Country Guardian is a UK conservation group which, since 1991, has campaigned against the construction of wind turbines in environmentally sensitive areas. We object because wind turbines convert rural landscape into industrial landscape, and because they are a poor source of renewable energy.

A Danish wind turbine suffers a brake failure, and collapses near Hornslet, Denmark,
22 02 2008

http://www.liveleak.com/
player2.swf?token=cdd_1203701257
OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-cRuYAxg0

See also www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk for the definitive database of wind turbine accidents

KEY INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE

The Campaign Against Windfarms

The Case Against Windfarms

Guide to UK Windfarms
New - read about the options, including:
UK Windpower Projects August 2007 ©CLOWD

List of UK Windfarm Action Groups @December 2007
(Total now 177 groups)

International links

Country Guardian - Contacts and background

Country Guardian's Policy

The Case Against Windfarms
2006 edition- Adobe version

FACTS ABOUT WIND POWER ©FELLS

www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk for the definitive database of wind turbine accidents

What is Make Your Own Noise! (MYON)?

Make Your Own Noise! is a place to come and register your local noise nuisance. Using this site you can connect with others affected, sharing your experience and potentially gaining and providing guidance to other sufferers. Membership is free and anonymous at www.makeyourownnoise.co.uk

Wind turbines have a special category at :-
http://www.makeyourownnoise.co.uk/view.php?p=&n=10&b=1

February 2008

The Times February 4, 2008
Wind farms ‘a threat to national security’

February 2008

Wind Rush. Why is the UK Government obsessed with wind turbines, when the case against them is so strong? Are the developers panicking? The Wind Rush Campaign is following these developments, starting with three very current topics, the threat to radar, the disappearing CO2 savings and alternative renewables.

January 2008

FACTS ABOUT WIND POWER The Cumbrian windfarm action group FELLS produces this document, with regular updates. This is Version 8, dated 17 January 2008.

September 2007
Wind power in Denmark, 2007© By Dr V.C. Mason (September 2007 ) It is often said that wind power covers about 20% of Danish electricity consumption. It is more correct to say that the production of power by Danish wind turbines corresponds to about 20% of electricity demand. But a considerable part of wind energy produced is exported to neighbouring countries and thus does not cover any part of Danish electricity consumption.

This is the latest updated version of Dr Mason's comprehensive assessments of the windfarm industry in Denmark.

September 2007 UK Wind Generation 2006 - by site.
© CLOWD

The Renewable Energy Certificates produced by Ofgem. These figures show, for each windfarm, how much electricity was actually produced as a percentage of the Nominal (Installed) Capacity Essential reading

September 2007

Wimbledon Windmill

Sir, There is an old saying: "No one ever built a windmill if he could build a watermill." The wind is an unreliable source of power. It seldom blows steadily and sometimes not at all.
The power generated by the wind varies with the cube of the wind speed. That means that if the wind speed drops from 40mph to 20mph, the power output does not drop by 50 per cent: it drops by 87.5 per cent. At 10mph, the wind produces only 1.56 per cent of the power generated by a 40mph wind.
The wind can never become a major source of power.

Norman Plastow, Hon Curator, Wimbledon Windmill Museum , London SW19

Letters, Daily Telegraph, 4 September 2007

September
2007Costing the Earth - BBC programme lifts the lid on the subsidies levied on energy consumers, which underpin ineffective wind turbines. Read the BBC News summary of the programme and a comment from Country Guardian's Vice President

Click on Listen Again to hear the whole programme. [This takes you to the Radio4 webpage for the programme Costing the Earth. Select Listen Again for 30 August 2007)

August 2007 UK Operational Windfarm sites August 2007. (Operational capacity over 0.05MW)

July 2007 Cefn Coch Rally - Country Times Express, Powys, July 13th

Protest rally on wind farms

Wind farm protesters at Cefn Goch Inn, below Mynydd Clogau, meet with naturalist David Bellamy. (FL)

June 2007 The Times Monday June 25th

"Renewable energy is not the silver bullet that will solve our problems, oil chiefs say"
"Efforts to fight global warming will be wasted unless we concentrate on energy efficiency" (Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell).

New Scientist – Letters 9 June 2007

"New Scientist 's report on the large number of bats succumbing to wind turbines reinforces a common misperception - that the blades move slowly (12 May, p 4). It is true that the blades of older, small wind turbines rotated rapidly and so would appear to a bird or bat as a semi-solid disc to be avoided.

