The Telegraph quotes John Hayes, the new energy minister, saying “enough is enough” on wind farms.
It’s quite refreshing to hear the DAGW nonsense called an “article of faith”.
The energy minister said he had ordered a new analysis of the case for onshore wind power which would form the basis of future government policy, rather than “a bourgeois Left article of faith based on some academic perspective”.
Last night, Mr Hayes said: “We can no longer have wind turbines imposed on communities. I can’t single-handedly build a new Jerusalem but I can protect our green and pleasant land.
“We have issued a call for evidence on wind. That is about cost but also about community buy-in. We need to understand communities’ genuine desires.”
“If you look at what has been built, what has consent and what is in the planning system, much of it will not get through and will be rejected. Even if a minority of what’s in the system is built we are going to reach our 2020 target,” Mr Hayes said. “I’m saying enough is enough.”
– h/t Andy
Views: 340
There are still a lot of wind farms in the pipeline in Scotland and I don’t know if they have separate legislation there on these issues
Alex Salmond still seems intent on turning Scotland into one giant industrial wind park, destroying the iconic scenery in the process
Hundreds of people protested against the SNP wind policy at the Perth conference recently, some people in their 70s who had never been to a protest before
This is one of the most socially divisive issues in the UK today
Even if a minority of what’s in the system is built we are going to reach our 2020 target,” Mr Hayes said. “I’m saying enough is enough.:
This is the part that negates all the good feeling to wind farm development: he is saying that Britain already has enough planned.
They will still be built on his watch, and to the 2020 target level. Nothing has changed! The target was the key, not the total proposal number.
Look better while doing what you were already doing that made you look bad. Brilliant.
However, it is not as good as it looks, as Ed Davey gives the Minister a slapping, and Cameron states that there is no change in policy in PMQ
http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83299
While we are at it, Ben Pile’s documentary on UK wind is very good indeed.
You can watch it here:
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2012/10/31/lost-horizons.html
The Lost Horizons website, with the film, is here
http://www.losthorizons.org/
Thanks Andy – a very good doco. Succinct, but covers a broad spectrum of the issues.
“Lost Horizons” features the onshore wind farm at Fullabrook in Devon. I did a bit of research on this and found this article
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Turbine-noise-destroying-lives/story-13380064-detail/story.html
Turbine noise ‘destroying’ our lives
This is an all-too familiar story which the advocates of wind power completely deny the existence of.
Personally I don’t care if energy generators wish to build wind farms provided the requirements of resource consents are met and objections are properly taken into account. However, I do care if they are subsidized. Remove all subsidies and other economic support and then let’s see if they wish to build them!
Ultimately the economics of generation should determine what types of plant should be built and how they should be operated.
Good idea, Gary, as long as we remove the annual US$ 400,000,000,000 subsidy on fossil fuels as well…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/fossil-fuels-got-more-aid-than-clean-energy-iea.html
This idea that fossil fuels are subsidised more that renewables is one of the biggest lies that the renewables and green lobbies perpetrate
I do recommend the Lost Horizons film above, if you have any care for the environment in the fragile North Devon and Welsh areas at all.
Brandoch, I suspect you need to widen your sources of ‘information’. The article you link to is without veracity whatsoever and has been debunked as utter propaganda for the Renewables industry. As a man from Taranaki, you should be able to spot BS when you read it.
It really doesn’t matter though, Alexander, whether it is rubbish or otherwise. It depends how you want to do the arithmetic. For example were our government, in its wisdom, to remove excise tax from our liquid fuel supply, making the price of petrol commensurate with, say, at least, Australia, would we consider that a subsidy? Some, however, might suggest it is because we would be depriving the tax base of such income. I suspect that is how some of these numbers are derived—and distorted.
I struggle with your assertion, Gary, that it really doesn’t matter how one does the sums or defines the problems. I was taught very early that valid definitions are essential in any discussion. Without genuinely agreed definitions, we risk wandering in an Alice-in-Wonderland type maze of clever but unreal and unusable allegory. The fact that those wishing to profit from huge taxpayer support can write clever nonsense is no reason for any sane commentator to allow them to get away with their misdirection and chicanery.
I believe most New Zealanders would favour the removal of all energy production subsidies, including any that might be offered for producing oil or gas.
We have no reason to believe that the Government is good (or even average) at picking future winners!
But let’s be clear that normal tax deductions are not subsidies. Revenue expenses incurred in the production of taxable income are deducted by all businesses. The $4 billion cited by Greenpeace as fossil fuel subsidies are largely just standard deductions.
In the UK, they have an additional tax on oil producers called the “supplementary charge”. They can reduce this in the case of marginal fields.
The Greens call this kind of tax break a “subsidy”, even though no one else is paying this tax.
What I call a “subsidy’ is when a wind company gets paid to not produce electricity because there is too much supply, or the ROCs that ensure that the companies get paid substantially more than the market value of the electricity they produce.
