We were discussing this as we went to the Pumpkin patch last night.
Basically we are forever hearing up & down the country anti-turbine action groups getting all "Daily Mail" whenever there is a proposal for a wind farm or small clutch of turbines, or even ONE!
Don't get me wrong, i'm a country boy who worked in the city so have a wide perspective as to town & country,
My first encounter with a large turbine was back in the 1980's when wood green animal shelter (Godmanchester) used a then large Vestas turbine to more than adequately power their large & expanding site, 20+ yrs on it's still producing plenty of clean energy.
I must admit that as a new item on the horizon of relatively flat edge of fen land it did stick out, ..for all of 6 months, ..to put it into perspective I used to ride horses all over the farmland locally, it being sensibly placed on a hill was a feature of the landscape, but no bother, it blended well, it is spinning more often than not, & it's on the working site with not much noise, blade flicker etc,(we get alot of wind & traffic noise so it pretty much blends in till the last 30 metres maybe, even then it's negligible.
& if we look into the immediate area we have around 18 large turbines within a few miles radius..
I've never heard one word against them, in the small market town of ramsey (visible from here is another turbine that has been up on the very edge of town for 10 years, no complaints i'm aware of, no anti-posters etc..
That one supplies energy to a local vegetable producer, it's BIG & if it were anywhere else ther would be the twinset getting anti..
So you'd have thought if there were any folk who hated these things that 2 yrs ago when the local veg producerwanted to get an even bigger (estimated 2 megawatt) turbine there would have been dissent?
Well actually NO, it went up, folk are used to them, no problem, we have wind we are country folk who understand progress.
However on the flipside a few miles away in gravely (around the site of old ww2 airfields ..plenty of wind) there has been recent building expansion in Graveley & The Offords, there are certain elements up in arms & blocking what should happen if we wish to carry on consuming the way we are currently.
I really don't understand, I can go a few extra miles down the road & count around 24 - 30 large turbine clusters (windflowers) that on a less than perfect day almost disappear from view..
What is the difference between them & us? why the hatred?
Why is it ok for us to have them in our backyard but not them?
Fol around here on the whole wouldn't object to more of them, which i'm sure we'll get.
The sad thing is that these are typically operated by German companies who know to get the best sites first, & have!
Blot on the landscape? ..the edge of the fens are damn flat, so in reality this area should be the ultimate no no for location as you can see for miles, on a good day you only need to walk a little way to see the spires of Ely Cathederal, that's damn tall & known as the "ship of the fens"
Well this is only a guess, I think it's actually the cliche of townies who have bought into a new housing estate on what WAS countryside who then commute large distances via the very noisy mainline train track, desperate to maintain their own country idyll, fact is they built over the countryside to make their homes & rarely walk or ride, or hunt & shoot, or visit the local pubs, certainly don't farm the land & keep little "Tarquin & Angelica" away from the real earth (mud), complain about tractors at harvest time slowing traffic & take up most of the road anyway in their overly large 4x4's on roads designed for carts many centuries before their arrival...
nonsense? ..I wish.
Basically we are forever hearing up & down the country anti-turbine action groups getting all "Daily Mail" whenever there is a proposal for a wind farm or small clutch of turbines, or even ONE!
Don't get me wrong, i'm a country boy who worked in the city so have a wide perspective as to town & country,
My first encounter with a large turbine was back in the 1980's when wood green animal shelter (Godmanchester) used a then large Vestas turbine to more than adequately power their large & expanding site, 20+ yrs on it's still producing plenty of clean energy.
I must admit that as a new item on the horizon of relatively flat edge of fen land it did stick out, ..for all of 6 months, ..to put it into perspective I used to ride horses all over the farmland locally, it being sensibly placed on a hill was a feature of the landscape, but no bother, it blended well, it is spinning more often than not, & it's on the working site with not much noise, blade flicker etc,(we get alot of wind & traffic noise so it pretty much blends in till the last 30 metres maybe, even then it's negligible.
& if we look into the immediate area we have around 18 large turbines within a few miles radius..
I've never heard one word against them, in the small market town of ramsey (visible from here is another turbine that has been up on the very edge of town for 10 years, no complaints i'm aware of, no anti-posters etc..
That one supplies energy to a local vegetable producer, it's BIG & if it were anywhere else ther would be the twinset getting anti..
So you'd have thought if there were any folk who hated these things that 2 yrs ago when the local veg producerwanted to get an even bigger (estimated 2 megawatt) turbine there would have been dissent?
Well actually NO, it went up, folk are used to them, no problem, we have wind we are country folk who understand progress.
However on the flipside a few miles away in gravely (around the site of old ww2 airfields ..plenty of wind) there has been recent building expansion in Graveley & The Offords, there are certain elements up in arms & blocking what should happen if we wish to carry on consuming the way we are currently.
I really don't understand, I can go a few extra miles down the road & count around 24 - 30 large turbine clusters (windflowers) that on a less than perfect day almost disappear from view..
What is the difference between them & us? why the hatred?
Why is it ok for us to have them in our backyard but not them?
Fol around here on the whole wouldn't object to more of them, which i'm sure we'll get.
The sad thing is that these are typically operated by German companies who know to get the best sites first, & have!
Blot on the landscape? ..the edge of the fens are damn flat, so in reality this area should be the ultimate no no for location as you can see for miles, on a good day you only need to walk a little way to see the spires of Ely Cathederal, that's damn tall & known as the "ship of the fens"
Well this is only a guess, I think it's actually the cliche of townies who have bought into a new housing estate on what WAS countryside who then commute large distances via the very noisy mainline train track, desperate to maintain their own country idyll, fact is they built over the countryside to make their homes & rarely walk or ride, or hunt & shoot, or visit the local pubs, certainly don't farm the land & keep little "Tarquin & Angelica" away from the real earth (mud), complain about tractors at harvest time slowing traffic & take up most of the road anyway in their overly large 4x4's on roads designed for carts many centuries before their arrival...
nonsense? ..I wish.