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Hi Folks,
I know that they are noisy up close, but you have to wear ear-defenders in a fossil power station
I built a mini one using an old aircraft prop, and bolted it on top of the farm water tank, on a hill.
Free juice for all the barn lights, although my home-made voltage regulator proved a bit unreliable
I am soon installing a mini hydro-power jobby at a local water mill. It should work, or back to the grid
So what is the problem with some "objectors" to a fine power source ?
Give them a box of candles when the juice goes off !
What do you reckon ?
Bob
The answer is an organisation called "Country Guardians". What they do is swoop in on anywhere that a wind farm is proposed and stir up opposition by spreading lies about wind turbines. They exaggerate out of all proportion the risks to wildlife, the noise levels, visual impact and amount of construction traffic.
Two particularly effective lies they spread are that wind turbines use more energy in their construction than they ever produce (actual payback time 6 – 18 months) and that wind turbines reduce house prices (even if this were true, protesting on this basis is like turkeys voting for Christmas)
There are strong links between senior members of Country Guardians and an organisation called SONE, Supporters of Nuclear Energy. The fact that nuclear energy has become an option again is largely thanks to them.
We need as many wind turbines as we can get, and we need lots of other renewables as well. No one renewable technology is going to supply us with all we need. Wind turbines happen to be the most cost effective source of renewable power in this country, with the least environmental damage.
I think the fossil fuel guys are afraid this will drop the demand side of the equation and ergo the price of their product. Windmills are great!!!
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Because people in remote areas want all the benefits for themselves and don’t want anything to upset their exclusive little world. Most of us live in towns or cities. We subsidise them any loads of ways – they pay the same for postage, telecoms, internet, electricity, water and the like even though it costs more to supply them. We subsidise their under used roads while ours are crammed full. We live in ever more crowded people farms, living on top of each other with ever less open space per person …. and THEY enjoy wide open spaces and clean air. Try to put a wind-farm out in the heavily subsidised countryside and you think someone was proposing to sell their children for cat food. It is arrogance and NIMBYism from people who have been spoilt for too long. If you don’t like wind farms – move to the city (to reverse the over used argument they offer in response to complaints about town cramming … "well you have a choice – you can always move to the country" … yeah right!")
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Rightly so, too. Nasty, noisy, ugly things. I would have a completely different attitude if they didn’t insist on sticking them on the skyline where you can’t help seeing them. The term ‘Remote area’ doesn’t apply when they are on every mountain top and ridge line.
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These people may be annoying but not as stupid as councils who use the old planning permission issues to deny people the right to access the power of the wind on their homes, yet the councils will be overjoyed if they get the chance to have a new airport nearby.
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I think you would get much less whinging if the benefits of the wind turbine were on a more local scale. The only reason for the big wind farms is to tie then into the grid. So the local benefit is lost. The best places to site big turbines are usually the worst from a national grid point of view.
The objectors are right ot be skeptical. Many wind schemes just don’t work well or ignore whole life costs. For example the local school is getting a grid tied 6kW turbine. 15m mast as big as it gets for such a tiny generator. I wouldn’t mind but for it being sited at the lowest point surrounded by trees, high buildings and hills. There is no smooth air to make the thing work. Still noise wont be a problem
So why is the school getting a big white elephant of a wind turbine? Because they can at zero cost. It is all subsidised. 
Guess who is paying?
I spent a lot of time investigating the claims of the small turbine manufacturers for use on domestic dwellings in a urban environment. I won’t be getting one.
Bob is the exception in that he has both a local use for the energy the turbine generates and a suitable site. For most of us small scale wind power is a con. large scale wind power generation in remote areas has very high hidden costs. The power has to be used locally for it to make practical sense.
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I’ve got the box of candles already in for when the wind is not blowing.
Which reminds me of a good limerick.
There was a young sailor called Carter
Who was an incredible farter,
When the wind did not blow,
and the ship would not go.
Then Carter, the farter, would start ‘er.
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The answer is an organisation called "Country Guardians". What they do is swoop in on anywhere that a wind farm is proposed and stir up opposition by spreading lies about wind turbines. They exaggerate out of all proportion the risks to wildlife, the noise levels, visual impact and amount of construction traffic.
Two particularly effective lies they spread are that wind turbines use more energy in their construction than they ever produce (actual payback time 6 – 18 months) and that wind turbines reduce house prices (even if this were true, protesting on this basis is like turkeys voting for Christmas)
There are strong links between senior members of Country Guardians and an organisation called SONE, Supporters of Nuclear Energy. The fact that nuclear energy has become an option again is largely thanks to them.
We need as many wind turbines as we can get, and we need lots of other renewables as well. No one renewable technology is going to supply us with all we need. Wind turbines happen to be the most cost effective source of renewable power in this country, with the least environmental damage.
References :
I live in a remote area where, much to my disgust at the gullibility of my neighbours, a succesful protest agianst a wind farm was mounted.
i have just come from my son-in-laws place on the island of Thanet. The place is criss-crossed with massive pylons. All the objections to wind power could be leveled at these for they really are unsightly and such a danger to wild life that they have had to have discs fitted to the lines connecting them to warn birds away.Where was the objectors when these monstrosities were erected
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