Wind turbine inquiry begins
A PUBLIC inquiry gets underway on Tuesday into plans for a development of wind turbines on the southern edge of Exmoor, near Knowstone.
The Exmoor Society, which is fighting the plans, is appealing for donations to their fighting fund to oppose the plan.
The Society has dubbed the proposals, "the biggest threat to the integrity of the National Park since the failed proposal to afforest The Chains in 1958 and the loss of moorland through to the 1970s."
The proposals, for Three Moor and Bickham Moor is for nine turbines which will be 105 metres high to the blade tip and a second proposal for four turbines at 100 metres high to blade tip.
The Ministry of Defence has requested that all of them should be lit up at night.
The Society has joined with the Three Moors Campaign and the CPRE to form the Rural Exmoor Alliance to fight all the proposals.
The society objects to the impact the turbines will have on the "landscape, character and special qualities of Exmoor" — "a jewel in the crown of our countryside" — and points out that Government policy states that wind turbines are not acceptable if their environmental effects are damaging.
"It could be seen as cultural vandalism to impose industrial turbines on the dubious benefit of providing a small amount of unreliable electricity," said a spokesman.
Comments
by S Kerr, Newton Abbott
Friday, June 05 2009, 10:03AM
“It is worth adding the government policy also states that 'Buffer Zones' around designations such as national parks are not allowed. So unless i'm mistaken, these proposed windfarms are outwith the National Park and as such are not an issue. I do not believe then, that these turbines will affect the integrity of the National Park. When in a National Park, surely the object is to look inwards towards the beauty of the landscape definded within, not looking out of the park to Wind turbines (if you find them offensive), connurbations and beyond?
Contrary to the quote regarding small amount of unreliable electricity. There is nothing unreliable about the electricity. The wind by which it is generated is obviously changeable but the regime at a site will no doubt be studied at length. Unfortunately the wind does not blow enough for the turbines to turn at 100% all the time, but even if they are performing at 29% which is the average capacity factor quoted by the BWEA, that is still a sizeable amount of energy when viewed over a longer period of time as opposed to an instantaneous view. Thousands of MW hours will be created by these turbines and added to the grid, at differing rates, but for every MWh produced by these turbines will be a MWh not produced by fossil fuels - reducing the reliance on a finite source, allowing the available fossil fuels to last longer and reducing the amount of emissions created.
Nobosy claims wind to be the overall solution. Fingers crossed the various tidal methods can get through testing to a financially viable option, likewise carbon capture technology and clean coal in the mean time. We are going to have to accept that we need a mix of all these technologies.
It is not unimmaginable that our National Parks, Heritage coasts and environmental designations will be lost within the next century as a result of climate change, sea-level rising and erosion and altered meteorological conditions. Without chaning our perceptions quickly, these treasures of our country may not be left to protect anyway.”