy, which will cost us billions on our future electricity bills when, it says, there are much cheaper ways of reaching the emission reduction targets than flooding the countryside with wind turbines.
When the whole truth is told to the nation, we can look forward to seeing the results of an independent survey of public attitudes to wind power.
David Insall
Blodnant
Tynant Corwen Conwy
1 March 2005 ~ "a combination of feeble arithmetic and misinformation"
- Round up of news Extract: "An independent report has rejected claims that a huge windfarm in the Westcountry would be environmentally friendly and help to save the planet from global warming.
The study by the leading energy consultant Hugh Sharman describes the promotional material for a ten-turbine windfarm in Den Brook Valley, near North Tawton, Devon, as "a combination of feeble arithmetic and misinformation". He condemns the brochure as combining "fact and fiction in an alarming way".
1 March 2005 ~ "...harnessing the tidal power of the sea, would be six times more powerful than a single wind turbine
- A Cornish engineer, Pat Cooke, has drawn up plans for a tide power generator he believes has the potential to supply a quarter of Cornwall's energy needs. The Ocean Hydro Electricity Generator (OHEG), which would work by harnessing the tidal power of the sea, would be six times more powerful than a single wind turbine. WMN
March 1 2005 ~ Our countryside is in danger of being ruined by a combination of greed, good intentions and subsidy.
- Letter in today's Guardian "Robert Macfarlane misses the main reason why wind farms are popular with politicians - precisely be cause they are highly visible. They give the impression that "something is being done" about climate change. How appropriate that they rotate; their primary function is spin.
But, as Macfarlane notes, it is mainly large multinationals and landowners who are pushing for wind farms. They have their eyes on the subsidies that western governments, desperate to meet Kyoto targets, have ready. Our countryside is in danger of being ruined by a combination of greed, good intentions and subsidy.
Brian Hughes
Cheltenham, Glos "
Feb 27 2005 ~ "...Behind aesthetics run serious scientific divisions about the ability of wind technology to produce power and reduce greenhouse gases. .
- International Herald Tribune
"...The real issue is that this is a scam and shouldn't be allowed. We are subsidizing a failed technology," said David Bellamy, the prominent British naturalist. "These are not wind farms but wind factories. They are destroying some of the best views in the world, without giving us much of anything in return."
He said that each turbine required a 1,000-ton block of concrete for a base and heavy duty roads for transport. Already, he said, peat bogs have been damaged and fish populations destroyed by construction in northern Scotland. ..." ( in full)
Feb 2005 ~ Politics and turbines have much in common: spin.
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Western Mail - 3rd February [Letter]
Turbine fact
SIR - Andrew Davies grossly over-emphasies the significance of wind turbines' carbon dioxide "savings" (Letters, January 22).
Here is a fact. A turbine rated at 2MW, with a blade-span bigger than a jumbo jets' wingspan and costing upwards of #1m, will save carbon dioxide at the same rate as just 30 diesel-engined family saloons pump it out when cruising along a motorway.
Wind power is a nonsensical route to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and we should be extremely concerned that senior politicians are hiding behind the public's belief that these giant machines must, by virtue of their sheer size, make a significant contribution to combating global climate change.
Politics and turbines have much in common: spin.
Professor PETER COBBOLD
Ty'n y Coed, Derwen, Corwen, Denbighshire
27 Feb 2005 ~The Sunday Telegraph asks "You call this environmentally friendly?"
- and discusses "The Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands will be blighted by giant electricity pylons ....proposals to replace the existing power cables with a 400,000 volt-line would see 164ft-high pylons - double the size of the current pylons - built through the central Highlands, with some structures erected in previously untouched areas..
...the scheme will have a devastating impact on an area that contains Britain's largest mountain landscape area.
Sheena Slimon, the Highland council member for Badenoch and Strathspey, who lives in the Cairngorms village of Laggan where pylons are proposed, said that the plans were "completely unacceptable". She said: "It is ludicrous to even suggest putting up huge new pylons in a national park. They would damage the wildlife and vegetation in the area, and permanently spoil the landscape for the local people and tourists coming to visit. Tourism is our bread and butter here and anyone coming to visit the Cairngorms would not want the first thing they see to be a huge set of power cables cutting across the landscape."...... " See article
26 Feb 2005 ~ Report doubts future of wind power
- Front page news in the Guardian
"Wind farms are an expensive and inefficient way of generating sustainable energy, according to a study from Germany, the world's leading producer of wind energy.
The report, which may have ramifications for the UK's rapidly growing wind farm industry, concludes that instead of spending billions on building new wind turbines, the emphasis should be on making houses more energy efficient. Drawn up by the German government's energy agency, it says that wind farms prove a costly form of reducing greenhouse gases.
................ more than 100 national and local groups, led by some of Britain's most prominent environmentalists, including David Bellamy, Sir Crispin Tickell, and James Lovelock, have argued that wind power is inefficient, destroys the countryside and makes little difference to Britain's soaring carbon emissions.
...Critics of wind energy in Germany said it would be cheaper and more environmentally efficient to insulate old houses or to renew existing power stations.
"The problem with wind farms is that you have to build them in places where you don't need electricity. The electricity then has to be moved somewhere else," Klaus Lippold, a Christian Democrat opposition MP, said. "There is growing resistance in Germany to wind farms, not least because of the disastrous effect on our landscape." .... ." Read in full
24 Feb 2005 ~ "it should be recognised that renewables such as wind power also brings with it concerns of intermittency and inefficiency.
- Even Professor James Lovelock, 'guru' of the environmental movements speaking at the recent Prospect seminar on keeping the nuclear option open, said: 'Clean renewable energy sounds appealing but in practice is ruinously expensive and little more use than trying to survive on aperitifs alone'. Whitehaven news
News Roundup Feb 23/24 2005
23 Feb 2005 ~ Wind, gas and global warming
- letters in the Independent from Sir David Bellamy and Dr John Etherington
Sir: Please can one of your columnists explain in simple terms how the coldest winter on record in Afghanistan provides "the final proof: global warming is a man-made disaster" (headline, 19 February). If I am convinced then I and thousands of others might be able to believe Sir David King's statement that man-made global warming is a greater threat to humankind than international terrorism and we might also be able to believe that it can be cured by the industrialisation of Britain's countryside with monstrous wind "farms"...... Read in full
Feb 21 2005 ~ Windfarm news from round the country
- here "....A power company today withdrew a plan to build two giant wind turbines after the Ministry of Defence said they could interfere with Britain's air defences."
Feb 17-18 2005 ~ Windfarm news from round the country
- Extract from round-up "Mr Bellamy called for an end to all windfarm developments and pointed out that more than 15,000 turbines were being mooted just for Scotland alone more than in the whole of Germany, where a government report had revealed that little CO2 had been saved because of the need to keep conventional power stations idling.
He said: "Dumfries and Galloway boasts that it is the natural place to live but building more than 450 turbines between Gretna and Stranraer is an obscenity."
Feb 2005 ~ "other measures deserve to be given closer consideration, but they involve much greater political sensitivity. ... it is time for the UK and other EU Governments to face up to these realities, and open up a wider debate."
- "CO2 Emissions Reduction: Time for a Reality Check?"
