Yet again another rural community in Cornwall is having to battle the onslaught of proposed wind turbines.
As mentioned in your article Scottish Power have proposed to ‘overhaul’ the wind farm at Carland Cross.
They would do this by replacing the current 15 turbines (42m high) with either 25 80m high turbines or 10 125m high turbines – more than double the current size. Extra land will have to be found to build these larger turbines.
This would cause more damage to our beautiful landscape and environment. It is proven that turbines only provide 25% of their potential output, work intermittently (and living only 1? miles away we can vouch for many days when the turbines stand idle) and they require back-up from other energy sources. The high set-up and maintenance costs of replacing the current turbines, together with the need for standby generators, surely cancel out any benefits the turbines may provide.
We appreciate that the Government’s Energy Bill proposes to increase the use of renewable energy sources to supply 20% of all electricity in the UK by 2020.
We believe that the only benefits are seen by the energy companies (who make a profit from their turbines) and the Government (which gets closer to its carbon reduction targets), while the negative effects are all heaped on the local community.
A survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors found that house prices are negatively affected by planning applications for wind farms.
Local householders do not have their electricity supplied at a reduced rate for the inconvenience, in fact our recent electricity bill has shown a significant increase in charges.
Scottish Power was due to be represented at the St Newlyn East Parish Council meeting on Monday this week.
P & S Emery
12 March 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/03/12/we-dont-gain-from-wind-farm-growth/