The Case against Windfarms

The Case Against Windfarms is an authoritive, referenced document written by Dr John Etherington ( © Dr JR Etherington).

The views expressed are those of the author, who is a professional environmental scientist, formerly Reader in Ecology at the University of Wales. It is freely offered for reproduction or other use providing it is acknowledged. Our website contains the complete document, which consists of 18 Sections, 2 Appendices and References/Notes. The full list is shown on the Home Page, and also at Case Sections

The website also contains a web page devoted each separate section, of which this is one. These pages start with a copy of the relevant section of the full report, followed by links to a series of articles, news items, research papers and reports which are relevant to that topic. Note that these items have been compiled by Country Guardian and are not part of Dr Etherington's paper

8. Landscape quality of wind 'farm' sites' and value of landscape

"The Government’s thesis that the countryside of upland and coastal Britain is “worth sacrificing to save the planet” is an insult to science, economics and politics. But the greatest insult is to aesthetics. The trouble is that aesthetics has no way of answering back." (Simon Jenkins, Times October 24, 2003 Like philistines, we desecrate our Landscape)

Guy Roots, counsel for the wind farm developers at the Public Enquiry into the Kirkby Moor wind "farm" in the Furness Peninsula of the South Lake District, said: "It tends to be the higher parts of the country which are technically suitable for wind farms. These are too often prominent, scenically beautiful sites, and that causes a dilemma."

Confirm this for yourself. The map of UK wind speed distribution is almost identical to a topographic map of the country with a superimposed rim of higher speeds around sections of the coast ( http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/03-04/wind/content/ukwindspeedmap.html ).

Man, beasts and crops fail to thrive when  exposed to high wind, so these coasts and uplands are also our last remaining wilderness areas of semi-natural land: Britain's 'green-lungs' and havens of peace for the mending of broken souls. Of course it is no coincidence that our Designated Areas - National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and many Sites of Special Scientific Interest etc are almost all within these precious pre-industrial landscape remnants.

Thus, the wind power developers generally target the most beautiful areas with the highest wind speed which give the greatest output and the highest return. The system of subsidy which operated throughout the 1990s, the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation (NFFO) and now the arrangements for the Renewables Obligation (RO) make no reference to environmental acceptability, so encouraging wind power developments to  threatened and damage much of our finest landscape. It has indeed been suggested that such places have deliberately been the first targeted - the rationale being that a despoiled landscape can no longer be advanced as an argument for protection.

In Wales, huge wind ‘farms’ have already been built in the Cambrian Mountains Environmentally Sensitive Area at Cefn Croes (b. 2005) and, from the summit of Plynlimon in this magnificent area of mid-Welsh hill country, many more than 200 turbines are now visible. Simon Jenkins wrote long ago in the Spectator (1995): -

"There lies the complete Cader range: an unsullied panorama of British landscape from the heights above Bala round to the shores of Cardigan Bay. I have gazed on this view since childhood and even the Forestry Commission's set-square plantations failed to ruin it. Today the view has been defaced beyond belief. In the middle of the tableau and standing guard over the upper waters of the Dovey lies a mountain ridge known as Cemmaes. Across its summit now march 24 gigantic white wind-turbines. Like creatures from The War of the Worlds, they frantically wave their arms across the scenery as if semaphoring to some distant ally. Not only is it impossible to avoid them, placed as they are on one of the most prominent spots in mid-Wales, but their ceaseless movement draws the eye from wherever else it may rest. Nobody with an ounce of respect for the countryside could have permitted their erection. (Step forward, David Hunt, Welsh secretary at the time)."

In England one of our classic low-key landscapes is about to be devastated by 26 wind turbines 370 feet high  at Little Cheyne Court at Walland Marsh close to two of the Cinque Ports, Rye and Winchelsea. To quote Simon Jenkins again, they "will dominate the view from the ramparts of Rye, Camber Castle and the slopes of the Sussex Weald... The decision is astonishing. Romney Marsh is still one of the most precious corners of England... If Wicks can put turbines on Romney Marsh, nowhere is safe. Where poor, flat-chested Romney goes today, the buxom Cotswolds go tomorrow." (Guardian, October 28 2005).

Scotland has perhaps paid the highest price, eloquently lamented by Cameron McNeish (Sunday Herald, April 2006): -

"By the headwaters of the River Findhorn, lies Carn na Saobhaidhe, the cairn of the fox’s den, arguably the remotest Corbett in the land... a vast, sprawling hill which I first climbed with my friend Peter Evans as part of a cross-Scotland walk many years ago... We couldn’t have imagined, in our wildest nightmares,  that these hills could be taken over by towering metal giants, like something from an HG Wells novel. How wrong we were. As I lay by the small summit cairn and allowed the vastness of this wild landscape to percolate my own spirit I’m afraid I cried. I wept tears of frustration at man’s arrogance and greed. I wept tears of helplessness that people like me, to whom these wild places mean everything, couldn’t effectively fight the political/corporate forces that are determined to steal Scotland’s soul in the name of green energy. And I wept tears of genuine sorrow that my children’s children wouldn’t enjoy these places as I have done."

Relevant articles, news items, papers, reports
                                          

How Lakeland wind farm plan has environmentalists in a spin

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor,THE INDEPENDENT, 6 Oct 2003

Simon Jenkins, The Times, on wind farms

Jon Boone, Oakland, Maryland, September 2005
Apart from their ineffectiveness, the main plank of the case against windfarms is that they are are monstrous, alien, industrial structures in otherwise basically natural landscapes. Attempts have been made to argue that they have "aesthetic" value of their own. Jon Boone's well-referenced paper demolishes this argument.

Welsh fight wind farms plan for mountains. The fight for Cefn Croes

By Chris Gray, The Independent, 02 April 2002