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
"....Denmark has had an active and well-known wind programmeand has achieved the highest penetration of new renewables in the EU (over 20% of electricity capacity). Denmark and the Netherlands have the highe st penetration in the EU of CHP (over 50% for Denmark and 37% for the Netherlands as compared with about 6% for the UK). Both countries also have aggressive energy efficiency programmes. Indeed, the Netherlands is taken as a "case study" in the UK Energy White Paper discussing energy efficiency programmes and Denmark is frequently identified as a role model in climate change discussions.
But is this reflected in strong CO2 reductions? The question seems not to be asked..."
".....EU countries have not in recent years made progress in reducing CO2 emissions.
14 Feb 2005 ~ A wonderful unspoilt asset will be ruined and visitor numbers will definitely be affected, hitting businesses in the town
- A round-up of some of today's windfarm articles.
".....SNP environment spokesman Richard Lochhead, ... accused the executive of being like a "rabbit stuck in the headlights" when it came to the development of wind energy. "Wind energy has a role to play but there has to be a national strategy to identify the best locations for windfarms, the environmental factors that need to be taken into account and the benefits for local communities that can be expected," he said."...(Scotland)
"At a meeting yesterday, City of York councillors gave their full support to Powergen's plans to site the two 364ft turbines on the Escrick Park Estate, south of Escrick, between York and Selby. The decision went against advice from council officers that the plan should be opposed because the turbines' size and location would harm the setting and historic character of York..."(England)
13 Feb 2005 ~ 'Wind turbines are part of the problem, not the solution - based on a policy of hot air, not clean air,'
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North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood sums it up in a sentence in this article from
the Chester Chronicle
".... Isherwood highlighted a damning independent report for the German Government which has now been shelved. It warned that windfarm programmes will greatly increase energy costs and that greenhouse gases can be easily reduced by alternative methods. Germany already has more than 15,000 turbines and the report warns that if it presses ahead with its plan to double that number, annual energy costs for consumers will rise nearly four-fold to #3.7billion..."
12 Feb 2005 ~ "paint it, while it's there"
- - a reference to all regions facing the prospect of wind turbines.Botanist and TV personality David Bellamy last night reiterated his position at a public meeting at Dumfries, telling protesters he supports their battle against "the industrialisation of beautiful areas for a mess of wattage." See round-up of windfarm news
12 Feb 2005 ~ Wind farms 'pushing up price of electricity'
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Many wind farm operators are getting huge profits as part of a Government environmental policy that is also pushing up electricity prices, financial watchdogs say today.
A report from the National Audit Office suggests that most onshore wind farms could operate on half the level of available subsidies.
The NAO, Parliament's financial watchdog, also says that the overall cost of renewable energy, such as wind farms and tidal barrages, could add more than a 31 billion a year to electricity prices by the end of the decade. That amounts to an additional rise in bills of 5.7 per cent.
The report is likely to increase concerns over the growth of onshore wind farms, especially in areas of natural beauty. But the NAO conclusions also cast doubts on the cost of the Government's policy of reducing harmful emissions through encouraging electricity producers to use more and more renewable energy. The cost per ton of carbon dioxide saved can be more than double the financial benefit to society, the report says. The Government has a target of 10 per cent of electricity being generated by renewable sources by 2010, a target which the NAO says it is on course to reach.
But the watchdog's Renewable Energy report says that reaching the target will involve significant extra costs for consumers and taxpayers. Telegraph
9 Feb 2005 ~ Campaigners have drawn their battle lines as they prepare to defend a picturesque part of the Westcountry
- from another wave of controversial plans to build three giant wind turbines. Residents in Goveton say they have been left in limbo for weeks, after Npower withdrew its plans to build three 328ft (100m) high turbines on the edge of the village.
The power giant has vowed to resubmit its plans but because residents are unsure of when the application will be relodged they have been forced to meet regularly to ensure they are ready to react as soon as there are any developments...".. WMN ......."'End this dash for wind' - Page 23"
9 Feb 2005 ~ Round up of today's news
- extracts from news "....E.ON UK, which runs Powergen, held an exhibition at Catworth promoting a wind farm scheme which has been rejected by three- quarters of residents in a village poll.
Catworth Hill Action Group (CHAG) staged a protest outside the hall, saying they were determined to see the back of the proposal where three 300ft-high turbines would be built on the edge of the village..."England
"....The most up-to-date poll results reported recently that 1,700 people responded to the Tan 8 document and 87 per cent were against the planning procedure which proposed seven huge areas of Wales have turbines." Wales
"...Mr Bellamy would be available to answer questions and could also be talking about the benefits of using low energy lightbulbs. GLARE (Galloway Landscape and Renewable Energy) hope to promote forms of renewable energy other than windfarms to local communities and individual households..." Scotland
and more
7 Feb 2005 ~ Round up of today's news
- "....One needs no specialised knowledge, however, to see that the Assembly has no intention of listening to its constituents. Equally clear, and far more disturbing, is that the Assembly is not proceeding on the basis of fact, reason or sound science, and has no intention of heeding the warnings of those whose arguments are based on them - the professional scientists and energy engineers free of vested interests..." Wales
"....Everybody and their granny are looking for a windfarm on their land, with a flood of applications across the country. This drive towards wind energy is not because the landowners/ tenants have become eco-friendly, or care about the environment, but because of the income it brings in. Greed abounds, with an almighty scramble to grab a slice of the money-cake provided by the taxpayers. .."Scotland
... "There is no doubt all the local authorities and residents in a wide area between Bramshall and Uttoxeter will be very happy indeed to see a proposal they were sure would needlessly blight our lovely countryside placed on ice. They claim it would only have produced a comparatively small amount of so-called clean electricity far out of proportion to the scale of the damage people feel it would have wrought on attractive countryside."....England. See round-up
6 February 2005 ~ Wind farms will inflate electricity bills, power expert warns
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Scotland on Sunday
"ELECTRICITY bills for average families will soar by #200 a year because of plans to introduce hundreds of wind farms across the country, according to the former chief of ScottishPower.
In a fierce attack on ministers who are backing moves to introduce more wind farms to Scotland, Sir Donald Miller, who chaired the energy company between 1982 and 1992, described their plans as "alarming". He added: "It is difficult to believe that they are fully aware of the damage they are doing." ...Miller said his study was based on figures from the Royal Academy of Engineers and that senior people in the energy industry backed him up. "
*** A roundup of the most recent windfarm stories elsewhere in the press -
- click here
5/6 February 2005~ Part of a letter in the Stornaway Gazette 3-2-05: seems worthy of quotation:
- "I am in favour of clean energy, but not at such a price.... I challenge those we have elected as our representatives to give us a channel. If not, they will probably one day feel the backlash and anger of an island cruelly and quietly led into the biggest money-driven and greed-grown venture that we have ever known.
.....
God has gifted to us our islands. Let us be wise guardians of it and not allow man's greed to ruin it......
Perhaps in closing this letter I could just remind our MP and MSP, who both support this project, just who elected them..." IVOR M MACKAY
5 February 2005~ a "very dark day" for Devon.
- WMN ".....The second of the three 246ft high turbines that will comprise Devon's first windfarm was completed yesterday. The third turbine at the Forest Moor windfarm at Bradworthy is expected to be completed next week and the windfarm is due to start generating electricity later this month.
