Myself and fellow members of Energise Stur Valley and Transition Town Sturminster Newton are concerned that the headlines in the Blackmore Vale Magazine this weekend gave a highly negative view towards Wind Turbines.
If only the voices of a small vocal minority are heard with substantial amounts of dis-information, then it would appear the process of Public Inquiry is itself under threat.
Energise Stur Valley, Transition Town Sturminster Newton and Dorset Energized are committed to helping to give good information to local people upon which they can make truly informed decisions about the way that we and Dorset should be developing renewable energy resources. We are keen to express the need for Community action and ownership of energy creating schemes whilst supporting in general principal the growth of all forms of renewable development.
The anti wind turbine brigade are well funded, totally committed to protecting their own backyards and irrational in their views. Old heresy is dredged up time and time again which have little truth and stop Dorset and this Country moving forward and making the very most of our natural resources.
So please listen to both sides, make your own decisions and don’t be lead by the Anti Brigade.
Here are just a few points that take up some of the dis-information and are far more informed:
1. The substantial wind resource in Dorset is not being utilised as described in the Dorset Renewable Energy Strategy. There are no wind turbines larger than 20 kW currently installed in Dorset.
2. All surrounding counties (Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Wiltshire) have multi MW turbines either already installed or with positive planning determinations.
3. In every survey of Dorset residents ever undertaken there has always been a majority in favour of large wind turbines (Dorset Citizens Panel questionnaires).
4. The representations against the application are motivated by concerns about visual impact, which is inevitably a big issue for those living closest to the proposed turbines but it must be remembered that they are a minority within the district.
5. The majority in favour of the application tend to be less motivated to voice their opinion and in some cases feel bullied to remain silent such is the robustness by which every comment of theirs is countered (as we have even seen on the comments on this very blog!).
6. There is much misinformation being repeated by objectors to the application and reported in the local media.
7. Statements made about the proposed turbines being inefficient, Ecotricity being financially unstable, the concrete to be used affecting the water table and emitting more CO2 than the turbines save, are not correct.
For more information on Wind Power see our page on:
www.letsgetenergized.co.uk/energy/wind-power
I understand that the Save our Silton group is upset about the visual impact of the possible wind turbines on their landscape, particularly being so close to them. However, in their protest, they really should stick to the facts. Wind turbines are neither inefficient nor useless. They are the most efficient way to generate renewable energy in our climate. They pay back the carbon of their installation in a matter of months. They should generate electricity 75% of the time. If you see wind turbines standing idle, it is most likely because there is too much electricity going into the grid at that moment, and turbines can be switched off at a flick of a switch, whereas conventional power stations take hours to power down and back up. I can’t imagine how on earth wind turbines would drive jobs away. They may or may not be ugly, and that is what the debate is really about.
I have just come back from the Silton Wind Farm enquiry this morning where a small number of ill-informed people are standing in the way of progress for the majority. It was so depressing and then to be sent The Guardian’s article extolling the case for Wind Turbines and their growing effect on our energy supply and reduction in carbon emissions was wonderful! Read the article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/26/myth-wind-turbines-carbon-emissions.
We at Dorset Energized aim for the truth, well researched facts that give proper advice to people here in Dorset regarding Renewable Energy.
Be inspired by this latest report and share it with family and friends in the hope that more of us will understand the potential positive effect for all our futures.
A modest small rural home without gas which uses oil and woodburners for domestic heating and electricity solely for cooking, lighting and domestic appliances will use 8000-8500KW hours per year If your electricity bill is £80-100/month then you are that household using 1KW hour every hour of the year. So the turbines could power 3750 homes this is one quarter of the homes in the wholly inaccurate estimate of 14000 made by West Coast Energy. Even this is far from the true picture, at you peak daily usage you will require 10KW to power your lights cooker and kettle and so the whole industrial complex would power just 375 local homes. The populations of Tolpuddle are 360 and Puddletown 1220 to set this in a local context. .Is the noise, visual landscape destruction, intrusion on byways, damage to wildlife and the local tourism economy worth this paltry and unreliable power station.
….. i AM sorry, they are inefficient, fullstop.
Ill informed people, hum, I think you would find that there is a lot of information out there, about the safety record of Windturbines, how the larger they get there more dangerous they are. The inefficiencys of them. The dangers to wildlife, bats and birds that has been vastly underestimated, and under reported, the noise pollution, the believed danger from Low frequency Noise which is believed to be causing the Wind turbine syndrome often reported by people dwelling near by to turbines. etc etc. We might say that people who are blindly in favour of wind turbines are ill informed, look on the internet, look at all the information available World wide, look to why it is the Germans are turning away from Wind power, why it is the Danish will only allow windfarms 2 kms away from dwellings etc etc…wonder why it is the so called minority are against windfarms. The Low frequency noise is an issue of great concern, Scientists who are neither for nor against wind farms are calling for more research, because it is feared that Low Frequency noise or infrasound can do real damage to the human brain, and physiology for the long term. Look at the research available, and think, if there is a risk, if there is a risk, do you really think we should blindly go on saying windfarms are a good thing. Do you think in years to come, when people have had their health irreversably damaged that we shall feel pleased with ourselves? Yes it’s all in the mind is nt it, that’s what the wind turbine companys would like you to think, but you look at the research! Its there, if you can be bothered. Have a look at the accident data, have a look at the film of wind turbines exploding! Listen to the noise they create, see the light flicker that blights people lives and makes roads dangerous! See the hollow faces of people whose lives have been ruined by having large scale windfarms placed by them……the information is out there, we are not idiots, we can read, have a look yourself, and wonder perhaps are we ill informed, also can I ask this finally, who is the one who profits from this, is it the minority objector? Or is the windfarm company who desperately tells you how efficient their windfarms will be etc etc. hum!
