Today is Blog Action Day when over 14,000 bloggers post on environmental issues. Each in their own way, the message should impact on over 12 million readers. Rhuthun/Ruthin’s part of it. Here’s our contribution to Blog Action Day…
The sheer scale of the proposals for wind farms in and around Coedwig Clocaenog Forest near Rhuthun has led Prof. Peter Cobbald to label the area the 'Clwyd Power Station', producing 250 megawatts of energy by 2010. That's a positive affect on the environment, right? Not necessarily.
Far from being an exciting development in the drive to minimise CO2 emissions, those who oppose the wind farms argue that the Forest wind farm will have a negative environmental impact. This is what campaigners feel:
1. When you consider windless or excessively windy days and other power losses, the 10 turbines at Derwydd Bach, Melin-y-Wig, will be able to generate electricity to power just two light bulbs and one transistor radio in 14,000 homes.
2. The entire output of the ‘Clwyd Power Station’ is reported as reducing the amount of CO2 by as little as one long haul Jumbo Jet flight.
3. The £2.5mil investment at Derwydd Bach would be better spent on grants for individual solar panels and thermal heat exchangers. Panels are locally made (in Wrecsam).
4. The farm with turbines 85-100m high will be clearly visible from the Clwyd Gate.
5. Coedwig Clocaenog provides a natural habitat for fauna such as red squirrel, dormouse, newts, bats, otter, hare, adders and pine marten. This habitat faces destruction.
6. 100 sq metres in total of clear felling of land in the forest will reduce the ability to soak up CO2. Living trees lock up 10-24 tonnes of CO2 per hectare p.a., filtering the air
7. Trees also absorb water. Downstream Rhuthun already has a flooding issue.
8. Turbines are expected within 400m of people’s dwellings, especially in the Melin-y-Wig and Cyffylliog areas. Noise is reported as being funnelled down valleys to settlements beneath.
9. The viability of farms depends on subsidy. 60 per cent subsidy, in fact.
10. Wind farms are reported as four times more expensive than any other means of solving our energy problems.
11. Wind farms do not address energy conservation.
12. Post 2010, there may be yet more turbines.
The environmental question worth posing is therefore, is it all worth it? Are we simply destroying a natural environment under the misguided belief that it will do us good when, in fact, the opposite is true? Do opposing environmentalists have a point?
The sheer scale of the proposals for wind farms in and around Coedwig Clocaenog Forest near Rhuthun has led Prof. Peter Cobbald to label the area the 'Clwyd Power Station', producing 250 megawatts of energy by 2010. That's a positive affect on the environment, right? Not necessarily.
Far from being an exciting development in the drive to minimise CO2 emissions, those who oppose the wind farms argue that the Forest wind farm will have a negative environmental impact. This is what campaigners feel:
1. When you consider windless or excessively windy days and other power losses, the 10 turbines at Derwydd Bach, Melin-y-Wig, will be able to generate electricity to power just two light bulbs and one transistor radio in 14,000 homes.
2. The entire output of the ‘Clwyd Power Station’ is reported as reducing the amount of CO2 by as little as one long haul Jumbo Jet flight.
3. The £2.5mil investment at Derwydd Bach would be better spent on grants for individual solar panels and thermal heat exchangers. Panels are locally made (in Wrecsam).
4. The farm with turbines 85-100m high will be clearly visible from the Clwyd Gate.
5. Coedwig Clocaenog provides a natural habitat for fauna such as red squirrel, dormouse, newts, bats, otter, hare, adders and pine marten. This habitat faces destruction.
6. 100 sq metres in total of clear felling of land in the forest will reduce the ability to soak up CO2. Living trees lock up 10-24 tonnes of CO2 per hectare p.a., filtering the air
7. Trees also absorb water. Downstream Rhuthun already has a flooding issue.
8. Turbines are expected within 400m of people’s dwellings, especially in the Melin-y-Wig and Cyffylliog areas. Noise is reported as being funnelled down valleys to settlements beneath.
9. The viability of farms depends on subsidy. 60 per cent subsidy, in fact.
10. Wind farms are reported as four times more expensive than any other means of solving our energy problems.
11. Wind farms do not address energy conservation.
12. Post 2010, there may be yet more turbines.
The environmental question worth posing is therefore, is it all worth it? Are we simply destroying a natural environment under the misguided belief that it will do us good when, in fact, the opposite is true? Do opposing environmentalists have a point?
Tags:
Wind farms