Plans to build the windfarm sparked a fierce campaign of opposition from local people, but despite the proposal being rejected by Torridge District Council it was approved at a planning inquiry. ...... Speaking earlier this week, Noel Edmonds, the chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation, which is calling for better research into other forms of renewable energy, said the completion of the first turbine was a "very dark day" for Devon.
Mr Edmonds said: "We had been forecasting it for some time and people are going to have to get used to it, unless we can change the Government's policy. The thing is these machines do not even produce the efficient reliable energy they claim to and they do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions."
Members of Den Brook Valley Action Group, which is opposing a windfarm development in the North Tawton area, pointed out that the turbines proposed for their area would be 100ft taller than those at Bradworthy.
Developers Energie Kontor say the turbines at Bradworthy will produce enough power for about 2,000 homes...."
4 February 2005~ Leading Tory puts wind up fellow MSPs
-
Murdo Fraser suggested that wind turbines should be erected on the new #431 million Scottish Parliament building.
"I can think of no finer site for a wind turbine than the roof of the Holyrood building; one of the ugliest buildings in Edinburgh. Far better there than on an unspoilt Perthshire hill." (Scotsman)
4 February 2005~ Warmwell's roving reporter went today to Bradworthy where the windfarm is 1-2 miles from the centre of town in an area surrounded by farms and a few houses.
- One house is up for sale. He writes,
- "The site is situated on the top of the moor. One of these monsters is up and obviuously not working. A second is halfway up beside it. Being an idiot, I did not have a camera with me.
However, I can tell you that the thing is HUGE. The blades are slim and very long indeed. I gather that three turbines are going up there. That means nine of these blades will be cutting the air like razors. Let alone the noise factor, if any birds get in the way they will be chopped to pieces.
I wonder if John Prescott has actually seen any of these things. Perhaps he would like some outside one of his own stately homes paid for by the likes of the people of Bradworthy.
Nice peaceful little town. It was."
3 February 2005 ~ The report said the same effect could be achieved by fitting conventional fossil fuel power stations with modern filter technology.
- The WMN runs several articles today on windfarms. The giant Bradworthy turbine, which is 246ft to its blade tip, went up yesterday despite intense protests and warnings that it could open the way to many more.
- ".....An in-depth report in Germany, which has 15,000 turbines - the highest number in Europe - was this week revealed as so damning that the German Government tried to suppress it.
It was sent back for "re-editing" because its findings are believed to be too embarrassing for German ministers, who want the number of wind turbines doubled by 2015. But the study was leaked to the magazine Der Spiegel, instantly provoking a huge public backlash. The report's authors concluded:
.......
"The amount of the climate-changing gas CO2 saved by wind could be achieved more cheaply with other measures."
"The costs, which consumers must pay for the environment-friendly power, are considerably higher than previously assumed."
....study concluded that, for the increase alone planned by the German Government in the amount of wind electricity of 2003 to 2015, the "net additional costs" are 12 to 17 billion euro (#8.3 billion to #11.74 billion).
It also undermined the basis of the argument for windfarms - that they reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The report said the same effect could be achieved by fitting conventional fossil fuel power stations with modern filter technology.
30 January 2005 ~ "The evidence we are seeing from the continent is that wind power does not work. It is pushing prices up, destabilises the electricity grid and does not cut emissions."
-
Wind farms chaos leads to demands for rethink in Scotland on Sunday.
"Besieged councils and MSPs are demanding a ban on wind farm applications until a national strategy is drawn up that says where the controversial turbines can be built.
More than 250 applications for wind farms are already in the planning system, with many facing fierce opposition from campaigners.
Perth and Kinross, Highland and Aberdeenshire councils have all admitted they are struggling to deal with the deluge of wind power proposals.
The local authorities have now called for the Scottish Executive to step in with a cohesive plan on how to deal with the contentious issue.
And MSPs have asked for a moratorium on all plans for wind farms until guidelines have been drawn up. ..."
..... A recent study by Scottish Natural Heritage revealed up to 15,000 wind turbines might be built across Scotland. They estimate the country could end up with almost 500 farms, with turbines up to 460ft tall scattered around exposed rural areas. But developments have faced mounting opposition, with more than 2,000 objections being lodged against one plan to build the largest wind farm in Europe on the Isle of Lewis. Campaigners against wind power have reacted furiously to such large-scale developments, claiming they could destroy the nation's remaining wilderness. They also fear the massive turbines could kill rare birds of prey such as golden eagles, and wader birds, which often nest and fly in the surrounding areas. ..... ScottishPower has now joined calls for a national strategy on wind farm implementation. .... A growing number of environmental groups are also coming out against a proliferation of wind farms. ..... David Bruce, from the research group Scottish Wind Assessment Project, claims evidence from Germany and Ireland also shows that unpredictable winds cause the level of power in the grid to fluctuate wildly. He said: "The evidence we are seeing from the continent is that wind power does not work. It is pushing prices up, destabilises the electricity grid and does not cut emissions."
30 January 2005 ~ Germany shelves report on high cost of wind farm-produced energy
-
"A damning report warning that wind-farm programmes will greatly increase energy costs and that "greenhouse gases" can be reduced easily by conventional methods has been shelved.
The findings of the 490-page report, commissioned by the German government and due for publication last week, were so embarrassing that ministers have sent it back to be "re-edited". J|rgen Trittin, Germany's Green Party environment minister, said: "We do not want the findings of this report to be misinterpreted."....
.. also cast doubt on one of the main arguments for wind power: that it cuts the amount of "greenhouse gas" polluting the atmosphere. The report says that almost the same effect can be achieved - at substantially reduced costs - by installing modern filters at existing fossil-fuel power plants." Sunday Telegraph
27 Jan 2005 ~ "There are simply not enough suitable sites for wind generators without despoiling huge tracts of countryside."
-
Alex Salmond thinks wave and tidal power is the answer, and in the long term I hope he's right. But the technology is still in its infancy, despite the #50m put up by the government for research, and it's grossly irresponsible to gamble our futures on a hope and a prayer. We need a sensible debate about how we produce and consume energy in this country and we need it now.
What we don't need are chancers who jump on any passing bandwagon they think will bring them a few votes.
Doug Maughan, Scottish Labour Party spokesman, Perth and North Perhhshire, 11 Barossa Street, Perth.
Letter in the Herald
22 January 2005 ~ The answer isn't blowing in the wind Despite the government's energy initiatives, wind farms will not save the planet, writes David Bellamy
-
Sunday Times
"...
...the advice issued last Thursday to every MSP by Scottish Renewables... if Scotland wants to reach its target of obtaining 40% of power from wind by 2020, there need to be about 70 wind farms.
.... a more pessimistic assessment by the Scottish Wind Assessment Project found planning applications for about 250 windfarms may represent as many as 6,500 turbines.....in the last three years Denmark has discovered the disturbing facts that a reliance on the vagaries of wind increases the need for dedicated back-up which cuts any reduction in carbon emissions to the bone. This blows the whole idea of wind as an alternative saviour of the world to pieces.
