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Be aware of 'enormous' wind farm plans - Luff

7:20am Sunday 31st May 2009 in News

A PROPOSED wind farm in Worcestershire could be bigger than people might think, according to Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff.

He is now urging his constituents to consider the scale of a proposed wind farm in The Lenches.

Mr Luff warned residents that the 125-metre high wind turbines that would go up if the plans are approved would be ‘enormous’.

He met with representatives from the five parish councils that would be directly affected by the plans by developers Scottishpower Renewables.

Mr Luff said: “Our constructive meeting revealed concerns that the scales of the project still hasn’t completely suck in among local people.”

He added: “We haven’t got the planning application yet so we don’t know exactly how many turbines there will be - probably eight or nine - or exactly where they will be located, but we do know something of their likely visual impact.”

Now Mr Luff has asked villagers in The Lenches and Lenchwick to reflect on the scale of the proposals and how they could affect them.

He said: “My position on renewable energy is simple - we do need more renewable energy sources, including onshore wind but they must be located in areas where communities welcome them. They should not have a detrimental effect on the environment or other aspects of the area.”

Comments(16)

sweetlilac says...
8:38am Sun 31 May 09

Im curious as to what all these people that are against this wind farm will do when they can no longer afford gas and electricity or when those sources will in fact run out ? Wind farms and solar are the future of energy and whilst they may not meet everyone's perfect expectataions of what worcester should look like visually they are a necessary part of our future. If you fly over Germany at all there are wind turbines absolutely everywhere and they do not blot the landscape at all . Maybe these ppl just like to complain for the sake of complaining.

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robe.rtm.29 says...
9:01am Sun 31 May 09

i thought luff and his cronies spouted enough hot air in his lies both labour and cons to power britain

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jabbadad says...
9:55am Sun 31 May 09

Wind farms are not the answer, their output is completely controlled by the wind and even then they produce so little, and of course they are only alright if they aren't by your home, school, or workplace. Yes to Solar panels but again we currently have a government who don't give any support to this industry, and yes we should seriously go into tidal energy, as an Island we have lots and lots of tidal water. Government departments take note!!!

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jabbadad says...
10:05am Sun 31 May 09

Oh and finally we have to make a decision about Nuclear, it's alright for the anti-Nuclear-brigade when they turn their own lights and heating on that we are buying electricity produced by Nuclear generators from our Anti-English neighbours France, and Gas from Russia, I ask you??

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Energetic says...
10:55am Sun 31 May 09

Sweetlilac does not disclose that all the wind energy investment in Germany and Denmark was politically inspired. It has not led to the closure of a single coal-fired power station or the reduction of a thimbleful of greenhouse gas.

Solar panels are very expensive, require huge areas to generate miniscule power, use up vast quantities of scarce resources in their manufacture and are as intermittent as is wind.

Tidal energy only works with a flow of more than 2 knots in either direction. It too is intermittent, needs conventional back-up and would devastate large tracts of estuary. Please study the Rance project in France which has some fifteen years of operational history.

The only way forward is to invest in new-build nuclear (like France) and the cleaner coal we have ready now ( ... not the chimeric CCS ... ) to fill the energy gap before nuclear can take over the main load.


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BAC says...
8:45pm Sun 31 May 09

Windfarms are an eyesore! We visit the Lake District regularly and have done for many years, vast scenic views are now marred by them. If they worked it would not be so bad but just 5% of electricity for consumption is produced by them. As previously said the only way forward is Nuclear. The Green Party continually advocates "Wind", but what off the carbon footprint being produced by the production of these monstrosoties. Yes Germany may have them but has the writer compared the size of Germany with the UK, they have the space we don't!

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FenBeagle says...
9:22am Mon 1 Jun 09

5% of electricity, from wind, in the UK BAC?...I don't think so. 1.5% currantly, according to the Renewable Energy Foundation...(and considerably less than that over the winter we have just had)
Denmark, which has the largest concentation of Windturbines in the world, claims 20%, but, according to figures published by the REF, is only able to achieve 7%. (And that only by linking itself to germany.)Germanies Darmstadt Manifesto of 1998, called for a stop to subsidies on wind energy. And states...'The negative effects of wind energy use are as much underestimated as its contribution to the statistics is overestimated.'

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shirst247 says...
10:23am Mon 1 Jun 09

People who say "wind turbines are an eyesore" anger me intensely. I'm afraid you are living in the past, we NEED clean energy sources and this is the way forward. I simply can't believe you would obstruct such a fantastic development in Worcester for the sake of keeping the current collapsing & polluting system of creating energy for the area. Get real and appreciate the fact that people are trying to make a change for a cleaner alternative and not to sit back and say it’s spoiling the landscapes. A power station is truly an ‘eyesore’.