Unforntunately, arguing with pro-wind advocates is just the same as arguing with climate change activists. They are like a brainwashed religious cult. I really can’t be bothered any more
My postion is that, by default, anyone involved with the wind “industry” is a criminal, con artist and generally a piece of vermin, and should be treated accordingly
If it’s only $4 billion then Branoch is out by a factor of 100 but what’s $396 billion between friends?
On the matter of wind farms, the original Te Apiti wind farm, outside Palmerston North, was built and run without subsidies, if I have my facts right.
For those lacking the fine motor control to click on my link to Bloomberg themselves, here is the quote, sourced to the International Energy Agency (like Bloomberg Inc., a not-so-obvious haunt of green commie windmill-hugging hippies):
Geddit?
I don’t care Rob. We don’t want your stupid wind farms. Period
Geddit?
Farming wind sounds great for the ‘Naki, we have plenty to spare, but who’s “Rob”, and who’s “we”?
As for your blinkered attitude to facts, who cares what you and your fellow anemophobes think?
Professional help is available, if you want it….
http://www.peterfieldhypnotherapy.co.uk/anemophobia-ancraophobia-fear-of-wind-fear-of-drafts.html
Rob is the guy who posts exactly the same links at the same time as you over on Hot Topic, sorry I got you confused
If Brandoch was not so blinded by his own dogma, he would actually do some research on how that “subsidy” is made. It is almost entirely third world countries that sell fuel way below cost to their masses. The only Western subsidies they document is in some countries the excise tax on fuel is lower than for other goods. A reduction in tax is not a subsidy.
And check out IEA. On their masthead they have:
Working together to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy
As I can’t imagine this means coal fired power stations, they have a bias.
Sorry Brandoch, nothing wrong with my fine motor control, but that Bloomberg article only needs a good tune backing it to be a very entertaining piece of fantasy; said article has been dissected at length and exposed as imaginative nonsense by individuals who really do understand and are qualified in the most arcane outer reaches of the study of both economics and taxation. It’s mildly amusing that the enthusiasts for ‘alternative energy’ which in most parts of the world cannot function without being heavily subsidised, drag up this silly ‘fossil fuels are heavily subsidised too’ nonsense to make their own pet ideas seem half reasonable.
Why am I unsurprised that you have attached yourself to this particular piece of nonsense?
Delingpole discusses this issue with Green MP Caroilne Lucas, Ken Livingstone and Andrew Neil of the BBC
Neil nails it with the numbers, Lucas and Livingstone are left burbling about energy efficiency
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20168738
Meanwhile, Germany, the poster boy for the wind industry, is building a whole load more coal fired power stations, just as Britain plans to shut its ones down.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/germany-opens-2nd-coal-power-station/
It seems that Mr Hayes’ comments have made the investors jittery
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/31/coalition-wind-farm-dispute-renewables?fb=native
There are some pretty wild claims in that Guardian article about cost and jobs.
This is a fun read from the Mail in response to this affair
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226517/Energy-Minister-John-Hayes-sprang-despatch-box-bounce-Basil-Brush.html
Ps I am in the Uk and we have snow here. It is also snowing back home in NZ.
A new study from the USA shows the physical and mental effects of turbine noise are real.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/9653429/Wind-farm-noise-does-harm-sleep-and-health-say-scientists.html
From The Times
wind farms will blight landscape and hurt tourism.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article3590272.ece#
Offshore wind turbine orders grind to halt
http://view.ed4.net/v/3JFELL/Z80BAC/9LT7GS/HDPCIT
Government causes wind farm ‘investment freeze’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/9655168/Government-causes-wind-farm-investment-freeze.html#
Are there too many on-shore wind turbines in North Wales?; THE DEBATE
WIND FARMS WILL ADD £410 TO YOUR POWER BILL
Now from Canada
An ill wind for McGuinty
–
New scientific study links wind turbines to health hazards
‘Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health’
Nissenbaum, Aramini and Hanning
2012
http://www.noiseandhealth.org/article.asp?issn=1463-1741;year=2012;volume=14;issue=60;spage=237;epage=243;aulast=Nissenbaum
Abstract
Industrial wind turbines (IWTs) are a new source of noise in previously quiet rural environments. Environmental noise is a public health concern, of which sleep disruption is a major factor. To compare sleep and general health outcomes between participants living close to IWTs and those living further away from them, participants living between 375 and 1400 m (n = 38) and 3.3 and 6.6 km (n = 41) from IWTs were enrolled in a stratified cross-sectional study involving two rural sites. Validated questionnaires were used to collect information on sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index – PSQI), daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Score – ESS), and general health (SF36v2), together with psychiatric disorders, attitude, and demographics. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed to investigate the effect of the main exposure variable of interest (distance to the nearest IWT) on various health outcome measures. Participants living within 1.4 km of an IWT had worse sleep, were sleepier during the day, and had worse SF36 Mental Component Scores compared to those living further than 1.4 km away. Significant dose-response relationships between PSQI, ESS, SF36 Mental Component Score, and log-distance to the nearest IWT were identified after controlling for gender, age, and household clustering. The adverse event reports of sleep disturbance and ill health by those living close to IWTs are supported.
