One of the developers, Element Power, says the plan would save UK consumers around £7bn over 15 years compared to other renewable sources.
But concerns are now growing that the turbines needed to provide the power will be of a size and scale not seen in Britain or Ireland before.
Because the bog lands are relatively windless, the company behind the scheme says they will need to stretch high into the sky to catch sufficient wind to generate power.
"They will be spread around 40 clusters in five counties," said Element Power's Peter Harte.
"We felt it was better to built slightly larger turbines but fewer of them and that's the best way to minimise the impact on the local area."
But opponents say that local people have not been consulted and few actually realise just what an impact the turbines will have on the landscape.
My gripe is that as all of this power is going to the UK then the UK should build them on there own land. Am sure the people of the Somerset and Devon would welcome the investment as would no doubt the folk on the Yorkshire moors and other areas of northern England?
Simplified sketch of giant wind generator
The red line is my addition: to show an under-water power cable passing between the two countries it is purely graphical and is probably not in the correct geographical position.
Sounds much the same over here with big energy projects.. they want to frack and ship all the gas away while wrecking our water sources ... then on another note, they want to build a pipeline from Alberta all across the entire country to the country's biggest oil refinery 45 min. away and then ship all that refined oil away too. we get to bear the burden and have no access to the product. Nobody in their right mind would want this.. But it appears there are many people not in their right mind.
ReplyDeleteWe have one wind farm at sea just up the coast to us and I was involved in making sure that our rights as sailors were protected. When the developers turned up for the first meeting, they bought a map with them and were quite amazed to see an admiralty chart charting the sand banks etc!!! Wind farms are definitely not worth the power output compared to the cost of building them. The only reason they are getting building permission is so that the government can say to Europe 'look how green we are'. The money should be spent on developing a sustainable and effective alternative source of power xxx
ReplyDeleteQuote "Richard Tol, professor of economics at University of Sussex, said he felt that the whole scheme was "crazy" and would not work in the long term .
Delete"From an Irish perspective this is not selling the family silver; this is giving it away. There is no money staying in Ireland that I can see.
"But from the British perspective it is a good deal," he said."
Wind farms cause so much controversy. I often hear that they will never re-pay the investment, but as I'm no expert, I cannot say. Over here, they are usually built on the dykes that protect us from the estuary waters and I confess I like them, but the question remains as to whether they will ever be economically viable. I also sympathise with all those who dislike them for aesthetic reasons. It seems people either like them or not. In my family, we are divided :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Gwen it does seem that it is greed that is behind all of this wanton destruction.
DeleteHello Fran this business of green power is a bit of a con because actually the waste behind the manufacturing of the equipment is completely ignored.
Greetings Val and thanks for your views: as structures on the skyline I do agree that they can be rather attractive however, you are talking about the more conventional height wise wind generators.
These particular ones are enormous at 180 metres high and the concrete plinth that they will be standing on will be about 4 to 5 metres in height!
That does seem excessive. What I don't understand is why erect them in a place that has little wind! It doesn't make much sense at all. I'm not surprised you are unhappy about it.
DeleteIt does seem odd that, if the power is for the UK solely, they should want to build them in Ireland. I would have thought that out at sea would be best.
ReplyDeleteRecent research is also showing that they are far less economic than at first predicted!
I entirely agree with you Cro.
DeleteEvidently the UK opposition to building more wind farms at sea pulls a bigger (in-house) political clout than those built on land.
The weak Irish government were swayed by the promise of jobs however, if as in the building of a new distillery in Tullamore, Co. Offaly by Grants of Scotland only 2% of the construction is being done by Irish employees 98% are Scots and none of the workforce when completed will be Irish!
Following a spate of wind farm developments in West Wales, the National Grid have now announced that they need to build pylons across Mid Wales to carry all the power generated into England. So this sounds familiar!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds only too familiar unfortunately and such a shame that the English are unable to host their own bloody wind farms, without putting them in somebody else's country; destroying land and the scenic beauty!
DeleteThanks for sharing that Mel. I'm shocked...not because the energy would be going to the U.K. But the thought of having should monstrosities dominating the skyline!!! Horror of horrors.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could have some of Scotlands wind http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/grid-pays-6m-to-turn-off-wind-farm-turbines.21096009. Its a crazy situation. The way forward has to be eco power but not like this. What about all the sun that goes to waste on our roof tops? I have yet to see any new builds with solar panels..it's wasting our resources so the fat cats can make more money. I'm all for wind turbines-but not in the countryside... how about in our cities-plenty of eyesores already.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Seagull Suzie and welcome to this blog.
ReplyDeleteI quote "Perhaps you could have some of Scotlands wind"
The Irish Republic gets sufficient wind of it's own thank you and actually the proposed electrical power is not for us (Ireland) but for part of that other island aka England.
Yes I agree with what you say in regards to alternative methods of producing electrical power, such as photovoltaic panels. There are also wave generators that produce power and they could be sited all around the coasts, the Solent area would be a great place as it receives four tides a day as opposed to the normal two.
These wind turbines cover much Oklahoma land. Of course, we do have much wind that does more than just come "sweeping down the plains. . . " I must confess that I have not viewed the placement of wind turbines as obstructing the beauty and sacredness of certain sites. But when you posted this, it got my attention! I do not want Irish or Welch lands to be defiled! Now I must rethink how I feel about these in Oklahoma, as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post, Mel.
Thank you for your comment Cynthia which is greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI have researched the Oaklahoma wind turbines on-line the heights given for them are 80 to 100 metres, whereas the proposed ones for 'generating the power to England' will be 180 metres high almost double in height than those in Oaklahoma !
My original idea in posting this topic on the blog was to raise awareness.
The Guardian in the Uk reported this- http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/08/wind-farms-ireland-uk-electricity
ReplyDeleteInterestingly it is the giving subsidies to foreign countries that might be the fly in the ointment ( worth investiagting?)
Even the Telegraph - right wingest of UK papers documents the human costs of flicker - see
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8385809/Flicker-of-hope-for-the-wind-turbine-victims.html
You can see the flicker and noise in this film from windmills in Wisconsin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyOImGHyJtQ
And here the effects on human health from windfarms in Australia - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYnNQoTcsHY ( and points out that noise regulations were made for windmills that were originally 36 feet high - now they are 135 ft high!)
And they have a terrible affect on birds, bats ( see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRqu4WiLQfk ) and domestic animals
They are planning 700 of them - the impact will be enormous
Lou publishing as