Modern 2-megawatt wind turbines make an apparently lazy 10 to 20 revolutions per minute, but the blades are around 40 metres long. Simple geometry shows that the blade tips travel at between 150 and 300 kilometres per hour. For a bird or bat in misty weather, these aircraft-sized blades appear from nowhere at intervals of between 2 and 4 seconds, a scenario that even a fighter pilot would find alarming."

John Etherington, Llanhowel, Pembrokeshire , UK (Author of the Case against Windfarms )

May 2007 Climate Porn, catastrophism and Hollywoodisation

Responsible climate scientists and others are protesting against the hype about climate change, as typified by the film "An Inconvenient Truth" promoted by Al Gore. In a report headed ‘Climate porn’ turning off public opinion, the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr )criticised the way the Government, NGOs and some journalists exaggerate (and in some cases play down) the threat of Global Warming. Read the full report, called Warm Words

Just recently this theme has been picked up by two eminent members of the Royal Meteorological Society, Professor Paul Hardaker, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society and Professor Chris Collier, former President of the RMS. Both had distinguished careers at the MET office and are government advisors. Their views were aired in the following item on BBC News.

May 2007 Lincolnshire couple's windfarm nightmare

The Media have been following the fate of Jane and Julian Davis, of Deeping St Nicolas in Lincolnshire .. They live about 900 metres from the 8 x 2MW turbines erected by Wind Prospect, and are suffering from AM (Aerodynamic or Amplitude Modulation) which creates a low hum at about 62 decibels sometimes lasting for 24 hours or more. They are unable to sleep and have to leave the house when the noise is present, and are permanently tired. A local estate agent has told them the house is valueless (transcript of part of a BBC radio 4 Radio You and Yours programme).
See also Lincolnshire Noise

May 2007 Plans for moor wind farm scrapped
Plans for a controversial wind farm scheme near Saddleworth Moor have finally been scrapped.
German Energy Company, E ON , had been applying for permission to build seven giant turbines on Denshaw Moor for more than four years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6649685.stm

February 2007 WIND TURBINES - Noise, Health and Human Rights Issues

http://www.windturbinenoisehealthhumanrights.com/

The information available on this site examines the health impact on families when developers build wind turbines too close to their homes. The information considers the effects of wind turbine acoustics on health, e.g., sleep deprivation and related adverse health effects. The information available examines the health impact on families when developers build wind turbines too close to their homes. It considers the effects of wind turbine acoustics on health, e.g., sleep deprivation and related adverse health effects.

November 2006 Wind Energy: Facts and Fiction; A half truth is a whole lie
J.A. Halkema
This is a very comprehensive critique of wind energy by an engineer who has spent a career in energy generation. He uses the basic laws of physics to show that wind turbines can never be an acceptable means of generating electricity, except in very specific local situations where reliability is not essential.

The author refers widely to the report Wind Energy 2005, produced by the German energy company E.ON. this is also essential reading in its own right. It is available here

October 2006 Row over renewable energy scheme
A wind turbine-based renewable energy scheme is being funded by cuts from other projects designed to promote household energy efficiency. According to the Energy Saving Trust, "there is little point in putting wind farms up in hospitals when they will be providing energy that will be wased in badly-insulated buildings...a massive blow to to energy saving projects in the UK". Read the BBC news item

September 2006 A large windfarm project at Kilbraney, Co Wexford, Republic of Ireland, is thrown out after a Public Inquiry. 17 turbines 121 metres high would have threatened an area of natural beauty, combined with a high population.www.savekilbraney.com

May 2006 A windfarm was approved at Whitelee Forest, in open/wooded countryside near to Glasgow. To achieve this the developer is having to build an extra radar installation to boost the air traffic control at Glasgow Airport. Read MOD Radar issues for windfarms are soluble….perhaps

April 2006 A BBC Radio 4 programme - A Load of Hot Air - delved into the process by which the real science about Global Warming is exaggerated by the spin doctors of the climate apocalypse. Read the transcript.

March 2006 Wind Power Subsidy in the UK - Dr John Etherington
Summary:
Wind power in the UK receives a largely covert subsidy which currently doubles its value to the generator, and unlike conventional taxation-sourced support is not open to public view or Parliamentary attention. Wind power has a huge environmental impact and saves minimal carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emission.

Scale (1:100) model of a proposed wind turbine, 126 metres high, with Hempnall church (Norfolk), people, cars and small trees/shrubs

©Landscape Architect, Howard Bolton, with permission

Before

After

Elk River (Kansas) -
http://www. protecttheflinthills.

