Wind turbines - love them or loathe them?

[Cugel]

Apaologies if the topic has been discussed before.


Today the collie walk was through the bit of Brechfa Forest that abuts Mynydd Llanllwni wind farm, a relatively new collection of modern wind turbines of immense size. Personally I find them quite beautiful both as structures and as working mechanisms. Against a forest background they seem to enhance, not spoil, the landscape.

Others have a different view, with some getting quite NIMBY about them. (Although I often feel sympathy for nimbyism, since locales are the best people to oppose local degradations - think fracking).

How do you feel about such installations? Here's some pics of the Mynydd Llanllwni ones.

The wind was a mere 5mph today yet the 'mills were still turning lazily in this zephyr. I have been up there in windier conditions, when they turn a bit faster. I can't hear them unless right next to a fast-turning one (a low swooshing noise). I've not seen any signs of bird-strike either.......

Cugel

[Mike Sales]

Our local turbines are often out at sea and to me add interest to the horizon. They provide a useful refuge from the trawlers for fish stocks to regenerate. I don't mind them as an obstacle to navigation either. As you sail closer they become impressive.
The workboats for them have helped local harbour revenues too, as at Wells-next-the sea, and the making of them useful employment in some neglected towns.
The on-shore turbines are in a way descendants of the water pumping windmills which were once plentiful draining the land.
My bijou new house is all electric, so I love to see the turbines a few miles away spinning, heating my water and me.

[Cyril Haearn]

Used to live on a lonely hill in mid Wales, there were no windmills there then, not sure about them on land
Offshore seems good, but the construction disturbs wildlife, after that they provide energy for many years and may be ignored, there is more wind at sea too
When the offshore turbines were built near Rhyl the community was paid quite a bit of cash, if the weather is hazy one may not see the turbines

Doubtless the Brechfashire farmers are paid by the turbine operator$

The jack-up boats used to service offshore wind turbines are interesting, if one likes machines

[reohn2]

We'll have the usual antis posting,but for me if we wish to have electricity turbines are one reletively benign way of production of it,as a result I have no problem with them.

[DNC123]

I can't see a problem with them. We need electricity. This is from an infinitely renewable source. I find it quite relaxing to watch them going round.
No doubt the tree huggers will be against them, but they never come up with any alternatives, do they?

Most of ours are out at sea. There are tales that fish stocks are plentiful around wind farms but there is an exclusion zone around them. Fish can breed and grow in safety. Got to be good news.

[Mike Sales]

No doubt the tree huggers will be against them, but they never come up with any alternatives, do they?

I cannot see why you think that. My opinions might well get me denigrated as a tree hugger, but I'm all for turbines, see above.
My stereotypes characterise anti-turbine types as deniers and fossil fuel promoters.

[Carlton green]

Personally I like on-shore Wind Turbines and I like Solar Farms too. They do, of course, change the countryside but, to my mind, not in a particularly negative way and the vision of them turning our green electricity pleases me more than any downside. Off-shore Wind Turbines please me even more; in part because they can harvest the wind better, in part because they don’t take up land, in part because they add to marine and maritime life and in part because (to my mind) they add to the seascape.

To my mind the sooner we are able to completely replace fossil fuel power generation the better. Nuclear has its supporters - though few here I suspect - but the popular forms of reactor produce hazardous waste and are somewhat expensive. Why ‘better’ alternative forms of reactor are not used is beyond me but there is currently some link to both weaponisation and inflated income streams (somehow milking the customer for a large and complex product). For now Nuclear might be an unpalatable but relatively necessary evil. When we can, at last, manage to store electrical energy in bulk the need for any other than renewable power disappears; I look forward to that day.

I find it interesting that vast sums have been spent on the research of various atomic forms of power generation whilst green power has had relatively little spent on it. Perhaps more spent on green power research would have given much better financial returns ...

[Cyril Haearn]

The generators are quite interesting, I used to work with them
A generator is just like a bottle dynamo but much bigger, has control and cooling systems. Most turbines have a gearbox but enercon (the egg-shaped housings) uses ring generators without seperate gearboxes, might seem simpler but..
Generators got bigger and bigger, offshore ones could not be transported by road, and the blades likewise, they are made at the coast and transported by ship

Turbines have to be maintained, lubricated, repaired, larger ones now have elevators but older smaller ones have staircases or ladders
..
If one lives near a turbine it may cast moving shadows, sensitive persons might find that disagreeable

[Cugel]

Used to live on a lonely hill in mid Wales, there were no windmills there then, not sure about them on land
Offshore seems good, but the construction disturbs wildlife, after that they provide energy for many years and may be ignored, there is more wind at sea too
When the offshore turbines were built near Rhyl the community was paid quite a bit of cash, if the weather is hazy one may not see the turbines

Doubtless the Brechfashire farmers are paid by the turbine operator$

The jack-up boats used to service offshore wind turbines are interesting, if one likes machines

I watched a very good tele programme of the "Monster Ships" variety the other day, about that very wind turbine-installing vessel. It was fascinating and a huge contrast to what most of us now do in "service industries". Big brawny folk howking big brawny engineered items about in a clever manner to make useful things.

Cugel

[DNC123]

No doubt the tree huggers will be against them, but they never come up with any alternatives, do they?

I cannot see why you think that. My opinions might well get me denigrated as a tree hugger, but I'm all for turbines, see above.
My stereotypes characterise anti-turbine types as deniers and fossil fuel promoters.

Sorry, but I wasn't referring to you in any way. Thought your comments were reasonable. I wasn't referring to anyone on here, just the perpetual campaigners who seem to be against everything!!!

[Mike Sales]

No doubt the tree huggers will be against them, but they never come up with any alternatives, do they?

I cannot see why you think that. My opinions might well get me denigrated as a tree hugger, but I'm all for turbines, see above.
My stereotypes characterise anti-turbine types as deniers and fossil fuel promoters.

Sorry, but I wasn't referring to you in any way. Thought your comments were reasonable. I wasn't referring to anyone on here, just the perpetual campaigners who seem to be against everything!!!

Who they?

[philvantwo]

It's got to be better than chopping trees down and lighting a fire all the time to heat your water!

[Paulatic]

I’m very FOR wind energy I’m surrounded by them and most communities in this area have benefitted financially from them. Yes there’s a bit of mess while being constructed but afterwards all those roads on the hills are opportunities to extend my rides.
Still remember back at CTC Birthday Rides when held at Malton a large display of anti windmill information. I felt this a bit off for a cycling club but was informed, rightly or wrongly, the man responsible for it was a monetary benefactor to the CTC and was being allowed it as in didn’t want to upset him.

[Spinners]

Love them.

[fausto copy]

Quite a few years ago now, we were cycling in Mid-Wales and called in to the craft centre at Erwood station for a nice cuppa.
As I walked in, I saw this huge poster of a wind turbine straddling some lovely pine wood.
"Wow", I said to Mrs.C, "what a wonderful photograph".
With that I got an almighty glare from the proprietor as he was setting up a campaign to have them banned as he thought they'd blight the countryside.
I still love 'em