Page 5 - Phonebox Magazine December 2007

HAVE YOUR SAY
Letters
Dear Editor
I refer to Michael Baxter’s letter in the November issue of Phonebox Magazine. In terms of the development of renewable energy technologies, wind turbines are very much in advance of other energy sources such as wave power, tidal power, harnessing of ocean currents, biomass and so on. Windfarms are a mature technology and, as a result of being favoured in the past, have probably held back investment in other technologies: Windfarms being cheap, easy and very profitable in some locations, why would anyone look any further?
There is very little scope to make propeller and therefore wind turbine technology more efficient. Examination of OFGEM figures for ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) shows that the older turbines can be more efficient. Indeed, Your Energy's Petsoe End website clearly states, whilst exaggerating overall production, that lower capacity turbines are more efficient when comparing load factors than those with a higher capacity. Nationally, there is currently an element of the consumer subsidising inefficiency.
Windfarm developers can only justify the use of large turbines because, under the over generous terms of the ROC system, they are still profitable.
The debate must return to examine the issue as to whether our countryside should be substantially damaged for the next 20 years where only individual business interest is served and society is burdened with the huge additional cost of subsidising inefficiency electricity production.
E M Reeves
CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE CLIMATE
Wind farm developers, Your Energy Ltd, have welcomed the decision by the Milton Keynes Council to decide their application before Christmas.
The Council’s Development Control Committee will be deciding whether or not to approve the seven turbine scheme on Monday 17th December.
James Townsend, Senior Development Manager for the Company said: “We appreciate the Council’s resolve to make a decision before the year is out. The application has been with Council Officers for over a year, and they have had a good chance to get to know the project. They have also had a chance to see the public support of wind energy in Milton Keynes – over 1,000 people in Milton Keynes have shown their support for the scheme so far.”
He added, “The studies we have done over the past few years have shown that it is a good site for wind turbines, and if there is going to be a wind farm in Milton Keynes, this is the best site available.”
The wind farm was reduced in size from ten to seven turbines after advice from consulted groups such as Natural England, English Heritage, RSPB and the Milton Keynes Council. As well as holding a public exhibition, the Company hosted a wind farm visit to their nearby wind farm at Burton Latimer near Kettering to give local residents a chance to experience an operational wind farm.
The wind farm is not without its critics, local objection group BLEW (Bucks Lacks Enough Wind) claim the area is not windy enough and the wind farm will be an eyesore and cause damage to wildlife.
Townsend rejects these accusations, “We are the windiest country in Europe, if it wasn’t windy we wouldn’t be putting up a wind farm. I accept that some people don’t like the look of wind turbines – but surveys consistently show that over 80% of the population see them as a positive addition to our landscape.”
He added, “The RSPB and Natural England have not objected to the wind farm because it would not damage wildlife in the area and they know the effects of climate change are too important to say we should be putting wind farms somewhere else.”
If granted planning permission Milton Keynes Wind Farm would be operational in 2009. q
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Phonebox Magazine 5