At least the British government's energy white paper makes it clear that, without dangling giant carrots in front of potential investors, their dreams will not materialise. Indeed, reaching their first emission- reduction target will cost consumers more than #1 billion a year, most of which will go to multinational companies.
..... these payments are not considered as subsidies paid for through tax, but will simply be added to our electricity bills... Any person who uses electricity from the grid will be paying an extra #17 a year for the privilege of feeling green.
.....Yet any one of us can go out and buy a six-pack of long-life light bulbs for less than #7. .... Each home would save more than #50 a year on electricity if the government's target were achieved with energy-saver lamps in this way. This would leave more than #500m for all those other useful local job-creating ideas for which Greenpeace used to campaign. .... ." Read in full
22 January 2005 ~ Goveton planning application to be resubmitted in the "near future" with the same number of turbines
- WMN
".....Energy giant Npower was planning to site three 328ft (100m) high turbines on land near the A381 between Kingsbridge and Totnes, next to the turning for Goveton.
But in a faxed letter to South Hams District Council yesterday, project manager Chris Lloyd said the company had withdrawn its application.
A spokesman for the district council said: "I can confirm that Npower has withdrawn its application."
Mr Lloyd said the application had been withdrawn to allow more studies to be undertaken to provide more information to the council. But he said it would be resubmitted in the "near future" with the same amount of turbines on the same location.. "
January 21 2005 ~ Wind turbine crashes...
- We hear that the application at Goveton, South Devon has been withdrawn.
The anemometer at Higher Darracott, North Devon, ( the case that is to go to the Court of Human Rights), has blown down in the gales, and fallen across a public footpath.
Western Morning News have been informed.
Today, the anemometer mast at Moilyn fell over and yesterday at noon a 100 feet wind turbine crashed near Udby north of Vordingborg in Denmark. The nearest residents were warned yesterday to stay at home, as the wind turbine had lost the ability to brake and slow down the wings in the strong winds. Residents were evacuated as the wind got stronger - and at 1 pm the three 50 foot wings broke and chunks and debris was thrown over a huge area.
We are most grateful to have received emails from AK reporting these events.
January 20 2005 ~ Welsh Assembly is set to ignore overwhelming opposition to wind farms
- and allow hundreds more huge turbines to be put up across Wales. It is has been revealed that 87 per cent of the 1,700 responses it received to its consultation on future energy needs were against building more turbines.
But the Assembly is to dismiss fears and carry on with a major wind energy programme. ........ "The Assembly is committed to meeting the target of 10 per cent energy production by 2010 from renewable resources. "And wind power will be central to achieving this target,'' he said. ....... The announcement was greeted angrily by groups opposed to wind power. Alun Richards, West Wales chairman of the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales, warned thousands more turbines would be built across Wales. "It is quite clear that the Assembly intends to ignore the responses to Tan 8, and that this so-called consultation was purely a cosmetic exercise,'' said Mr Richards. ..." ThisisSouthWales.co.uk
January 20 2005 ~ "Windfarm developers have the right of appeal - but members of the public do not. This is also a breach of human rights."
- This is North Scotland
The public petitions committee considered a petition seeking a public inquiry on windfarm construction and, in the meantime, an immediate moratorium on further developments......The Scottish Renewables Forum (SRF), an umbrella group of 120 firms, has sent MSPs its briefing document, Wind Energy 2005, as it calls for the Scottish Executive to form a coherent energy strategy.
The executive has previously stated a regional strategy was "unnecessary", claiming it was "too early" to look at the levels of capacity individual areas of Scotland might be expected to accommodate.
January 19 2005 ~ In Perthshire, the Perth and Kinross Council today turned down the planning application for a giant turbine development
- near Blairgowrie by 8 votes to 2. 16 turbines, each 197 metres in height, were planned for land at Drumderg, Bridge of Cally.
Perthshire.co.uk".... it remains contrary to the Perth and Kinross Structure Plan, the Eastern Area Local Plan and the Council's own Wind Energy Policy Guidance. Concerns have also been raised regarding potential effects of the development, with a landscape consultant from the Council reporting that three of the turbines would have "significant adverse effects on landscape and visual amenity", while concerns persist over the effect on the local water supply.
At the original hearing in August, the committee were set to approve the application but, in the face of an unprecedented number of objections, decided to carry out further consultation. The motion was controversially proposed by local Councillor Ian Miller and seconded by Councillor Elizabeth Grant, much to the dismay of objectors, who had expected support from their elected representatives. At the time, Councillor Millar highlighted the support of Alyth Community Council, but they have since withdrawn their support in the wake of a local petition."
See also This is North Scotland
January 18 2005 ~ There is a widespread problem that people believe that wind turbines generate huge amounts of power. Many believe it can be stored, which is utter nonsense "
- From This is North Scotland.......Dr Mike Hall, a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Biology, and co-founder of the Renewable Energy Foundation.
He told Views of Scotland's fourth annual conference, in Perth on Saturday, that people should lobby politicians in the run-up to the forthcoming election, to demand a government rethink.
- "There is a widespread problem that people believe that wind turbines generate huge amounts of power.
"Many believe it can be stored, which is utter nonsense," he said.
"Politics is the art of the possible, so what you have got to do is give the politicians a way of digging themselves out of the hole.
"Of course, they will not admit they have got it all wrong.
"I hope people will also join campaign groups and show greater militancy towards windfarm plans such as we're getting in England.
"A lot of plans are turned down because of aggressive campaigning and that's what it needs, until we can get the Government to redirect its thinking."
January 17 2005 ~ they are not efficient or reliable enough to be viable ..letter in today's Washington Post
-
http://www.washingtonpost.com
The Many Costs of Wind Energy -
Regarding "Researchers Alarmed by Bat Deaths From Wind Turbines" [front page, Jan. 1]:
In addition to the bat mortality from wind turbines are other causes for alarm:
January 16 2005 ~ ".. living at the centre of a nightmare which is typical of what is being inflicted on vast areas of rural Scotland in the name of an environmentalism running out of control.
- Booker's Notebook "..In a few years' time, there could be 307 wind turbines, many of them more than 400 feet high, within 10 miles of where they live. One of the proposed windfarms alone would cover the hills with 103 giant turbines, less than a mile from their farmhouse.
As if this was not enough, last summer up to 10 trucks a day began dumping 33,000 tons of foul-smelling, hazardous human and industrial sewage sludge only a quarter of a mile from their home, some of it brought from Barrow-in-Furness 100 miles away. This was exempted from planning and waste management rules because, according to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), it is helping to restore land to be used for forestry.
..
... It is legal, however, to dump it near the Mulders' home in such a potentially dangerous state that, last month, they pressured Sepa into calling a halt to the dumping pending further tests. As Mr Mulder says: "When my Dutch friends come to Ayrshire they are delighted by the beauty of our unspoilt hills. When they hear we are soon to lose it to hundreds of industrial wind turbines, not to mention our sewage problem, they cannot believe such desecration of a breathtaking landscape could be allowed." Read in full See also the pdf file of the Gazetteer of wind power in Scotland, produced this month.
January 15 2005 ~ " This is not a Nimby issue or even an aesthetic one. Onshore wind turbines are not effective..."