By the way, not knowing anyone in Dorset in the circle of people I know who has ever been asked by any one to fill in a survey regarding how they feel about wind turbines, I wonder at the information that most of us think the large turbines are a good thing. I am sorry if you find that a small minority of us, who dont think wind turbines are a good thing act as bullies, as a small minority I am surprised people are all that bothered, goodness me!
Shall I tell you something, if wind turbines were efficient, if they did not potentially pose a health risk due to infrasound, if they were sited 2km minimum distance from peoples homes I would be the FIRST to be in favour of them! Unfortunately in these days of the internet, People have access to alot of information available globally regarding wind turbines there safety, the affect on peoples lives etc etc. and one cannot fail to be concerned, if I only read Greenpeace info. and other like minded infomation providers, I too would be ever so happy I am sure! But regretably, I have read alot of information that makes me genuinely very concerned. I think there are other ways of producing energy that do not create noise, are not visually intrusive, that do not risk damaging Dorsets tourist trade, do not produce infrasound etc. if photovoltaic technology was advanced so that the technology became cheaper, alot of people would choose to use solar power, how bout instead of the huge subsidies spent on wind turbines the money could be spent on cheapening Solar power! I am sorry if you only want people on this blog being for windpower, but if you make claims that the vast majority of us are for huge Windturbines, you are wrong.
Same old arguments about WT’s. Please just look at the facts, they are efficient, payback their cost/carbon investment amazingly quickly, do not effect birds and they look beautiful.
If people had taken the same approach in earlier centuries we would not have had some of the most efficient food producing installations ever: THE WINDMILL.
I don’t want to see them in people’s backyards but in the right location they are a key part of our energy future.
There are plenty of people who have far worse things to put up with including Nuclear, Gas Fired Power and soon Fracking sites. Do they get a choice and if they did how would you heat your own homes. Its time to think about all our neighbours.
Be positive, eventually the future will be RENEWABLE.
I know I bang on about energy efficiency and demand reduction, but having an energy efficient home means we only use about 1500kW electricity a year (and a titchy amount of gas for our gas cooker). If other homes were like this, then the contribution from wind turbines would go much further and our fossil fuel dependence would be so much less …..
there is too much information that shows that they are inefficient, there are days throughout the UK when the wind does not blow, they need support net works of power stations, and often there will be a need for more pylons to support them! Plus with the big turbines, they are more prone to going wrong, look at Professional Industry pieces on this. It is agreed that turbines need new gearboxs etc. once every five years, which can be 10 percent of the cost of the turbine itself! They need regular maintenance, to guard against blade failure, brake failure etc. In Europe Insurers are waking up to the costs of Wind turbines, regretably they do go wrong, and if you have houses near by, the results can be very unpleasant. Records in Germany and other countries have turbine collapse and blades crashing through peoples roofs! Very frightening! I think the approach is wrong, if wind turbines are efficient etc then people should be campaigning that they be sited over 2kms away from peoples homes, you cannot deny how ever keen you feel about turbines that they are blighting peoples lives when they are too close… wind turbine syndrome looks like it may be a real problem and not in peoples minds, so what better way of tackling this than making sure that wind turbines are responsibly placed, if they have to be placed anywhere… finally please understand that wind turbines, the large ones, like the ones planned for Tolpuddle are Industrial installations, it will be an industrial site, and it is being placed near areas of outstanding natural beauty etc. where it may have an impact on Tourist trade….it is in the wrong place. Industrial installations should be for brown field sites, not agricultural land that will be down graded into being a brown field site. Please look on the net, learn how people are affected through out the World by having windfarms so close to them, how it damages the quality of their lives, and then perhaps you can understand why people are resistent to them!
I for one am against wind turbines on shore, especially the Blandford hill one, as I live on Blandford Hill, I dont want my and my family’s health to get worse, my younger sibling has epilepsy, If someone put them in your backyard, you would feel the way Im feeling
To hear the opponents talk you would think that no other form of power plant ever need maintenance or replacement. Nuclear has one of the highest O&M costs around. Gas plant has a similar life expectancy to wind. As to the health worries these scare stories are repeatedly discredited yet still they come back again and again. I know its all still out there on the internet but so are the claims that aliens are probing our brains – it doesn’t mean its true. I sympathize with people that are being frightened by the new technology especially the gentleman who is concerned about his epileptic relative but the epilepsy society has pointed out that the large turbines rotate too slowly for them to pose a threat to epileptics. Wind turbine syndrome was a bit of pseudoscience generated by poor scientific technique used by biased researchers in the US and elsewhere which isn’t even mentioned by the more informed opponents these days because they know it is just not real. Other forms of power generation do pose real and significant threats to public health so wind power is one of the generation technologies least likely to injure or harm you as a member of the public and consumer of energy. We cannot solve our problems by just using one form of low carbon technology – we cannot just build solar (what happens at night?) We cannot even just build nuclear (nuclear power is very inflexible and needs to be run at a steady output making it just as dependent on storage as wind if it is to cope with changes in demand). We need a wide range of technologies working together to give us a flexible and reliable energy system. Onshore wind is an indispensable part of that mix.