Wind Turbines – Love ‘em or Hate ‘em?

There are probably as many differing views on them as there are wind turbines in the UK. Many urbanites might be somewhat indifferent, perhaps because they don’t tend to be reminded of their existence much. After all, wind turbines are not so much an urban phenomenon, especially when it comes to wind farms.

You’ll see the odd turbine here and there, on the outskirts of big cities, perhaps even the odd roof-top installation. But, by their very nature, urban-dwellers won’t see windfarms unless they venture out into the wilderness. And therein lies the problem. Venture into the countryside and you’ll see quite a few stand-alone turbines on farms. And many of us country-dwellers, though not farmers, know that if farming doesn’t pay when it’s on too small a scale, the farm business has to do something in addition to survive. If installing a wind turbine on the farm can help ensure that survival – after all, farmers are custodians of our countryside, so it’s important they continue to be here – then we’re all for it. But that is small-scale renewable energy generation, and quite a different kettle of fish from covering much of the UK’s last remaining wildernesses with monstrous 220 metre high turbines. Unfortunately, central and local governments have set net zero targets which they will tell you are only achievable by doing just that: large-scale industrialisation of the countryside. Naturally, the developers behind these wind farms see a “golden ticket” - the hills of Wales, for instance, are paved with gold as far as they’re concerned. Where there’s wind farms, there’s money. But don’t be fooled by all this “green-washing”. Onshore windfarms are far from “green”. The base for a 220 metre high turbine is of a size few would be able to conceive of, and it’s almost entirely made of concrete. The concrete-making process is one of the highest carbon-emitting processes known to man. Turbines are made of steel or aluminium or both. Don’t take our word for it: look into what’s involved in making either of these metals, but especially aluminium – it’s about as far removed from green as you can get. As onshore wind is notoriously variable, battery storage has to be set up for when it’s not windy. Batteries use lithium and other rare earth minerals which are already in short supply, and to call the conditions under which they are mined, often in countries torn apart by civil war or in some other way strife-torn, is an understatement. All of the constituent parts of a wind farm have to be made, they have to be transported … they’re large. This means building special access roads on the windfarm itself, but also destroying roadside trees and verges to accommodate the wide loads. When a wind farm is decommissioned, after anything between 20 and 40 years, the top 10% of the enormous turbine concrete bases is removed, leaving the other 90% there in perpetuity. Wind farms are known to harm wildlife, especially birds, many of which are protected species, and bats. Finally, peat is well-known for its carbon-sequestering properties. Mid-Wales’s uplands are full of peat, peat that will be removed to accommodate the proposed wind farms. Again, governments and developers will “green-wash” over this by telling you they’re taking “compensatory or mitigating measures”. So they’ll plant some trees somewhere else. How does that compensate for the needless destruction that industrialisation of these last remaining wildernesses represents? Answers on a postcard, please.