Wind Farms

By admin, December 11th, 2011 | Things That Make Rider Mad | 0 Comments

A Planning Inspector has passed five white (elephant) turbines to be built on a bit of land next to the A1 between two villages at the extreme edge of Leeds City Council’s AREA. To be fair to the City Council they did oppose them. These turbines may enrich the company which builds them but, in practical terms, they will be quite useless. They don’t work when there’s no wind or when there’s too much. Five are neither here nor there in terms of energy produced even when working optimally. The nearby communities won’t be getting a reduction in electricity bills directly from the turbines. There may be a case for large off shore wind farms – may be – but the tide will always come in and out as at the generating station at the mouth of the River Rance in France; the sun will blaze down in many many Countries in the world giving them free energy; on many rivers the Archimedes Screw will always produce power. Five turbines to tick some box somewhere? Why bother about Green Belt. Why bother to consult local residents. Why bother to take notice of a massive Local Authority’s views. Will ‘our’ turbines actually get built now that the Government has tinkered with subsidies to make it less attractive for them to be built? Fingers crossed somebody gets real – and no Rider won’t be directly affected but blood pressure has been raised.