Newcastle Emlyn and Adpar / Castell Newydd Emlyn ac Adpar

More turbines are proposed for Moelfre Hill (Blaen Bowi) near Newcastle Emlyn

Are the three (occasionally) rotating giant turbines potent symbols of a possible bright future in eco-friendly Wales? Are they needed to remind us of the pressing need to move away from fossil fuels? Or are they merely expensive, irrelevant and unnecessary blots on the West Wales landscape?

What do these turbines achieve

The three turbines of the Blaen Bowi wind farm are “rated” (ie if they ran an impossible 100% of the time) at 3.9 Megawats. This would mean an annual saving in CO₂ emissions of 25,000 tonnes.

A single jumbo jet, flying from London to Miami and back every day for 17 days, releases the climate change equivalent of 25,000 tonnes of CO₂.

So in order to compensate for the damaging effects of a single jumbo jet taking this daily route for a year, Blaen Bowi would need 63 turbines.

Blaen Bowi is only reported as working at about 30%, or about one third of it’s rated output (this is a typical value for wind farms), so 63 turbines becomes 190 turbines running for one year to pay the environmental cost of one jumbo jet.

Are onshore wind farms a realistic way of slowing global warming, or are they just a conveniently high-profile con-trick which wrecks the landscape of some beautiful areas of the UK?

October 26th 2007: The government has now signalled that it is pulling back from its aspiration to source 20% of Britain’s energy supply from renewables by 2020. The new target will be 15%. The recent report on Tidal Power by the Sustainable Development Commission shows how a Severn Barrage from Cardiff to Somerset could supply enough electricity to power the whole of Wales. The New Labour government has been in office 10 years. If it had invested years ago in major projects such as this, they would not be reducing their targets, and we would not be burdened with expensive and ineffective wind turbines.

Read more on the Blaen Bowi Action Group website and the website of George Monbiot. You can also hear an edition on wind power of BBC Radio 4’s programme “Costing the Earth“

Wind Energy Links

www.macgen.com

About Wind Turbines - This booklet is designed to provide a basic understanding of the nature and operation of Wind Turbines.

www.countryguardian.net

Country Guardian is a UK conservation group focused on the environmental damage caused by commercial windfarms in areas of national or local landscape value. It is not opposed to wind energy as such, but in practice almost all onshore sites which are windy enough are environmentally sensitive.

www.cefncroes.org.uk

Cefn Croes Wind Farm Campaign - An American backed company, the Renewable Development Company (RDC), wishes to build Britain’s largest wind power station yet in the heart of Mid Wales. RDC proposes to build 39 enormous turbines on Cefn Croes, a wild expanse of upland above the villages of Cymystwyth.

www.cprw.org.uk/press/pressind.htm

Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales - Index of Press Notices - Includes several press notices on the subject of wind turbines in Wales.

www.natwindpower.co.uk/northhoyle/

National Wind Power (NWP) is proposing to develop a wind farm off the North Wales coast. The proposed project, known as North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm (North Hoyle), is situated 4-5 miles off the coast between Prestatyn and Rhyl and will consist of 30 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of between 60-90MW.

BBC Website

Wind farm plans scrapped - Company withdraws its plans for 26 turbines - Controversial plans for a £30m wind farm development on Denbigh Moors have been scrapped after rare birds were found on the site.

www.offshorewindfarms.co.uk

With the first offshore wind turbines in the UK already generating electricity at ~5p per unit, the further development of the offshore wind industry is an exciting prospect, and one which will see significant growth over the next decade.

www.britishwindenergy.co.uk

British Wind Industry Association - With a membership of over 500, including more than 180 corporate members, generating an annual turnover of 1,000,000 ecus, the BWEA is uniquely placed to consolidate and extend the wind energy industry in the UK.

www.windpower.org

Danish Wind Industry Association - read about Wind Energy - More than 100 animated pages and calculators on wind resources, wind turbine technology, economics, and environmental aspects of wind energy in the Guided Tour section.

www.indianwindpower.com

Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association - Power generation from wind has emerged as one of the most successful programmes in the renewable energy sector, and has started making meaningful contributions to the overall power requirements of some States.

news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1777000/1777268.stm

Wind farm closed after blade snaps - The blade sits at the top of a 93-metre-high column. A turbine propeller blade has folded in half at the UK’s first electricity-generating offshore wind farm, at Blyth, in Northumberland.

www.natwindpower.co.uk/

As environmental protection and sustainable development are now top priorities world wide, we all need to consider carefully how the energy that we consume should be produced.

www.cprw.org.uk/wind/windindc.htm

Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales - Wind Power Generation - CPRW’s View: In the process of encouraging renewable energy Government policies on wind power fail to provide sufficient recognition of the the need to conserve the landscape and environment of rural Wales.

www.scotland.gov.uk/news/2001/06/se1472.asp

Scottish Executive - UK’S FIRST WIND TURBINE FACTORY TO BE BUILT IN THE HIGHLANDS - The UK’s first wind turbine factory will be built in Scotland, Highlands and Islands Minister, Alasdair Morrison announced today. The facility at Machrihanish, near Campbeltown will create 124 direct jobs and 44 indirect for the local economy.

www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/2001/20010619115149.html

Friends Of the Earth welcomes UK’s first wind turbine factory - 19 Jun 2001- ‘Swords into ploughshares’ as military base becomes renewable energy plant - Friends of the Earth today warmly welcomed the announcement by the Scottish Executive and Danish firm Vestas Wind Systems of the UK’s first commercial scale wind turbine plant.

www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4195427,00.html

MoD tries to veto wind farm sites - Trade department’s expansion of renewable energy undermined by its backing for RAF objections to onshore and offshore plants

www.cprw.org.uk/press/pn250102.htm

Cefn Croes Ceredigion: Conservation groups call for Public Inquiry into UK’s biggest wind power station. Today, six major conservation bodies, with a joint membership in Wales of many thousands, sent a letter to The Rt. Hon. Patricia Hewitt MP, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry protesting “in the strongest possible terms” about the declaration of the Energy Secretary.

education.guardian.co.uk/higher/engineering/story/0,9840,653199,00.html

Cold blow - Wednesday February 20, 2002 - For some, they are blights on a glorious landscape; for others, they mean clean energy and economic lifelines for rural communities. John Vidal looks at the battle over windfarms in mid-Wales.

Back to top ^