- WMN
".....Torridge and West Devon Liberal Democrat MP John Burnett.... suggested that a Royal Commission should be set up to determine an energy policy for the UK.
"......we have no policy, parts of my constituency and the Westcountry are guinea pigs in an untried and unproven experiment."
Among the speakers at the meeting was Noel Edmonds, chairman of the Renewal Energy Foundation, who said the case for the Den Brook wind farm used misleading information. He said that when first asked for his views on wind energy he had replied that it was a good thing, but he had since found out how little he knew. "I was green-washed by the propaganda put out by the energy companies. This whole issue is about making money," he said. "This is not a Nimby issue or even an aesthetic one. Onshore wind turbines are not effective. If they were, we would have to accept them all over Dartmoor, Exmoor and the rest of the UK." (Read in full)
January 15 2005 ~ "....wind farms certainly don't come cheap. They don't appear very secure either and even look less green by the day..."
- Ian Fairbairn from Auldgirth is a graduate in both Pure Science and Mathematical Science.
For the past two years he has been researching into wind farms and the technology that powers them.
His conclusions make for interesting reading....
"There is a popular view among the public that installed wind power displaces an equivalent amount of fossil-fuelled power capacity, thereby tackling the pollution problem. This is a false assumption. Fossil-fuelled power stations are still running in the background to provide a spinning reserve backup. So the pollution continues. Wind farms can create jobs and that is good news - about the only piece of good news in this whole sorry affair.....
.....nobody knows how many peregrine falcons or migrating geese will be converted to dead meat by the turbine blades....
If we wanted to lend support to the natural environment we would hardly go about it by constructing massive wind turbines in some of the wildest and most remote locations in our country.
...Each wind turbine could cost around two million pounds. Dumfries and Galloway could end up with hundreds, Scotland with thousands.
...... The appealing little pup sold to Tony Blair by the wind power industry is turning into an unruly adult beast. "Now it's a lot less appealing and now he's got his hands full with other pet projects it is us, the people, who are lumbered with it." From Dumfries and Galloway News
January 13 2005 ~ Noel Edmonds....will be one of the speakers at a public meeting tomorrow to consider controversial proposals to build massive wind turbines in the heart of Devon.
-
WMN
"Noel Edmonds, the Westcountry-based chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), will be one of the speakers at a public meeting tomorrow to consider controversial proposals to build massive wind turbines in the heart of Devon.......
The Den Brook Valley Action Group (DBVAG) is running the meeting as a question and answer session so people in the area can find out more about proposals by Renewable Energy Systems to build anything from ten 328ft high turbines to 19 262ft high turbines near North Tawton, between Crediton and Hatherleigh.
The DBVAG also supports renewable energy but has criticised wind power for being unreliable.
Also taking part in the meeting will be Torridge and West Devon Liberal Democrat MP John Burnett and Tiverton and Honiton Conservative MP Angela Browning. ..."
January 13 2005 ~ "one of the most important facts that we have to get across to the average consumer of electricity who has been conned into thinking that commercial wind turbines are reducing CO2 emissions.
-
"Most of them have no idea how they are being ripped off to pay for it all.
Only those with enough money to own land suitable for wind turbines benefit from the payment they receive from the wind companies.
The unfortunate neighbours to the wind turbines just have watch the value of their houses decrease while their electricity bills go up...." An important email and link from Montana "Bill would cripple alternative energy efforts, critics say"
January 13 2005 ~ 87% of responses to the Assembly's controversial Tan 8 policy are opposed to wind farms... the largest response to a planning consultation in Wales in living memory.
- South Wales Evening Post 12/01/05
"Massive opposition to plans that would lead to much of upland Wales being covered in wind turbines has been voiced in a public poll.
A huge 87% of responses to the Assembly's controversial Tan 8 policy are opposed to wind farms. It is the largest response to a planning consultation in Wales in living memory.
Now there are calls for a public inquiry into the Welsh Assembly Government's whole approach to wind energy.... Pressure Group Save Our Common Mountain Environment chairman Glyn organ said:"...The response shows that ...people are starting to understand that these turbines don't provide the answer to this country's problems."
Ammanford campaigner Ellyn Harries said, "It's not nimbyism. Our entire backyard will be covered in them. ...It's just arrogance and for arrogance, for rich men to get richer...."
For a photographic reproduction of the full article by Shaun Greaney in the South Wales Evening Post 12/01/05. Link to Wales' Save our Common Mountain Environment website
January 12 2005 ~ Baydon, Berkshire - Government inspector upholds West Berkshire Council's decision to block plans for a 164-foot wind turbine at Baydon Meadow
- icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk
"....
The district council originally refused planning permission for the turbine - involving 100-foot blade rotors and a wind gauge - in November 2003, and an appeal was made to the Planning Inspectorate.
But the appeal - lodged by applicant Matthew Partridge - was rejected because of the impact the giant turbine would have on nearby residents and the surrounding landscape, which is listed as an area of outstanding beauty.
The report rejected claims that the structure would be hazardous for planes taking off and landing at nearby Membury Airfield.
But inspector David Lavender concluded: "The turbine would dominate the outlook from, and significantly and adversely affect the enjoyment of nearby properties by their occupiers."
January 12 2005 ~ "..an important document which maps and lists all the windfarms proposed, refused, approved in Scotland. "
- An emailed pdf file of the Gazetteer of wind power in Scotland, produced this month by The Scottish Wind Assessment Project, has arrived at warmwell:
"an
important document which maps and lists all the windfarms proposed, refused,
approved in Scotland. It includes a dreadful picture of an array of wind
turbines in Morayshire - FROM A DISTANCE OF 7 MILES. It highlights only too
vividly the effect they have on the landscape over considerable distances -
and they would obviously look even more disproportionate and outrageous in
the small rural landscapes of many English windfarm sites. There is also a
HORRIFYING photograh showing the monstrous damage done to moorland during
the installation of these monsters - which is what they are...."
- Extract: "...Despite repeated calls from local authorities, statutory consultees, NGOs, environmental lobbyists, opposition MSPs and others for a strategy for renewable electricity generation, the Executive has instead chosen to follow Westminster's market-led approach combined with occasional small grants to R&D projects in Scotland. The markets in question were created not by natural demand but by a series of regulatory interventions. These established a complex system of levies on consumers which are designed to escalate over the next decade.3 They are aimed at making 'renewables' an attractive short-to mid-term investment for an otherwise sceptical electricity supply industry. At the same time they coerce suppliers to invest according to a timetable that obliges them to have recourse to generation systems which the engineering profession generally views with suspicion...
..Despite the costs that consumers will incur under current policy, there is no mechanism for measuring whether the technologies chosen by electricity generators do actually either cut emissions or contribute to Westminster's other stated aims....
..there is no mechanism short of judicial review for stopping a planning application provided only it meets certain planning criteria assessed according to standards that many competent observers feel are lower than they should be."
January 10 2005 ~ At the flick of 60 million switches there would be no need to desecrate Scotland's landscapes with monster turbines, concrete foundations, roads, pylons and pits
- BBC Scotland "Bellamy steps up wind farm fight "
"Dr Bellamy, patron of environmental group Views of Scotland, said: "Each dot on the map is a potential blot on the landscape of Scotland, a cluster of gigantic wind turbines and all the costs that go with them.
