Local Issues - Windfarms

Wind Turbines
Our previously unspoilt countryside is threatened by a rash of wind farms. They generate relatively small amounts of power in favourable weather conditions and do not make a significant contribution to the nation's power demands. That is a fact. On calm days they might generate nothing at all. The turbines have only a limited lifespan, mainly because of wear and tear on their gearboxes which are under great strain. There are pictures on the internet of wind turbines on fire with lumps of burning fibreglass falling away.

They are a danger in cold conditions, as lumps of thawing ice can be thrown a long way. One company wanted to put massive wind turbines close to a junior school just up the road from here, in Birdsedge. People living within range of turbines can suffer from noise and flashing lights. That would have happened at Underbank.

Windfarms are profitable to big energy companies and useful for their government-imposed green credentials. In fact, generating companies are compelled to do green things by the regulators. NPower sent out low energy light bulbs to meet their green targets. The windfarms tend to blight the countryside and might be the thin end of a wedge for planning applications which would otherwise be turned down. It would be difficult to refuse other developments afterwards and there would be no going back. On a big enough scale (the only way to make them efficient) they could turn our Yorkshire countryside into an industrial mess.

Their main supporters are big companies who will make profit and do-gooders who think that all wind power must be good, no matter what. Meanwhile schoolies are taught that green policies are always for the best, while disregarding environmental damage and 'carbon footprint' costs. For example, with electric vehicles, it is easy to forget that they add to the load of existing electrical generators and the environmental damage from battery disposal.

The National Grid want to move power lines from the older to the newer Woodhead railway tunnel. It might assist the swathe of wind farms that are being planned because there needs to be more capacity in the grid. Most electrical generation is in the north and most consumption is in the south but quite a lot of power is lost in transmission lines to the south.

Ineffectual?
The three power stations most visible from Hartcliff or Royd Moor are: Eggborough (about 2,000 MegaWatt), Selby (about the same) and Drax (about 4,000 MW), capable of about 8,000 MegaWatts (the same as 8 GigaWatts) in total. Each of the five super turbines which were planned for Cranberry was rated at 3 MW, totalling 15 MW in very favourable weather conditions. That's quite a lot but insignificant compared to the three power stations. The ratio is 15/8000 or 0.19% - on a good day. On a calm day there might not even be enough power generated to boil an egg.

Not all windfarms are a folly, off-shore locations would be beneficial. They could be bigger, with a more reliable daily wind pattern and would not cause any serious environmental damage. Off-shore electrolysis plants could directly use their energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from seawater. There would be no problems of making a turbine power agree with the 50Hz National Grid either, as the electronics could be much simpler and more efficient. That might lead the way to a very clean gas supply for heating and road vehicles, with only water as the waste product when burnt. No greenhouse gasses or pollution at all!

Campign Groups
In 2009, plans were rejected by Barnsley council for huge and controversial 410ft high turbines near Cranberry Crossroads, the so-called 'Sheephouse Heights' turbines. A pressure group sprang up against them in 2008 - 'Protect Sheephouse Heights'. MP for our area, Angela Smith, strongly opposed the application and Sheffield City Council was of the same mind.

Spencer Pitfield (Conservative MP) kindly took the trouble to reply to me.. He wrote: 'I am personally strongly in favour of all types of renewable energy. However, the five extremely large turbines proposed for Sheephouse Heights are over-dominant, and in my opinion, would indeed negatively affect the local environment in the proposed loaction. For this reason I am firmly opposed to this application.'

Another action group was CLOWT, opposed to an application near Crowedge. Some action groups were successful. 'BOLT' at Birdsedge had a very large email list which included Penistone councillors. It were mounted a fierce but sustained attack on Kirklees Council and they eventually capitulated. An opportunistic Bradford MP tried to jump on the bandwagon at election time, to be rejected by the group. The only time he had made the headlines before this was for his plasma TV and MP expenses.