Help protect our countryside from this development
Hilary Southwell | 20.04.2005 14:23
A rally is being held on Saddleworth Moors, near Greater Manchester, to protest against plans to site seven 350ft wind turbines there.
Turbines generate a tiny amount of energy in relation to the damage to the landscape they cause.
They are giant industrial machines on an unspoilt landscape and they produce almost no electricity.
The UK's average winter energy demand is 45,000 megawatts at any one moment. There are about 1,100 turbines in the country and together they generate about 190 megawatts.
They also need back up from power stations so that they will supply electricity when the wind power stops.
Germany has 15,000 turbines and not one conventional power station has closed.
Wind energy is very expensive - it costs three times the amount of a power station, because of government subsidies to wind developers.
It is a disaster for any areas that depend on tourism - and for people from the cities who want to come to those rural areas to unwind.
The government likes the turbines because you can see them - people think 'they must be green and clean' but they're not.
Pro-wind power campaigners say people have been surveyed and say they like wind power - but what people say is that they like renewable energy.
We want to cut CO2, but not this way. Country Life did a survey on 'what do you hate most?' - and the answer was wind farms.
People can put solar panels on their roofs - schemes are waiting in the wings for tidal energy.
We need to reduce our dependence on electricity in the home, for example to use low energy light bulbs.
Those wishing to join the objectors against this damage to our countryside and the environmental damage please meet at St Johns Church Saddleworth Moors on Saturday at 10am
They are giant industrial machines on an unspoilt landscape and they produce almost no electricity.
The UK's average winter energy demand is 45,000 megawatts at any one moment. There are about 1,100 turbines in the country and together they generate about 190 megawatts.
They also need back up from power stations so that they will supply electricity when the wind power stops.
Germany has 15,000 turbines and not one conventional power station has closed.
Wind energy is very expensive - it costs three times the amount of a power station, because of government subsidies to wind developers.
It is a disaster for any areas that depend on tourism - and for people from the cities who want to come to those rural areas to unwind.
The government likes the turbines because you can see them - people think 'they must be green and clean' but they're not.
Pro-wind power campaigners say people have been surveyed and say they like wind power - but what people say is that they like renewable energy.
We want to cut CO2, but not this way. Country Life did a survey on 'what do you hate most?' - and the answer was wind farms.
People can put solar panels on their roofs - schemes are waiting in the wings for tidal energy.
We need to reduce our dependence on electricity in the home, for example to use low energy light bulbs.
Those wishing to join the objectors against this damage to our countryside and the environmental damage please meet at St Johns Church Saddleworth Moors on Saturday at 10am
Hilary Southwell
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
Other Campaigns
20.04.2005 15:13
We will not stand by and see our countryside ruined by wooly headed green politics supported by big business.
Bill
Clean power
20.04.2005 15:52
pro Nuclear
WHAT???
20.04.2005 18:40
They are elegant and beautiful ; every time i see them , my heart leaps with joy - there is hope for humanity!
check out ; yestowind.org
Cumbrian
Lies and half-truths about wind energy
20.04.2005 19:17
There are too many to respond to here.
A N Other
A Rising Storm
20.04.2005 19:26
When is sustainable energy not sustainable? When it threatens to despoil very large areas of wild and scenic landscape, undermining local livelihoods and even endangering rare bird species.
With hundreds of wind farm planning applications now in the pipeline throughout Britain that is the dilemma facing the conservation sector.
On the one hand, effective steps are urgently needed to mitigate global warming, and wind energy provides an alternative to fossil fuel consumption.
Equally, widespread evidence is emerging that the headlong rush to build new wind turbines is fueled more by heavy subsidies than by clear thinking - with limited impact on electrical generation and negligible reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Key Aspects of Wind Power
Each wind farm involves a large-scale engineering development - with turbines, access roads, individual bases and transmission lines to power stations. Wind farm investment is heavily supported by a consumer levy on electricity bills. Overall, it is not an economic means of power generation in its own right: operating at low levels of generating capacity and requiring substantial back-up from conventional power stations which itself creates further greenhouse gas emission.
Wind farms represent only one aspect of a sustainable energy policy. Other approaches are not being adequately pursued – including alternative sources of renewable power (micro turbine, solar, bio and tidal power), energy savings, insulation and pollution control. These can be driven by a well structured combination of fiscal incentive, levy, subsidy, industry codes of practice (for buildings and emissions) and legislation.
Six Policy Pointers
Onshore wind farms should be permitted only in landscapes already incorporating a significant level of built development and/or otherwise lacking aesthetic value. Greater emphasis should be directed towards micro-technology installations rather than giant turbine farms.
The Foundation opposes the location of wind farms in areas where landscape is currently of wild, open, attractive or otherwise unspoilt aspect.
Much greater emphasis should be applied to offshore locations, providing these do not despoil wild coastlines or marine environments – and where no significant concerns arise based on experience of similar locations already established.
Planning permission for any wind farm should be preceded by a full Environmental Impact Assessment providing assurance on bird mortality, human health, landscape intrusiveness, and, where relevant, marine environment and coastal geomorphology. The long-term impact on local livelihoods and property values must also be taken into account.
The underlying economics of the situation should be carefully reviewed. How much saving in greenhouse gas emission can be gained for a given level of investment in wind power as against other approaches? What are the relative cost-benefits of wind farms?
There is a need to develop a coherent measure of the value of wildlands and landscape. Using maps of existing and prospective wildland, it should be feasible to devise an alternative location strategy that can be effectively represented on commercial as well as more traditional grounds.
Ashanti
PR company ?
20.04.2005 19:57
This campaign is about local people who object to these monstrosities being built in the countryside. We are not financed by any big company although we have heard that attempted slur on a number of occasions.
You might like a wind turbine but the majority do not. You may also want to read about the objections of the RSPB (many birds are killed by these things) the Friends of the Earth who have changed their complete position on them and the research done at Bristol University which shows a clear link to electro magnetic build up and subsequent headaches and other medical problems.
Wind Farms do not represent the answer to our energy problems.
Hilary Southwell
Real solution...
23.04.2005 22:28
Rebel W
Example of anti-wind spin
24.04.2005 05:20
As someone who is part of a local FoE group and gave a talk on the subject a few weeks ago I found this claim interesting. Starting off at
Then, I went to the FoE England, Wales & Northern Ireland web site and found
I think this tells us all we need to know about those who campaign against wind-farms.
David Hansen