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jaceyLate last year a test mast and anemometer went up in the hill above Birdsedge village - literally above the village, and in the middle of greenbelt (and on top of a possible Iron Age site). Apparently unbeknownst to us a wind turbine development company has been in discussion with our local council planning office since 2006. Plans have not been submitted yet, but a huge file of correspondence designed to shape the plans into something which will only need rubber-stamping has been sitting in the planning office at Alpha Centauri for four years, in a filing cabinet in a room in the cellar behind a door marked 'Beware of the Leopard' had we but known to go and seek it out.
It seems that these turbines are planned for - almost literally - our back yard.
European guidelines say they should be 2k away from the nearest housing, but having adopted other (stupid) EU regulations, England has not adopted these. The nearest proposed turbine is less than 500 metres from the village housing and is over 125m tall with another 35m of added 'loom-factor' because of the hill. The most distant turbine is barely 900 metres from housing (mine to be precise).
Now, if you'd asked me before I'd done some homework I'd have said I'm all for green energy, but it appears that the pros are small and the cons are large when it come to these particular turbines. With the accent on 'con'. If it wasn't for the subsidies (coming out of your tax money and energy bills) they would not be economically sustainable. But because of the subsidies the turbine operators and the farmers on whose land they are being built stand to make a lot of money - but apparently make much less electricity.
In the recent snow, for instance, the associated low pressure gave us a more-or-less wind-free month when turbines (we already have 13 of them about 2 miles away) were operating at an average of 9% efficiency. Yes - that's right - at peak demand in the coldest weather it's the coal, gas and nuclear power stations that step into the breach. They will always have to be there for just such an eventuality, so more wind turbines doesn't mean fewer conventional power stations at all.
Four turbines almost the height of Blackpool Tower? The visual impact will swamp our village. Added to that (and the existing 13) there are a number of other windfarms due to spring up in the area - with plans having been passed recently in South Yorkshire - just a few miles away.
The low frequency noise from turbines is almost inaudible, but you can feel it in your bones, in your chest and inside your skull. It's the noise that's used in the soundtracks of scary films because it makes you feel - well, scared - i.e. uncomfortable and ill at ease. Imagine living with it 24/7. It can lead to depression, anxiety and a load of other very real health problems. It can't be shut out of houses by double glazing as it passes through the ground and through house walls (and floors) without attenuation. Turbine companies usually measure by meters adjusted to the dBA curve - the sound you can hear - and tend to ignore dBC readings which show up low frequency noise pollution.
The turbines are positioned so that light flicker (the setting sun through the blades at sunset) will affect most of the houses in the village. People in other areas who are living with this say it's like having a car parked with its headlamps facing into your windows turning them off and on, off and on incessantly. This can, of course, trigger migraines and epileptic seizures in the susceptible, not to mention the driving hazards for anyone facing them on the roads at the wrong time of day.
There are lots of other reasons for fighting these turbines. Safety being another consideration. Ice - great big heavy chunks of it - can form on the blades and either drop off if the turbine is static or be flung off at great speed if it's turning. The throw is usually up to 200 metres but can be up to 700 metres in the right wind conditions. (The village school is 600 metres from the nearest turbine.) This is the area that saw snow and ice bring down the Emley Moor TV mast in the late 60s, so it CAN happen here and it has! There's also the danger from debris if a turbine fails (which they do more often than you think.) One of these turbines is right next to the road - a minor road popular with dog-walkers, cyclists, horse-riders and pleasure-walkers. All of them are within 200m of roads.
What's wrong with this picture? Why didn't the planning officers laugh the developers out of town?
Because the rub is that the government has committed (to Europe) to achieve a certain level of power production from green energy by 2020. So Miliband et al. are pushing these things like mad and may even - in specific circumstances ride roughshod over local councils anyway!
From a personal point of view, BB is a) a migraine sufferer and b) a sound engineer who does not want low frequency noise getting into his recordings.
Oh joy.
You don't have to live in the affected area to complain to the council. And some of you reading this have stayed with me in Birdsedge anyway, so you know what an imposition something like this will be on a village like ours. We are told that every individual letter received counts for 250 names on a petition, so if you have time to bang out a letter on our behalf, we would be very grateful. If you go to our website, there's a document telling you who to write to and giving some information to help.
http://www.birdsedge.co.uk/bolt.htm
It's a bit rough and ready because our previous website designer dropped off the committee and I had to knock this one together in a couple of evenings.
If you want to see the potential for accidents, look at this...
It seems that these turbines are planned for - almost literally - our back yard.
European guidelines say they should be 2k away from the nearest housing, but having adopted other (stupid) EU regulations, England has not adopted these. The nearest proposed turbine is less than 500 metres from the village housing and is over 125m tall with another 35m of added 'loom-factor' because of the hill. The most distant turbine is barely 900 metres from housing (mine to be precise).
Now, if you'd asked me before I'd done some homework I'd have said I'm all for green energy, but it appears that the pros are small and the cons are large when it come to these particular turbines. With the accent on 'con'. If it wasn't for the subsidies (coming out of your tax money and energy bills) they would not be economically sustainable. But because of the subsidies the turbine operators and the farmers on whose land they are being built stand to make a lot of money - but apparently make much less electricity.
In the recent snow, for instance, the associated low pressure gave us a more-or-less wind-free month when turbines (we already have 13 of them about 2 miles away) were operating at an average of 9% efficiency. Yes - that's right - at peak demand in the coldest weather it's the coal, gas and nuclear power stations that step into the breach. They will always have to be there for just such an eventuality, so more wind turbines doesn't mean fewer conventional power stations at all.