"It has taken Swap's robust and well-conducted research to highlight just how far Scotland's energy policies have spun out of control."
The broadcaster said it would be more sensible for the government to spend money on energy-saving light bulbs.
"At the flick of 60 million switches there would be no need to desecrate Scotland's landscapes with monster turbines, concrete foundations, roads, pylons and pits," he said. .."
January 9th 2005 ~ It might be more efficient just to burn your money
- Booker's Notebook "Another ludicrous example of how the BBC now pushes its own cock-eyed agenda was an item on Radio 4's You and Yours last week on wind turbines. The message was that, if you install your own turbine, you can make money by selling the surplus to the National Grid.
All five contributors, including the energy minister, Mike O'Brien, were wide-eyed lobbyists for wind power. A man from Kent who has erected a 45-foot turbine at the bottom of his garden, at a cost of #25,000, was asked how much electricity it produced. He admitted that, thanks to the vagaries of the wind, it did not average more than "two or three kilowatts".
The BBC carefully did not explain that this is only enough to power a couple of electric fires, or boil a few kettles. Not a huge return for his #25,000 investment but now the Governmnent hopes the whole country will fall into the same self-deception."
January 7 2005 ~ Shadow Environment Secretary, Tim Yeo: "I am delighted that Tony Blair has finally recognised that local communities should have a say
- when it comes to deciding where wind farms
are to be sited.
Instead of forcing people up and down the country to accept wind farms on their doorsteps and thereby putting all Britain's eggs in one basket, we should use our natural geographical advantages and encourage a wider range of renewable energy, including tidal and wave power." See Conservative Party press release
January 7 2005 ~ US Study finds wind turbines in path of bird migration
- From Vermont
"... In March, the Public Service Board will hold hearings on a plan by
a Montpelier energy company to build four, 300-foot wind turbines on East
Mountain in Essex County.
One issue is the project's impact on wildlife, including migrating birds. The developer's expert said this remote area of the Northeast Kingdom isn't used as a major migration corridor. And the developer argues that the birds tend to fly high above the ridgelines and thus would avoid the spinning blades of the turbines.
But a far different conclusion was reached by the state's scientific expert in the case. Using radar, the researcher counted more than half a million birds flying over the mountain last October. More than half - 67 percent - flew at altitudes at or below 400 feet. That means they could collide with the turbines..."
January 6 2005 ~ Garrett County draws a line on wind power .
- Associated Press"The Garrett County Commissioners say they won't support any more wind power projects beyond the two they already have endorsed, amid questions about the turbines' effects on wildlife, scenery and property values.
The commissioners also said they will seek authority to limit the development of additional wind farms, possibly through countywide land-use zoning..."
January 4 2005 ~ Council planners want to see examples of giant wind turbines before they make any decision
- over the controversial plans to build South Devon's first windfarm near Kingsbridge. The South Hams district councillors have called for a trip to the nearest windfarm that has 100-metre high turbines similar to those that Npower wants to build on land near Goveton and East Allington, near the A381.
Totnes councillor Judy Westacott said: "How can we put a policy together if we don't know what these turbines look like at this great height?"
She warned that the council would look "very foolish" if it did not have a policy in place before councillors are asked to consider Npower's application..." WMN
December 31 2004 ~ 'Council Insists on Turbine Noise Survey
- WMN
"A power giant has been told it will have to carry out a background noise survey before controversial proposals to build three giant wind turbines on Westcountry farmland can move forward.
South Hams District Council and residents campaigning against the plans for three 100-metre high turbines in Goveton, near Kingsbridge, said that Npower, which has lodged the proposals, had hoped to carry out the survey after the plans had been considered....."
December 17 2004 ~ 'NIMBY' BLAIR FIGHTS WIND FARM
-
WMN
Prime Minister Tony Blair used his political clout to fight off ....four turbines two miles from his North East home.
While Mr Blair's Government has accused Westcountry campaigners of putting self-interest before "green" energy, he took up the cause of protesters in the Sedgefield constituency where he is an MP.
His agent even sent a letter backing Trimdon Area Group Against Wind Farms in its protest against the 76-metre turbines.
He opposed the development on former industrial land near his Trimdon Colliery home because it would not be "situated in the correct place".......
.......
Dr Caroline Jackson, South West Conservative MEP, said: "Good for him, he is standing up for his constituents. I think we should use this to show that we can defeat windfarms." ....."
December 17 2004 ~ Government's measures for cutting CO2 in its Energy White Paper "seriously unbalanced".
- WMN "...The research has been conducted by energy consultant David White, a former senior manager with Esso and Exxon over 30 years.
His report, "Reduction in Carbon Emissions: Estimating the Potential Contribution from Wind Power", questions many of the widely-held beliefs about the "green" potential of onshore wind power. Mr White told the WMN that he believed the Government had taken too much advice from "environmental academics who do not understand the engineering of electricity".
His report describes the Government's measures for cutting CO2 in its Energy White Paper as "seriously unbalanced". It is published after ministers last week admitted the UK's present methods would not achieve the 2010 target for CO2 emission cuts. Mr White calls for a "reassessment of currently marginalised predictable renewables, such as biomass and tidal energy". And he urges a rethink of "the role wind power, and therefore its subsidy". .....
The detailed research goes so far as to claim that wind is even more expensive and less effective in reducing carbon dioxide output than coal - if used in ways that capture and secure their emissions...." WMN
Dec 12 2004 ~ "Tide turns against the turbines" Booker's Notebook
- Sunday Telegraph
"Is the tide turning on what I have called "the Great Wind Scam"? .....
Before a council chamber packed with our supporters, my colleagues and I were allowed 20 minutes to put our case: that if this 325-foot high "industrial installation" were anything other than a wind turbine, it would so clearly contravene the planning rules for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that there could be no argument.
Yet councillors were being asked to ignore all the normal regulations...One made the point that central government grandly dictates that 10 per cent of our energy must come from renewables within six years (currently less than 1 per cent comes from wind turbines), but then expects councils to railroad this through, regardless of local conditions or opinion....
... for larger wind farm schemes the Government has now rigged the rules so that the Department for Trade and Industry can stage its own public enquiries under its own inspectors, then allow the Secretary of State to take the final decision. The first of these enquiries, into a proposal to build 27 giant turbines on Romney Marsh in Kent, was held last October. Every parish, district and county council in the area opposed the plan. If the outcome goes against them, this will pitch an overweening Government against democracy as surely as any issue of our time." Read in full
December 3 2004 ~ "approved in the face of vociferous local opposition...far bigger windfarms to come"
- From WMN "...The development, which is expected to be completed by the end of February, has raised fears of a spate of far bigger windfarms to come. It was approved in the face of vociferous local opposition when the Government upheld a ruling by a planning inspector.
Now, other giant turbines are being considered for the South Hams beauty-spot of Goveton, land near North Tawton, Crediton and Hatherleigh, land around Fullabrook Down, near Ilfracombe. The applications have provoked outrage among local communities and environmental campaigners alike. The businessman and broadcaster Noel Edmonds, who is chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation, has condemned what he calls the "desecration" of the natural landscape.