The blade swept area of a modern wind turbine is as big a Boeing 747

Wind Rush

The UK Government is obsessed with wind power above all other renewable technologies. Ministers say this is because wind power is already developed as a technology, but it must also be because the wind industry lobby has been more persuasive and certain NGOs have latched onto it as an icon.

There are early signs that there is growing opposition to this “Wind Rush”. Country Guardian’s newsletter OpenView, and this website, will be tracking its progress, starting with:

The risk to aircraft radar and navigation systems

The sheer technical ineffectiveness of wind turbines in reducing CO2 emissions

The alternatives that are available

Return to Recent news items

Our website covers two main topics, 1. The Campaign against Windfarms2. The Case against Windfarms

The Campaign against Windfarms

Since its formation in 1991, by the conservationist Joseph Lythgoe, Country Guardian's main role has been, and continues to be, to make available the true facts about windfarms. It does this by publishing:

This website www.countryguardian.net,
its newsletter, Openview,
The Guide to UK Windfarms, and
The List of UK Windfarm Action Groups.

It acts as a source of information for windfarm action groups worldwide and seeks to inform public opinion generally. All its members are volunteers and it receives no support of any kind from any business or industrial organisation.

Country Guardian - history, background and contact details.

The Guide to UK Windfarms

Formerly the Red Booklet Guide to UK Windfarms, this webpage acts as a portal to multiple databases , including Industry, Government and Country Guardian's own sources.

In the case of operational windfarms, we include new information about the actual performance (load factor) which takes the lid off the poor performance of UK turbines.We also include the list of dead projects, which was a feature of the old Red Booklet.

List of UK Windfarm Action Groups. Currently standing at 176 groups as at December 2007.

Links to windfarm groups worldwide , including key sites which also have global cover, such as:

www.wind-farm.org/, a site providing news and information about windfarm campaigns across the UK;
http://www.savethevale.org.uk/, the web site of a campaign group fighting a project in Blackmore Vale on the borders of Dorset and Somerset;
http://www.viewsofscotland.org/ The web site of the Views of Scotland organisation which is fighting a wave of applications in Scotland; http://www.cprw.org.uk/.
Fighting windfarms in Wales
http://www.socme.org/
a site from Wales with international coverage
www.wind-watch.org,
covers the USA and other countries

Country Guardian's Manifesto

Windfarm Poems

Powerpoint Presentation:
Windfarms : Myths and Misconceptions. Given by Dr Mike Hall at the Saddleworth Conference on April 12 2005.

The Case against Windfarms

Our Case Against Windfarms is a detailed, referenced and authorititive demolition of the case for windfarms, written by the independent consultant Dr John Etherington, former Reader In Ecology at the University of Wales.

You can read the whole document in PDF format, or use it for reference, selecting from the individual topics, listed below. After each extract you will find a nunber of articles, papers, quotations etc, having relevance to the particular topic

The Case Against Windfarms , the full document in PDF format

Introduction: Why Windfarms and why now?

Government: policy, costs and subsidy

The scale of development required by government targets and overall saving of carbon dioxide emission

The problem of intermittency and need for backup

Calculating CO2 emissions and saving

Homes supplied by a windfarm

Technical aspects of windfarms

Landscape quality of windfarm sites and value of landscape

Windfarms and the planning system

Public opinion - Beauties or beasts?

House prices , tourism and jobs

Birds and Bats

Noise

Quality of life and safety

Television interference, radar and aviation

Some comparisions - odious or otherwise

How can the need for electricity be met?

Conclusion

Appendix 1. Climatic change, Kyoto and the future

Appendix 2.Calculatations for Section 16. Comparisons

References and notes

One of the massive turbines of the Black Law windfarm in South Lanarkshire, ScotlandThis is a duplicate of a Digital Negative taken on a Nikon D2X camera, with a Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3EX DG HSM lens, of one of the 42 massive turbines at Blacklaw Wind Farm, which rise to a height of 110 metres to the tip of the blades. The picture was taken from a distance of about 4/5th of a mile from the village centre of Forth on the B7016 road looking NW.

What is Make Your Own Noise! (MYON)?

Norman Plastow, Hon Curator, Wimbledon Windmill Museum , London SW19

Protest rally on wind farms Wind farm protesters at Cefn Goch Inn, below Mynydd Clogau, meet with naturalist David Bellamy. (FL)

Protest rally on wind farms

Wind farm protesters at Cefn Goch Inn, below Mynydd Clogau, meet with naturalist David Bellamy. (FL)