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Energetic says...
11:10am Mon 1 Jun 09

Please may I explain, shirst247:

Of course nobody likes industrial buildings in a beautiful landscape but "power stations", whether fossil-fuel or nuclear, occupy a miniscule amount of precious land per unit of power generated compared with so-called "clean" alternatives. Unlike the intermittent output from "renewables", coal, gas and nuclear are cheaply and easily interfaced with our existing National Grid.

When, as others here explain, these "renewables" are totally inefficient, incredibly costly to build and to operate per unit generated, and use up more of our scarce resources than compensate for the tiny amount of energy they generate, pushing them in their present state of development is a no-brainer. It is only being done to attract the subsidies charged back to each householder or manufacturer via the electricity bill.

The current power generating system in this country is not "collapsing". Like cars and people,it requires routine overhaul and eventual replacement, some of this forced upon the UK prematurely by unnecessary and draconian regulation by the EU which our present dithering government could resist but doesn't because it is so desperate both to please Brussels and to attract the green vote.

There is nothing wrong with our present technology; it is our politicians who are collapsing and urgently need to be replaced!

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FenBeagle says...
11:33am Mon 1 Jun 09

A powerstation, like a gas turbine station, for instance. Producing in the region of say, 865 mw of power reliably (some produce more) occupies much less space, and is far less visualy and sound intrusive, than the number of Windturbines you would need to replace it. at 410 feet high (and moving) they are far more visable than the much smaller power station stacks. Each Turbine typicaly is rated at only two MW, which they can only achieve at high windspeeds. At low windspeeds they produce less than no energy (requiring energy themselves from the grid) And so, you still have to have the Powerstations anyway, as constant 90% backup. We do of course need clean and reliable energy, and lots of it. And so we should be adressing that problem, and not putting our faith in the Wind Farm distraction.

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Malvern says...
12:00pm Mon 1 Jun 09

Let's hope that the National Ignition Facility suceed in producing free energy.

https://lasers.llnl.
gov/

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crowquill says...
2:43pm Mon 1 Jun 09

In the interests of a balanced debate I would like to add a couple of notes.
Oil, Coal and Gas are finite resources and should not be relied upon for future security.
The nuclear option seems attractive until you realise that we have not got rid of the waste we have produced already! What do you with something that is radioactive for 10000 years? If you also add in the decommissioning costs to the waste storage costs it becomes an even less attractive option. Maybe nuclear fusion will hold the key if it can be made to work.
Without the investment in renewal energy the necessary development just will not take place and without it the technology will remain as inefficient as proclaimed by others here.
We have to start using this technology now and looking at other ways of reducing the total energy required. There are things that can be done now to make this easier, like changing the building regulations to ensure maximum thermal efficiency of all now builds.
Or bring in sliding scale tariffs so the more your use the more you pay to encourage saving.
There is much that can and should be done and wind farms are one part of that.

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Karl Hunderson says...
3:24pm Mon 1 Jun 09

Nuclear power was touted as the answer to all our energy problems 50 years ago. It wasn't and there is no reason to suggest it will be now. I assume, if it comes to it, the pro nuclear brigade above will have no objections to having the nuclear plants and waste facilities built near their homes?

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Energetic says...
4:02pm Mon 1 Jun 09

Nuclear power actually WAS the answer to our energy problems 50 years ago. It was not pursued because of our cheap North Sea oil and the prejudice and fear of our politicians who listened to the clamour of an ignorant and bigoted plebs still thinking of weapons in WW2.

I hesitate to say "Little Englanders" but should mention that more than 70% of France's electrical energy is produced by nuclear fission compared with about 19% of the UK's. Nuclear is the core of non-oil state energy policy in for instance Japan and Finland.

Nuclear waste is not a serious problem because of its relatively small volume, quite easily stored, and possibilities for recycle currently reaching fruition.

Developments such as nuclear fusion and a number of "renewables" (other than the useless intermittent wind and solar) require further research but could well slot into the mix by say 2040.

However we should be mad to abandon the tried and tested until one or more of these alternatives has been shown to be viable on the industrial scale.

No one has ever died in the western nuclear power industry. I have no problems about living close to a nuclear facility, which I have done in the past without evaporating in a mushroom-shaped cloud! Nuclear power is one of the best-regulated and safest technologies around.

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FenBeagle says...
9:07am Tue 2 Jun 09

How would people feel about living near the Mini 25 MW underground, shed size, Hyperion Nuclear Power stations. In production soon? The Nuclear waste issue, will likely be resolved in the near future, by fusion, fision hybrid technology possibly?....certain
ly a lot nearer than the thousands of years that nature will take! Hyperion claim their technology is safe, and has no moving parts. The economics are good. Would it work?

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Ssssshhhh says...
2:13pm Tue 2 Jun 09

The wind farms at the Lenches will have a negative effect on the house prices in that area. why should people suffer

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