The world-renowned scientist and environmentalist, Professor James Lovelock, who lives near Launceston, has compared the turbines to the poet William Blake's infamous "Dark Satanic Mills"..." Read in full
December 3 2004 ~ Open Spaces Society (OSS) said that plans by Devon Wind Power to build 22 360ft-high turbines on land centred around Fullabrook Down were "pernicious" and should be rejected.
- WMN "
Britain's oldest national conservation body has condemned plans to build 22 massive turbines on land between Braunton and Ilfracombe.
The Open Spaces Society (OSS) said that plans by Devon Wind Power to build 22 360ft-high turbines on land centred around Fullabrook Down were "pernicious" and should be rejected..... "The wind turbines will be a severe eyesore on this lovely plateau, visible for many miles, and will destroy the peace and tranquility of this attractive part of Devon.
The construction will cause huge disruptions, with access roads being driven through undisturbed farmland and hedges removed ...The developers appear not even to be aware that the area is surrounded by public paths.........the developers dismiss archaeological features and clearly have no understanding of the importance of an archaeological landscape. They seem to think that if they move a wind turbine a few feet to avoid an ancient monument, honour is satisfied. That is not the case.
We have called on the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to reject these pernicious plans."
December 2 2004 ~ "One year ago, the WMN ran a series of articles questioning the accepted wisdom that windfarms were the answer to the nation's environmental ills.
- Since then, the arguments have intensified with each new application for wind turbines. Here, Neil Young looks at why they have proved so controversial and provoked such widespread opposition..
....Mr Edmonds had done no more than to raise concerns about the first proposed windfarm for Devon at Bradworthy. To his critics, that was tantamount to heresy. How dare he, or this newspaper, question the accepted wisdom of wind technology as the benign and bountiful source of future energy? Didn't we care about global warming? Besides - what could we know? The public took a different view. The overwhelming response was to seize on these articles as echoing many of their own concerns. Anxieties and suspicions that had not before been closely examined were for once being given the oxygen of publicity. Nor was it long before we uncovered some disturbing facts which belied the harmonious vision of wind turbines. ....." Read in full
November 30 2004 ~ The Dartmoor Preservation Society has added its name to the list of groups opposed to the construction of three giant windfarms at the heart of the South Hams.
- WMN "...Mr Bainbridge has written to South Hams District Council's planning department to register his objection to the development, which will see energy company Npower put up three 100-metre high turbines - 24 metres taller than the towers supporting the Tamar Bridge.
A public consultation period - which was due to end last week - has been extended until December 10 and residents packed into a public meeting last week to discuss the plans. A survey of the parish before the meeting showed 86.9 per cent of residents were opposed to the plans.
....."
November 30 2004 ~ "pursuing onshore wind technology would be "economic suicide"..."
- WMN quotes Dr James Martin, the former generation director of Scottish and Southern Energy at a debate hosted by the Institute of Civil Engineers at the University of Plymouth. "There needed to be a greater emphasis on a mixture of renewables, he said.
And he pointed the huge potential of a Severn tidal barrage, which could generate around six per cent of the UK's electricity.
John Constable said that the problems with security of energy supply could only be solved by engineering. "Political imperatives have obscured the task," said Mr Constable.
"The fundamental problem with wind is random intermittency. The experience of those European state which have committed to large wind carpets is not encouraging. The role of wind has been exaggerated beyond the merits of the technology."
The motion ( "This house supports the continuing development of onshore wind energy sites in the UK") was defeated by 48 votes to 35, with numerous abstentions."
November 30 2004 ~ "... the night skies filled with red lights flashing in an unsynchronised way. This went on for miles...."
- " taken as driving along the E30 through Germany. Although a little out of focus, it might capture a little of the strange view. It was a disturbing sight to see; the night skies filled with red lights flashing in an unsynchronised way. This went on for miles. As a driver I found it distracting - and as a lover of the countryside, I found it really very deeply sad.
I imagine turbines in England may be lit in a similar fashion.
I wonder whether people are aware that some of our wildest uplands and prettiest rural countryside will all be polluted in this kind of way?" Read the email in full and view photo
November 24 2004 ~ Npower has announced it will attend Goveton residents' meeting after all
- Residents have now been told that NPower officials will answer questions
on their proposals to build three 100m-high turbines.
WMN reports: Chris Lloyd, project manager for the windfarm at Npower Renewables, said: "I can confirm we will certainly be at the meeting. "We will be answering questions if necessary but we're not going to give a formal presentation. There will also be some comment forms and support leaflets. We want to encourage the silent majority to come out and give their opinion at the meeting."
November 18 2004 ~ James Lovelock's daughter and Artists Against Windfarms.
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WMN "The talented daughter of the world-renowned scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock is throwing her talents as an artist behind the fight against the construction of wind turbines in one of the most beautiful areas of the Westcountry.
Christine Lovelock is producing a series of paintings depicting the captivating landscapes and atmospheres of Fullabrook Down, North Devon, which has been targeted for 22 turbines at 360ft high - the largest planned so far for the Westcountry...."
November 17 2004 ~ new planning rules "reduced the say of local people in deciding whether these giant windfarms should be allowed".
- The Western Morning News coverage of the wind turbine problem for the West Country is, as ever, excellent. Today we read, "The minister's comments were also challenged by Campbell Dunford, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Foundation, who said: "Our view is that the Government is making a strategic error in the short term and that gap will not be filled by wind turbines. "Mr Dunford pointed to the experiences of Germany and Denmark, world leaders in the development of onshore wind power and two countries, where there now serious doubts about their effectiveness, cost and ability to curb the carbon emissions which cause global warming.
He urged a greater emphasis on other renewables which he believed were being neglected.
Also, "Mr O'Brien......denied it was "ridiculous" that the Government was promoting renewables at the same time that it had increased the level of C02 emissions that British industry could emit by 7.5 per cent over the next three years."
See also "....Angry villagers have been told they will not be allowed to have a technical expert representing them at an upcoming meeting about controversial plans to build three 100-metre high wind turbines..."
Read today's WMN articles
November 15 2004 ~ "The European Court is to be asked to intervene"
- says the Western Morning News "over controversial plans to build three giant turbines, in what would be Devon's second commercial windfarm.
... given the go-ahead following a public inquiry, held in May.
Pat and Arthur Poulton, whose home lies just 470m from the nearest of the proposed turbines, challenged the inspector's decision and called for a judicial review of the outcome, which was due to be heard in the High Court on November 5.
However, after the case was formally dismissed, the couple have now decided to take their case against the scheme to the European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, France.
They believe their human rights will be violated by the construction....... "What is the point of building these monstrous machines when the country's leading experts on global warming reckon that even if the whole of the UK were to be covered with wind turbines, it would make not one jot of difference in the battle to halt global warming?" Read in full
November 13 2004 ~ "...who gains? The answer is government, and those businesses that it pays to serve its purposes."