# # #
1.4 km is the radius of what should be a circle clear of habitation going by this study. Just formalizes what should be a no-brainer.
Devon residents seek damages against wind company for loss of property values
http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/Batsworthy-Cross-wind-turbine-opponents-seek/story-17236565-detail/story.html
Scottish Borders ‘on course for 1,000 wind turbines’
A thousand wind turbines are on course to be built in the Scottish Borders thanks to the SNP’s “backroom bullying” of the local council to ignore public opposition, it has been claimed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9665259/Scottish-Borders-on-course-for-1000-wind-turbines.html
Compensation for homeowners close to wind turbines in Denmark too low
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/wind-turbine-compensation-stirring-disconent
Check out the video from Greenpeace in this Telegraph article
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/9678627/George-Osborne-is-driving-force-behind-anti-wind-farm-agenda-says-his-father-in-law-Lord-Howell.html
apparently they have uncovered a massive conspiracy involving James Delingpole and the Conservatibe Party
Here is an interesting article from the Spiegel on problems with intermittent renewables, ie wind and solar
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-energy-expert-argues-against-subsidies-for-solar-power-a-866996.html
Note that Poland is putting in expensive infrastructure to protect itself from power surges from Germany
Apparently the WWF has been huffing and puffing about this issue, saying that it is scaring away the investors.
Isn’t it funny, then, that they have financial interests at stake? Follow the money:
http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83349
Via Tallbloke
Carmarthen Council: Permission for 21 turbine windfarm refused
THERE were cheers and applause from the public gallery as plans for 21 wind turbines in Carmarthenshire were rejected by councillors this afternoon.
The planning committee refused to give energy company Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Ltd permission to build on Mynydd Llanllwni, in north east Carmarthenshire.
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/carmarthen-council-permission-for-21-turbine-windfarm-refused/#more-9799
Incidentally, the zealots at Hot Topic are suggesting that we carpet NZ with 10,000 of these useless monstrosities.
>”…the zealots at Hot Topic are suggesting that we carpet NZ with 10,000 of these”
I had a similar suggestion put to me by a Greenpeace beggar some time back but it revolved around replacement of France’s nuclear capability with wind. The impossibility was not a barrier to be considered of course and it was apparently justifiable to erect towers everywhere all over France (a “carpet” as you put it). Even in urban neighbourhoods. To save the planet.
This is a pretty shocking story
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8766481/the-great-british-wind-scam/
The big turbines are being throttled back to produce less electricity so they get more subsidies. Turbine manufacturers even cater for this segment of the UK market.
>”If a turbine pumps out more than 500kW, its owners receive 9.5p per kilowatt hour. But a ‘smaller’ sub-500kW one receives a subsidy of 17.5p per kilowatt hour”
Unintended consequences again. Reminds me of the Spanish variation a while ago, solar electricity produced at night – with diesel.
Thank God for Fenbeagle
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/bohemian-subsidy
re Bohemian Subsidy – brilliant.
Calls to shut down UKs biggest industrial wind facility over noise limits
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/story-17401807-detail/story.html
Glenmorie wind farm objections “count for nothing”
http://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/News/Glenmorie-wind-farm-objections-count-for-nothing-23112012.htm
UK triples subsidies for renewable energy
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/uk-triples-subsidies-for-renewable-energy-20121124-29zom.html#ixzz2DBgqmoV9
Just to repeat that last bit The renewable spending plans will be funded through further rises in household energy bills, which are increasingly unaffordable for many consumers.
Yet another Devon anti-wind farm activist group (it is hard to keep up with them all) post this picture of the proposed turbines in North Devon village of MeddonHarbourcross
http://www.stopitmeddon.co.uk/Turbine%20Size%20PSA1.JPG
Guardian Poll
Would you be prepared to pay more for green energy?
The government’s deal over a new energy bill is expected to lead to higher gas and electricity bills in the coming year. The Guardian has calculated an increase of £60-£80, while the Telegraph expects bills to “rise by up to £178 a year”. In principle, would you prepared to pay more for renewable energy?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2012/nov/23/would-you-be-perpared-to-pay-more-for-green-energy
Currently 33% Yes, 67% No. Polls close in 2 hours
Final result of poll
answering question
“Would you be prepared to pay more for green energy?”
31% Yes, 69% No
Infighting over wind-farm policy descends into ‘utter shambles’
“The Coalition has been accused of being in an “utter shambles” over wind farms after the Energy Secretary moved to strip powers from a Conservative minister for being “prejudiced” against turbines.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/9702342/Infighting-over-wind-farm-policy-descends-into-utter-shambles.html
I’d like to point out that most of the shots over wind in the UK are being called by the LibDems, the party that came 4th in the Corby by-election after UKIP
A foster family had their foster children taken off them last week by Rotherham Social Services because the foster parents were members of UKIP, which provoked national outrage including from all main political parties
Not related stories, but interesting anyway.