wind turbines

It was spoilt before by pylons.

Wind turbines are a bit like marmite, love them or hate them. I fall into the latter and believe that beautiful countryside has been spoilt with these grey monsters.

I also find them aesthetically pleasing, depending on where they are. A group of turbines in a vast moorland landscape seems easier on my eye than a group built off-shore, although I understand that organisations such as the RSPB are unhappy with off-shore windfarms as they are disruptive to migrating birds. The problem with the RSPB is that they seem to want their cake and eat it.... yes we want renewable energy sources, but on our terms. And before anyone asks, I have been a member for fifteen years (well, I don't have to like them, do I)!

I too find them strangely beautiful, and more pleasing to the eye than those horrid pylons.

arty I read something similar quite a while ago. It is rather disturbing, isn't it? I think I may have seen it on the science blog wattsupwiththat.

I read in the paper this morning that turbines have to be turned off for 25 days a year because the national grid can't cope with the surge of power from wind farms when it is too windy! Wind farm operators are given "constraint" payments to keep the turbines idle so that they don't overload the power transmission networks. It is thought that this will cost around £300 million a year by the year 2020 and that -surprise, surprise - the cost will be passed on to consumers. The National Grid say that the number of days they are turned off will increase as and when more turbines are built with a commensurate increase in the cost of constraint payments. According to the article I read, the average turbine is thought to produce power worth around £150,000 per year, but is awarded subsidies worth £250,000 a year. It wouldn't take a Mr Micawber to see the lack of economic sense in that one! And no, I am not against renewable energy but I would like it to be cost effective.

The Scottish government is determined that Scotland will be in the vanguard when it comes to renewable energy production. We certainly have a lot of wind and waves though we can be a bit lacking in sunshine. Has anyone worked out how to make electricity from rain? We'd be good at that in the west. I think there is still a long way to go with renewable energy technology before it is truly cost effective but we will get there in the end. Meanwhile I am less worried than I used to be as I think there is a lot of alarmism in the media. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Levels in the past have been far far higher than they are now and the planet has survived. Plants love it.

I am...I don't understand the argument against them and do think that the nimby argument doesn't stand up. Don't know how that can be changed though...money talks and the educated will always know how to fight their corner...

Well, we havn't got very far with this discussion have we? Is nobody bothered that all these nimbys are trying to stop wind power because they just don't like the look????

Apparently wind turbines can be noisy enough for it to be classed as noise pollution for people living nearby.

I love wind farms. the first one I saw was at Delabole in Cornwall a long time ago. Found it incredibly beautiful, but it made an awful noise, like The Mistral in France I would imagine, and enough to drive one to suicide a la Van Gogh. They improved them and stopped the noise later on [thank goodness]. I love to see them from the motorway in the distance when we drive up north. Why do they harm wildlife? I wouldn't mind seeing one from my house as long as it a) was safe and b)was silent.

Please tell your husband that they wouldn't have them if they did not make energy/money. Germany has huge numbers of wind turbines and they are not even as efficient as ours (our conditions are better) yet they are going to have to depend even more on alternative energy now that they are going to do away with nuclear power.

energy even

I agree I love wind turbines but it is a touchy subject in this house. Husband sees them as a blot on the landscape I find them artistcally pleasing as well as being environmentally more sound. He says they harm wildlife and do not create enough enery to make them worthwhile. I am still not convinced - still love them.