- "There is no direct subsidy for wind farms, but there is something even better for them, a profit guaranteed by government. The system of Renewable Obligations Certificates means that electricity suppliers can trade these bits of paper in order to escape fines for not reaching the renewables quota. It makes huge financial sense for big energy concerns to do this. The firm trying to raise the wind on Romney Marsh is a subsidiary of a German nuclear power company. The added cost of going renewable is paid, of course, by the electricity user, by you and me. It is rising fast...."Charles Moore in the Telegraph. Read in full
November 12 2004 ~Eleven of the 18 "appointed" members of the agency that advises the Government on the "green" energy needed to combat global warming, work for private companies with heavy financial interests in wind technology
- WMN "..
Their prominent role on the Renewables Advisory Board is revealed amid mounting controversy over the Government's policy on wind power as the primary source of renewable energy.
Ten of those eleven members have prominent positions in companies that are listed as members of the British Wind Energy Association, the trade organisation for the onshore and offshore wind power industry..." Read in full
November 12 2004 ~ "..A plea for planning permission to be withdrawn from a wind turbine in Devon will be made to Torridge planners next week.
- The proposed turbine at Swingdon, Ashwater, near Holsworthy, was granted planning permission at appeal in 1994. It was renewed in 1998 and varied to increase the height to 226ft to the blade tip in 1999.
On Monday, Torridge District Council's planning committee will consider a formal application for the permission to be renewed. But Ashwater Parish Council, which has always opposed windfarm development in the area, is calling on the district council to refuse to renew the permission..." WMN
November 12 2004 ~ "...A massive 22-turbine windfarm planned for North Devon would deal a devastating blow to the region's multi-million pound tourism economy,
- it was claimed last night. The warning was made by North Devon MP Nick Harvey, at a meeting in Braunton considering a proposal to build a 60 megawatt windfarm, comprising turbines 360ft high on land between Braunton and Ilfracombe...."
November 10 2004 ~ "Plans for what would become Devon's biggest wind turbine site have been condemned
by an environmental lobby group, which said the proposal was in fact a "massive industrial development"....The CPRE has already fought windfarm proposals in the North Devon area and veteran campaigner Tony Bohannan has submitted a lengthy document outlining the organisation's opposition to the proposed windfarm. Mr Bohannan said the CPRE objected "strongly" to the windfarm and recommended that it should be refused.
He said that even the use of the term windfarm was wrong. "Windfarm is a misnomer. This is an electricity generating station; a massive industrial development in the open, exposed countryside, five kilometres long and four kilometres across, reaching to over 350m (1,130ft) above sea level," he said. "It will occupy a far greater area than just Fullabrook Down itself. Visually, it will dominate across the whole of North Devon - indeed it will be by far the highest feature in the whole of Devon....." .." WMN
November 10 2004 ~ Residents asked why they had not been informed at the time...
- WMN Residents of a Westcountry parish earmarked for three 100-metre high wind turbines have called for a survey of the area to determine peoples' views on the controversial plans.......Some residents were angry that the parish council had been asked whether an Environmental Impact Assessment could take place in the area eight months ago.Residents asked why they had not been informed at the time but the parish council said there had not been a planning application and the discussion about whether the assessment should take place could be viewed in the minutes of meetings........Coun Ken Trowse said: "If this plan is passed and we don't make the stand it could set a precedent."He said any number of local beauty spots could soon house wind turbines ..."
November 4 2004 ~ "...residents in the small community in North Devon said they had witnessed precisely the scenes they had feared for months.
- WMN
"Members of Bradworthy Lobby Opposing Turbines (BLOT) said the telescopic lorry got stuck for at least 20 minutes on a bend near Chilsworthy.
Earlier this year, despite vociferous local campaigning, German firm Energie Kontor won planning permission on appeal to install three massive turbines at Forest Moor outside the village. Each will be 75m (246ft) high - as tall as Nelson's Column...
..Mrs Hutchings added: "I really felt that common sense would prevail and we wouldn't end up with them. If I am affected by them in any way I am going to keep on fighting my case. Yesterday I was told that they were actually quite elegant. I don't care if they look like a ballerina - they are obtrusive to the countryside and the area in which I live," she said..... "
November 4 2004 ~ New Scientist: Weather Hots Up Under Wind Farms
- New Scientist ".....the turbines tended to pull down heat and momentum from above, particularly during the night-time hours," he says.
Meanwhile, Gustave Corten from the Energy Research Centre in Petten in the Netherlands is carrying out experiments with a model wind farm inside a wind tunnel. "I think the study is of much interest and I can confirm that large wind farms will affect the microclimate," says Corten. .. no amount of engineering will change the fact that energy is being removed from the wind. "People tend to think that renewable energy is for free, but it isn't. There is a price to pay for all kinds of consumption, including renewable energy," says Baidya Roy."
November 3 2004 ~ "Everyone is talking about windfarms in England. It would be dreadful if the English countryside were to be wrecked on a German scale."
- Don't go down the same route as Germany or you could bitterly regret the devastating effects on the English countryside and its communities. That is the stark message from Germany's leading protester against windfarms.
Professor Hans-Joachim Mengel's fight against the technology has had such resonance with the public, that he won 19 per cent of the vote in crucial regional elections by campaigning on this issue alone.
Prof Mengel warns: "Everyone is talking about windfarms in England. It would be dreadful if the English countryside were to be wrecked on a German scale."...." WMN
November 3 2004 ~ Anti-windfarm campaigners have drawn up a "defence document"
- outlining their objections to plans which could see three massive turbines built close to a Devon village. Residents in Goveton fear the 328ft turbines will be a blot on the landscape, spoiling the beautiful South Hams countryside..."If they are going to start building these beasts on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) then they are going to be able to build them anywhere.
"Our concern is that this is the first three of how many?"
........." WMN
November 3 2004 ~ Leading anti-windfarm campaigners have said they "will fight to the bitter end"
- to block plans for more wind-turbines. Residents in the North Tawton area of Devon are opposing plans for a wind power "station" of up to 19 turbines at 80 to 101 metres high on a corridor of land between North Tawton, Bow and Spreyton.
Dr Kenneth Whitaker, from Spreyton, said residents felt they must take a dominant stand so they decided to form Den Brook Valley Wind Turbine Action Group (DBVAG).
Dr Whitaker said: "The action group will fight any proposal in a bid to preserve the Den Brook Valley from industrialisation...." WMN
November 2 2004 ~ the nationwide #100,000 campaign had been met with "scepticism and suspicion" by anti-windfarm protesters.
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"British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) claims windfarms are "beautiful" and has put up nearly 40 billboard advertisements across Devon and Cornwall urging people to support them....Sir Simon Day, Devon county councillor for Goveton, the site of a new turbine application, called the campaign a "waste of time" and "irrelevant".
He said: "They [BWEA] realise they have huge problems. What worries me more than anything is that John Prescott's office might try to force these windfarms down people's throats if they appeal against them.
"If they get a foot in the door with three turbines then they could try to get more and it could go on. These things en-masse are a nightmare," he continued. "I'm sure the sensible thinking people of the county will not be taken in by this."..." WMN
November 2 2004 ~ "The advertising campaign was launched less than a week after initial plans were announced to build three giant turbines near the tiny village of Goveton
- in the South Hams. Cornwall already has seven windfarms with a total of 103 turbines. But the tallest is around 100ft - significantly smaller than the ones planned for Devon..."