Leader: For wind turbines, ticking the boxes is not good enough

It will be deeply ironic if the damage to a wind turbine which has temporarily closed a windfarm in Mid Wales was caused by high winds.

It will not, though, be unprecedented, as there has been at least one case of a turbine elsewhere catching fire in a gale.

Serious question have to be asked about whether windfarms are fulfilling all the promises that their supporters claim in their favour.

The argument that they are environmentally friendly is perverse when you look at them sitting atop some of the most beautiful and remote countryside in the British Isles.

There are proposals for yet more environmental blighting through the construction of power lines across Mid Wales and Shropshire to connect them up to the national grid.

How effective wind turbines really are is something that those with axes to grind on either side of the debate will argue over endlessly, but for ordinary members of the public there are certain conclusions that can be reached using their own eyes.

They are part-time power generators. Without wind they stand sullenly and uselessly.

In Telford, the flagship Madeley Academy has three large turbines. During the recent gales, only one turbine was spinning. The others were stationary. This has been common. It is as if they are there to advertise good intentions, but in practice do not work well.

Meanwhile the brand new Abraham Darby Academy being built not far away on a hilltop site – quite good for wind, you would have thought – has no turbines in its design.

Learning by experience, perhaps?

Clearly careful consideration needs to be given as to the sites and situations in which wind turbines will generate effectively.

Putting them up merely to tick some "green" box will quickly bring them into disrepute.