Star comment: Final twist in the tale of the turbines?
Today we look at grotesque 1960s developments and wonder whatever it was that possessed the people at that time to impel them to bulldoze attractive and historic town centres and put up briefly fashionable carbuncles in their place.
It is similarly possible that generations of the future will look at the wind farms in the Welsh and English countryside and conclude that people early in the 21st century collectively lost their minds and wilfully blighted great swathes of the landscape.
They will be wrong in assuming everybody went mad, because there are those today who oppose the wind turbines both on the grounds of the visual damage they do to landscapes and also on the grounds that their benefits as energy generators are nothing like as impressive as they are cracked up to be.
For these heretics standing up to the green tide, the words of Energy Minister John Hayes will come as music to their ears. So far as wind farms go, says Mr Hayes, enough is enough. The country is peppered with them, he says. He is already on record as describing the turbines as a terrible intrusion.
With plans in the pipeline for new wind turbines in various parts of Shropshire, not to mention electricity pylons marching across the Shropshire and Mid Wales landscapes to connect Welsh wind farms to the national network, his comments are very timely.
And so is his decision to order a new analysis of the case for wind farms and their effect on local communities.
As for the latter, does anybody who lives near them actually like them? Their net energy benefits are hotly contested, but even on the headline figures they only meet a fraction of our energy needs.
One way of judging them is to look at them as they spin on the hillsides. And then ask yourself if they are worth the cost.
Comments for: "Star comment: Final twist in the tale of the turbines?"
Steve Woods
One way of judging them is to look at them as they spin on the hillsides. And then ask yourself if they are worth the cost.
Would you prefer the hillsides to be covered with steaming power station cooling towers instead?
fantastic iconoclastic
All those power stations you mention HAVE to exist anyway - the wind farms can't be relied upon to provide predictable power so won't reduce a single power station. By the way, suggesting building traditional power stations up a hill ain't the best idea anyone's ever come up with Stevie boy.
One of the key points is the turbines (and their particular associated pylons) blight HUGE swathes of the best of our natural landcape - not something you can usually say about traditional power stations, which historically were co-located with coal fields so in predominantly industrial areas.
Michelle
Although I sympathise that these turbine can be a pain, the alternatives are way worse, for instance Waste Incinerators pumping out toxic gas and as stated above power stations or Nuclear Power stations. In comparison wind turbines dont seem so evil?
Tom
Wind turbines are not an alternative to any kind of conventional power station . Give your head a shake - do you only want electricity when the wind blows at the correct speed. Do you homework before you spout such nonsense.
There are well over 100,000 wind turbines across the world and they have yet to cause the shutdown of any conventional station.
Michelle
Thanks for the patronising reply Tom, I am not saying they will replace current power stations at all, I am stating that in comparison to some of the other methods I would prefer them in my back yard than the alternatives. Locally it has been proposed to build an incineration site, by the same company who run the ones in Shrewsbury - which I have read have had breaches of gas control - therefore I would much prefer to have wind turbines than that. Plus I am aware that the electricity generated from Turbines is a mere grain of sand in the desert, but its a start.
tom
Michelle - like I said "do your homework".
fantastic iconoclastic
"I am not saying they will replace current power stations at all, I am stating that in comparison to some of the other methods I would prefer them in my back yard than the alternatives"
so that makes you a NIMBY then? Right...
Two Tone
@ F I below. NIMBY really is not a well thought through acronym is it?
It suggests that the 'user' shall be happy to have whatever building, structure, facility so on and so on in their own back yards when the realtiy = I bet you would not.
It's a cheap thoughtless term which is easy to throw about and label people like Michelle.
I don't want a jail at the bottom of my garden, I do not want a mobile phone mast on my front lawn & I do not want rehabilitation centres for what ever addictaion or perversion two doors down.
I do not want a council tip by my place of work (there's already one by my golf course), I do not want giant mall at the top of the street yet I do want one conveniently far engough away.
So, as one who sees fit to charge another with the term NIMBY, I must assume that you will accept all the things I'll reject. Sorted, stop your moaning!
I want electricity but I dont want the power station on my estate (or my back yard). I'd have a golf course though.
I'd bet that if the majority were honest that you'd find I'm not alone either.
fantastic iconoclastic
Two Tone. You have missed my point.
If you look at other posts on this above you will see I am against wind turbines and pylons - albeit not from a NIMBY perspective, I just think it is an astonishingtly flawed solution to "saving the planet" (by then scarring the best bits of the planet you are trying to save).
I'm actually tired and bored of people tarring anti-wind campaigners with the infantile NIMBY tag, as if that is the only reason people might have concerns about turbines and pylons.
But it seems that (some) pro-turbine people like Michelle ARE NIMBYs in actual fact. That was my point.
Michelle
I like it how I am labled a NIMBY!! May I add the lovely field behind my home has just been replaced with a development of 12 bungalows, which I did protest against, I would rather have some wind turbines!!
mairede thomas
Michelle, I suggest you read the latest clinical evidence about low frequency noise from industrial size turbines which is amplitude modulated at blade passing frequency and therefore, although not always audible by people, does disturb sleep and prevent deep sleep, the restorative part of sleep we all need for proper function and health. (Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health -Nissenbaum; Aramini; Hanning).
This occurs within a 1.5km radius at times dependant on weather and other variables, not all of which are properly understood, and is not measured by the UK Government's noise guidance ETSU- R-97.
However the latest research published in Noise and Health Sep/Oct 2012 is a long term research project which studies 2 sample cohorts that are comparable except that 1 group lives within a 1.5km radius of wind turbines. The results clearly demonstrate the clinical effect related to proximity of turbines and causation of ill health.
This noise is produced when the turbines are working normally. It occurs as part of the routine and normal energy generation process. Therefore it cannot be avoided unlike accidents or pollution that can and should be prevented at other power stations.
Is it a good Government that routinely inflicts these machines that cause ill health on its citizens?
Montgomeryshire Man
The argument most used by the green lobby to defend these monstrosities is would you rather have nuclear/gas power station. Sadly the truth is wind farms can’t replace other generation methods. If only they were as efficient in generating power as they generating subsidies for power companies and landowners – all paid for by consumers. The picture is even worse when you consider the millions needed to strengthen roads & bridges to get equipment on site, the loss of peat-land, forestry and hedgerows during construction. Not to mention the tens of thousands of HGVs to carry materials to and from the site for the next 5-10 years. And, the countless miles of pylons needed to get what little power generated out. Not so green when you think about it.
thebiggreenlie
Wind Turbines along with Industrial Solar developments are nothing more than the biggest SCAM ever perpetrated on the citizens of the world in modern history!
Green Energy has nothing to do with renewable energy generation. It is a land grab, a money grab and any politician who supports it at any level should be charged with treason!
Two Tone
Your preferred method by which to generate power is…….?