Four turbines almost the height of Blackpool Tower? The visual impact will swamp our village. Added to that (and the existing 13) there are a number of other windfarms due to spring up in the area - with plans having been passed recently in South Yorkshire - just a few miles away.
The low frequency noise from turbines is almost inaudible, but you can feel it in your bones, in your chest and inside your skull. It's the noise that's used in the soundtracks of scary films because it makes you feel - well, scared - i.e. uncomfortable and ill at ease. Imagine living with it 24/7. It can lead to depression, anxiety and a load of other very real health problems. It can't be shut out of houses by double glazing as it passes through the ground and through house walls (and floors) without attenuation. Turbine companies usually measure by meters adjusted to the dBA curve - the sound you can hear - and tend to ignore dBC readings which show up low frequency noise pollution.
The turbines are positioned so that light flicker (the setting sun through the blades at sunset) will affect most of the houses in the village. People in other areas who are living with this say it's like having a car parked with its headlamps facing into your windows turning them off and on, off and on incessantly. This can, of course, trigger migraines and epileptic seizures in the susceptible, not to mention the driving hazards for anyone facing them on the roads at the wrong time of day.
There are lots of other reasons for fighting these turbines. Safety being another consideration. Ice - great big heavy chunks of it - can form on the blades and either drop off if the turbine is static or be flung off at great speed if it's turning. The throw is usually up to 200 metres but can be up to 700 metres in the right wind conditions. (The village school is 600 metres from the nearest turbine.) This is the area that saw snow and ice bring down the Emley Moor TV mast in the late 60s, so it CAN happen here and it has! There's also the danger from debris if a turbine fails (which they do more often than you think.) One of these turbines is right next to the road - a minor road popular with dog-walkers, cyclists, horse-riders and pleasure-walkers. All of them are within 200m of roads.
What's wrong with this picture? Why didn't the planning officers laugh the developers out of town?
Because the rub is that the government has committed (to Europe) to achieve a certain level of power production from green energy by 2020. So Miliband et al. are pushing these things like mad and may even - in specific circumstances ride roughshod over local councils anyway!
From a personal point of view, BB is a) a migraine sufferer and b) a sound engineer who does not want low frequency noise getting into his recordings.
Oh joy.
You don't have to live in the affected area to complain to the council. And some of you reading this have stayed with me in Birdsedge anyway, so you know what an imposition something like this will be on a village like ours. We are told that every individual letter received counts for 250 names on a petition, so if you have time to bang out a letter on our behalf, we would be very grateful. If you go to our website, there's a document telling you who to write to and giving some information to help.
http://www.birdsedge.co.uk/bolt.htm
It's a bit rough and ready because our previous website designer dropped off the committee and I had to knock this one together in a couple of evenings.
If you want to see the potential for accidents, look at this...
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no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 06:33 am (UTC)Did you know that some wind turbines have been associated with thousands of bird and bat deaths? Birds, especially migratory species, can be completely unaware of the blades and fly right into them. Bats die when they get too close and the changes in air pressure from the blades, which are substantial, apparently kill them quite easily. :(
I'm so sorry about this. I think turbines are basically a good idea but for heaven's sakes, not in a tiny village like Birdsedge! They belong on high moors or, as in California, in valleys where the wind blows almost constantly and traffic and human habitation is limited.
no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 01:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 8th, 2010 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 11:05 am (UTC)the wond wasn't bowing.
Is there any point in non-residents sending written objections, or will that be dismissed as out of area, therefore obviously just agitators who can be ignored? Having suffered badly from low frequency noise in the flat before moving to this house, I am deeply unimpressed with the proposal to site those things so close to occupied buildings.
It's not just migraine and epilepsy -- I doubt if there's any research on the subject, but I strongly suspect that the flicker and lfn is a trigger for assorted mood affective disorders with environmental triggers, including SAD and bipolar disorder.
no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 11:37 am (UTC)Even assuming a pro-windpower stance, you're on the wrong side of the country over where you are! There's a big windfarm off the North Wales coast and it doesn't spoil the view, it's nowhere near anybody and the wind is almost always blowing from the sea. As far as I'm concerned, the best place for windfarms is offshore, not on beautiful hills. :(
no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 01:45 pm (UTC)The turbines they are intending to use here are the huge ones developed for offshore - and that's where I'd like to see them sited. It makes more sense to have a combined machine situated offshore that harvests power from bith wind and wave. The wind may stop blowing, but the tides don't hang up and out-to-lunch sign.
no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 12:10 pm (UTC)This kind of wind farm is never going to make anything more than a marginal contribution to energy . It is much more effective to pursue energy efficiencies. When I was at business school years ago we did a study on it and we could not make the numbers work out in favour of investment in such schemes - small reductions in useage made a much greater contribution to carbon reduction. I'm sure the technologies have come on a bit but renewables don't really address the scale of the problem in this country.
Good luck- I'm not sure that writing a letter out of area will work. You sound like there are many significant safety objections. Try writing to Milliband directly?
no subject
Date: Mar. 6th, 2010 01:53 pm (UTC)Miliband recently said: "It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines." Just who is he trying to kid?
There's a book called 'The Wind Farm Scam' in which Etherington points out that, 'the saving of CO2 proposed by government's own 2010 target for electricity generated by renewables is a minute 0.04% of the global total'.
NOUGHT POINT FOUR - not even four percent!
Government-wise we're on a loser. Huw Irranca-Davies, DEFRA minister for marine and natural environment, supported the fast-tracking of wind power through the planning system by allowing developers to finance local projects. That's actually contrary to the government's own 2007 policy set out in "Delivering Community Benefits from Wind Energy Development: A Toolkit," which contained the categorical statement that: "To put it simply, planning permission cannot be 'bought'.”
Sheesh!